Brush lettering workshop at GDC Saskatchewan South
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We are thrilled to be partnering with GDC Saskatchewan South Chapter to offer our brush lettering workshop in Regina on February 11, 2017.
Details and sign up here:
Brush Lettering Basics Workshop
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We're excited to announce our ever popular Brush Lettering Workshop, hosted by Toronto letterers Kyle Gallant, Christopher Rouleau, and Veronica Wong.
Join us on Saturday, July 16 to learn the basics of Brush lettering. Our workshop will cover everything you need to know to get started with brush lettering. We help students learn the fundamentals of the English alphabet, working through basic strokes, and advancing to uppercase and lower case letterforms, as well as work construction.
Students receive a selection of our favourite brush lettering instruments, along with tips and tricks on how to get the most out of them. Students are encouraged to experiment and ask plenty of questions so they can get the most out of the equipment and our experience.
Space is limited and fills quickly. Sign up early to avoid disappointment.
Ligatures Toronto Brush Lettering Workshop Recap
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On the weekend of March 12, 2016, Ligatures gathered at Shopify in Toronto to share the basics of brush lettering to two groups of eager students. We were super excited to announce our newest instructor Veronica Wong, who joined Christopher and Kyle in teaching our weekend workshops.
Our lettering workshops cover everything you need to get started with brush lettering. Using our Ligatures lettering workbook, we helped students learn the most crucial brush form to practice in lettering: strokes! Once everyone was comfortable writing "rows of picket fences", we dove into the uppercase brush lettering alphabet.
Students receive a selection of our favourite brush lettering instruments, along with tips and tricks on how to get the most of them. Students are encouraged to experiment as they work through the class, but favourites were quickly found.
After everyone recharged over a lunch break, we offered a primer on lower case alphabets and script lettering. Then, we put their new skill to the test. Students were tasked with crafting word marks for brands and match lettering styles. We are always impressed with the progress folks make from the morning to the end of the day.
Thank you to Margot for the amazing photos, and Leslie for her support and social media savvy.
If you're interested in learning Brush Lettering in Toronto or anywhere else, please contact us with specifics or sign up for one of our lettering workshops today.
Recap: Better Béziers at hackerYou
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On Saturday, November 28, we held out first "Better Béziers" digitizing lettering workshop. The event was sponsored by hackerYou, who generously offered their space for the event. For this four-hour workshop, we reviewed our favourite tools and shortcuts for approaching digital lettering projects, and provided thorough demonstrations of point-by-point bézier construction, as well as how to make the most out of auto-trace. The latter half of the workshop was dedicated to one-on-one time with each participant, helping solve problems, apply their skills and create a finished piece. The best part was a group show & tell at the end of the day to showcase the amazing talents in the room.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for this workshop, and much thanks to Eva & Eunice at hackerYou for your support. If you'd like to participate in the next Better Béziers workshop, join the wait list on our Workshops page.
Workshop Announcement: Better Béziers: Digitizing Lettering
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We are excited to announce the details for our next workshop.
By popular demand, we are excited to hose our first ‘Better Béziers: Digitizing Lettering Workshop’. The event will be held Saturday, November 28 from 12pm-4pm at hackerYou (483 Queen St W, Toronto, 3rd floor).
The day will be hosted by local letterers (and Ligatures co-founders) Kyle Gallant & Christopher Rouleau. Kyle is a multi-faceted designer, skilled in calligraphy, expressive lettering, and even graffiti. He is a self-described “compulsive doodler” and passionate about all things type. Christopher is a freelance graphic designer & letterer, with a love for alphabets, antique lettering guides and old hand-lettered signs. He is comfortable working in a variety of media, including pen, chalk, acrylic, ink… the list goes on.
Check out more of their recent work on Instagram:
http://instagram.com/eckstatic | http://instagram.com/chris_rouleau
After the popularity of Kyle & Christopher’s brush pen workshops in Toronto and Calgary, they have pooled together their skills, knowledge and resources to put together a 4-hour tutorial on the fundamentals of digital lettering to take your work from the page to the screen – and beyond.
Pre-requisites: - Ligatures brush pen workshop (suggested) - basic working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator
Requirements: - laptop - Adobe CS (CS5 or higher) - a Dropbox account (for file sharing) - scanned lettering work(s) you would like to digitize
Cost: The cost of this full-day workshop is $80 ($60 with valid student ID, presented on workshop day). This price includes digital exercises, handouts, course instruction, as well as access to personal books and resources. Space fills up quickly, so please sign up today.
