Lettering: Playbill
The definition of playbill is "...basically for your
'old-timey' style and includes Western and circus-style lettering"
(McDevitt, 40). In other words, playbill is simply a form of illustrative
lettering, commonly seen with bright, eye-catching colors (red, orange, yellow,etc.). Typically, you
would find playbill being used for advertisements in places like carnivals, circuses, etc. (example from the book below).
Playbill, for some reason, was really hard
for me to get right. I've never been more frustrated and had so many drafts before. I kept changing the details of the words so that it would match playbill's style, but I just couldn't achieve the look I was going for. After an afternoon of overwhelming myself, I decided to look through Mary Kate's book to see if there were any techniques I could use to help me. There was one in particular that completely changed the way I designed my artwork: "Use hierarchy to emphasize the important words....Play with different styles for the serifs: they are often exaggerated, so don't be timid" (42).
After reading that quote, I slightly changed the first word to match playbill's
distinctive look, which consists of matching different styles, such as sans
serif, script, and serif (40). I added a banner to "of the" so it would add more of a carnival look. Hierarchy is when you stack certain words on top of each other which allows you to work more and use more lettering styles. I used this technique by putting "Best" on the top and bottom with "of the" in the middle. About 6 tries later, I finally got the look
right.
I was really pleased with the finished work, but after completing it, I realized how easy it was for me to get worked up about how my art looks. I've never been so overwhelmed with lettering because drawing words is always so stress-free for me. At what point do you think you start to get frustrated with yourself when you're learning something new? How do you allow yourself to be less stressed?
Citation - McDevitt, Mary Kate. Hand-Lettering Ledger. Chronicle Books, 2014.
Hi Ubah! I think that your lettering looks really, really cool! I am so impressed that you were able to do that! I really like this style and I can definitely see how you incorporated circus lettering styles into this piece, even down to the colors. I have an aunt who takes online classes of this sort and she tried to teach me how to do a cursive style font, but it was definitely difficult and I could not do it as perfectly as she could. I think that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself if things aren't turning out as perfect as the book and because what you ended up with looks really great! When I get frustrated with learning something new, I just sometimes have to put it down and walk away. Then when I come back later, I'm not so frustrated and can make much more rational and clear decisions. Is this the hardest font you've done so far or the one you've been most frustrated with? Do you use special markers for these lettering projects?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Claire! I'm glad you liked this drawing! I didn't know you could take online classes to learn these techniques, that's pretty cool. Sometimes, I also have to let myself walk away from what I'm doing but it doesn't always work. This font is the hardest font I've tried from the book so far, but I've learned new techniques for lettering and for myself. To answer your last question, I used colored sharpies that came with about 36 colors per pack. There are special colored markers you could find at craft stores to use on these kinds of drawings, but if you don't want to buy those you could just use normal markers.
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