Calligraphy and hand-lettering are huge these days, and for good reason. Businesses who brand themselves with a sharp font are differentiated from the crowd, and a uniquely-lettered wedding invite immediately sets the tone for the day. Here are five Dallasites who are doing gorgeous things with the written word.
Joshua Fortuna
A self-proclaimed “alphadesignartographer,” Joshua Fortuna’s sharp combination of hand-lettering and his own stunning photography has earned him more than 98,000 Instagram followers. Whether you see his work scrolling through your feed or featured in a national ad campaign, you’ll recognize Fortuna’s artistic touch.
Kristy Goode: Thicket and Thatch
Kristy Goode’s design shop has been making a name for itself by applying custom calligraphy to home goods and wedding accessories. We’re currently chuckling at the cheeky print that pays homage to this iconic moment from the Ellen DeGeneres show. According to Kristy, her favorite letter to write is a capital “B,” and she gives Grey’s Anatomy some credit for her business name by giving her a love of the name Thatcher.
Kyle Steed
A master of both large-scale art pieces and the hand-lettering technique used in them, Kyle Steed has worked on projects that any Dallas dweller might recognize, including the window displays at Milk & Honey, or the Dallas City Mural along the Design District’s Trinity Strand Trail. He’s one of the folks helping to make Dallas a more visually pleasing place.
Lauren Essl: Blue Eye Brown Eye
This Fort Worth native has a knack for taking traditional calligraphy and making it undeniably modern. Lauren specializes in wedding invitations, but also loves to teach lettering workshops (find her next class here). Her company is adorably named for her dog Olive, who has—you guessed it—one blue eye and one brown eye.
Lyndsay Wright
Lyndsay Wright has been in love with calligraphy since she was a child. “As an older child, I would challenge myself by picking a category, such as words for the color red,” Wright says. “I would write lists of words in various lettering styles using vocabulary pertaining to that category—such as crimson, scarlet, burgundy, etc.” Today, her website boasts seventeen unique fonts, all named after different cities (“Barcelona” is curly and playful, “Glasgow” is a precise blackletter font that evokes an old-English feel, and “Los Angeles” is breezy and modern). She turns handwriting into a true work of art, and she’s just as comfortable doing advertising campaigns for the Dallas Mavericks as she is doing wedding invitations.
