Prince Edward County
/Typographic treats in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Meeting Nº 25: Brush Lettering Workshop Recap
/
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
/
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
/
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.
[vimeo id="133470097"]
Meeting Nº 24: Type on Tap Recap
/Last week, Ligatures organized, "Type on Tap," a creative hangout for those font-loving individuals. The team secured a lovely back patio at O'Grady's, which was conducive to mixing and mingling. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet some new people as well as seeing old members.
We lined the tables with kraft paper and spread out some fun tools to play with and test out. With drinks in hand, people got right into decorating the tables with different forms of lettering. Kyle was always around to help and share techniques.
We had a wide array of new members, not all in the design field, which was amazing. It was amazing to hear the different stories from all these people and their intrigue with typography.
We always encourage our members to put forth ideas that they may have about future Ligatures events. If you know of another venue that may be able to support a future, "Type on Tap," let us know! It's fun to kick back and talk type, especially if it's another warm, sunny day!
The Ligatures team has a number of great events coming up in the next few months. Stay tuned for more information about our Brush Lettering Workshop (August), Movie Screening and Lecture (September), and Swash & Serif, our Toronto collective type show in October.
Heritage Park
/
Fantastic typographic treasure at Heritage Park in Calgary, Alberta. Thanks to Janine at Uppercase for the excellent tour!
#INKdoc Contest
/
At our Spring Show & Tell, we had the opportunity to get a sneak peak into Ryan Couldrey's new doc, INK.
Film Synopsis: Not long ago, handwriting was taken for granted as something anyone could generally do well. Today, children are taught how to type on tablets - putting pen to paper is an afterthought. INK follows Tanja Tizania - a freelance photographer in Toronto, Ontario - and her journey to rediscover the written word.
[vimeo id="132785867" align="center"]
To celebrate INK's release, Ligatures and Ryan have teamed up to create a fun contest. After watching the film, answer, "What bottle of ink did Tanja shop for at Wonderpens?" The winner will receive a bottle of that particular ink as well as a DVD copy of SNOW - Ryan's feature film based off of the graphic novel. The contest will run from Tuesday, July 7th until 11:59 pm on July 13th. E-mail your answers to ryancouldrey+inkcontest@gmail.com!
Brush pen workshop at GDC Alberta South
/
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.
Meeting Nº 23: The Type Attack Recap!
/https://vimeo.com/131556748 June 18th marked our inaugural “Type Attack!”, a head-to-head tournament-style battle for typographic supremacy. The stage was set and the battle were lines drawn: twelve creatives were poised to doodle their way to victory and the Type Attack trophies! These epic battles took place at Critical Mass in Toronto.
The matches consisted of a randomly selected letter that the two participants had to create in 3-5 minutes in their own personal style. To fuel the creative fire, each round of the tournament drawing time was shortened, until the final one-minute battle for the grand prize.
Prizes included “Just My Type” donated by Leslie Harrod, a vintage lettering guide donated by Benita Aalto, and four sets of Parallel pens, gratefully donated by the amazing folks at Wonder Pens.
The energy of the crowd was intense and electric. The creativity of each fighter was apparent: Mark Serrano flicking ink on the page, Veronica Wong using fire (literally flames – no joke), and Kiel Perchinig using tape and ribbon all to create beautiful and inventive letterforms. At the bottom of the post are all the letters that were created throughout the night.
Everyone fought valiantly, but there could only be three finalists. It was a close match for third place between Jesse and Veronica, but in the end, Veronica vanquished Jesse with her flourished script “P”. The nail biting ‘ampersand’ final was between Brandon Gore and Kiel Perchinig. You could see the pressure in this round – hands were shaking, sweat was dripping, the seconds passed too quickly. In the end, Brandon was crowned the first ever Type Attack champion!
We’d like to thank the competitors for signing up (without knowing any of the rules beforehand!), everyone that came out in support, and Leslie, Benita and Wonder Pens for donating such amazing prizes for our contestants.
We are already planning our next Type Attack event, so if you’re interested, please sign up for our newsletter and be the first to know. Who knows – it could be you that holds up the first place trophy next time!
#100in1day
/
This past weekend, Ligatures was invited to participate in #100in1day. From their website:
What if hundreds of people united, each taking one small action to improve their city, all on the same day? 100In1Day is a global festival of civic engagement returning to Toronto for its second year on June 6, 2015. Imagine the possibilities for our city if hundreds of people united to participate in small initiatives to spark change. Share your vision for a better city.
We gathered in Forest Hill Village neighbourhood bright and early on Saturday morning to help Suzanne Long revitalize Bilton Laneway & community garden. Along with doing a bit of cleaning & weeding, Kyle & Christopher created a few hand-painted signs for the exciting new space. Check out some photos below.
Thanks Suzanne for this great opportunity! We look forward to helping out more this summer!
Whitney Public School Lettering Workshop
/
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.
Type Attack!
/
On Thursday, June 18th, we will be holding our inaugural “Type Attack!”, a head-to-head tournament-style battle for typographic supremacy. Prepare yourself for the typographic event of the year!
Each match, we will randomly select one letter, and two participants will have three minutes to furiously doodle their best glyph (in the style/material of your choice). After a snap vote by our panel of judges, the winners will advance to the next round. Winning participants will continue to advance from match to match, and move closer to the final duel. Prizes will be awarded to the top letterer, runner-up, as well as other fun categories.
Participation in the tournament is not mandatory to attend the event. Space will be limited. If you are are interested competing (all skill levels welcome!) please email us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com
RSVP for the event here.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre yoooooooooooou reaaaaaaaaaady to RUMBLE?
Christie Antique Show
/
Amazing lettering specimens at the Christie Antique Show in Dundas, Ontario this weekend.
Don't miss the next show in September!
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!
Hand Lettering & Calligraphy Demo with Anthony Trask
/
Calligrapher, lettering artist and graphic designer Anthony Trask will be offering FREE demos of his work on Saturday, May 23 at 11am & 2pm at 401 Richmond St. W.
Find his table on the basement floor of 401 (near Swipe & Spacing), accessible from the new eastern entrance to the building on Richmond.
Don't miss it!