Laurensius Adi - Design and Lettering

First Step : Keep Your Ideas

Ideas sometimes just shown up and disappear in your mind. I find myself easy to get ideas when I'm already at bed and try to sleep. You have to write it down, take notes in case you'd like to make it as a lettering. Try to find beautiful phrases or sentence, about 5 - 10 words.

Step Two : Sketch

Make a rough sketch out of your phrases. This one is my original quick messy sketch. I just make it without think to much. Try to make a square or rectangle shape from your words. Don't worry if it looks bad. This way makes your brain thinks easier of the composition rather than just try to think of it. You can use same fonts, all sans, all script, but it is better to mix them together. Graphical elements such as ribbons and lines also help the composition to look good and balance.

Step Three : Refinement

From that messy sketch, make another one with better composition. Use guidelines for outer and across the middle of the paper so it will looks symmetrical.


To make a curved phrases at the bottom, make a curve first and then put each letter perpendicular to the curve. For script font, like on the top and second from bottom, thickness of the stroke is the key. When the stroke goes up it have to be thinner than the stroke that goes down.

At this stage, I do a lot of revision on it, try to make it looks better. Use a 2B pencil or maybe the less thick one so you can erase it easily.

 

Step Four : Ink

Start to ink when you feel the sketch good enough. Start inking on the outline with small pen (0.1), so you can correct the shape later with larger one.


After you finish all the outlines, erase the pencil work done before, or it will tore apart the paper after inked.


Do the inking part carefully because you don't have "Undo" button here. You can add thickness and ornaments, but not to erase or make the font thinner.

That one is my finished lettering. Make yours now and share it with others. Thanks!