The Craft Begins

I made this going away party invites for my aunt who is moving to Indianapolis.  It was the first time that I’ve ever used my gocco – I was kind of scared of it, but it’s so much fun!  That thing will print forever.  The little drawing of a house is actually of their new house in Indiana.

*bonus – you can get one of these custom made for yourself in my shop.

I just adore this letterpress studio.  I especially like the way that their designs so closely resemble the real-life event that they were created for.

I’d love to have them design an invitation someday.  In the meantime, they’ve got a great shop for your basic stationery needs as well.

I’ve always been attracted to other people’s handwriting.  Neat, messy, decorative, or just outright terrible, there’s something really appealing about it.  It’s said that you can tell a lot about someone’s personality by their penmanship, and I really think that’s true.  Fun fact: your handwriting is wired into your brain.  If you learned how to effectively write with your toes, your handwriting would be the same as it is now.  Mine looks sort of like my dad’s – I think it comes from all of those years of forging permission slips (not that they wouldn’t let me go on class trips, but I just was forgetful).  I think that beautifully calligraphy and script is just taking that notion to another level.

1.  Keith Morris manages to make his penmanship look like that of a machine.  It’s so precise and well thought out.  You can tell that he’s put years into perfecting his craft.

2.  I’ve always admired Jenna’s work.  You see it in all sorts of high-end magazines, catalogs and other publications, and for good reason.  I like it because I think it’s a bit more of an organic style; it looks like handwriting, but really, really amazing handwriting.

3.  John Stevens does very traditional work, but so beautiful.  The ornamentation is outstanding.  He does do invites and weddings, if you’re looking for something special for your big day.

4.  Ale Paul seems to have this lettering thing DOWN.  All sorts of lovely examples can be found at his flickr.

5.  A special shout-out for Stephanie DeArmond.  She did her masters at the University of Colorado at Boulder when I was there – I remember seeing her work at the MFA exhibition.  This is particularly important because a) it proves to me that it’s possible that artists can make it, I’ve seen it personally and b) something good can come out of their crap art program.  That aside, I like the way she’s taken the notion of calligraphy and turned it into something totally different.