Depending on your word, you may think of other creative questions to ponder and ideas to doodle. There may be a letter in your word that lends itself well to expressing the meaning, such as the S in the word serpentine, or the O in the word global.
For an example, I’ll walk you through my thought process on a calligram I created. One of my favorite letters is A. I also love flourishing, so I wanted a word with a meaning that was conducive to flourishing. I decided on the word Artistic. The word artistic has different connotations for different people, but I concentrated only on the meaning through my lens of experiences.
Artistic. To me, it is an elegant word, yet generous, kind, and approachable. I envisioned it in script, but in a steady hand, rather than bouncing on the line. I wanted to express freedom and movement and joy, but in an orderly, balanced way. I used traditional letter forms, but added some unconventional twists on the cross bars of the A and t’s. I hoped to portray, through the flourishes surrounding the word, the connectedness and influence of community.
Another important point: it took a few attempts before the design caught up to my vision for how I wanted it to look. Some ideas were abandoned. At first, I didn’t have any flourishes below the word, as there are no letters with descenders. But I wanted to balance the flourishes on the top, so I added some free-floating flourishes on the bottom.
To hopefully spark ideas for you, I made a page of simple calligrams using a variety of words (see the following page). Again, it’s subjective how we each choose to express the meaning of words. For example, I chose to create the word Reality a bit humorously, with different angles, heights, and letter sizes. I wanted the word itself to express strength but not sugarcoat the imperfections that exist in ordinary life.
The words Energetic and Speedy are both sloping upward to show confidence, progress, and the optimism I associate with these two words. Kindness and Joyful both involve several flourishes. When I was drafting the designs, I thought of kind people looking for ways to reach out to someone as they go about their ordinary tasks, and joyful people, with the contagious quality of finding amusement in everything, and laughing often.
CALLIGRAMS
TRY IT: Copy the styles here and/or create your own. You might concoct a completely different way to write the same word, based on your own interpretation of the meaning.
My rendition of the word Grit might not be as tough-looking as the meaning suggests. I used all caps to show strength and determination, but curved lines to demonstrate the flexibility that has been necessary for me to reach goals I set for myself. The dots between the letters represent the sandpaper-like particles that smooth and teach us as we persevere.
Calligraphy
If you’ve enjoyed perfecting your handwriting, exploring the world of calligraphy is a natural addition to the foundation you’ve already built. The difference between handwriting and calligraphy comes down to the tools and the rules.
Calligraphy is a broad field of study, but the two basic camps are:
1. Broad-edged calligraphy uses a nib with a flat edge, such as Brause, Mitchell, or Speedball, and is required for styles such as Italic, Foundational, Blackletter, and Uncial. The nib is typically dipped in either ink or gouache, and rules involve the precise angle of the nib, height of the letters, stroke sequence, and letter shapes.
2. The pointed pen is used for script styles such as Copperplate and Spencerian. This lettering requires using pressure on the downstrokes and releasing pressure to make thin hairlines for the upstrokes. These elegant, classic styles use an oblique or straight pen holder and a nib with a pointed tip, such as the workhorse Nikko G or the flexible Gillott 303. As in broad-edged calligraphy, the nib is dipped in ink or gouache that is prepared to the right consistency.
Modern brush lettering requires a flexible brush-tip marker, paintbrush, or water brush, and is derived from traditional script and printed letter forms. In both classic and modern calligraphy, you’ll find that styles of lettering artists can differ widely. Some of the current trends involve bouncing on the base line; mixing different styles; adding banners, flourishes, and other embellishments to create balanced layouts; and blending colors with special markers such as the Tombow series or Ecoline liquid watercolors. Chalk is also a popular medium for modern lettering layouts, and there’s an assortment of chalk and chalk markers available to create your designs.
This alphabet, along with the following quote by Albert Einstein, is a sample of some basic modern brush lettering using a Tombow Fudenosuke hard-tip marker. Brush lettering looks very similar to monoline handwriting, but the added texture of thick and thin strokes necessitates a little more time and attention to each stroke.
practice tips
Did you know that April is National Card and Letter Writing Month? Stock up on stationery and try handwriting a letter or card every day in April. The US Postal Service promotes this celebration with these persuasive words: “Writing, sending and receiving letters…is a tradition that has preserved our nation’s history and has changed lives—particularly in times of war and times of personal triumph and tragedy. Unlike other communications, card and letter writing is timeless, personal, and immediately tangible.”
Brush-lettered lowercase letters.
In this example, you can see a simple layout of centering each line and adding a flourish off a descender on the bottom line.
Joining a calligraphy guild in your area will expose you to the best teachers available in all of these styles mentioned and more. You can also learn from books, take classes online, and watch tutorials.
