According to Black, his passion for both design and typography sparked early on, when he was a young boy obsessed with soccer. “I was so fascinated with the design around the beautiful game such as colorful football shirts, team badges, football boots, and TV commercials and programs,” he recalled in an interview with Talenthouse. “This all contributed to my curiosity in design and made me wonder how things like that were made.”

His strengths lie in his ability to cross disciplines without restricting himself to one exclusive style. This versatility has also offered him the opportunity to work on a varied mix of collaborations with local and international clients of all business backgrounds. His more personal work has equally been successful, exhibited in cities like London, Barcelona, Australia, and Dubai.

His pieces begin with some sketching, in which he explores different directions. “Once I find the best direction, I begin the lettering stage by drawing each letterform,” he notes. “This is an iterative process that includes several stages of refinement by illustrating, erasing, tracing, rinse and repeat. Once I’ve taken the concept as far as I can by hand, I scan the image and begin the digitization process.”

See some of the finished results in the gallery below.

The post Making a Statement: The Typography Art of Craig Black appeared first on TettyBetty.

Yoshida practices what she preaches. A member of the Society for Calligraphy in Southern California, she has studied from master calligraphers and has taken many classes and workshops to improve her skills.

“After attending various workshops and conferences, the best takeaway is that calligraphy is a life-long learning experience,” she writes on her website. “There are students who are already very skilled, yet still very humble and want to learn from the best. I find that extremely inspiring. I am a perpetual student and truly believe we should never stop learning to improve our craft. I have learned so much, but I have a lifetime’s worth of studying to go.”

A graphic designer by day and a calligraphy enthusiast by night, she stresses that there’s nothing wrong with being self-taught, but that at least for her, mastering her craft meant going to the source. Scrolling through her Instagram page might inspire you to do just that.

The post If At First You Don’t Succeed, Write, Write Again appeared first on TettyBetty.

“As a kid, I was into hip hop culture,” he relayed in a candid interview with Art Radar. “Graffiti was the natural medium for me to express myself in an artistic way. It became more and more a case of [me finding my] identity and reconnecting with my Arabic roots.”

A mixture of graffiti art and Arabic calligraphy, his artwork can be found all across the globe, anywhere from the façade of L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the favelas of Rio di Janeiro to the DMZ in between North and South Korea and the heart of Cairo’s garbage collectors neighborhood.

Born in 1981 in Paris to Tunisian parents, he utilizes Arabic calligraphy as a way to build a bridge between his French and Tunisian backgrounds. “I mix graffiti, which is a ‘western’ medium (although I don’t like to use this term) and Arabic calligraphy, which is an ancient eastern way of expression,” he says. “I think that’s the power of calligraphy and art in general. [They] bring two worlds together and link them. That’s why I feel that my work speaks for me.”

Follow his thought-provoking work on Instagram.

The post EL Seed’s Calligraphy Art Promotes a Message of Peace appeared first on TettyBetty.

“The Calligrafuturism is my self-developed style,” explained Lampas in an interview with the Fendi blog. “We’re all living in a multi-cultural world and if I can help people to learn more about foreign calligraphy, they’ll learn more about other countries. So that’s why Calligrafuturism is so important for me, I don’t want to make something new just because I’m crazy, I want to create it because I can see a very big knowledge and that’s why I’m doing it.”

According to Lampas, being a “Calligraffiti Ambassador” is a great way to create art non-stop. “Now I can easily take a big bucket of paint and perform my art everywhere,” he says. “On walls, on glass, on cars!”. Lampas knows what he’s talking about. In 2015, he performed the first world’s largest calligraffiti on the roof of a building in Moscow – an artwork that can be seen from Google Earth.

He admits he’s always on the lookout for the next best surface to work on. “Of course, I prefer something smooth, but it depends on the material and the tools,” he says. “So, if I could find something very nice to work on outside this earth, it would probably be the moon. That would be my favorite surface!”

In the meanwhile, check out his Earthly creations.

The post This Graffiti Artist Constantly Pushes the Envelope appeared first on TettyBetty.

