Letters are traditionally thought about in terms of calligraphic strokes or marks. Letters can also be thought about in terms of shape. Type designer and graphic artist, Cyrus Highsmith, has developed a series of messy hands-on exercises that explore making and seeing shape-based letters. These methods can be applied to designing typefaces, adding new dimensions to a calligraphic practice, and even lead to different way of observing the world. It’s for anyone who is interested in deepening their creative practice whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional.

Materials list
It will be messy — I will be wearing an apron. 

Drawing supplies

• 
black ink (sumi or other)

• small dish for the ink

• masking tape (for making cola pens)

• aluminum cans (for making cola pens)

• lots of big paper to draw on

• Molotow marker (empty, 4mm, bullet tip)

• other drawing tools that can be used with ink (brushes, q-tips, sponges, sticks)

• flat brush (about .5” or 13mm)

• pencil

• an interesting object to draw (maybe from your kitchen)  

Monoprinting supplies


• plexiglass sheet (about a4 or lettersize, about 1/8” or 3mm thick) or acetate sheet (about a4 or lettersize)

• lots of paper to print on

• dish soap and a rag/paper towel  

Stencil supplies


• newsprint for stencils (about lettersize or a4)

• lots of paper to print on

• No.11 xacto knife plus blades (or something similar)

• cutting mat

• soft rubber brayer (soft is important, harder brayers won’t work as well for this method. Around 1.5” to 3” is a good size. Just make sure they aren’t too big to work well with the ink pad)

• ink pads (aka stamp pads) and/or Akua intaglio ink. The ink pads can come from an office supply store with surface for inking. If you want to use the intaglio ink, you will need a way to roll it out. The plexiglass or acetate we use for monoprinting will work great this. I suggest black but feel free to also get additional colors if you like.