Are you or someone you know a “hand-lettering artist?” Don’t worry, it’s typically just a phase, but take caution for it’s also been known to be a gateway hobby to a lack of education, a hopeless career, and even death.
If you notice a friend beginning to find interest in drawing letters or writing for that matter, urge them to steer clear of it. Hand-lettering is entirely useless, and many design professionals are claiming it to be a lost cause and trendy.
Please note: Letters, words, glyphs, phrases, varying alphabets, etc. are all becoming obsolete. Hand-lettering is in turn a fleeting romance. Communication is becoming less and less relevant—it’s just a trend.
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END OF COMMERCIAL
There’s no beating around the bush, the commercial skit above is entirely sarcastic and aimed at the endless amount of articles which warn designers against the fleeting trend that is hand-lettering. So there’s a plethora of articles against the “trend of hand-lettering” but none which truly take on the challenge of calling UI (or even the styles within UI) a trend.
Placing “trend of hand-lettering” in quotes is entirely intentional to highlight the fact that it’s a pseudo trend. Hand-lettering is wrongfully (and even ignorantly) given the label of a trend despite arguably being one of the longest lasting forms of design.
In case anyone forgot, this is just a simple reminder that lettering and typography are graphic design. Without them, we’d be nowhere. Lettering and typography are the oldest form of visual design having evolved from cave paintings and hieroglyphics. Call them a trend all you want, but they aren’t going anywhere.
While this post specifically tackles hand-lettering as a trend, it’s intended to dismiss the myth and negative connotations around trends as a whole. I dislike all articles that bash and discourage the use of trends because they are absolutely integral to our careers as designers and the development/progress of design and art as a whole.
Designers treat trends like voodoo. There’s a negative stigma surrounding them until they’re actually interested in taking part in them. I’ve said this a million times and I’ll say it a million more, trends are not inherently bad.
Everyone loves to warn, discourage, and shake their fingers at young designers who experiment with trends as if they’re meant to already have their design career figured out—as if any of us are obligated to have it figured out. Trends allow young designers to experiment and learn. If you honestly think that dabbling in some kind of trend will ruin their life, think again. Trends are the sole advancement of any field. Trends are the marks of progress.
The skill and ability to handle type, make it function, make it beautiful, and make it interesting is indispensable. To hell with any discouraging articles out there, explore trends and keep pursuing hand-lettering.