Module 4 - Loosely Lettering

Chapter 1: Media research

I've been looking forward to this module as I love making books so was excited to be starting work on it. Our first task was to collect together inspirational media items.

Fig. 1

I quickly found a collection of business envelopes from recent junk mail and the patterns inside those reminded me of businessmen's shirts with their tiny repetitive patterns in shades of blue and grey and green. That in turn reminded me of the scrap quilts made from worn-out clothing so I made a little section of patchwork with the envelope pieces. I also had brown wrapping paper, brown parcel tape, string, postage stamps, Royal Mail pre-paid postage stamps, a bar code square from a parcel, a luggage tag, a recycle stamp, the window from a business envelope and the front of a book of stamps. I drew a few small patches of pattern from some of the envelopes too.

Fig. 2

I found that I had several types of paper clip and made these into a pattern together with some metal clips, stitched them down onto a page of my sketchbook and took a rubbing of the finished design.

Fig. 3

Figure 3 shows a selection of images of stationery items - folders, files, envelopes, clip-boards and books.

Fig. 4

The second part of this chapter was about collecting examples of different styles of lettering. Figure 4 shows some examples from magazine and junk mail advertisements. From my time working with members of the marketing department of my local university to make the prospectus accessible to students with sight and dyslexia problems I know that every organisation has its own 'house style' which has been carefully researched in order to portray their values and message to their customers/clients. 

Fig. 5

Figure 5 shows some alphabets from other countries and, in the case of the graffiti, cultures.

Fig.6

Fig.7

Figures 6 and 7 show that some lettering is more art than writing. I particularly like the architectural images which have been chosen to represent letters and the modern 'illuminated' letter D in Fig. 7 with its dandelions.

Fig. 8

Figure 8 shows some handwriting styles, some, especially the ancient English hand, form particularly beautiful patterns. 

Fig. 9

Finally I made an alphabet from different styles of lettering cut from magazines and found that there are literally thousands of different font variations. I felt I could have continued gathering examples for a very long time!