Are you a lettering lover—an aficionado of alphabetical artwork? Do you find typography utterly tantalizing?
Here at Print, you’re in the finest of company. You’ve seen typographic masterpieces from designers of all stripes and unique hand-lettered branding.
Typography and hand lettering communicate. They tell stories in ways that only they can. Yet all too often, both get overlooked in design competitions these days.
We rounded up some great resources for anyone interested in learning more about typography and lettering. From online typography courses to books and kits on hand lettering, type skills and more, we have what you need to excel at lettering and satisfy your hunger for innovative typography—from A to Z.
Lettering & Typography Books
Learn about lettering in design and satisfy your craving for typographic eye-candy in this collection of top-tier design books.
The Typographic Universe by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
Are you tired of seeing solely the “best” and more refined examples of typography when looking for inspiration? Get a fresh look at typography examples with The Typographic Universe by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson, and enjoy over 300 extraordinary examples of typography. Created from non-traditional materials or discovered in unexpected locations, the typography examples included in this book will provide a different source of inspiration, and breathe new life into your own design projects.
DIY Type: 50+ Typographic Stencils for Decorating, Crafting, and Gifting by Dana Tanamachi
Get all the inspirational letter stencils you need with DIY Type by Dana Tanamachi, and take your use of typography to a whole new level. Including stunning photographs and easy-to-follow tutorials, this book allows you to discover a wide variety of applications for the more than 50 typographic stencils contained inside. Utilize upper and lower case alphabet stencils to monogram t-shirts and jackets, create wall compositions, personalize journals and school supplies, embroider pillows, host parties filled with customized cakes and banners, and much more.
Handmade Type Workshop: Tips, Tools & Techniques for Creating Custom Typography By Charlotte Rivers
With Handmade Type Workshop you can move beyond existing fonts to create, explore, and use original and customized letterforms. Tutorials, profiles, and showcases cover everything from creating 3D and illustrated fonts to installations, digital lettering, and photographing found type. Both innovative and classic designs are explored, from a range of works including editorial illustrations, posters, and radical conceptual alphabets.
Typography for the People: Hand-Painted Signs from Around the World by Daniel Bellon & Klaus Bellon
Vernacular messages are ubiquitous, and that very fact makes them hard to notice. But if you really look, you’ll begin to see plain-talking, hand-crafted and hand-lettered messages everywhere. Look for them on side streets and bulletin boards. There you can see the vernacular messages of the person having a garage sale, the business owner, or the kid who’s lost a pet. Inside Typography for the People, you’ll find gorgeous hand drawn fonts, fascinating signs, intriguing numbers and more typographical examples.
Shadow Type: Classic Three-Dimensional Lettering by Steven Heller & Louise Fili
Add an element of spectacle or intrigue to your typography design with Shadow Type by the leading historian of graphic design, Steven Heller, and renowned graphic designer Louise Fili. Enjoy more than 300 typography examples of dimensional lettering incorporating elements of relief and shadow from Europe and the United States. The examples come from a variety of sources, from type-specimen books and billboards, to shop signs and posters, all of which were created between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. If you’re looking to add more depth to your typography design, this inspiring book is the place to start.
Online Typography Courses
All online courses starting September 29 and later at HOW Design University are currently up to 74% off their original prices, so now is the time to register for the typography course of your choice. Check out the available options below:
Mastering Typography with Denise Bosler
Type is at the heart of all forms of visual commun
ication. In this course, instructor Denise Bosler expands upon the foundations of typography, and provides an understanding of type as a means of creating a visual experience. Learn about organization, relationships, composition, message, experimentation and using expressive typography to solve complex visual problems. You’ll have the opportunity to broaden your overall understanding of type, and then dig in and push the limits of your typographic creativity! Register here.
Web Typography with Patrick McNeil
Remember when there were “safe” web fonts designers were supposed to use? How quaint. Web typography today is richer than ever, and this course will teach you the practical application of traditional typographic methods to the web. You’re a designer; you know how type works. By the end of this course you’ll be competent in designing for web type and implementing web typography. This course includes in-depth instruction on appropriate HTML and CSS code, custom web fonts and services, jQuery plugins and much more. Register here.
Hand Lettering Power Course with Denise Bosler
In this course, Denise Bosler, author of Mastering Type, will provide you with the skills you need to add a personal touch to your typographic communication from research and sketching to developing dynamic layouts with custom lettering. You will be given the opportunity to communicate your love of hand-lettering through the process of self-discovery and experimentation as you explore your typographic voice and creative style. Register here.
See some of Denise’s favorite hand-lettering projects here.
Typography Collections & Downloads
The Ultimate Typography Collection for Designers
The Ultimate Typography Collection for Designers is just as the name says, the ultimate collection for anyone dealing with typography as part of the design process. Drawing off the expertise of Denise Bosler, a HOW Design Conference Speaker, HOW Design University instructor, and author, this package covers every aspect of typography from the history of type and techniques like kerning, leading and tracking to pairing fonts and designing infographics. See what’s included in this collection here.
The Education of a Typographer
By Steven Heller
This priceless resource explores the methods for teaching and learning typography. Featuring more than forty essays from top experts and educators in typography today, this collection–the first of its kind–runs the gamut from introducing the themes of type and typography to various complex and rarified strategies for learning.
Typographic Sins: Thou Shalt Not…
by Jim Godfrey
Typographic Hell. It’s not a pleasant place to be. Some of us are headed there, and we’re making others suffer along the way. But fear not: Redemption is here. Read on to free yourself from these 34 typographic sins.