“There are a few different ways of doing it,” says Mackenzie-Gray. “You can draw a design, print it up on acetate, project it onto the wall, trace it onto wrapping paper, and then use the pounce, (or pounce-wheel), running it over the design perforates the paper, and then use a chalk pad. You put your design on the wall where you want it, bang the chalk pad through, take the paper off and you’ve got a dotted line. A lot of these methods are hundreds of years old; things haven’t changed much at all.”

After graduating with a degree in graphic design at LCC, with a focus on typography, Mackenzie-Gray took a leap of faith and opened his business, Toucan Signs. His intuition seemed to have proved correct. Working both digitally and by hand, his signs can be seen at Honest Burgers and the Museum of London, with his painting surfaces varying to include brick walls, gloss, shop faces, and glass.

But you can also follow his creative thought process on his Instagram page:

The post Commission This Typography Expert to Upgrade Your Storefront appeared first on TettyBetty.

Having come to lettering in 2015, calligraphy came quite naturally to Fitzmaurice and after managing to hone her craft in a relatively short time she now shares her tips and tricks with others online.

A full-time elementary teacher and mother, Fitzmaurice says that lettering has given her life the balance it needed through some busy and tough times. “It is amazing how adding just a few hours of a hobby for yourself can make you a better, all-around more effective person,” she told Surely Simple. “I feel like I am currently the best wife, mom, and teacher I have ever been and I think much of that is allowing myself to take part in an activity that uses my creativity, relaxes me, and brings me constant joy and inspiration.”

Her toolbox includes pointed pens, gouache, Tombow brush pens, and watercolor brushes. “My favorite way to explore new styles is to pick up a pencil or brush pen and just start writing,” she says. “Yes, there are tons of inspiring people on Instagram and it’s ok to find things that you like in others’ work, but the best way to find your own style is to put down the phone, get out the pens, and just practice until you find what you love.”

What are you waiting for? Get a pen and paper!

The post You Don’t Need More Than a Pen and a Paper to Improve Your Lettering Skills appeared first on TettyBetty.

Born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan, Yamaguchi has been trained under Master Zuiho Sato since at the age of 6. As a small child, she loved drawing, writing stories, and anything to do with paper, paints, pencils, pens, and using her hands. She was also drawn to nature and enjoyed exploring the woods, hiking in the mountains, walking into the river, and playing with snow.

“Around 5-6 years old, I made a series of picture books with my illustrations and my little fantasy stories; about this bear exploring the forest, flying on the cloud, traveling around the world,” she shared with The Design Kids. “I remember bringing the book I made to the calligraphy school and showing it to Master Sato. My childhood dream was to become a novel writer.”

Currently based in Berkeley, California, Yamaguchi is celebrated for her calligraphy art which she performs and exhibits in galleries, museums, universities, and festivals in the United States, across Europe, and in Japan.

Watching her go is a mesmerizing experience, granted.

The post Aoi Yamaguchi’s Calligraphy Is Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Seen appeared first on TettyBetty.

“The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word,” he told Lettering Daily. “I could spend hours looking for a good one. Since I have the phrase or word I start to make the sketches in different styles, after having chosen the best one I proceed to do it with a marker, brush or directly digital on a tablet. Finally, I place the lettering on a photo or image.”

“​I think the strokes are a very important element in order to create a nice lettering piece, also the thickness and kerning are very important,” he adds, talking about his techniques. “Sometimes I have the same mistakes, I usually see different works of great artists to have a better idea of how to do it and that’s how I improve my work!”

Influenced by his background in graffiti, his lettering art looks as though it’s actually popping out of the screen. Check it out for yourself:

The post David Milan Takes Calligraphy Art to the Next Level appeared first on TettyBetty.

Growing up in rural Kansas, calligrapher Lindsey Bugbee had to find creative ways to keep busy. That was when she discovered her knack for art. “I discovered that making art was a great way to have fun,” she recalled in an interview with Sweet Meadow. “My mother didn’t mind letting me draw or paint on certain walls, and we had a sand driveway that I could make line drawings in after it rained. My grandmother used to color and paint with me, and I remember watching her and thinking, ‘I wish I could keep inside the lines like that!’”

