Firstly, can you introduce yourself and what you do please?

My name is Ian and I’m a hand-lettering artist, which roughly means I make a living from drawing letters. A lot of my time is spent teaching and entertaining people through short videos on Instagram and YouTube, and I also run an online store where I sell digital resources that help people to get better at hand lettering. I do a little bit of type design, workshops and talking about typography.

How did you get into lettering?

It was back in 2012 when my second child was born. In the evenings while my wife was feeding our son, she chose to watch the Downton Abbey box set. Because I’m not a period drama fan, I decided to do something else and randomly chose to learn calligraphy (meaning ‘beautiful writing’) in that time I had free in the evenings. Learning this opened up a whole new world of lettering and typography, which I then spent months and months practising and posting my pieces on Instagram.

Do you have a favourite piece of work that you have created?

A piece I did with a quote from B.B. King (pictured) about learning was a turning point in my lettering journey. This took it from being just a hobby to getting a decently paid job after years and years of practising these skills. It also got me featured on quite a few blogs and art feeds and is a quote that I still really love to this day.

Do you have a ‘lesson learned’ that you’ll never forget?

When you're first learning calligraphy and lettering it's hard to notice the gradual improvements, so use something like Instagram to catalogue your progress. Being able to look back over your work will keep you motivated when you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere.

Could you briefly explain to us your process from blank page to finished piece?

It usually follows this four-step process:

1 Get inspired…

2 Start rough, start small…

Even though most of my work is produced on the iPad, I always start with a pencil and paper first. This stops me from getting distracted by all the cool tools I have at my disposal.

3 Redraw & refine…

Once I’ve chosen the idea that seems to work the best for the quote, I open up Procreate on the iPad and get to work recreating the thumbnail I’ve chosen, getting the layout and the position of the letters where I want them.

4 Share it…

Whatever piece of lettering I’ve done, be it a quote or custom piece for a company, I post it online.

What are the three lettering tools you could not live without?

Currently my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. It’s like being able to carry around every pen, pencil, brush and paintpot all in one place. Other than that I can’t live without my Tombow Fudenosuke Calligraphy Brush Pen and just a simple pencil and paper, so I can jot quick ideas down on the go.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT IAN

www.ianbarnard.co