4 Steps to Better Lettering: Hierarchy
Designing beautiful lettering compositions can be mystifying to a beginner hand lettering artist. Seeing all these amazing artists on Instagram coming up with such seemingly perfect layouts can be just as intimidating as it is inspiring. So, how do you level up your lettering to make your compositions more visually interesting?
As a self-taught freelance lettering artist, I learned from a combination of my background as a graphic designer and workshops with some of my lettering idols—and I’m going to share the knowledge I’ve gained with you now!
In this four-part series, I’m going to take you through 4 key steps I use every day to create my lettering artwork. I’m going to cover using thumbnail sketches to ideate, working in layers to get to your final sketch, and adding embellishments to finalize your design. By the end of the series, you’ll have new knowledge to confidently tackle your favorite quotes to make some awesome lettering art!
Step 1: Hierarchy
Hierarchy is an organization of elements in a design in order of importance. In lettering compositions, we want to use hierarchy to emphasize the right words to make our message as clear and easily understood as possible. You can establish hierarchy with these simple design principles.
Size
This is the easiest and most obvious way to organize your composition. The largest words will stand out the most, and smaller words will recede by comparison.
Establishing hierarchy with the use of size. Artwork by Jessica Molina.
Weight
Bolder lettering styles will naturally stand out from thinner ones. You can also use details like dimension and embellishments to add visual weight.
Establishing hierarchy with the use of weight. Artwork by Jessica Molina.
Color
Adding color to a composition can emphasize some words over others.
Establishing hierarchy with the use of color. Artwork by Jessica Molina.
Style
Use 2 or more lettering styles to add further contrast to your design.
Establishing hierarchy with the use of different styles. Artwork by Jessica Molina.
You can always combine these techniques and more to maximize the effect and establish a clear visual hierarchy in your design.
Combining size, weight, color, and style to establish hierarchy. Artwork by Jessica Molina.
So how about you, friends? Have you been using any of these techniques in your lettering? What other techniques have you been using besides these? Let me know in the comments!
Join me in the second part of this series where I will talk about why thumbnail sketches are the ultimate game-changer for beginner lettering artists.