Course plan: This 4-hour workshop will help budding letterers convert their lettering and calligraphy work into versatile vector files, perfect for all print and web uses. Half of the workshop will be dedicated to reviewing the digital toolkit (including the beloved pen tool), an overview of building beziers, and tips on making the most of Illustrator’s auto-trace, with plenty of demos and exercises. The latter half of the workshop will be allocated for one-on-one time with the instructors to ask questions and perfect your work. Participants will leave the workshop with at least one completed vector file, and the skills to continue their digital lettering journey.
We look forward to bringing your talents together, sharing knowledge with one another, and creating some new brush pen work work! Thank you to hackerYou for sponsoring this event.
Meeting Nº 25: Brush Lettering Workshop Recap
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After the success of our spring brush lettering workshop, the Ligatures team organized a summer workshop. Taught by Toronto letterers Kyle Gallant and Christopher Rouleau, the workshop focused on building the proper techniques associated with brush lettering. Participants were given all of the tools and resources to get them practicing with this particular style of classic lettering.
The Saturday workshop sold out in a matter of days, so a second date was added due to high demand. Both workshops were full of fun and eager people of all different skill levels. It was amazing to see a vast array of people participating.
The morning was spent working on the basic stroke techniques and becoming comfortable with all of the tools. Once the stroke exercises were complete, instructors Kyle and Chris lead the class in constructing casual uppercase letters.
After lunch and a bit more practice, participants moved onto lowercase lettering and began putting together basic letter combinations. Students are always encouraged to hold off on writing words right away and focus on stroke consistency and letterform construction. The rest of the afternoon was spent with different lettering exercises that put all their practice to the test.
The workshops were a massive success! It was amazing to meet so many new people and reconnect with others. The success of the workshop couldn't have been done without the help of Veronica Wong, and the generosity of Shopify for allowing us to use their beautiful space.
The Ligatures team has been in discussions to host an intermediate lettering course, which would focus on taking drawn letters and bringing them onto the screen. Stay tuned for more information on this, and please contact us if you like to get on the waiting list.
We are also working on a way to bring you our workshop book and tools, which would be available in our online shop for purchase.
Again, big thanks to all of you that participated and looking forward to organizing another lettering workshop shortly!
Meeting Nº 25: Learn brush lettering
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UPDATE: both workshops are 100% sold out. Please contact us to get on the wait list or to be notified of future workshops.
We are excited to announce the details for our next brush pen workshop.
Back by popular demand, the event will be held Saturday, August 8 & Sunday, August 8 from 10am - 5pm at Shopify (80 Spadina Avenue, 4th floor). The workshop will run 10am - 1pm, break for lunch (not provided), and resume from 2pm - 5pm.
The day will be hosted by local letterers (and Ligatures co-founders) Kyle Gallant & Christopher Rouleau. Kyle is a multi-faceted designer, skilled in calligraphy, expressive lettering, and even graffiti. He is a self-described “compulsive doodler” and passionate about all things type. Christopher is a freelance graphic designer & letterer, with a love for alphabets, antique lettering guides and old hand-lettered signs. He is comfortable working in a variety of media, including pen, chalk, acrylic, ink… the list goes on. Christopher also co-instructed a Ligatures lino printing workshop in the spring. Check out more of their recent work on Instagram: http://instagram.com/eckstatic http://instagram.com/chris_rouleau
Kyle & Christopher recently hosted a special workshop at Uppercase Magazine in Calgary, sponsored by GDC Alberta South Chapter. Check out the recaps here and here. They have pooled together their skills, knowledge and resources to put together a 6-hour tutorial on the fundamentals of brush lettering. All skill levels welcome!
Cost:
The cost of this full-day workshop is $120. This price includes a workbook, handouts, and the supplies you will need for the workshop, all of which you get to take home at the end of the day. Included in your kit: -5 types of brush pens -2 pads of paper (tracing & layout) -the official Ligatures workbook and handouts -access to any additional tools you might need (pencils, rulers, tape, grid paper) as well as some experimental lettering tools & books from our personal collections.
Payment:
Our March workshop sold out in 2 days, so please sign up early! Please contact us if interested; an email will follow with payment instructions: ligatures.yyz@gmail.com
Registration closes on Monday, August 3.
We look forward to bringing your talents together, sharing knowledge with one another, and creating some new brush pen work work!
Thank you to Shopify for sponsoring this event.
UPDATE: both workshops are 100% sold out. Please contact us to get on the wait list or to be notified of future workshops.
