As a graphic designer, I feel it is important to practice passionately in your own free time as well as design professionally for a living. My passionate practice usually takes the form of lettering or typography and from time-to-time I’ll take a class or workshop to help me further my skills. Last weekend I was lucky enough to score a place in a class at WorkShop in Redfern run by amazing Australian Typographer Luke Lucas.

Workshop Image2

Workshop image1

I’ve been admiring Luke’s work since university when I would read and collect LifeLounge magazine, so to have a chance to learn from him was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. And I wasn’t disappointed.

To start, Luke talked us through his work progress and gave us an overview of how he approaches designing a type piece and what techniques he employs in his craft. He made a point to mention that the three most important factors to consider in any typography work are:

  1. Who is your Audience?
  2. Where is the piece being used? and
  3. The Hierarchy of the information or words.

Other interesting tid-bits I took away from the class include:

  • Lettering is a wonderful way to express meaning on a deeper level than just what the words say
  • Use known design cues to help express meaning/qualities, such as props, gestures, different materials etc.
  • Lighting effects are a great way to add depth to your design
  • Consider using a mix of ‘everything’ (type, illustration and photography) in a lettering piece.

 

Luke then showed the class how to achieve some of his recognisable techniques including ribbon effects, “toothpaste” type and constellation lettering in Photoshop and Illustrator. It was a great class, and I got to meet some really nice people who also love type.

You can check out Luke’s work on his Behance profile.

Emma