Now, years later and based in Boulder, Colorado, where she shares a home with her husband and baby boy, she treats art as a career. A full-time calligraphy artist and teacher, Bugbee has mastered the art of lettering and passes it on to her many fans. With almost 100k followers on Instagram – she clearly has her work cut out for her.

“I think that pretty penmanship comes with being able to draw,” she says. “If you can convincingly depict a 3D object onto a 2D object (e.g. draw a sunflower on a piece of paper), you can write. It just takes a steady hand and some practice! I don’t use traditional calligraphy styles, though; I like making up styles as I go. Often I create new styles depending on the client and what I think will be best for their event.”

Her untraditional calligraphy styles have sure caught our attention!

The post Lindsey Bugbee is a Master In Calligraphy appeared first on TettyBetty.

“Within the field of typography, you have such a diverse range of professions and people doing different things,” said O’Brien in an interview with 99U Magazine.

“There’s a lot of type designers who are designing the fonts that we need to read efficiently. My work is more in this category of looking at words and thinking of them as art or bringing them into a picture as themselves. That can be to create a beautiful image or add new meaning to words – connecting people in a way that they might connect with illustration or art, as opposed to just the printed word.”

O’Brien’s calligraphy and detailed illustrations are featured in advertising campaigns, editorial publications, and large-scale murals around the world. She has also collaborated with global brands and publications including Apple, Google, Adobe, and The New York Times.

“I know a lot of designers who think you need to have a style so that people know you for that, but I think that, especially within typography and lettering, the restraints of the alphabet are enough,” said the artist. “I always wanted to show a different range of skills and styles within what I do, so that people were not pigeonholing me into one particular style.”

Check out some of her eye-popping designs in the gallery below.

The post Gemma O’Brien’s Typography Art Bursts with Details appeared first on TettyBetty.

According to Black, his passion for both design and typography sparked early on, when he was a young boy obsessed with soccer. “I was so fascinated with the design around the beautiful game such as colorful football shirts, team badges, football boots, and TV commercials and programs,” he recalled in an interview with Talenthouse. “This all contributed to my curiosity in design and made me wonder how things like that were made.”

His strengths lie in his ability to cross disciplines without restricting himself to one exclusive style. This versatility has also offered him the opportunity to work on a varied mix of collaborations with local and international clients of all business backgrounds. His more personal work has equally been successful, exhibited in cities like London, Barcelona, Australia, and Dubai.

His pieces begin with some sketching, in which he explores different directions. “Once I find the best direction, I begin the lettering stage by drawing each letterform,” he notes. “This is an iterative process that includes several stages of refinement by illustrating, erasing, tracing, rinse and repeat. Once I’ve taken the concept as far as I can by hand, I scan the image and begin the digitization process.”

See some of the finished results in the gallery below.

The post Making a Statement: The Typography Art of Craig Black appeared first on TettyBetty.

Yoshida practices what she preaches. A member of the Society for Calligraphy in Southern California, she has studied from master calligraphers and has taken many classes and workshops to improve her skills.

“After attending various workshops and conferences, the best takeaway is that calligraphy is a life-long learning experience,” she writes on her website. “There are students who are already very skilled, yet still very humble and want to learn from the best. I find that extremely inspiring. I am a perpetual student and truly believe we should never stop learning to improve our craft. I have learned so much, but I have a lifetime’s worth of studying to go.”

A graphic designer by day and a calligraphy enthusiast by night, she stresses that there’s nothing wrong with being self-taught, but that at least for her, mastering her craft meant going to the source. Scrolling through her Instagram page might inspire you to do just that.

The post If At First You Don’t Succeed, Write, Write Again appeared first on TettyBetty.

“As a kid, I was into hip hop culture,” he relayed in a candid interview with Art Radar. “Graffiti was the natural medium for me to express myself in an artistic way. It became more and more a case of [me finding my] identity and reconnecting with my Arabic roots.”