Recap: Brush pen workshop at GDC Alberta South
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Sunday, July 12th marked our first out-of-province brush lettering workshop. Chris and I headed to Calgary to teach a group of YYC creatives how to draw letters with a brush pen. The event was sponsored by GDC South Alberta, and the venue was generously provided by Uppercase Magazine. The space is inspiring, stock full of old colourful typewriters, amazing posters, and tidbits from recent issues (including some amazing calligraphy & sign painting!)
Each of the students received our official Ligatures workshop booklet, tracing paper, sketch book, and 5 brush pens. Uppercase kindly donated the newest issue and a small sketch book as well! After some introductions, students began practicing how to control the brush by working through a series of line exercises. Everyone tried out each of the pens as they worked – folks seemed to favour the Faber-Castell and Sharpie Brush Marker.
Once everyone started making the basic strokes look easy, we moved onto letterform construction. We've introduced a new addition to the course plan: our overlay workbook. Printed on velum, this booklet shows how each stroke of the uppercase alphabet is overlaid to create each form. As the students worked through the uppercase letters, Chris and I gave demos of any forms that people were finding difficult. It was fun to hear people's favourite pens change as the day progressed. This group was very receptive, and was able to keep their stroke consistent while exploring their own style.
After lunch, we moved onto the lowercase alphabet, expanding on the strokes that were quickly committing to muscle memory. This section focuses more on how to control the pressure and angel of the brush. Once everyone was feeling confident, we played a few rounds of style matching. We gave students examples of old letter forms from the 50’s and 60’s to examine and replicate, getting a feel for the flow of different styles.
After 8 hours of lettering, we could tell people were beginning to feel worn out (don't let anyone telling you making letters all day isn't hardwork!) We gathered everyone around while Chris and I both gave demo's on composition and refining your work. Chris showed everyone how to use tracing paper overlays to work out compositional issues, and I showed how using a pencil guide can speed up refinement. Janine was nice enough to let us use her computer for a quick tutorial on digitizing work.
Apart from the workshop, Chris and I spent a lot of time walking around the city. Since Chris called Calgary home for so long, he was an amazing tour guide. We walked all over downtown, spying amazing new and old signage around the city. We happened to be in town during the Calgary Stampede as well, which meant there was even more to look at. It seemed like every building we passed had western-themed cartoons & lettering painted on the windows – the quality of the work was great!
We'd like to thank our amazing class for being so eager to learn. Thanks also to Spencer of the GDC Alberta South chapter for all of his help in the weeks leading up to the workshop, as well as set-up on the Sunday morning. Big thanks to Janine for offering her space and copies of her magazine, and the amazing recap & video on the Uppercase blog.
Never heard of Uppercase? It's an impeccably-designed magazine about things that spark the imagination and inspire. The photography is fresh and the articles are always worth reading. You’ll love it! For $15 off subscriptions/renewals, use code "ligaturesyyz" when you're ready to check out.
If you're interested in bringing the Ligatures lettering workshop to your city, please contact us through the site or email: ligatures.yyz@gmail.com.
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Brush pen workshop at GDC Alberta South
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GDC Alberta South welcomes Toronto letterers Kyle Gallant & Christopher Rouleau for a one-day intensive on the basics of brush pen lettering. In addition to learning the fundamentals of letterform construction, participants will also learn tips & tricks for composition, as well as how to digitize your work. The workshop offers creative enrichment and helps participants with all backgrounds – beginners & novice letterers – develop their own unique lettering style, which can then be applied into their future artistic endeavours, at work and beyond.
This is a full-day workshop will be held Sunday, July 12 from 9am – 5pm at Uppercase in the Devinish building (908 – 17th Avenue SW, Suite 201 B, Calgary, AB). There will be a one hour break for lunch.
ABOUT
Kyle is a multi-faceted designer, skilled in calligraphy, expressive lettering, and even graffiti. He is a self-described “compulsive doodler” and passionate about all things type. He has co-instructed several brush pen workshops with Christopher in Toronto, include a special workshop at the agency Sid Lee.
Christopher is a freelance graphic designer & letterer, with a love for alphabets, antique lettering guides and old hand-lettered signs. He is comfortable working in a variety of media, including pen, chalk, paint & ink. Christopher has taught workshops in Calgary, and also co-instructed his first workshop with Type Camp in New York City this past May.
