Hand Drawn Lettering and the artists behind the trend

Thank you forever stamps by Dana Tanamachi

Traditional sign making in small communities has been has been popular throughout time. Illustrated typography has become its own field within graphic design with many talented lettering artists emerging. Being able to hand letter is a good skill to have as a graphic designer. However to be able to be a good hand letterist you have to understand the fundamentals of typography. Here are my top 5 favourite lettering artists

Mary Kate McDevitt

Mary Kate McDevitt has been hand lettering since 2010. She is known for her fun, colourful, whimsical and vintage style. She has worked for clients such as Target and Sesame Street. You can view her work on her website along with her books which act as hand lettering worksheets to follow along and help you improve your own hand lettering skills.

Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische first became popular on instagram where she created a series of posts called “Daily drop caps” where she illustrated single letters beautifully and shared them on her social media from as early as 2009. She has since worked on book covers for penguin books publishers. She also does a lot of commission work for clients such as Royal Mail for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday and globe magazine.

Ruth Rowland

Ruth Rowland is a hand lettering artist, calligrapher, map maker and illustrator based in London. After completing her Bachelors degree in Illustration her love for letterforms led her to complete a masters degree in hand drawn lettering, calligraphy and experimental typography at Central St Martins School of Art, London. Since then she has worked on many projects creating unique hand drawn lettering for books, magazines and advertising. She has worked with clients such as Starbucks, Cosmopolitan and Pilot Pens.

Dana Tanamachi

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer who specialises in custom typography, illustration and large scale murals. Based in New York City her artwork brings energy to any canvas. She has worked with a number of clients including Google, Target and Nike. Her work has also been featured on the cover of TIME and The Oprah Magazine. Dana takes inspiration from past art movements such art art deco, art nouveau and the Victorian era. She is also inspired by all different types of medium such as woodwork, ceramics, stained glass and also traditional Japanese and Mexican crafts from her families culture.

Becca Courtice

Becca Courtice is a Canadian based Calligrapher and hand drawn letter artist. She has a real passion for all things calligraphy. Starting in 2015 whilst looking to escape the corporate world Becca took an evening workshop on modern calligraphy. She fell in love with it and got so good she started to teach calligraphy. She now teaches over 100,000 online students everything about calligraphy from the basics to how to price their work. She shares her work on her social media and has gained nearly half a million followers. Becca as part of her teaching sells workbooks on her website that take you through different aspects of calligraphy. Becca’s work is everything from small and dainty to big and beautiful she really is a master of all trades when it comes to calligraphy.