A mixture of graffiti art and Arabic calligraphy, his artwork can be found all across the globe, anywhere from the façade of L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the favelas of Rio di Janeiro to the DMZ in between North and South Korea and the heart of Cairo’s garbage collectors neighborhood.

Born in 1981 in Paris to Tunisian parents, he utilizes Arabic calligraphy as a way to build a bridge between his French and Tunisian backgrounds. “I mix graffiti, which is a ‘western’ medium (although I don’t like to use this term) and Arabic calligraphy, which is an ancient eastern way of expression,” he says. “I think that’s the power of calligraphy and art in general. [They] bring two worlds together and link them. That’s why I feel that my work speaks for me.”

Follow his thought-provoking work on Instagram.

The post EL Seed’s Calligraphy Art Promotes a Message of Peace appeared first on TettyBetty.

“The Calligrafuturism is my self-developed style,” explained Lampas in an interview with the Fendi blog. “We’re all living in a multi-cultural world and if I can help people to learn more about foreign calligraphy, they’ll learn more about other countries. So that’s why Calligrafuturism is so important for me, I don’t want to make something new just because I’m crazy, I want to create it because I can see a very big knowledge and that’s why I’m doing it.”

According to Lampas, being a “Calligraffiti Ambassador” is a great way to create art non-stop. “Now I can easily take a big bucket of paint and perform my art everywhere,” he says. “On walls, on glass, on cars!”. Lampas knows what he’s talking about. In 2015, he performed the first world’s largest calligraffiti on the roof of a building in Moscow – an artwork that can be seen from Google Earth.

He admits he’s always on the lookout for the next best surface to work on. “Of course, I prefer something smooth, but it depends on the material and the tools,” he says. “So, if I could find something very nice to work on outside this earth, it would probably be the moon. That would be my favorite surface!”

In the meanwhile, check out his Earthly creations.

The post This Graffiti Artist Constantly Pushes the Envelope appeared first on TettyBetty.

“There are a few different ways of doing it,” says Mackenzie-Gray. “You can draw a design, print it up on acetate, project it onto the wall, trace it onto wrapping paper, and then use the pounce, (or pounce-wheel), running it over the design perforates the paper, and then use a chalk pad. You put your design on the wall where you want it, bang the chalk pad through, take the paper off and you’ve got a dotted line. A lot of these methods are hundreds of years old; things haven’t changed much at all.”

After graduating with a degree in graphic design at LCC, with a focus on typography, Mackenzie-Gray took a leap of faith and opened his business, Toucan Signs. His intuition seemed to have proved correct. Working both digitally and by hand, his signs can be seen at Honest Burgers and the Museum of London, with his painting surfaces varying to include brick walls, gloss, shop faces, and glass.

But you can also follow his creative thought process on his Instagram page:

The post Commission This Typography Expert to Upgrade Your Storefront appeared first on TettyBetty.

Having come to lettering in 2015, calligraphy came quite naturally to Fitzmaurice and after managing to hone her craft in a relatively short time she now shares her tips and tricks with others online.

A full-time elementary teacher and mother, Fitzmaurice says that lettering has given her life the balance it needed through some busy and tough times. “It is amazing how adding just a few hours of a hobby for yourself can make you a better, all-around more effective person,” she told Surely Simple. “I feel like I am currently the best wife, mom, and teacher I have ever been and I think much of that is allowing myself to take part in an activity that uses my creativity, relaxes me, and brings me constant joy and inspiration.”

Her toolbox includes pointed pens, gouache, Tombow brush pens, and watercolor brushes. “My favorite way to explore new styles is to pick up a pencil or brush pen and just start writing,” she says. “Yes, there are tons of inspiring people on Instagram and it’s ok to find things that you like in others’ work, but the best way to find your own style is to put down the phone, get out the pens, and just practice until you find what you love.”

What are you waiting for? Get a pen and paper!