Kyle & Christopher co-founded Ligatures, a Toronto-based typography interest group, in the fall of 2013. Since the club’s inception, they have hosted almost 2 dozen public events, ranging from film screenings, lectures, draft & draws, type walks, as well as their first curated gallery show, Swash & Serif, last October.
Check out their recent work on Instagram:
http://instagram.com/eckstatic
http://instagram.com/chris_rouleau
DETAILS
The cost of this full-day workshop is $165. This price includes a workbook and the supplies you will need for the workshop, all of which you get to take home at the end of the day. Included in your kit:
-5 types of brush pens
-2 pads of paper (tracing & layout)
-our Ligatures workshop booklet, filled with lettering techniques & a variety of lettering guides & samples
-access to any additional tools you might need (pencils, rulers, tape, grid paper) as well as some experimental lettering tools from our personal collections
Check out recaps of their past workshops here:
http://www.ligatures.ca/blog/category/workshops/
Limited space available! Please register by Friday, July 3 here.
Whitney Public School Lettering Workshop
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Last week, the Ligatures team had the opportunity to teach lettering to a very enthusiastic grade 6 class at Whitney Public School in Toronto. As you may know, cursive handwriting has been removed from some curriculums and most of the younger generation's development is spent learning through the keyboard or tablet. Governments in both Ontario and Quebec have pulled cursive as a learning expectation and other provinces are following suit. With all that in mind, Ligatures co-founders Christopher & Leslie created a fun and interactive day that introduced these keen, young participants to traditional hand-lettering.
We spent the first half of the morning working on basic letter structure using the Crayola Brush Pen markers and our Ligatures tracing guides. With the lettering building blocks in place, the kids moved forward to using paint and brushes. The kids seemed to enjoy this transition and noted the difference in working with an actual paint brush.
As part of the preparation for the day, each student was asked to prepare a short 2-word quote that would be used as their final piece. The latter half of the afternoon was spent practicing the words from their quotes and creating colourful backgrounds for their final pieces. Although some kids were anxious to move forward and work on their final piece, some took the time to ensure that they had mastered their lettering. It was a great exercise in planning & composition.
What an amazing and rewarding day! Every student was so talented, creative & keen to learn from us and explore new ways of writing. A huge THANK-YOU to Ms. Diniz and her wonderful grade 6 students. Keep up the great work!
If you'd be interested in having the Ligatures team come into your classroom, please feel free to email us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com and we'd be happy to discuss further.
Meeting Nº 22: Marquee Letter Workshop Recap
/When the Ligatures team was working on the Swash & Serif type exhibition last year, we constructed the logo out of cardboard and created beautiful 3D lettering. It's success gave us the idea to run a workshop on marquee lettering and illustrate how easy and simple they are to make!
Despite it being the long weekend, a wonderful group of participants joined us at Shopify to create their own marquee letters. All the tools were provided and people dove right in!
Thank-you to those that came out to our workshop this afternoon. I think I can speak for the whole Ligatures team when I say it was a fun and exciting afternoon. We're really looking forward to seeing the final letters/characters so please share them online (Twitter / Instagram) and tag us (#ligaturesyyz). We'd love to see the final products!
If you're looking to add lights to these letters, DeSerres has a few options available and you can check them out here. If you're looking for more vintage lights, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, or Michaels are other options. When looking for lights, ensure that they are indoor safe and have a battery pack that you can tuck away. Depending on the strand that you purchase, measure, mark, and cut points to which you can push the light through. Make sure that you're working with a sharp knife as this will help with cutting out the smaller holes. If you have any questions or concerns about this step, please feel free to e-mail us and we'll get back to you.
For future reference, you can purchase rolled corrugated cardboard from Rotblotts and any art store will carry larger sheets of cardboard.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Meeting Nº 20: Brush Lettering Workshop
/After much success with our brush lettering workshop back in July 2014, the Ligatures team offered its first full-day workshops this past March, hosted by Toronto letterers Christopher Rouleau and Kyle Gallant.
The participants started with the basics, learning the fundamental strokes that make up brush letterforms with our new & improved lettering course book (retail version coming soon to our shop!) There was an opportunity to try out all the different brushes that were provided: Tombow, Faber-Castell, Pentel, Copic Wide, and the Sharpie Brush. As people found their favourite tools, and got comfortable holding the pen, the construction of letterforms began.
After a thorough review of the basics, Chris and Kyle led the group into developing classic upper case letterforms with the strokes learned.
The afternoon portion of the class explored the lowercase alphabet, with short letter combinations. Both Chris and Kyle had encouraged the students to hold off on writing words until the basics were covered. Slowly but surely, they eased into word construction and the results were stunning.
