Composition is an integral part of the creation process for a lettering project. It is an element that needs to be taken into account from the beginning of the process, just as much as the choice of lettering styles.
This workshop is a chance for you to put your knowledge about working on individual letters into practice in the context of a complete composition.
While it might seem complicated at first, composition turns out to be relatively simple once you understand the basics.
This chapter addresses two main aspects of composition:
• Structure, which is related to the management of blocks of letters and the highlighting of important words, among other things.
• The choice of styles and customization: how to choose appropriate lettering styles, knowing how to alternate among them, and including a decorative aspect to provide more contrast and greater impact.
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION (OR TETRIS METHOD)
Even before you start drawing your lettering project, it is important to know how you are going to position the different elements that make it up. Good composition is based on one fundamental principle: your lettering project must make a uniform impression; that is, it must work as a block. In order to do this, the words that make up the composition have to be placed in such a way as not to leave too many white spaces, just like when you are playing Tetris on your Gameboy. What I call white spaces, or “blanks,” are the unfilled spaces that could make the composition harder to read and visually unbalanced.
Two compositions in two different styles, each of which forms a block. Each element is positioned in relation to all the others. This is the impression that you must keep in mind in order to create a high-quality composition.
1. Scott Biersack (United States). Pencil sketch, vectorized in Illustrator.
2. Erik Marinovich (United States). Pencil sketch, with structure and effects created in Photoshop.
We have seen that managing the space between letters is crucial for producing a high-quality lettering piece. A well-executed composition is equally crucial, and that requires that you pay particular attention to the spaces between words.