In my hand-lettering journey I have found that being able to access specimens and try to re-create them has been such a great tool.  By re-creating I learn what I like about a specimen or what I would want to work on or  even what style I would like to riff on. I own a lot of antique type specimen books, I didn’t realize how many until I actually started to use them for practice; I suppose it has become an unexpected collection of sorts. Alex, a very thoughtful girl (and like me a lettering enthusiast), emailed me the other day and asked if I knew about Type. A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles, it’s a two volume work and she mentioned the best part is that you get access to thousands of hi-res scans from the book.  I didn’t know about it but ever since her email it has shot straight to the top of my holiday want-list.  I want need these books so badly.

It seems that it must of been my good fortune week because I also received a note from former Souvenir Foto School student Simone that mentioned her recent acquisitions. Simone lives in the South of France and was formerly a stylist in NYC, she runs an on-line Brocante and finds the best potential photo props. Everyone in class wanted to know where she got her props for her Food + Foto class. Simone had recently come into possession of a warehouse filled with antique French documents all hand scribed in the most beautiful calligraphic hand. I don’t know about you but I am a little coo coo for French script, I love the modern French hand as well as the hand of yore, it’s all beautiful, interesting and well, French. To have access to original documents that you can have + hold and use as a reference to re-create sounds pretty amazing to me. I don’t have any other French connections that are willing to get me these types of papers and I love that Simone has become a great resource.  You can even email her and tell her what period you are looking for and she will try her best to go through her treasures to find what you would like.  I am trying to convince her to be on the look out for vintage school lettering books that she can scan and make available for download. I would love instant access to these types of books without having to add another item to my studio (better to hide my addiction from my husband, yikes!).

If you have any lettering resources you want to share, feel free to email me or leave them in the comments I am re-designing the blog and will most definitely be adding some resource pages for you to easily access!