Hand Lettering Practice: 3 Easy Steps to Explore New Typography Styles

Letters are just like us. They come in all sorts of shapes, forms and even personalities!

What if I told you that you have the ability to develop your own unique lettering styles from scratch through practice and exploration?

In this class, I teach you how to develop lettering styles through a structured approach using my 3-step process of building letters. I’ll take you through these steps in detail and show you exactly how I put them to use to develop multiple styles of a single letter.

All you need to do is use this formula I teach you to practice and develop your own unique typography styles, one character at a time. 

Daily focused practice is the one thing that will take you to a new level in your lettering journey. In my opinion, no amount of tips and tricks will replace what practice can do for your skills. However, it can be overwhelming to know how to approach your practice sessions so that you can make the most of them. And that’s what this class solves for you.

 In this class you will learn:

• What a ‘lettering style’ actually means.
• How to practice developing letters in an organized and structured approach.
• How to break down your lettering development into the following bite-sized steps:
  • Proportions
  • Shapes
  • Details
• How guides of different proportions affect typefaces, and how to take advantage of that in your exploration.
• Best practices and tips for creating visually balanced letters and numbers.

Besides, you'll build a big library of your own lettering styles that you can refer to for future projects. Plus, you get to watch my entire process of developing nine different variations of a single letter from start to finish. It’ll be like you’re sitting right next to me in my studio as I get lost in my letters!

This class is for you if:

• You want to level up your lettering game.
• You’re an aspiring lettering artist looking for a way to start a structured daily lettering practice.
• You love looking at all the creative styles that other lettering artists arrive at, but feel lost when you try to develop your own.
• You’re an experienced lettering artist who feels stuck creating the same styles and want to introduce some authentic variety in your work.

Students at any skill level are welcome to take this class. Beginners who have no idea where to begin get a step-by-step roadmap towards practicing and honing their skills, while Intermediate to Advanced level lettering artists will discover new ideas and methods to push their creative limits.

What you will need:

• A sketching medium of your choice.
• Template files (available for download from the Resources section)

I will be demonstrating my techniques by sketching on my ipad using the drawing app Procreate and an apple pencil. However, you are welcome to follow along with me using any sketching medium of your choice- you don’t need to have an ipad to take this class.