What I like about book title design is the variety of skills I get to use. It's not just about pens and brushes and lettering techniques.  Each genre of book requires a different expression of historical era and a feel for the part of popular (or elite) culture the book lives in. These examples of book title and author typography are all based on traditional historical letterforms.

"Juliet" is Humanist, with a flourish. Alexandra Ripley's "Love Divine" is a very condensed and stylized version of Uncial. "The Lost Recipe for Happiness" is a nostalgic mix of small caps with ornamental italic accents. "Nelson's Trafalgar" incorporates a hand-drawn cartouche with a script that is more font than calligraphy, although it is completely hand-lettered.

 

The childrens' and fantasy genre books below draw from historical sources also, but with subtle differences. Each cover treatment should look unique to the author, and the typography and hand-lettering become important parts of the author and series brand. "Babe" is done with a calligraphy pen on rough paper, which gives it a soft look that goes with the sweetness of the cover colors and the rounded animal shapes. "The Knight" started as calligraphic Roman Caps but was then inked and given a more retro-typographic feeling, enhanced by the outline. The bolder serifs give it a masculine and heroic feeling echoed in the illustration.

 

 

Additional samples of the Uncial style showing how differently it can be expressed. For Brian Jaques (yes, you can fall in love with a mouse!) the ornamental serifs and quirky curves go with Martin the Warrior's character and mimic the ornamental border. "Son of the Sword" is closest to a purely historical Uncial of any of these titles, done with an edged pen on rough paper. The Uncial d is one of my favorite letters of all time.

 

Hand lettering and hand lettered typography © Iskra Johnson

See my book jacket portfolio at www.iskradesign.com