Alphabet Road Trip | the blog of Iskra Design

Category: Hand Lettered Quotations & Calligraphy

Some Experimental Lettering from Coffee Town, Inspired by Balzac

Jan 20, 2014 | Experimental Lettering, Hand Lettered Quotations & Calligraphy

A few years ago I worked on a project for Starbucks with a creative art director who wanted to try something different for a poster design: something with a bohemian flair. He handed me a scribble of a face and a cup on a napkin and said, “go wild.” Ahhhh the golden days of illustration before royalty free pre-fab dingbats had taken over every square inch of the graphic imagination! I drew about fifty faces for the poster, which went into deep focus group and never came back. Later I went back to revisit it as a personal project.

I came across this truly odd quote from Balzac, the original Parisian cool-guy. (How whould he know if somebody was “spiritual” or not? This is the writer who horrified the good ladies of River City in The Music Man with his scandalous prose. Who does he think he is? And how did they translate from the French and come up with the word “grocery store?”) This doesn’t seem right to me. But just because it is so odd, I decided to work with it, in one of my favorite brush styles, “Bohemian Conversational Medium.”*  The face could be Balzac as he imagines he is, or any self-reflective hipster of today, thinking under the influence, at one of our infinite coffee shops.

 

CoffeeQuotationByBalzacBrushCalligraphy

 

CoffeeThinkerBrushDrawing

Coffee Thinker

BalzacQuotation

 BalzacQuoteAboutCoffee

Abstract-writing-Text

ExperimentalHandLettering

CoffeeInspirationDesign

Experimental writing and illustration using a variety of textures and techniques. Copy and artwork © 2014 Iskra Design.

* No, this is not a font. But it is available as a commissioned style of handwriting. See more examples of expressive handwriting and calligraphy in the portfolios above.

Inspirational Quote of the Day: The Doubt Sandwich

Oct 1, 2013 | Calligraphic Illustration, Hand Lettered Quotations & Calligraphy

Doubt Sandwich quote by Amy Sillman, expressive calligraphy by Iskra

 

This Sunday the New York Times had a wonderful interview with artist Amy Sillman. When you are trying to do a creative project that has you on the edge there is no way to really conquer doubt. Her advice is beautifully practical: just manage it. And eat it.

Yes, for those wondering, I did try this in the shape of a sandwich, with lettuce and tomato. It seemed very silly. I settled on a solution that shows the sandwich inside one’s mind. I chose a style bordering on ugly, in keeping with the opening line of the interview:

“I don’t care about beauty at all,” said Ms. Sillman, who is forthright and friendly, offering some cool watermelon chunks to a visitor. “Not one tiny bit. In fact, I don’t like it. I’m interested more in ugliness.”

Go here to see more calligrams.

ee cummings modern manuscript study

Jun 24, 2013 | Calligraphy, Hand Lettered Quotations & Calligraphy

Eecummings calligraphy quote, Teach disappearing also me, by iskra

poem by ee cummings, calligraphy by iskra

 

Every calligrapher needs a poem they can live with, and this is my all time favorite,  useful in pretty much any circumstance. I write it as a warm-up or use it as an element in image exploration frequently. This time around I have chosen the background texture of a dumpster, which as far as I can tell may become our most enduring form of manuscript in an era when everything is intangible and subject to the whim of a corrupted storage device. The best dumpster texts are written by the fenders of trucks, in alleys, when no one is watching. It’s a form of industrial graffiti with no discernable message. But should I be roaming the alleys looking for a night’s lodging, I think I would be very happy to find this message.

I am experimenting with some other typographic solutions that are more embedded, as if actually glued and ripped. This one is a purely mark-based idea, to see if a style of formal pen calligraphy can mix with other marks that aren’t intentional or based in a known alphabet.