Foundations of Lettering

Whether you’re a beginner new to hand-lettering or a veteran looking to refine and expand your skills, this workshop is for you! In this in-depth, info-packed class, I’ll share the three pillars of my personal creative process, developed over 30 years as a professional letterer. This straightforward and accessible method offers a well-grounded, reliable approach to creating successful hand-lettering for both commercial and passion projects.

You’ll start by getting acquainted with essential letter styles and their origins. We’ll explore their shared qualities, unique characteristics, and best applications. This know-how will form the foundation of your stylistic palette—the toolkit you’ll draw from to create highly personal and innovative lettering.

Next, you’ll discover the many visual factors that influence lettering. We’ll examine how positive and negative shapes work together to define the look of letters, and explore common yet overlooked optical phenomena that affect their scale and structure. You’ll use these key concepts to ensure your lettering has a balanced and steady visual rhythm.

Finally, you’ll learn how to interpret fundamental letter styles through practical drawing and modifying techniques. Using strategies for customizing letter contours and composition, you’ll learn to develop your own one-of-a-kind lettering for a variety of design applications.

You’ll expand your personal lettering practice with the help of a FREE 60-page illustrated PDF guidebook, along with informative slide presentations and live drawing demonstrations. Get the bonus 37-page workbook packed with additional instruction and exercises to help continue sharpening your skills.

A video recording will be available for four months following the workshop if you can't attend the live meeting.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to:

• Establish a solid basis for a reliable lettering practice

• Identify and apply important lettering styles

• Form a personal stylistic palette from various sources

• Manipulate visual phenomena to shape letters

• Balance form and counterform to create even rhythm

• Modify letterforms using essential drawing techniques

• Arrange and compose attractive hand-lettered layouts

• Interpret letter styles to produce uniquely personal work

This workshop is ideal for:

• Artists of all skill levels who want to develop a personal and practical approach to lettering

• Newcomers and casual artists interested in understanding the basics of hand-drawn lettering

• Experienced letterers who want to improve and expand their skill set

• Designers looking to level up their work by adding hand-lettering to their portfolio

• Creative directors who would like to confidently hire skilled lettering artists, and improve communication with professional letterers

• Teachers who want to help students develop a dependable lettering practice

• Illustrators and other artists curious about adding hand-lettering to their work

• Students from my other lettering classes who want to dive more deeply into the foundations of successful lettering

I'll give lettering demonstrations on an iPad using Procreate, but you can also use these tools if you want to draw along with me:

• pencil and a pencil sharpener

• an eraser

• tracing paper

• grid/graph paper

• a ruler

• a computer or other electronic device, a reliable internet connection, plus a Zoom account to join the live online meeting and to watch the video recording

• access to a printer if you want to refer to a hard copy of the PDF guidebook

• a copy of my Lettering Manual is strongly recommended

• Although I'll be drawing in Procreate on an iPad, the limited timeframe will not allow for hardware or software instruction.

• In the event that we go over time, please plan accordingly.

Foundations of Lettering is open to enthusiastic students of all skill levels—register today!

Meet your instructor…

Hi! I'm Ken Barber, a lettering artist, type designer, educator, and author of the award-winning Lettering Manual. I blame Don Martin comics, Santa Cruz skateboard graphics, and speed metal logos for my infatuation with letterforms. For 30 years, I've produced dozens of retail and custom fonts, as well as brand identities for companies around the world—including Sandals Resorts, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Only Vegas, the city of Los Angeles, and the Broadway hit, The Cher Show. My work is in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. I'm the type director and studio letterer at House Industries, and an instructor at The Cooper Union in New York City.