'The Little Book of Lettering & Word Design' by Cari Ferraro & John Stevens is a book that offers more than 50 tips and techniques for mastering a variety of stylish, elegant, and contemporary hand-written alphabets (as stated in the books sub-title).

The book starts with traditional calligraphy, followed by illuminate and colored lettering then hand-lettering. Along with lots of sample alphabets and tools and techniques, there are also practice pages and lettering projects.

This is a good lettering reference for learning and inspiration. There are a wide variety of styles and easy to follow pen strokes.

Thanks to #NetGalley for giving me the opportunity but it was archived before I could download and read, however it looked like a great book for beginners!

In this new series from Walter Foster Publishing, artists and art hobbyists alike will delight in learning a variety of fun and interesting art topics in a portable format boasting a fresh, contemporary design. Filled with open practice pages, creative exercises, and art prompts, The Little Book of Lettering & Word Design encourages interactivity for immediate results, while also teaching beginners the fundamentals of the featured medium in an engaging and fun way.

In The Little Book of Lettering & Word Design, aspiring artists will discover how to create a range of classic and contemporary calligraphy and hand-lettered fonts. Internationally acclaimed calligrapher John Stevens and other renowned hand-lettering artists lead the way with tips and techniques.

Following an introduction to inks, nibs, pens, and papers, as well as an overview of basic techniques, readers will learn dozens of original alphabets and lettering designs ranging from funky and fun, to elegant and embellished. Tips for adding personal touches to letters and designing personalized alphabets are also included!

With an alphabet and lettering design for every occasion and easy-to-follow instructions, this book is perfect for everyone who wants to create stunning handwriting and calligraphy.

Really liked it!

Very handy book with instructions on various lettering styles, supply lists, and project ideas. Great book for beginners with practice areas and tips.

Similar to the other lettering books I've read before in terms of basic instructions and tools. But this time it offers a wider variety on lettering techniques. I like that it offered different activities for each type of lettering and calligraphy technique. Another new thing that I like about it is that they help readers with composition when it comes to creating an entire piece of artwork with phrases rather than just single used words.

Fun activities and easy to follow step-by-step processes. A definite must-have book for beginners who are discovering which lettering techniques suits them best.

Informative and practical. I loved the practice pages! I am working on practicing my lettering and will get a copy for my classroom so that my students can too.

I’ve been pretty interested in learning hand lettering lately after watching many videos on YouTube where people decorate their planners. When I saw this eARC on Netgalley I knew I had to give it a go and see if I could actually begin to learn this beautiful art. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this book explained and showed you how to practice many different forms of hand lettering and calligraphy.

This is a very basic overview of handwriting and explains things in a very simple, easy to follow manner. I loved practicing on my own and feel like my lettering skills are definitely better than they ever were. Obviously there is a lot more improvement that could be made, but I found this a great start and will definitely be checking out more books in this series.

This would be a wonderful addition to helping you learn if you want to add pretty lettering to your planner, bullet journal, journal, or any other creative outlet you have.I absolutely loved how it gave tips on all sorts of lettering, fancy or fun. With more practice using this series of books I hope to come into my own form of hand lettering.

I love doing all kinds of crafts. One I have never really been able to do is to personalize some of the things I make. Because I have never learned how to write in fancy scripts. This book is awesome.



It shows a different type of script on each page and then there is a blank page for you too practice. It's is kind of like a penmanship book from kindergarten, Only you get fancy letters instead of plain old block style letters.



There is a section on showing the correct pens to use and how to load the inks. There are also tips throughout the book.



If you have an interest in Calligraphy this is the perfect book.



I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

I was able to read a digital ARC of this book through Net Galley. It's a nice little book and I like some elements of it, but I do not think I would purchase it at the suggested retail price ($14.99) for what I saw.

Pros:

Good information on the basics of lettering with lots of tools (pens, paintbrushes, etc.) and detailed information on loading ink, brush strokes, etc.

Includes some practice pages.

Some fun fonts to try to copy/master.

Some cool lettering projects to try to copy (like a watercolor piece with salt to create a starry night pattern, and then a quote lettered on top in white paint).

Cons:

The practice pages are double pages AFTER the double pages of new handwriting types. It's hard to tell in a digital copy, but it appears that the practice pages are on their own after the letters you're learning. How could you practice them without seeing them??? It would make much more sense to have a page of a font, then a blank practice page.

Most of the first half of the book is traditional lettering that I learned in grade school.

It's described in the title as "little" but I don't know if that means it's short or small in size. Again, it's hard to review a book of this type in digital format. But $15 is not a good price for a little book IMO.

This is a fun book that would be good for people just learning calligraphy and lettering. Personally, I would probably look for similar fonts on the net and just print them out, though. For the price, I'd expect somewhat more.

