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Hand Lettering for Everyone | Book Review

Hand Lettering For Everyone

Hand-Lettering for Everyone: A Creative Workbook is a delightfully fun workbook that helps you become hand-letterer and adopt a strong style of your own, even if you’re a beginner. Author Christina Vanko set out to create a true a workbook with plenty of exercises and space right within the book to practice. In an age where everyday cursive has become obsolete, hand lettering is seeing a strong comeback and is a perfect way to personalize your wedding in an authentic and genuine way.

How Hand Lettering for Everyone is Arranged

Hand-Lettering for Everyone begins with the basics and history of typography. But far from a boring, textbook yawn on serifs and san serif styles, Vanko dives in headlong with little bits of information followed by fun exercises and practice pages. Vanko’s creative prompts encourage readers to fearlessly play with concepts and unapologetically embrace self expression.

These exercises allow you to find inspiration everywhere! Family and friend signatures become new font ideas, dishware and plates become unique canvases, and a favorite shape (like a heart) get’s new life and meaning with hand-lettering. You can even create monograms for family and friends, and more.

The numerous exercises help you to build confidence and get some real practice time, which is crucial when you set about hand lettering 125 place cards or 250 gift tags. Vanko also sprinkles gentle reminders throughout the book that in the world of hand lettering, imperfections represent authenticity and the gifts of your true and singular creative expression.

Vanko is your biggest cheerleader and gentlest coach. She understands the creative process and remembers what it’s like to try something for the first time. She’ll coax you through the emotional process of creation as well as the technical skills required. I think this is crucial for the harried bride who wants to personalize her wedding with hand lettering but isn’t sure she has the skills to pull it off.

And this is why I wholeheartedly recommend this book to novices at hand lettering. You’ll find lots of encouragement and inspiration in these pages; here’s an excerpt from the book:

Savor the Struggle: Do you want your hand lettering to become faster? Stronger? Easier? Do you also want rainbows to jump out from everything you create? Yeah, I know how you feel. Whenever I learn something new, I feel just like I did when I was little–always wanting to feel bigger and better. I’d always forget about where I was in the present since I’d focus on what’s next. But Now I know better!

And now I’m telling you to stop all that worrying about the future. Cherish these days. They’re tricky, time-consuming, frustrating, but Honey, they build character in you and your letters (get it, characters?) You will have that “aha moment” soon enough, just don;t expect it overnight.

Letter the phrase “it gets better.” When finished, write your struggles around it. When you;re no longer struggling with a particular struggle, cross it out. 

What you’ll learn

  • A True Workbook. It teaches you the fundamental concepts and history of typography and lettering and then offers exercises to practice. Knowing the fundamentals will allow you to become effectively creative with your own lettering rather than memorizing a few tips and techniques.
  • Wedding planning is a highly creative time, the activities in the workbook are creative and playful, making skills-building fun.
  • Great for the average bride who doesn’t consider herself an artist but who loves a creative challenge.

Who this Book is Good For (and who it’s not for)

This book will be great for brides who have time to work on their skills and explore their creativity. Give yourself several months to play with the concepts and techniques in this book before embarking on your wedding project.

This book is not great for people who will need soup-to-nuts instruction. This is a whimsical workbook aimed at opening your creative pathways so you can learn and enjoy hand lettering. It will not offer comprehensive supplies lists or teach you how to hold a pen or pencil.

Size: 7.3″ x 9.1″ | Publisher: Perigee Books | 224 pp
ISBN13:0399173013 | Binding: paperback

Get Hand-Lettering for Everyone: A Creative Workbook on Amazon.

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