Typography as we know it has taken on many different shapes in our lifetimes: we've cast them into metal, cut them out of woodblocks, painted them across awnings and signs, and scrawled them onto our most personal letters.

A workshop on Mexican sign painting with a Mexican flavor and tradition. Along with getting to know the basics of the trade, we will create a sign on the fabric, a very popular and affordable method that allows for a more controlled brush contact. We will experiment with themes, composition and colors that are typical of the traditional style.

During three intensive sessions we will be working on exploration, transformation and customization of different classic calligraphic alphabets from past centuries, seeking their reinterpretation in a new and current context.

Requirements

• Calligraphic nibs 0.5mm and 3mm
• Flat brush, 1cm and 3cm
• Letter and tabloid sketching paper
• Indian ink for calligraphy
• Scissors

Level

Intermediate. This workshop is aimed at the preference of people with basic knowledge in calligraphy and letters.

In this workshop we will explore the fundamentals of the true “brush lettering”, that is, we will make lettering with a brush considering valuable type design aspects such as expression, style, composition, rhythm and balance between negative-positive space. We will use the brush not as a final finishing tool, but as a mean of sketching and exploration.

We will work very similar to the way sign-painters or lettering artists do, through a sketching and adjustment process until we reach a final piece where the brush was the main source of personality and originality.