Lettering for fine texts
Jens Wulsten has 20 years of publishing experience and now writes fine texts on his own. For his new start as a freelance copywriter, I designed a lettering logo for him.
Often a logotype requires extensive stylistic research, but in this case the direction was clear from the start: it was going to be a combination of a connected script and block letters.
Project
logotype for the copywriter Jens Wulsten and his label »Die Feintexterei«
Work done
concept, custom lettering, digitization
Format
vector
Year
2021
Client
Jens Wulsten
From concept to vector file
The first round of sketches
Although the direction was clear, I sketched many variations to work out the details. This is only a selection of the sketches, but they show: even relatively small changes can greatly alter the expression of letterforms.
A script with strong constrast in stroke weight on slanted baseline. The angular shapes and the bow above the »u« are inspired by Sütterlin script. I rendered the subline in a narrow sans serif with some stroke width contrast.
Round shapes with low contrast in stroke width, lowercase italics in the subline.
Angular shapes once again with less of a line weight contrast; the subline in a geometric sans serif, Futura style.
The a very fine script, with low stroke width and an interesting combination of pointed and rounded shapes. The underline just as light.
The second round of sketches
In the second round, I kept the basic shape of the script and the subline, but tweaked the stroke width and some of the letterforms.
Slight line width and low contrast, this was once again about the shape of the »s«.
Drawn bolder with a somewhat idiosyncratic n-s connection in the first name and an s-t-e ligature on the last name.
Bold once again, but with a round top-heavy »s«: the top arch larger than the bottom.
The digital form
Before I redrew the design with vectors to digitized it, we discarded the slanted base line and put the name on a horizontal base line instead. This makes the logotype easier to use.
Putting as few vector dots as possible in the right place–digitizing requires an eagle eye and angel patience.
Corrections on paper in different sizes because the screen makes you blind to the operation.
Finally, at last, after very very many clicks: the finalized lettering logo!
Finishing off with a business card mockup, so that Jens can really imagine how his logotype will look in use.