How to Find Your Own Style
If you want to explore more terrain in the realm of hand lettering, you may be wondering how to unearth your own unique style. A great way to start is by emulating handwriting styles and variations that inspire you, in order to build your confidence in the world of letters. After that important step, you’ll find that the more you take your practice beyond imitation, the more your own passions and preferences will emerge. When you give yourself creative license to sit with your writing tools and simply have fun with letters, your personality will find a stage on which to perform. It doesn’t always come easily or naturally, and for sure not overnight, but with persistent trial and error, your voice will come through in your writing.
You can also take lettering classes that are not your go-to styles, just to stretch yourself to learn new things. I’ve found that a skilled teacher who is passionate about the course material will open another world for me with their contagious excitement and expertise. All you learn will help build upon and improve what you already know. And the best part is that there is always more to learn.
Conclusion
In an age of practicality and technology, this book is a meandering answer to the question, “Why handwriting? What can it give me?”
As an active person who prefers the outdoors and struggles to sit still, I’ve often puzzled over what it is about handwriting, a sedentary activity, that draws me in and holds me captive. What does it offer? Ironically, I’ve found that it’s not what handwriting gives us, but what we bring to handwriting, that evokes the greater blessing. My epiphany came unexpectedly with the juxtaposition of these two quotes:
“At the point of the pen is the focus of the mind.”
—James Lendall Basford
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
—William Wordsworth
Mind and heart! In writing we offer both intellect and emotion. Many creative pursuits engage both mind and heart, but handwriting is unique in its powerful capacity to convey not just words, but the meaning, beauty, and personal undertones they represent.
My hope is that you’ve also been dazzled by the wonder and depth of penmanship, and that together we’ll be perpetual students: reveling in the joy of learning, imparting a reflection of mind and heart through the marks we put on paper, and spreading the word to others.
Acknowledgments
I’m grateful
for the calligraphy and hand-lettering teachers I’ve studied with—each of you have unique passion and expertise: Amanda Arneill, Gemma Black, Pat Blair, Timothy Botts, Brenda Broadbent, Karen Brooks, Barbara Calzolari, Skyler Chubak, Harvest Crittenden, Suzanne Cunningham, Anne-Davnes Elser, Marion Gault, Eliza Holliday, Bill Kemp, Stefan Kunz, Kathy Milici, Vivian Mungall, Cora Pearl, Linda Schneider, Michael Sull, Michael Ward, Julian Waters, Jake Weidmann, Angela Welch, and Xandra Zamora. Special thanks to Sheila Waters and Julian Waters for reviewing the section in this book on the history of handwriting. I’m also thankful for the students I’ve been privileged to teach. I learn so much from you.
To the Colleagues of Calligraphy (Minnesota Guild) and IAMPETH (International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting) and their members: thank you for your generosity, excellence, and ongoing effort to promote writing by hand and all of its benefits.
Many thanks to Beverly Patronas and Dr. Ladona Tornabene; I’m deeply grateful for your wisdom and encouragement. Thanks also to Curt Walczak and the staff at the University of Minnesota Duluth Center for Economic Development.
Thank you to my editor Cate Coulacos Prato, the first to envision and believe in this project, Colleen Cunningham, Laura Daly, and the staff at Adams Media and Simon & Schuster for your incredible work and talent.
As Robert Louis Stevenson observed, “We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.” I’m thankful to travel through life with these loyal friends: Brenda DeJaeghere, Rhonda Gazette, Michelle Gunnerson, Amy Hellerstedt, Julie Jonson, Jennifer Kampf, Deb Kester, Son Nguyen, Tami Perez, Brenda Swanson, and Esther Young.
Thank you to my extended family, a tremendous source of support and inspiration: siblings Sam and Lydia Foltz, Sair and Nick Jordan, Angela and Aleks Tengesdal, Walter Foltz, Sharla and Lance Green, cousins Elizabeth Schulte, Bonnie Fahoome and Rob Foltz, aunts Bonnie Foltz and Julia Todink, and especially my mom, Lois Gelia Foltz, as well as many relatives too numerous to list. I’m also grateful for treasured memories with my dad, Frank Foltz, and grandparents, Louise and Rugg Foltz and Ethel and Walter Lundin, who instilled in me a love for books, handcrafts, and great quotes.
I’m so lucky to live with my favorite people, who did all the grocery shopping and much more, so I could finish this book on time. Brent, thank you for believing in me with an unwavering love and kindness, cheering me on throughout every page of this book, and knowing how to make me laugh no matter what kind of day I’m having. Jace, Jayva, and Jenaya: I’m so proud of you and how you search for ways to make this world a better place. And finally, a million thanks to God, the Giver of good gifts: All my springs of joy are in You. —Psalms 87:7.
About the Author
BRENNA JORDAN lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where she owns a calligraphy and handlettering business, Calligraphy by Brenna, which provides wedding and event calligraphy, certificates, logo design, and commission work. She is a member of IAMPETH (The International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting) and The Colleagues of Calligraphy, and offers private and small-group lessons.
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Further Reading
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