Brush Calligraphy for Packaging
I went shopping today for a Christmas party. Very nice to see these on the shelf! I love working with food identities, especially when they are this sweet. Smooth brush calligraphy, with some typographic twists.
Alphabet Road Trip | the blog of Iskra Design
Category: Calligraphy
Studio Life: Iskra Calligraphy Design Studio
Oh the Seattle summer! It is completely delicious. This is my first August in the new studio, with room to make serious messes and try all the techniques I’ve always wanted to but didn’t have quite enough space. Now I can splatter and scrape and splash and throw things on the floor until all I can see is letters as far as the horizon.
My calligraphy studio workspace: room to breathe, lots of light.
The Beloved A. Best letter in the alphabet….right up there with R, Q, L? A big sumie brush and some velvety Teton text paper with Moon Palace ink from Paper & Ink Arts.
Working in dappled light from the maple tree outside the window, trying a subtle street-style twist with brush calligraphy for a coffee brand.
Why write something once when you can write it dozens of times until it is perfect? Casual felt pen calligraphy for a headline project. Repetition, rhythm, the music of writing.
For more quick glimpses of Iskra Calligraphy Design Studio check out Iskra Design on Instagram. Work in progress, alphabetic epiphanies, and the random brush stroke that gives me chills. And to give that Moon Palace Ink a try visit Paper & Ink Arts.
O, Twitter, how could I have missed it? New brush lettering from Iskra Design.
I am here to say that I have succumbed, and am sacrificing my last remaining braincells on the altar of Twitter, The Place Where Everybody Is. How could I have missed this essential part of modern life? With all due humility, there is a lot of wonder here, and I like this party. I especially like that they won’t let me write a novel. I have had to download a bunch of thought-shortening apps.
While I’m at it, here are a few recent things from the studio. Brush lettering from the ’50’s for the Now’s.
Much as I love the easy fleeting strokes of synthetic brushes, I am beginning to swear off. I bought a set of the latest craze, Crayola, and realized it was non-refillable and wears out instantly — pure unadulterated landfill. It’s not a pleasant image: the great spinning unbiodegradable gyre of plastic that we now call the ocean, carrying my Crayola brush. Back to basics here, with environmental ethics baked in whenever possible. These examples are all done with a trusted horse-goat-weasel-whatever brush I’ve had for 15 years, made by master craftsmen in China, and it will last another 10 or 20 years. Then it will turn into dirt and mold and perhaps the hairs will be picked up by the wren for her nest, which is most excellent.
“Don’t make the ocean cry.” Pushing the borders of legibility here with some expressive environmental lettering. Reminder to self, — art that kills the planet isn’t worth making. © Iskra Design
Follow me, on twitter, sure why not? @IskraJohnson All artwork © Iskra Design
Contemporary Script Portfolio One: Calligraphy With Brush, Pen and Marker
This contemporary script portfolio shows work that has been created for a variety of clients for application in packaging, advertising and publishing. I blend years of training in Asian brush work with a love of typographic precision to create these letterforms. You could call my approach to modern calligraphy, Basho meets Hermann Zapf — not that I am anywhere near achieving the of mastery of these wizards! My goal is always to put the word first, and to use style to find the right voice for what is being expressed. This collection of work is created with brush, pen, and various other mark-making tools, scanned and vectorized for final reproduction when needed.
Calligraphy Explorations: Improvisation
“Improvisation” calligraphy with Japanese Brush © Iskra
I have been having a great time in the studio recently exploring new brushes, forgotten brushes, strange inks and archived papers —and exploring the connection between music and calligraphy. I think this was done while listening to tango, probably my favorite group for that, Gotan Project. Check out my my recent work on Instagram and see more of the process involved in lettering design.
About Iskra
Designer, calligrapher, lettering artist. Read more 