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Professional Workshop: Foundation strokes for Sign Painting with John Downer
Commercial brush lettering styles are integral to the professional appearance of a painted sign. Such styles have often served as inspiration for display typefaces used by graphic designers, and sign makers alike. The warmth and charm of brush-made letterforms have ubiquitous appeal for a wide range of applications.
Letterform model sheets will be distributed to students as reference for practice. Individual and group commentary will provide valuable feedback for each student to progress according to ability.
The styles to be taught are Block, Half Block, and Cut-in. Each of these styles has its own separate set of structural rules, but all have much in common with one another. In addition, basic principles of layout will be addressed. Students will learn how to use a flat ferrule lettering brush with tempera paint to form a set of foundation strokes, and then to construct characters from the components.
Worskhop taught by John Downer with Kenji Nakayama assisting.
Requirements
- Yardstick
- Pencil & eraser
- Apron
- A extra fee of $100 MXN will be collected (by instructor) on the first day of class for the purchase of synthetic lettering brushes.
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Instructor
John Downer
John Downer Instagram
Mr. Downer is a sign painter, a typeface designer, and an educator. He has written about type and type history for various publications and is widely known as a perceptive type critic. His typefaces have been published by Bitstream, Font Bureau, Emigre, House Industries, and Design Lab. Among his most popular type designs are Iowan Old Style (on Apple Books and iOS 7+), Roxy, Ironmonger, and the ubiquitous food and beverage branding favorite, Brothers.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, a region of the US with a rich history of sign painting and hand-lettering, Mr. Downer was first introduced to commercial pen & brush lettering in the 1960s in junior high school. He began an apprenticeship in a sign painting shop at age 18. He holds BA, MA, and MFA degrees in art.
Mr. Downer has been a journeyman sign painter since 1973, a freelance typeface designer since 1983, and a crusader for designers’ rights his entire adult life. He began teaching lettering at the university level in 1972, making him one of the most experienced American educators in the fields of lettering and typeface design. He’s been teaching in the Type@Cooper program at The Cooper Union since its founding in 2010. He established the Sign Painting Support Group on Facebook as a platform to educate and guide serious enthusiasts and professionals in the principles of letter construction and the tricks of the trade.
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