Typography

Member lesson

Sign painting and vernacular lettering

Lesson 33 of 34 in Typography.

Hand-painted Vintage Designs | Golden West Sign Art - ARTEFFECTS · PBS Reno
Lesson

Most of the lettering in the world was never made by a type designer. Shop fronts, market stalls, lorries, barbers' shops and temples carry letters made by hand by people working in a local tradition, with a brush, a knife or a tin of enamel.

letteringdrawn for this word onlytypeone set · every word after
Lettering drawn once for one word, against type set from a repeatable alphabet.
A sign painter on a stepladder painting a decorative shop board, with paint tins, a decorated lorry and a market stall in the street behind.
A sign painter on a ladder brushes enamel onto a shopfront board. Most lettering in the world is made like this, by hand, in local styles shaped by the tool and the surface.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Letters made by people who were not trained as type designers.”

    • Tracking and kerning
    • Vernacular lettering
    • Leading
    • x-height
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A tradesperson who letters by hand, usually with a brush and a mahl stick.”

    • Sign painter
    • Readability
    • cpl
    • River
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A faded painted advertisement surviving on a wall.”

    • Cursive by nature
    • Libre
    • Ghost sign
    • Reserved font name

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