Aug 5, 2015 | Brush Calligraphy, Popular portfolios, Recent Posts
Brush lettering is a process, spontaneous, and alive. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. Practice makes perfect.
If you are looking for a unique style of lettering for a logo or other project it can be helpful to know how the work is made, because the tool influences the character of the letters. Some of my portfolios mix styles in sets that show work for particular uses, like packaging or greeting cards. The latest addition to my portfolios is pure brush lettering, to give a clear idea of how that technique is distinct from others. Here are a few samples. You can visit the complete portfolio here.
Freestyle brush lettering influenced by graffiti.
Direct brush script with texture. Spontaneous and un-retouched.
Bold brush lettering with an added background.
And lastly, there’s the irresistible drama of how human beings try to communicate in our technological age. Perhaps you know someone who can relate to this:
“Remember me?”
New brush lettering portfolio, © Iskra Design
Aug 3, 2015 | Brush Calligraphy, New Work, Recent Posts
Lately I have been feeling like a wholly-owned subsidiary of my phone. It helps sometimes to put the situation in clear black and white and stare the facts in the face.
My Life, My Phone. Better Living Through Letterforms. © Iskra
More soon. I am working on a new portfolio of brush lettering that will cover everything from branding for frozen food to the human condition. (Hmmm, my sentence diagramming is rusty and I’m not sure if that sentence implies I’m “branding the human condition.” Would that be grandiose? Oh wait, it’s already been done, and here are some wonderful quotes on the subject from Debbie Millman’s book page. I especially like this phrase: “Branding is a process of meaning manufacture. . . .” – Grant McCracken.)
Jul 8, 2015 | New Work, Recent Posts
The New Website for Iskra Design is Live!
Greetings Letterlovers! I am proud to announce the launch of my new website. It is fully responsive, so that if you are truly obsessed with lettering and calligraphy you can look at my portfolios and my blog about all things letterform on your phone, in the bathtub, or whereever. Please note that if you follow my work from links on Pinterest that my blog has moved. Old links to Alphabet Roadtrip (anything with “typepad” in the address) will not work after six months. So please bookmark the new Alphabet Roadtrip for sharing.
My new website takes you on a tour of custom lettering design and calligraphy with many in-depth portfolio collections. Using the navigation at the top you can see collections focused on Expressive Lettering, Calligraphy, Hand-lettered Typography, Handwriting, Icons and Illustrations. All work is custom, one-of-a-kind, and created for clients or as portfolio explorations. Looking ahead I will be developing new sections of my site focused on text and quotations. I will also be blogging more about type and lettering design in popular culture, as personal exploration, and in the social media marketplace.
I hope you will enjoy my website, like it, love it, and share it with your friends!
Jul 8, 2015 | Brush Calligraphy, Calligraphy, New Work, Popular portfolios, Recent Posts
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.
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Jun 10, 2015 | Found Alphabets & Street Poetry, Recent Posts
Numeral Composition 1 © Iskra Design
Sometimes a project comes along that allows me to blend my fine art background in printmaking with graphic design. The cover illustration for GIA Reader was a wonderful opportunity to mix it up between media. The brief was very open: use the numerals 25, to indicate the 25th year celebration of the organization. Make it beautiful and make it art. (Please, more art directors like Tommer Peterson!) When you have a wholistic and adventurous thinker/creator as your partner in crime it makes for great synergy. See the complete project and process here.
Designer, calligrapher, lettering artist. 