Whether you're a graphic designer an artist future architecture student or someone who's
just interested in bullet journaling, architectural letter forms are among the clearest handwritten
styles that you can learn.
So in this video I'm going to teach you how to write like an architect and you'll learn
all the stylistic hallmarks so be sure to grab the free PDF download that I have linked
up in the cards and the description down below that'll help you get started in developing
your own architectural lettering style.
There's just a couple of things you need no triangles or anything no special tools the
only special thing you might want to pick up is a roll of tracing paper.
So architects use this in the studio all the time it's translucent so you can trace over
things and what we do is we layer this upon layer and create sketches that are different
iterations of design ideas works great for practicing your lettering because it's translucent
so you can layer it over the lettering worksheet that I've created and you can download these
for free check the link in the cards and the description below and that has some blank
sheets and also sheets that have some of the letter forms written out for you so you can
trace over them so the important part about the media that you use is that it's very smooth
that's going to be allow you to create the letter forms very easily.
The nice thing about using the trace and the layout sheet here the lettering worksheet
is you don't have to go and create the guides yourself more traditionally you may have to
go and strike out guidelines on your page and that may be true if you're doing this
on another piece of paper or something that's not translucent.
So we've got our media worked out second thing you need to pay attention to is the pen that
you're going to be using or pencil you can use a mechanical pencil this has a little
bit more friction to it so I wouldn't suggest starting here.
If you're using trace the best combination I've found is the Sharpie Ultrafine point
this is a felt-tip pen you can also use a Pilot Razor, a Copic Multiliner any felt tip
pen will do.
Great thing about this is that it just has the right amount of drag on the page it's
not too sticky so it'll be easier for you to write with it.
Let's talk about the hallmarks of the style first thing is proportion it wants to roughly
be a square proportion so as wide as it is tall the endpoints of your letter form should
overlap just slightly and this allows you to be not only create a more precise letter
form but also it allows you to move more quickly as you get up to speed and you get more practice
with this overlapping those edges will allow you to just move more quickly.
Last thing we can talk about is how the horizontals have a slight uptick to them and we'll talk
about each letter form individually but you can see it's about as wide as it is tall and
we're working to overlap here.
When you're practicing these letters and we get onto the B here we have you are going
to start with the vertical strokes first and then move to the horizontal so vertical and
you'll notice here this is a sort of squashed ellipse that forms the top part of the B and
the bottom part is a little bit wider again that square proportion and you'll notice that
they fit into a family of forms so that looks like a P it could also be an R we're using
it to form our B so you want to be thinking about these letters as part of a family of
forms okay and work to achieve legibility, consistency, and clarity.
The C form is more of a squashed ellipse that you don't finish so they almost meet and it's
almost like it has some directionality to it.
The D is a vertical stroke a little bit of a horizontal and then down to the baseline,
keeping that square proportion.
The E and F are very similar, vertical stroke, horizontal, always have a slight uptick.
Now with the E, I like the top stroke to be short the middle stroke to be the longest
and then the bottom stroke to be slightly shorter than that.
Keeping with our family of forms the F very similar to the E whatever you choose to do
with the E do with the F. The G is a C with an arrow, C is a tricky one.
The H you have some decisions to make either the H the cross is in the top third of the
H or it's in the bottom third, so see which you prefer.
The I can also be confused with the one that's fairly straightforward I don't draw the I
and the one differently some people draw the one with a little tick on the top because
when I'm drawing ones I'm usually drawing one foot four inches something like that so
it makes sense I'd never mistake this for an I. J is a vertical with a hook this hook
is very similar to the angle on the D. The K again is a top third down to the base line,
vertical, top third, down to the base line.
The L is going to be very similar to the U and as you write this faster you'll probably
just hook around the corner as opposed to doing two separate strokes but it's good to
get used to doing two separate strokes.
The M, I form by coming all the way down to the base line some people stop short of it
this is one of the widest letters.
The N is not quite square that's another one of those ones it's not quite as wide as the
M. The O is our ellipse.
P is the first part of the B, some people make the P like this more horizontally configured
that's fine you'd do the same for the B if you chose to do that.
The Q is our ellipse with a foot.
The R starts as a P here again you may see other styles that go for more horizontal treatment
here, up to you.
The S can be tricky and I go really slowly on the S when I'm learning, keep it nice and
wide, even proportions.
The T, slight uptick on the horizontal.
The U is like an L with a vertical.
V is like you're a without the crossbar.
The W is similar to an M but the vertical is canted very slightly.
The X, nice and broad make sure to hit the baseline that first one there it was not hitting
the baseline.
The Y we're hitting in the upper third so it's like a flattened V and then the Z you
can choose to add the crosspiece or not.
Briefly talking about numbers, one is easy you can add the tick at the top or not.
Two is a big arc short horizontal.
Three you want to keep the upper ellipse clipped ellipse in the upper third, four we come down
to the lower third, five is a short vertical stroke large arc that shouldn't come back
to the vertical and then a short horizontal, you see how that has some directional axis
there.
Six is like a C and you loop back to the baseline, the seven we impart that slight angle again
I don't use the cross hash mark but you can.
Eight again in the upper third with that top ellipse and the nine you have two options
the one that I do is almost like a P - a mirrored P - the other option is to do an inverted
six I just find that slower to make.
Best way to practice numbers using your numbers is in dimension strings so if you have an
actual sketch or a drawing come into that drawing and start putting some dimension strings
so you can practice kerning the numbers.
That's in practice how you'll be using these typically on sketches.
So one of the best reference books, and this is from my days in school, this is by Frank
Ching Architectural Graphics this is a fantastic reference book and he actually he hand letters
this entire book the whole thing is just done in his handwriting so it's it's great for
learning graphic conventions but it's also an excellent reference standard for architectural
hand lettering forms and you can use these to trace over and copy he's got a really beautiful
style so you can look at his numbers and his alphabet, I'll link this one up in the cards
so you can find it on Amazon.
So now that we have the computer and access to any font we could possibly want why even
bother investing the time it takes to learn how to letter by hand?
Well they say handwriting is autobiography and I think it's so true as visual communicators
whether you're an architect an artist, graphic designer, student I think it's important that
you understand how handwriting forms your personal visual style.
This is just a means of communicating your ideas to other people whether you're in a
client meeting or you're sketching in your sketchbook or you have a personal journal
I think developing a handwriting style that's neat, legible, and consistent is important
. So, good luck!
Practice, practice, practice.