(3rd in a series)

Keep a lettering notebook. This is not rocket science; it is learning to notice pleasing letters and their forms and arrangements. When you come across a beautiful alphabet or just a small sample of beautiful letters, cut and paste, and add them to your lettering notebook. You might not have an example of a whole alphabet, but only a few words. That’s OK, save it. Your samples may include formal typography or hand-lettered calligraphy: whatever appeals to your eye and sense of design. Sometimes it’s not the letters themselves that catch your eye, but their arrangement on the page and to one another and the way they communicate a mood or idea. Save all these letters and arrangements in your lettering notebook. These notebooks can be used for practice in reproducing what you have found. They can also be used as idea-starters for other projects. And, if you have a lettering notebook that you are adding to regularly, it tends to put you in the observation mode – which is very good indeed.