Although Spoolia collectively has spent its fair share of years in school, we’re always trying to learn more. On a recent Saturday, we traveled to Rosslyn to learn more about the ins and outs of hand lettering from the expert, Ken Barber, resident type designer and letterer of House Industries in Delaware. Along with fellow ADCMW designers, we set off to turn “Washington” into something beautiful.
In an intense, all-day workshop, we definitely used many passes of our pencils and maybe just as many with our erasers. Ken spent time with each of us talking us through our works in progress. He gave us notes on the tiniest details, like curve on the end of a lower case T or the dot on an I. His insights into the color, contrast and spacing of the letters helped us see each letter and more importantly, the space between, more clearly.
We tested serifs and sans serifs, scripts and ligatures, getting our type nerd on to Ken’s favorite funky music. With lettering battle scars (graphite dust on our faces and hands) we proudly posted our days work alongside the other participants.
Everyone brought their own point of view to our exercise word “Washington” and a few more ambitious folks tried other turns of phrase. At the end of the day, Spoolia left a bit more smudged, but also inspired for a new project. Stay tuned to see where our hand lettering is featured next.
