Post in partnership with Blurb Books

Since I’ve stopped teaching lettering classes in person, I’ve felt that a part of me that loved to share with people and teach people was lost… for obvious reasons. While I can still share here on the blog and over on Instagram, there are so many of you out there at different levels, it would be impossible to teach and share something that everyone could benefit from. So, when Blurb Books wanted to see what I could create with their self-publishing capabilities, I knew that I wanted to take my biggest audience’s needs and turn them into something.

There are so many of you trying to get started in hand lettering. Whether it be for a personal project, or the start of a new business, and sometimes knowing where to begin is the hardest. Once you have a feel for WHAT to do and HOW you should be doing it, it’s like any art form that you can run with creatively. 

So I’m excited to finally share that I put all of my thoughts into a short guide for those of you out there looking to get started in the world of brush lettering! I thought back to what my struggles where when I started, simple guides I wish I had, and tips that would’ve been great not to have to work through on my own. I hope that it can help lots of you out there express yourself in a new way and create your very own personal hand lettering style.

The guide is just over 34 pages. My goal is to give general direction and ways to fix common problems encountered when starting. With that, it’s much easier for anyone to develop their own style. I’ve included a set of letters and a directional guide to show how you will form each individual lettering. You can trace them, letter straight in the book, or skip onto the practice sheets included inside. Initially it’s all about creating muscle memory around each letter by writing it over and over.

There is a list of recommended tools and materials I use now. I have tested a ton and found what works for me currently, but the fun part is trying new tools and techniques… never stop learning. So this is only meant to guide you in the right direction to start, and move on from there to find your own favorites.

And lastly, I included lots of inspiration. I’ve mentioned several times that the most effective way to define your style, is to just write and let it come out naturally. This is exactly what I did in the beginning as well. So the inspiration is to serve as a way to get you motivated to do the same. You can trace letters of your favorite artists and develop a style similar to their’s… but what is the fun in that? How much more interesting would it be if you found a style that no one else has ever seen?

While I included everything to get you started, I’m sure my thoughts and style will be evolving, which I will want to share with you. The great thing about publishing with Blurb is that they print and ship on demand. So you don’t have to invest anything to sell, and in my case, I can update the guide if I need to without dating old inventory. So tweaking the book as the lettering world changes is so simple! I hope to have a few more listed in the future that touch on everything you guys want to learn!

I found the whole process of putting everything together with Blurb pretty seamless. From the different tools and templates they offer for bookmaking to the high-quality papers for things like photobooks (or lettering guides!), they really make it easy to create your own professional book, no matter what your subject.

Now you might be thinking, is this guide for me? If you are a creative (or looking to expand your creativity) and have ever thought about hand lettering but didn’t know where to start, THIS GUIDE IS FOR YOU! Even if you have been lettering for a while, maybe you want to expand your style and see how other artists create… this is the perfect way to do just that. But more importantly, having a guide to use on your own time means that you can fit this into any schedule. Use it to learn with your friends for a girls night in, or practice on the weekend in your own living room. You can really use it anywhere.

I’m pretty thankful for this opportunity (and kick in the butt) to partner with Blurb because this has LONG been on my to-do list. If you guys are interested in checking it out, click on the button below. It’s for sale directly through Blurb and ships quickly!

Post in partnership with Blurb Books