GRAPHICS PATHWAY - CALLIGRAPHY & WINE LABELS

The art of calligraphy is a very traditional and historic form of mark making and goes back many hundreds of years. It is a very challenging technique to understand and may not be to everyone's taste however I believe that it takes just a bit of patience and a reasonable amount of practice to get satisfying results. The main aim of the task was to become familiar with the art of calligraphy making our own alphabets and signage using song lyrics, poetry and our names. I also discovered that the quality of the lettering relies heavily on the quality of your brush, a perfectly flat-headed brush provides the best results other brushes I find loose some of the calligraphic qualities. Below are some examples of my calligraphic alphabets.

My first ever Calligraphic alphabet using black ink and a flat-headed brush.

Over time I became more confident with the brush and the ink
and began to start creating some alternative typefaces using the
edges and flat sides of the brush. I was also inspired by the
appearance of ancient Chinese writing mixed with some
graffiti style fonts.

After becoming familiar with the aesthetics of the brush and ink, I expanded my mark making to words and phrases from poetry to my own name, this really pushed me and at first I struggled but with time I managed to create completed phrases. I was particularly drawn to the 'Prince of Persia' title because of its calligraphic qualities therefore I decided to make a study of my own. Following this I experimented with question and exclamation marks, letters and then numbers in a different way. In addition I enjoyed experimenting with writing my name and changing around the fonts which was easily done because of the varied shape of the brush.

The 'Prince of Persia' title and some other forms of calligraphic experimentation.

Trying out different ways to write out my name using the calligraphic style of the brush which allowed me to vary the outcome.

Following this we moved on to creating wine labels in the calligraphic style. I thought about different types of wines, where they come from in relation to countries/regions and naming them. I instantly thought about french wines such as champagne. 

This is my final wine label design.

Images - Author's Own 13/11/13