Hand Lettering
A short instruction book of about 16 printed pages by M. Chappell, published in 1912 by the Chappell Art School of Oklahoma City for students of commercial art. The introduction argues that lettering makes up over half of commercial art and pays soonest, because advertisers now use hand-lettered headings to catch the eye and keep type for the description.
What it is
A short instruction book of about 16 printed pages by M. Chappell, published in 1912 by the Chappell Art School of Oklahoma City for students of commercial art. The introduction argues that lettering makes up over half of commercial art and pays soonest, because advertisers now use hand-lettered headings to catch the eye and keep type for the description. Short sections cover block letters and their Gothic and Roman families, layout between pencil guide lines, spacing by equal areas of white rather than equal gaps, width ratios for each letter, optical corrections, shading at 45 degrees, a script of the author's own built on a 60-degree grid, Old English, symmetrical designs traced and flipped, and marking drawings for zinc etching or half-tone. It ends with six sample customer orders, from a trunk company signature to a trade mark for 'Kargol' and a spring-water label.
Why read it now
The spacing rule still holds: judge the white area between letters by eye, set round letters such as C, G, O and Q a little closer, set open letters such as A, L, T and V closest, and never trust equal mechanical gaps. Type designers still space and kern by this optical logic, and uneven spacing remains the most common flaw in amateur logos and headlines. The optical corrections hold too: round letters must run past the guide lines, and horizontal strokes must be thinner to look equal. The claim that hand lettering is becoming the advertiser's main voice has dated; phototype and then digital fonts reversed it within decades. So has the production advice on zinc etchings and tint plates. The note on clients is still sound: customers rarely give full instructions, so get what you can and show the pencil sketch before inking. Use: before approving any wordmark or Latin-letter headline, check the spacing as areas of white, and show the client a rough before any finished art.
Passages worth keeping
It will bring one the earliest financial returns, as it takes only a limited amount of study to produce work of commercial value
رسم الحروف أسرع طريق للكسب لطالب الفن التجاري، لأن قدرًا محدودًا من الدراسة يكفي لإنتاج عمل قابل للبيع.
The simplest way to govern the letter spacing is to place your letters in your line so that the blank or open space between each separate letter is near the same size in area
التباعد الصحيح يعني أن تتساوى مساحة الفراغ بين كل حرفين، لا أن تتساوى المسافة المقيسة بينهما.
Train your eye so you can govern the area of the blank spaces between letters, as mechanical means cannot be successfully applied for this purpose.
العين المدرّبة هي أداة ضبط التباعد، لأن القياس الآلي لا يعطي نتيجة متوازنة.
Don't try to crowd or make your lettering fit the design but make the design or illustration fit the lettering
الزخرفة والرسم في خدمة الكتابة، فلا تضغط النص ليناسب التصميم، بل صمّم حوله بما لا يضر بسهولة القراءة.
As a rule customers don't give all the instructions desired when ordering and you must use your own judgment and originality in making your drawing
العميل لا يقدّم عادة كل التفاصيل، فعلى المصمم أن يسأل قدر ما يستطيع، ثم يكمل الناقص بحسن تقديره.
What it teaches best
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