I’m a handlettering newbie and was eager to learn new things from this book. It is quite helpful, a good resource - it covers supply lists, different form styles, sample pages, and lettering projects. What I didn’t like about the book is it’s uninspiring. The cover is plain; the artworks are on the boring side. My interest is in modern calligraphy and typography. This book covers more the traditional, old-fashioned style.

With so many people having a renewed interest in hand lettering, journaling, etc., this little book comes at a good time. It talks about supplies, the differences in styles, the names of the stroke parts, and shows complete alphabets (YAY!!!!) in the styles that it covers.

I especially like that each alphabet shows the order of the strokes to be made for each letter, and there is a practice page opposite. I found it fun to try to replicate the various styles.

A good reference book to have on hand for anyone interesting in (or responsible for) lettering.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Walter Foster Publishing for allowing me to preview this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by this Little Book of Lettering and did not expect it to be so good and informative in such few pages. The structure of the book is simple and easy to follow as well. I like that it presents some traditional old styles, but also some contemporary ones and the introduction to tools and types of paper are quite useful even for someone who did typography in Uni.

I did not expect the chapters on Illuminated Lettering - it was new even for me as I didn’t get into decorative lettering at Uni. The decorating, borders and backgrounds were awesome too. And I also loved the creative hand-lettering and the advice to embrace mistakes - you are human, not a machine, and you can even event your own alphabet! The doodling exercises in the book are meant to push the reader into being very creative and imaginative, creating unique shapes and decorations or backgrounds for the letters and numbers in their composition.

I really like the theory in this book and probably my only complaint, which is not really a complaint, but also an advice for anyone who wants to get into typography is to ignore pretentious things about calling things majuscules and minuscules and styles instead of what we are used to - it’s okay to call them uppercase and lowercase letters and fonts. But the book doesn't make a big deal out of this, so it's not even a complaint.

The creative quotes in colors and typography is inspiring and quite trendy nowadays, so this book is a great companion to have. It also offers tips on digitizing your artwork and the bonus project which shows what someone who might not necessarily be into typography as art can use this skill for something practical like present tags. It’s a complete package!

I was unable to read this book due to an error with Adobe Digital Editions. I'm very disappointed that I wasn't able to look through all the fun hand lettering. Here is a screenshot of the problem I am having: https://imgur.com/8YMdcpi.jpg

I wasnt able to open the downloaded file for this book so cannot review it

As part of my recent interest in hand-lettering, I was happy to get the chance to read The Little Book of Lettering and Word Design. This book is an introduction to lettering, including supply lists and basic stroke marks. It covers traditional calligraphy, illuminated and colored letting, and creative hand-lettering. Also, the last section of the book contains several lettering projects to try out your newly acquired lettering skills. I love that the full alphabet is demonstrated for each style of lettering (complete with numbered brush strokes, pen holding angle, and nib selection) so that you can practice with confidence that you’re doing it correctly. I’m excited to use what I’ve learned from this book in my bullet journaling and in hand-lettered signs and cards.

I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.

This is a very handy book for anyone interested in lettering, with plenty of tips for the actual lettering, as well as tools used and how to practise. The book starts with a really helpful introduction as to what tools should be used, their uses, and the kinds of fonts you could expect to achieve with them. This offers a good grounding of basic knowledge before you start your lettering journey.

The book provides an alphabet on the left-hand page with explanation and tips to replicate it yourself, with the right-hand side dedicated to practising your own copy. I like that there is a good mix of traditional calligraphy styles alongside more modern and contemporary styles. The downside to this book is that the explanations on the actual techniques and how to achieve the strokes is quite limited, so I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: Wonderful beginning book

Check out author's other books? Yes
Recommend this book? Yes

Notes and Opinions: Since I started getting into bullet journaling I really wanted to get into lettering and word design. So when we got accepted for this one I was very delighted to check it out. This book gives a great over view of what to do to get started as well as for those just coming back to it. I would recommend this book to anyone who does or wants to do lettering. This book covers a ton of stuff from design, various styles, great directions, and even room to work in the book itself.

Go Into This One Knowing: Great overall book!

I am a huge fan of hand lettering, and have always wanted to know more about it. I've always heard that it was simply a skill you needed to learn, but I've always felt that it's more of a talent than something you could just learn. Today, this book proved me wrong. I took some time with this book, and grabbed some paper and a paintbrush and managed to do some alright hand lettering. I'm excited to spend some more time this weekend, after i pick up some better supplies, and give it another go. This how-to book on hand lettering was potentially a total game changer for my "Reading Bullet Journal"

I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book great ideas and instructions/examples of different lettering styles to use in your art.

This book is packed with a lot of tips for hand lettering. I especially like the part about calligraphy because I am a little intimidated by using ink and pens or brushes. The authors show how to hold the pens correctly for different effects and provide a variety of styles to practice on. Now, I want to buy a couple of pens to practice with. I also like Part III of the book, which gives step by step instructions on illuminating letters, all accompanied by color photographs. The letter styles shown in this book are all beautiful and I can imagine trying all of the projects at the end of the book.