A Love Letter to Letters
On writing, from handwriting to lettering and branding. Also some recommendations on writing and lettering stuff. And coming up: A talk and an exhibition.
I have been sketching on a branding project that has a handwritten logo. Since that project is not yet public, I decided to write a love letter to letters instead. I will also share some of my earlier work incorporating letters in various ways.
Besides my design and illustration projects, I can make everything an excuse to take my favorite pen for a ride from left to right by swirly lines. Sometimes, I have no clue what to write. I only know that I need the sensation of it. The tingling feeling in my writing hand as it moves over the paper, the subtle sound of the rollerball, almost impossible to hear, and my breathing following the pace of my thoughts and feelings. The soft movements start in the heart, travel to the brain for sorting, then down through the neck and shoulder to my arm and all the fingers holding the pen.
I write morning pages, three pages longhand every morning, an exercise known from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I started four years ago, and even though I don’t write every morning it makes a difference in how I relate to my ideas and my work, my family and friends, my health and spirituality, and while writing I find out how to honor them all, word by word.
I write ideas, plans, research, notes, and tasks in my journal. I love how forming letters and words helps me think and plan. I also love crossing the bullet as a task is done.
Ever since I was a child, I have appreciated good handwriting. Impressed by the delicate and swaying lines of my father’s writing, I opted out of the handwriting style taught in Swedish schools and declared that I wanted to write in the old style instead. The SÖ-style, or Swedish teaching style, was taught in Swedish schools from 1975 until it was abandoned. It was a style built on plain letters connected with lines. It was stiff and ugly. For example, the g, j, and y had no bows connecting them to the next letter. (Later on, people in Sweden blamed this teaching style for destroying the handwriting for a whole generation. Others blamed the computers.)
The old-style handwriting, on the other hand, was fluid with beautifully shaped letters built to connect not only through a line but connecting with their whole being to the letters surrounding them. It was like a dance. Like the people dancing in this painting by Henri Matisse.
Lettering in my work
I incorporate letters in a lot of my design work, like posters, logotypes, and book covers. They are often handwritten and then rendered digitally in different ways depending on the goal. But I avoid having letters in my illustrations because it kills the joy of illustration for me.
Here are some designs by me with letters:
Concert image for De Profundis with Nivalis Barokk.
I have developed three lettering styles that I combine with illustrations for all the communication for the Norwegian early music group Nivalis Barokk. See more of my creations for Nivalis Barokk.
The Pack
Mockup of a book cover for The Pack, a short story collection by me (not yet written). The illustration on the cover was part of my 100-day project Fortes’ Fauna. I love incorporating letters in shapes like this and that the figures and the text both get the space they need.
Superfake
This logo was for a musician who created dance music. I created the text by writing directly with the pipet from my ink bottle. It took several tries before I got the blots where I wanted them. I remember my workspace being filled with all my wet ink sketches, making it difficult to move around. The chosen word mark was scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop before I vectorized it in Illustrator.
Pinball People
Logotype for the project Pinball People. This was so much fun to do and when I looked in my logo sketch file now, I found nearly forty takes before I landed on this one. The aesthetics around pinball was such a big well of colorful retro inspiration. Read more about the Pinball People project here.
Alla ska passa in (All must fit)
Logotype for an exhibition about our judging behavior titled Alla ska passa in (All must fit). The exhibition was based on stories from young people in Sweden and produced by our company Studio Kobajagi. I remember how I aggressively wrote this phrase over and over again. I needed a combination of determination and aggression. And finally, I was satisfied. Read more (in Swedish).
Try this!
To read: In Progress.
I warmly recommend the book In Progress by the fantastic Jessica Hische, who is a fantastic lettering artist and designer. Her book sums up so much knowledge on lettering. It is inspirational as well as educational. A perfect book if you are interested in the craft of lettering, both as a practitioner and as an admirer.
To write on: The Nuuna notebook.
I am extremely picky when it comes to notebooks. It needs to have the right paper, the right distance between lines or dots, and on top of it: it has to look good. For the last four years, I have used the Nuuna notebooks by Brandbook. They have Swedish Munken paper, they lay flat, the discrete dots are in a perfect grid for my handwriting and the designs are just beautiful. I have to add that they are so expensive I want to scream out loud every time I need to buy a new one, but they are quarter-of-a-year worth when it comes to morning pages, so it doesn't happen too often.
To write with: The Pilot pen.
My favorite pen, on the other hand, is very cheap. I don’t need an expensive fountain pen. I think my hand glides too easily over the paper with a fountain pen, which makes the experience hasty and the look sloppy. So for the last three years or so the black rollerball Pilot BPS-GP <F> has been my companion. I love the thin and distinct lines it creates. I’ve bought several of them, plus refills, which now live in my pockets, drawers, and jars.
Coming up
Bildvärld/Gränsland
I will give a talk about my 100-day projects Imaginary Places, and Fortes’ Fauna at the illustration festival Bildvärld/Gränsland. Hope to see you there!
Bildvärld/Gränsland is on Saturday, October 19 at Inkonst in Malmö, Sweden.
Read more about the illustration festival Bildvärld/Gränsland here.
Exhibition at Kulturhuset Kåken
Kåken is a library and culture house a few steps from my home. It is a perfect place for an exhibition with the originals and sketches from the children’s book Addis afro. This exhibition will also show Fortes’ fauna.
Welcome to the vernissage between 12–14 on Saturday, November 9 at Kulturhuset Kåken in Gothenburg, Sweden. The exhibition will be open until December 9.
The book cover mock up looks amazing! 😍