Hand lettering

Hand lettering is a particularly beautiful art of writing. Handwriting with great attention to detail that you can write beautifully yourself for your creative ideas such as paintings, congratulations, chalkboard lettering or other greetings. Hand lettering always looks stylistically different and creates a particularly creative and beautiful image when combined with other fonts and styles. Hand lettering is a modern form of calligraphy in combination with typography, in which prefabricated block letters are used.

What exactly is hand lettering?

Hand lettering can be defined as the handwritten design of letters. Individual words, quotes or even entire texts are artfully written and decorated in your own handwriting using various writing tools (pencil, fineliners, brush, chalk). Letters are often written in cursive script. The letters are joined together. This quickly gives the writing an artistic feel. In order not to overload the eye with longer texts or quotes in hand lettering style, different font styles are often mixed together. The combination of block letters and bold cursive script, upper and lower case letters, italics and bold letters creates varied and exciting word images. Hand lettering often uses flourishes or artificial extensions for decoration. Ornaments, lines and dots are also frequently used elements in hand lettering.

Can I do that too?
Don't worry: anyone can do hand lettering. Of course, no master has ever fallen from the sky, so when it comes to hand lettering, it's all about practicing, practicing, practicing! Just like at school, alphabets and letters need to be practiced and often repeated in order to perfect the hand lettering technique you have learned. For lettering beginners, books with instructions and templates are perfect for first attempts. Here you can find out which pens are best suited for which type of hand lettering, you will receive templates of lettering and different hand lettering alphabets and grid templates to practice and try out. In addition to the fonts, there are many beautiful ornaments and suggestions on how you can make your hand lettering project even more beautiful.

What do I need for hand lettering?

Whether it's an inscribed blackboard, an artistic picture or a personal greetings card - hand lettering really can be used anywhere. And what do you need for it? Depending on the project, a painting surface (Paper, blackboard) and a painting tool (pen, fountain pen, chalk). And you're ready to go!

Which pens do I need for hand lettering?

You need as many different pens as possible for hand lettering - but this is not compulsory.
The pens can differ in terms of color or tip thickness. By using different hand lettering pens, you can easily create big differences when writing and drawing individual words.
As hand lettering is seen as an art, it is a good idea to buy good pens that are designed for hand lettering. This will produce even more beautiful results. You can find a large Selection range of pens for hand lettering in our online store.
Many hand lettering professionals swear by soft calligraphy pen tips, as they have the advantage of reacting very sensitively to pressure and therefore allow a wide variety of gradients and line widths. These pens are known in the trade as "brush pens" and have the properties of both a felt-tip pen and a brush. Brush pens give you a lot of creative freedom and have the advantage over a brush that they write very well and the brush pen does not have to be constantly set down to pick up new color. The brush pen always has the same color flow.

What is the best way to learn hand lettering?

As already mentioned, anyone can learn hand lettering. At VBS you will find a large Selection collection of hand lettering literature to trace and copy. Drawing the first letters in different styles is a lot of fun and you will quickly become a hand lettering expert.
We therefore recommend that you purchase 1 - 2 hand lettering basics books.