At the Lettering Workshop

I enjoy travelling because it is a way for me to get to know new places, cultures and people. However, sometimes you do not have to go far to try something new and meet inspiring people. I consider myself a creative person, so I once again welcomed the offer from Creativelena to participate in a creative workshop. Already in the past, Elena and I cooked together: Cooking Workshop – A Symphony of Flavours and we also made our own souvenirs: Paint Your Own Souvenir from Vienna! The topic of this workshop was lettering.

I think that you have certainly come across the lettering on your travels or walks around your city – restaurants, cafes and bars like to display a board with the current offer in front of their entrance or in the window, while they often try to attract passers-by not only with the offer, but also by the beautiful font in which the offer is written. And that exactly is the lettering!

The history of lettering goes back to the times when merchants or hotel and restaurant owners had a sign painted on the facade of their buildings. You have certainly already encountered such signs on your travels.

Theresa Lichtenegger from Schriftenvielfalt is a lettering expert. She lives in the town of Horn in the Waldviertel region, less than an hour’s drive from Vienna. In the living room of her house, she organizes lettering classes. Actually, as soon as we entered her house, everywhere we saw pictures or cards with various thoughts and quotes, beautifully handwritten.

A box with a wonderfully written name was waiting for each of us on the table. When I opened the box, I suddenly remembered how much I loved going to the stationery store as a child. That used to be the most beautiful store for me – notepaper, notebooks, crayons, pens, watercolours, brushes, markers, coloured papers… I even liked the specific smell of that store. Maybe that is why even today when I write for my blog – like now – I first write everything on paper and only then copy it to the computer.

Theresa’s box contained a wide variety of tools for hand lettering from the Faber-Castell company. Several were completely new to me. I could not wait to try them!

We opened our workbooks. Theresa used the camera to show us how to write. Lettering is not calligraphy. In calligraphy, you use one and the same type of font decoratively. With lettering, you can combine different types of fonts, write one word in capital letters and other words in small letters, you can also decorate the written text with additional curves, dots, stylized flowers, etc.

The main principle is that some lines of the letters are thicker, which causes the decorative effect. It is the lines that you write from top to bottom. Lines written from the bottom up remain thin. And so, just like first graders, we filled the lines in our notebooks with letters. Then we even dared to write whole words. Although we had to concentrate, this activity was truly calming.

What caused me a bit of a problem was the specific holding of the brush pen – it must be held closer to the upper end. However, you can get used to it.

We tried different pens and different papers. I liked the brush pen that could be filled with water. The coloured areas could then be smeared with a drop of water and the picture looked like a watercolour.

The lunch break was a pleasant surprise. Theresa’s friend Elisabeth Koller, an expert in healthy nutrition, came to the workshop as well. Elisabeth prepared various vegetarian and vegan delicacies for us – for example, couscous salad with vegetables and carrot cake. Theresa’s parents brought us fresh pastries.

Theresa organizes hand lettering courses in German, also online. She always has special offers. You can find more information on her website: Schriftenvielfalt

You may be wondering where I will apply my lettering experience. I am sure I will delight someone with a special birthday card or table tags… However, those who know me better know that every year, I make Christmas and nostalgic cards for the International Charity Bazaar organized by the United Nations Women’s Guild (UNWG). So I already had some experience with lettering before the workshop. Nevertheless, thanks to Theresa and her course, I not only learned the important principles of this handwriting, but I also got acquainted with great writing tools and I was inspired by various modifications and additional decoration of the text.

The International Bazaar takes place every year in the Austria Center in Vienna – it is actually a walk around the world in one day. This year, 2024, it will be November 30. If you happen to be in Vienna on that day, come and have a look. You can find me at the UNWG stand with stamps and postcards and at least you can see how much progress I have made in lettering thanks to the workshop.

Proceeds from the bazaar go to support various projects for children in many countries around the world. More information and updates can be found here: UNWG Vienna