Tailor Your Lettering Using Warps and Meshes in Illustrator

One skill I would love to learn more thoroughly is hand-lettering, but I have never found the time. It’s another thing on my bucket list! I still work with typography, all the time, so I have had to adapt! In this class Tailor Lettering Using Warps and Meshes in Illustrator course, I will show you how I took a pencil sketch and created this cute love quote for Valentine’s Day, all created with adjustments to typefaces I have on my system. Even if you are not a professional hand letterer, you can create this type of design! I walk you through each step, and you will learn to use mesh and warp tools as well as a variety of other techniques. The starting point is a pencil drawn thumbnail, so you could do that before you start, if you feel so inclined. The hope is you have something in-hand to practice with so you can start and stop my videos as you work through them. I have included a template document you can open and use as practice as we move along. Having basic knowledge of Illustrator is an asset, but not required, as these may be tools you have never tried and can now learn. Part of this skillset is learning about options for customizing type, and you have come to the right place. I will try to clearly explain all the steps as we proceed. The process may seem intimidating at first, however using these techniques will make it much easier.

This course will arm you with all the knowledge necessary. This lettering design skillset is an ideal competence if you are a designer, illustrator or surface pattern designer, or simply a graphic designer on a mission to create a self-sustaining career. Many insights about designing will be shared and hopefully they can inspire you to take a look at your current designs and have you planning many different projects in the future.

When trying to design a typographic layout like this, your job is to figure out which typefaces work best and how to lay them out them in a recognizable hierarchy. Another part of this skillset is learning about options for customizing type. The warp tool, the mesh tool, and the puppet warp are variables that we will explore in this class.