Calligraphy Research

Calligraphy translates from the greek words ‘killi’ and ‘graphos’ which means beautiful and writing. Calligraphy is described as being in Harmony with your writing instruments. In old English writing the organs of the letter started out as pictography and took more of a shape when the roman alphabet was introduced to England. The Roman alphabet has derevatives from the greek alphabet where phonics featured. In Old English scripts were featured such as Gothic (Black Letter) and Medieval calligraphy and are a sans serif type that originated from British Northern France and these scripts were heavily used in the periods of the 11th and the 16th centuries. From the opinion of some artists and designers there is a fine line between paintings and works of calligraphy as with some works of calligraphy could be so unreadable whereas there are some paintings that could look like they are trying to form words or obscure pictures.

Tom Gourdie's Shakespeare Sonnet, 1980

Donald Jackson

Donald Jackson (1938-present) born in Lancashire and at the age of 13 was awarded a scholarship at the Bolton School of Arts. Following that he went to specialise in design and calligraphy at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and then went on to study it further at Goldsmiths in London where he became a professional calligrapher and a teacher at Camberwell. Since 1964 he has became one of two scribes at the House of Lords and preparing charters and commemorative documents. From the 1980's he now writes books and lectures. 

Julian Waters

Julian Waters (1957-present) was born in Hampshire, England and is known as a calligrapher, type-designer and a teacher. In the late seventies began studying extensively with Hermann Zapf, a remarkable German type designer. In the early eighties he went to Washington D.C. and worked at Bookmark studio with Gerard Valerio  specialising in logo design and publication design. After opening his own studio and working with several studios and publishers he has produced a huge variety of work including magazines, C.D. covers, logos and books etc. Some of Waters' clients include the U.S Postal Service and National Geographic magazine who have wanted letterforms designed for their companies. The style of his work is very interesting as he combines letter-drawing with computers and has taught this all over the world as letterform design. As well as teaching he also works for the Adobe company. 

25ct
  United States. 1989
  Bill of Rights
  Designed by Lou Nolan. Lettering and
  calligraphy by Julian Waters.

John Stevens

He is a calligrapher, lettering artist and a graphic designer who has created his own custom calligraphy, logo types and illustrative letter designs for clients who include; book and magazine publishing, ad agencies, packaging firms and television and film. Stevens has work in many private and public collections globally and in similarity likes to teach all around the world. He has a passion to teach in Italy where he would finally have access to many Roman inscriptions which is what he and his work are influenced by. 

Headliners Poster, 1986

Rings of Saturn, 1996