Online Lettering Course

The course covers many aspects of lettering – from definitions and basic principles, to how calligraphy can inform and guide your lettering, to some recommendations on attitude and approach. Two lessons peek into a brief history of Serif and Script letterforms, and present examples of these styles with flourishes – including some from my Dad’s archive of work.

I’ll then guide you through my full process and techniques for creating Serif and Script letterforms and how to build in flourishing. We’ll go through some basic techniques, do some warm-up exercises, then we’ll create flourished lettering pieces in both these styles. For the final project, we’ll letter the name of our favourite city or place and see how ambitious we can get with the flourishing. All the while aiming to be expressive and tell stories with our letters.

See a breakdown of the course content below, or click the button to sign up.

To get started, let me introduce myself. I’ll talk about my work, why I love letters, and how I came to be a lettering artist.

In this lesson, I’ll talk about some designers and lettering artists who’ve been big inspirations to me in my career. I’ll also talk about what we’ll do in this course.

Calligraphy, lettering, typography and type design are all different but related disciplines. In this lesson, I’ll teach you about some differences by looking at examples.

Here I talk about what I believe to be some of the most important principles of lettering – aspects you should pay close attention to that will help you on your way to becoming a great lettering artist.

In this unit, I’ll explain the importance of ‘pen influence’ – An essential concept that helps to inform correct letterform construction, the placement of weight and other aspects of drawing letters.

In this lesson, you’ll learn about some of the basics of flourishing, how to get started, and some warm-up exercises you can do to practice.

The Roman serif is the foundation of modern, western type and lettering. In this lesson, you’ll learn a little about its history, including where it comes from, its construction, and its different interpretations.

Next, it’s time to take all the things you’ve learnt about the serif style – from the calligraphy to the history – and make an expressive piece of serif lettering with flourishes.

For the course’s final project, you’ll create a unique lettering composition that captures the essence and character of your favourite city or place. We’ll start by choosing a location and look for inspiration. Then sketch some ideas and develop our favourite option into a final drawing. Next we’ll go through some tips on best practice and techniques for creating vectors, and then move onto creating a vector from our sketch. Finally we’ll look at some ways we can add depth and dimension to our designs in Photoshop.