The post You Don’t Need More Than a Pen and a Paper to Improve Your Lettering Skills appeared first on TettyBetty.

Born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan, Yamaguchi has been trained under Master Zuiho Sato since at the age of 6. As a small child, she loved drawing, writing stories, and anything to do with paper, paints, pencils, pens, and using her hands. She was also drawn to nature and enjoyed exploring the woods, hiking in the mountains, walking into the river, and playing with snow.

“Around 5-6 years old, I made a series of picture books with my illustrations and my little fantasy stories; about this bear exploring the forest, flying on the cloud, traveling around the world,” she shared with The Design Kids. “I remember bringing the book I made to the calligraphy school and showing it to Master Sato. My childhood dream was to become a novel writer.”

Currently based in Berkeley, California, Yamaguchi is celebrated for her calligraphy art which she performs and exhibits in galleries, museums, universities, and festivals in the United States, across Europe, and in Japan.

Watching her go is a mesmerizing experience, granted.

The post Aoi Yamaguchi’s Calligraphy Is Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Seen appeared first on TettyBetty.

“The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word,” he told Lettering Daily. “I could spend hours looking for a good one. Since I have the phrase or word I start to make the sketches in different styles, after having chosen the best one I proceed to do it with a marker, brush or directly digital on a tablet. Finally, I place the lettering on a photo or image.”

“​I think the strokes are a very important element in order to create a nice lettering piece, also the thickness and kerning are very important,” he adds, talking about his techniques. “Sometimes I have the same mistakes, I usually see different works of great artists to have a better idea of how to do it and that’s how I improve my work!”

Influenced by his background in graffiti, his lettering art looks as though it’s actually popping out of the screen. Check it out for yourself:

The post David Milan Takes Calligraphy Art to the Next Level appeared first on TettyBetty.

Growing up in rural Kansas, calligrapher Lindsey Bugbee had to find creative ways to keep busy. That was when she discovered her knack for art. “I discovered that making art was a great way to have fun,” she recalled in an interview with Sweet Meadow. “My mother didn’t mind letting me draw or paint on certain walls, and we had a sand driveway that I could make line drawings in after it rained. My grandmother used to color and paint with me, and I remember watching her and thinking, ‘I wish I could keep inside the lines like that!’”

Now, years later and based in Boulder, Colorado, where she shares a home with her husband and baby boy, she treats art as a career. A full-time calligraphy artist and teacher, Bugbee has mastered the art of lettering and passes it on to her many fans. With almost 100k followers on Instagram – she clearly has her work cut out for her.

“I think that pretty penmanship comes with being able to draw,” she says. “If you can convincingly depict a 3D object onto a 2D object (e.g. draw a sunflower on a piece of paper), you can write. It just takes a steady hand and some practice! I don’t use traditional calligraphy styles, though; I like making up styles as I go. Often I create new styles depending on the client and what I think will be best for their event.”

Her untraditional calligraphy styles have sure caught our attention!

The post Lindsey Bugbee is a Master In Calligraphy appeared first on TettyBetty.

“Within the field of typography, you have such a diverse range of professions and people doing different things,” said O’Brien in an interview with 99U Magazine.

“There’s a lot of type designers who are designing the fonts that we need to read efficiently. My work is more in this category of looking at words and thinking of them as art or bringing them into a picture as themselves. That can be to create a beautiful image or add new meaning to words – connecting people in a way that they might connect with illustration or art, as opposed to just the printed word.”

O’Brien’s calligraphy and detailed illustrations are featured in advertising campaigns, editorial publications, and large-scale murals around the world. She has also collaborated with global brands and publications including Apple, Google, Adobe, and The New York Times.

“I know a lot of designers who think you need to have a style so that people know you for that, but I think that, especially within typography and lettering, the restraints of the alphabet are enough,” said the artist. “I always wanted to show a different range of skills and styles within what I do, so that people were not pigeonholing me into one particular style.”

Check out some of her eye-popping designs in the gallery below.

The post Gemma O’Brien’s Typography Art Bursts with Details appeared first on TettyBetty.