Uppercase Magazine Issue 23: The Calligraphy & Lettering Issue

I hope you are all having a merry and restful and happy holiday break with lots of good food and time with family and friends! Caleb has had his first Christmas - and we got him a green dinosaur! It was between that and a porcupine. We have had an unbelievable holiday season, although it has been a bit of a blur - we stopped by the shop to pick up a few things on Christmas Day, and it was a bit surreal to see the shop quiet but completely filled with boxes and boxes and empty spots on the shelves and tester pens everywhere. I think our week is planned for us (after recovery!) to re-organize and inventory the shop and get it up and running again for the new year.

The holiday season was so crazy that we had quite a few new items arrive, and we didn't get a chance to post about them. This one in particular I have been very excited to receive, but I didn't even get a chance to really open and check it out until today. Uppercase Magazine is a quarterly magazine focusing on design and creativity, published in Canada, distributed worldwide. When they came out with a calligraphy and lettering issue, of course we needed to get our hands on it.

It's a beautiful magazine, with a thick cover and strong spine, heavy paper pages with enough calligraphy and lettering to get you writing for all of 2015. While of course calligraphers and designers will love this magazine, even those of us who just enjoy handwriting or fountain pens will be inspired by all the gorgeous images. There are some spotlights on calligraphers and lettering artists, as well as of course examples of their work. It's great to see that a lot of these artists are younger; I think calligraphy and writing is reaching a new generation.

One of my favourite things is seeing some of the workspaces and desks. I've been trying to convince Jon to buy me a rolltop desk from some Amish carpenters in the US, but the shipping costs are enough to make you cry.  There were also some examples of their notebooks!

There's a great article on the lettering artist who does the signs for Honest Ed's downtown!

And lots and lots of pictures! The beautiful calligraphy is enough to make me want to sit down and spend some time with some French-ruled paper and get practising. Broad edge, italic, pointed pen, fonts of all sorts!

 

It was wonderful to see both formal pieces and fun pieces, both obviously taking a ton of time and work and planning.

We have a limited number of this issue both in store and online. Calligraphy, as the practice of beautiful handwriting, isn't necessarily something everyone wants to master at the highest level, but in this magazine, the articles on the artists and opportunities and tools and examples are enough to inspire. In fact, the cover is a bit tongue in cheek - it's a shopping list done by a very, very well-practised calligrapher - but it also speaks to the fact that this beautiful handwriting is everyday as well as artwork to be hung and displayed.