Let's Make Letters!

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am always fascinated by people who can create beautiful handwriting. I have learned calligraphy and can write neatly but it takes so long!! Today I am sharing a book that helps learn how to do creative lettering. It is Let's Make Letters! by Kelcey Gray. 

From the Publisher:

A definitive workbook for anyone who wants to express themselves and their creativity through letter making and typography.

Let's Make Letters! goes beyond traditional lettering books with a range of projects from lettering basics for beginners to experimental and imaginative prompts that push creative limits. Experiment! Progress! And most of all, have fun. Designers, artists, scribblers, teachers, and students will build skills, confidence, and curiosity as they take up new and familiar tools to draw, depict, and distort letters in original and inventive ways.

From Me: 

This book shares ways to experiment and explore making letters. There are not step by step tutorials but more suggestions to get you exploring as well as information about the development of fonts and letters. 

I tried several of the ideas in the book including the Unger Method example above. 

I traced the original letter and colored it yellow. Then I moved my paper and traced it again and colored it black. Then I folded the paper over these two tracings and drew the outside lines. I didn't color it in though.

The book shares so many different ideas and ways to play with making letters and experimenting more with it. It is a workbook but is not a tutorial book. I was hoping for more of a tutorial. This book however gives the reader freedom and more ideas than what I would have thought on my own.

One of the lessons suggested making a bouba or rounded font. Apparently more rounded letters are more soothing. I made a couple of attempts.

Another experiment I tried was based on time. What will your writing look at if you do it quickly versus taking your time? The idea was to write the same word using different time limits. I wrote hummingbird and used 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 2 minutes. Let me tell you it took me awhile to actually use the entire 30 seconds.

This book is perfect for when you have time to experiment and learn more about writing and lettering. If you work your way through the entire book your writing will definitely be more creative and fun. The truth is if you take time and use guidelines you can write in the neat manners. I find I don't usually want to put the time in enough. How about you? 

If you are looking for some new ways to think about letters, be sure to check out this book. There are so many great ideas that you may not think about on your own!