We also had several exercises, including matching a style, and fictional branding exercises. The talent in the room was incredible!
At the end of the day, it was amazing to see how far everyone had come in their brush lettering. In just 7 hours, people had discovered which tool they were suited for, and began developing their personal style.
On behalf of the Ligatures team, I'd like to thank Veronica Wong and Shopify for allowing us to use their wonderful space. The open air concept and natural light couldn't have made for a better learning space. Thank you to all of those that participated in this event - it was a big step for the team and we were grateful for the warm reception. We can't wait to do it again.
If you're interested in working with Ligatures for future workshops at your agency or office, please contact us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com and we'll be happy to discuss options.
Meeting Nº 19: Calligraphy Workshop Recap
/Last weekend, a lovely group of people gathered at Coach House for a blackletter calligraphy workshop, hosted by the talented Kevin King. Located on the second floor of the building, the Coach House library provided a creative space for those interested in learning the history of the style, and experimenting different forms of tools for the lettering. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce the blackletter script, which is a "distinct style of calligraphy most noted for its dense texture and very vertical rhythm," (Kevin King).
Kevin provided the tools (including some very interesting bamboo styluses) and a workbook. Throughout the course of the workshop, Kevin guided the participants through a number of different techniques, including the construction of each letterform. With Kevin's tidbits of fun facts & anecdotes, it made for a very educational afternoon.
A big thank-you to Kevin for his time and wonderful teaching skills and toCoach House for lending its creative space.
Meeting Nº 20: Learn Brush Lettering UPDATED
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UPDATED: Saturday, March 7: Both workshops are sold out! Please contact us if you would like to be place on the wait list, or would like to hear about future workshops.
We are excited to announce the details for our next brush pen workshop.
The event will be held Saturday, March 28 + Sunday March 29 from 10am - 5pm at Shopify (80 Spadina Avenue, 4th floor). The workshop will run 10am - 1pm, break for lunch (not provided), and resume from 2pm - 5pm.
*PLEASE NOTE: The Saturday workshop is 100% at capacity, and only a few spots remain for the Sunday workshop.*
The day will be hosted by local letterers (and Ligatures co-founders) Kyle Gallant & Christopher Rouleau. Kyle is a multi-faceted designer, skilled in calligraphy, expressive lettering, and even graffiti. He is a self-described “compulsive doodler” and passionate about all things type. Christopher is a freelance graphic designer & letterer, with a love for alphabets, antique lettering guides and old hand-lettered signs. He is comfortable working in a variety of media, including pen, chalk, acrylic, ink… the list goes on. Christopher also co-instructed a Ligatures lino printing workshop in the spring. Check out more of their recent work on Instagram: http://instagram.com/eckstatic http://instagram.com/chris_rouleau
Kyle & Christopher have pooled together their skills, knowledge and resources to put together a 6-hour tutorial on the fundamentals of brush lettering. All skill levels welcome!
Cost:
The cost of this full-day workshop is $95. This price includes a workbook and the supplies you will need for the workshop, all of which you get to take home at the end of the day. Included in your kit: -5 types of brush pens -2 pads of paper (tracing & layout) -our workshop booklet, filled with lettering techniques & a variety of lettering guides & samples -access to any additional tools you might need (pencils, rulers, tape, grid paper) as well as some experimental lettering tools from our personal collections.
Payment:
Saturday's workshop sold out in 3 days, and Sunday's workshop will sell out quickly, so please sign up early! Please RSVP here no later than Friday, March 13. An email will follow with payment instructions.
We look forward to bringing your talents together, sharing knowledge with one another, and creating some new brush pen work work!
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Thank you to Shopify for sponsoring this event.
Brush pen workshop at Sid Lee
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Ligatures was recently invited to teach a 4-week brush pen workshop to the creative team at the award-winning agency Sid Lee. Over the four 3-hour sessions, instructors Kyle Gallant and Christopher Rouleau reviewed foundational brush pen techniques, the construction of letterforms, the basics of lettering composition, and the fundamentals of polishing and digitizing finished work. All participants at Sid Lee's Toronto office were supplies with paper, pens, ink & brushes to explore the exciting world of brush lettering.
Special thanks to Sarah and the entire Sid Lee Toronto team for their enthusiasm and hospitality, and for the lovely hand-lettered thank you card (above).
Do you want to bring Ligatures brush pen workshops to your agency or organization? Please get in touch!