Typography Art

I was going to call this post “Typography Art Tutorial”, but then I realized that this post, like my last blog post over chalkboard design, is more of a “this is how I did it … and you can, too.” Ever since the dawn of Pinterest, I have been seeing ridiculously cool designs utilizing type and ornate design/illustration to get a small phrase across. When my brother asked him to design a small logo ASAP for his new business, I was inspired by typography. His business is Professional Fencing {he specializes, of course, in constructing fences}, so I made an illustration of a stylized “P” and “F” surrounded by barbed wire.

We used the logo to make a flyer, and some business cards featuring more typography. We’re also having some wooden business cards made; with a different design featuring the typography logo.

After I made these materials, I caught a case of the typography bug. Sure, I do a lot of calligraphy, but I’ve really never tried my hand at typography art before. “Why on earth couldn’t I make a fun typography phrase that’s Pinterest-worthy?” I thought to myself. So, I broke out the graphing paper.

Next, I had to think of my clever phrase. I honestly sat there for about ten minutes wondering what I should write. Finally, I was inspired by my meal at a local breakfast place a couple of mornings ago, where I ordered decaf and promptly added a ton of cream. My phrase was officially “I Like My Cream with a Little Bit of Coffee.” Since “CREAM” has five letters, the “E” should be dead center, so I started writing “CREAM” by drawing the “E”.

This is the point that I realized that typography art is actually math in disguise. That ruler was getting hot from so much use, and I kept having to count squares to ensure I was making everything symmetrical.

A lot of the pieces I see on Pinterest include illustrations that reflect what the phrase says. I couldn’t think of a better representation of cream than a milk cow; so I looked up a photo on the internet. Admittedly, it was of a beige cow; not a black and white — but once I drew it, it was my cow, and I could add details as I saw fit!

I was trying to think of how to fit “I Like My” above the cow … and I finally ascertained that “Like” should go above her; and “I” and “My” could be on the sides.

Since “I” is one letter and “My” is two letters, I needed to come up with a way to preserve the symmetry that involved putting them in some sort of contained area. A ribbon works wonders for this.

And the solution for “With a Little Bit of”? Another ribbon, of course.

Then, I had to figure out how to center the coffee cup. That, of course, involved more square counting and using the ruler.

After I drew the second half of my phrase, I wasn’t satisfied with my middle “With a Little Bit of” ribbon. I looked around the studio and spotted a spoon — aha! I laid it by my illustration and drew two spoons intertwined in the ribbon.

Now, it was time to bring out the big guns: tracing paper. I taped my tracing paper to the graph paper just because I hate it when the tracing paper moves around and I lose my spot.

{Again, faux calligraphy … so important to have an understanding of!}

I used a Pilot G2 pen (0.5mm) to draw. Next time I create typography art, though, I think I’ll use these babies, as recommended by Sean McCabe. The G2 didn’t dry fast enough {which led to a teensy bit of smudging}, and was sometimes a bit temperamental with its ink flow; for this reason, it was hard to get really nice, straight lines.

In the areas where I needed a lot of ink, I switched over to a Pilot G2 10 mm pen.

… Though I continued to outline using the .5 mm, just because it is a little bit easier to control the ink.

I ended up changing “With a Little Bit of” to “With a Touch of” so I could have the “a” and “of” echo each other with that little three drop design.

Then, I moved on to the coffee cup.

I drew “Coffee” in loopy calligraphy …

… Which I then filled in using the faux calligraphy technique.

At this point, I had traced over everything on the graphing paper, and the design looked very empty to me. It was time to start embellishing. I started with steam curls for the coffee cup, which I first added in pencil on the graphing paper, and then traced with the 0.5 mm pen in little dots.

Alack and alas, the drawing was still missing that “certain something”. I turned to Pinterest for inspiration, and found this vintage logo:

I really liked the curls and flourishes, and I knew the delicate lines would complement the nice, bold strokes that I already had in the design. So, I drew some flourishes in pencil first, then traced them.

I got lazy about the symmetry of the flourishes on the left side; and, not going to lie, I considered adding them in in Photoshop. Then I realized I could just use my tracing paper to trace over the design on the right quickly, flip it over, and use it to make mirrored flourishes on the left.

{See that through the tracing paper?}

Then, I just continued to add little details until everything looked right to me!

The thing with this kind of design is you never know when you’re finished. That flourish motif gives you infinite opportunities to add a little something here or there, and I had to make myself stop while I was {subjectively} ahead!

Once I was finished, I thought it would be fun to add a little color in Photoshop. I did this by removing the background and using the fill tool to add some muted blues, yellows, and browns.

The funny thing is, once I made this, Hernán looked at it, paused, and carefully said, “Um. Actually, I think it’s ‘I like my coffee with a touch of cream …’” He was terrified that a piece I had spent hours on was going to be useless because of my confusion! I had to explain that I was being witty … at least, in my opinion. I like the way it turned out, but probably wouldn’t make a typography art piece again “for fun”. Because it’s so ornate, it does take hours of thought and illustration. I do, however, think it would make a gorgeous invitation or poster design. The nice thing about these is the fact that people will really concentrate on figuring out what it says and seeing all the cool little details. It’s a crowded and complicated design … but I love designs like that!

I hope today’s post has inspired you to try out a bit of typography. Don’t feel like you can’t do it if you’re missing any of the tools I used; you can certainly make a piece of typography art without graph paper or tracing paper. You can use any pen you feel like using or have laying around! I say go for it! And if you have any questions or comments, you know where to find me!

XO,

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