Hand-Lettering 101: Free Lettering Booklet for Beginners

Learn the essentials of hand-lettering and discover tips, tricks, and practice exercises to add character to your designs

Sending a message is always better when done with style. Lettering artist and type designer Mark van Leeuwen (@markvanleeuwn) believes that typography can take viewers on a visual and storytelling journey. But in order to make the most of your designs, it's important to first get to grips with the basics rules.

For example, what exactly is hand-lettering? What's the difference between typography, lettering, and calligraphy? And where should you start when drawing letterforms?

In the free PDF booklet below, Mark answers these questions and more as he introduces you to the basics of hand-lettering.

An expert when it comes to creating lettering that leaves an impression, over the past decade Mark has worked with independent clients, agencies, and several international businesses, creating logo designs, posters, murals, books, and album covers.

Inspired by type forms of the sixties and seventies, his work has been used by clients like Cadillac, Etsy, Apple Music, and DJ Tiësto. Before you launch into your own lettering projects, read on for tips to expand your lettering knowledge.

What's in the lettering basics booklet?

In the booklet, Mark starts by addressing an all-important question: what is hand lettering? Often the terms typography, lettering, and calligraphy get mixed up. These three are related but different disciplines and present rather substantial differences.

The guide also gives a brief overview of the most common typographic styles—Serif, Sans serif, and Connected Script—as well as sharing basic insights into type design principles and type anatomy terms.

Plus, Mark shares valuable tips, exercises, and visual references for drawing letterforms—for example, did you know the construction of all letters is based on three key shapes: the square, circle, and triangle? He also suggests ideas for experimenting with expressive lettering and more.

After clicking on the button below, you will find a .zip file in the Downloads folder on your computer containing Free Booklet on Lettering Basics, by Mark van Leeuwen.

This download will only be available until January 3, 2023. If you want to access the material after that date, you can sign up for Mark van Leeuwen’s course, Vintage Lettering: Custom Compositions From Scratch. In his course, you'll learn the fundamentals of typography to create an original typeform composition by hand and bring it to life in Procreate.

You may also like:

- 5 Tools to Design and Edit Hand-Drawn Fonts
- Procreate Tutorial: How to Create Your Own Alphabet
- 8 Must-Try Calligraphy and Lettering Apps for iPad
- 5 Inspirational Books for Lettering Artists
​​- Playful Hand-Lettering for Children’s Book Illustration, a course by Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn