Art Deco Lettering in the spirit of the Roaring Twenties

Art Deco Lettering in the spirit of the Roaring Twenties - a workshop with Els Van Den Steen (Saturday 4th May, 2024)

The geometric, pared down Art Deco style, reflecting the modern age of industrial power, confidence and optimism, flourished in Europe and in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. This workshop is an introduction to Art Deco Lettering and Design from this era. Art Deco Capitals, based on the circle and the straight line, are highly legible and create a stylish impression. These streamlined letters are written with mono-line writing tools which makes them straightforward and fun to write.

In this workshop we practised techniques for drawing the letterforms with different writing tools and we explored textures and simple layouts. As the day progressed, we looked at some of the popular Art Deco design motifs and combined these with our lettering to create projects with an Art Deco flavour.

Nicola Dunn reported "I've always loved the images of the Art Deco period and particularly their revival in late 60's and early 70's fashion and L.P. covers. Els van den Steen took us through the history of the development of this style when it took over from Art Nouveau at the end of the 19th Century. We covered several different styles of lettering as well as a variety of decorative forms that would naturally accompany it, including simple techniques to reproduce repetitive patterns. We certainly covered a lot of ground in one day and it was a lot of fun too."

A full write up of the class, plus images will appear in the next SLLA newsletter.