Beautiful Hand Drawn Typography

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Beautiful and creative typography can come in a variety of different forms. Hand drawn typography can be an excellent source of inspiration for graphic designers and typography lovers. In this post we will feature 40 creations that use hand drawn type. Some have been created completely by hand. Others have been sketched and scanned into Photoshop or Illustrator. Another option is to use fonts that create a hand drawn effect.

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Beautiful Hand-Drawn Typography Link

Fiodor Sumkin6

Hand Drawn Typography7

Maxwell Lord8

Hand Drawn Typography9

Edgar Reyes10

Hand Drawn Typography11

Jesse Penico12

Hand Drawn Typography13

Fiodor Sumkin14

Hand Drawn Typography15

MWM Graphics16

Hand Drawn Typography17

James Gulliver Hancock18

Hand Drawn Typography19

von brandis20

Hand Drawn Typography21

Lines in the Sky22

Hand Drawn Typography23

DJG Design24

Hand Drawn Typography25

Capitan Burrito26

Hand Drawn Typography27

SHCH Graphics Group28

Hand Drawn Typography29

Stanislav Tomsej30

Hand Drawn Typography31

Sophie Henson32

Hand Drawn Typography33

Sophie Henson34

Hand Drawn Typography35

Megan Brock36

Hand Drawn Typography37

David Maclennan38

Hand Drawn Typography39

Jen Mussari40

Hand Drawn Typography41

MrHodgey42

Hand Drawn Typography43

cruzaderazn44

Hand Drawn Typography45

Si Scott46

Hand Drawn Typography47

mrana48

Hand Drawn Typography49

Linzie Hunter5250

Hand Drawn Typography51

Linzie Hunter5250

Hand Drawn Typography53

House Industries54

Hand Drawn Typography55

TheOrganicType.com56

Hand Drawn Typography57

BAM POP58

Hand Drawn Typography59

SonmiSonmi60

Hand Drawn Typography61

Jon Contino62

Hand Drawn Typography63

Jon Contino64

Hand Drawn Typography65

Lilian Liem66

Hand Drawn Typography67

Anjo Bolarda68

Hand Drawn Typography69

Yissus Galiana70

Hand Drawn Typography71

megtown72

Hand Drawn Typography73

rachealanilyse74

Hand Drawn Typography75

rachealanilyse76

Hand Drawn Typography77

Pomme Chan78

Hand Drawn Typography79

chuckandchucky80

Hand Drawn Typography81

Sources and Resources Link

Footnotes Link

  1. 1 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/26/retro-and-vintage-typography-showcase/
  2. 2 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/12/sexy-bold-and-experimental-typography/
  3. 3 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/25/breathtaking-typographic-posters/
  4. 4 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/23/gorgeous-examples-of-floral-typography/
  5. 5 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/21/creative-print-typography-layouts/
  6. 6 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Cyrillique-Fantastique-/236047
  7. 7 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Cyrillique-Fantastique-/236047
  8. 8 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/SVSV/246831
  9. 9 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/SVSV/246831
  10. 10 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Domino-Records-in-Mexico-(gig-poster)/264533
  11. 11 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Domino-Records-in-Mexico-(gig-poster)/264533
  12. 12 http://www.behance.net/jpenico
  13. 13 http://www.behance.net/jpenico
  14. 14 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/NIKE-Athlete-Book_-Nike-ReUse_-The-process/263711
  15. 15 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/NIKE-Athlete-Book_-Nike-ReUse_-The-process/263711
  16. 16 http://www.mwmgraphics.com/2008_BURTON_BLUNT.html
  17. 17 http://www.mwmgraphics.com/2008_BURTON_BLUNT.html
  18. 18 http://www.jamesgulliverhancock.com/index_shop.html
  19. 19 http://www.jamesgulliverhancock.com/index_shop.html
  20. 20 http://www.flickr.com/photos/von_brandis/131235921/
  21. 21 http://www.flickr.com/photos/von_brandis/131235921/
  22. 22 http://letsflykites.tumblr.com/post/142938553
  23. 23 http://letsflykites.tumblr.com/post/142938553
  24. 24 http://www.flickr.com/photos/djgdesign/3726869942/
  25. 25 http://www.flickr.com/photos/djgdesign/3726869942/
  26. 26 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/DiR/174882
  27. 27 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/DiR/174882
  28. 28 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/silk/93372
  29. 29 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/silk/93372
  30. 30 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Typoautoportrait/274634
  31. 31 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Typoautoportrait/274634
  32. 32 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/New-York-New-York/260471
  33. 33 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/New-York-New-York/260471
  34. 34 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Newer-Bits/148025
  35. 35 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Newer-Bits/148025
  36. 36 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/MAP/64017
  37. 37 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/MAP/64017
  38. 38 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Hand-drawn-type/258535
  39. 39 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Hand-drawn-type/258535
  40. 40 http://www.jenmussari.com
  41. 41 http://www.jenmussari.com
  42. 42 http://mrhodgey.deviantart.com/art/The-Gramophone-113538440
  43. 43 http://mrhodgey.deviantart.com/art/The-Gramophone-113538440
  44. 44 http://cruzaderazn.deviantart.com/art/Kanye-West-SPD-Layout-1-of-2-114363894
  45. 45 http://cruzaderazn.deviantart.com/art/Kanye-West-SPD-Layout-1-of-2-114363894
  46. 46 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Nike--DDB-Paris/126189
  47. 47 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Nike--DDB-Paris/126189
  48. 48 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrana/3553338570/
  49. 49 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrana/3553338570/
  50. 50 http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/sketchbooks/lettering-sketchbook/
  51. 51 http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/sketchbooks/lettering-sketchbook/
  52. 52 http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/sketchbooks/lettering-sketchbook/
  53. 53 http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/sketchbooks/lettering-sketchbook/
  54. 54 http://www.houseind.com/showandtell/2009/07/14/Toolsofthetrade
  55. 55 http://www.houseind.com/showandtell/2009/07/14/Toolsofthetrade
  56. 56 http://www.theorganictype.com/gal04.html
  57. 57 http://www.theorganictype.com/gal04.html
  58. 58 http://www.bampop.com/view/catalog/show/stamps/detail/bp00326
  59. 59 http://www.bampop.com/view/catalog/show/stamps/detail/bp00326
  60. 60 http://www.sonmisonmi.com/
  61. 61 http://www.sonmisonmi.com/
  62. 62 http://www.joncontino.com/index.php?/projects/super-short-stories/
  63. 63 http://www.joncontino.com/index.php?/projects/super-short-stories/
  64. 64 http://www.joncontino.com/index.php?/projects/lettering/
  65. 65 http://www.joncontino.com/index.php?/projects/lettering/
  66. 66 http://www.lilianliem.com/subdesign_lostintokyo.html
  67. 67 http://www.lilianliem.com/subdesign_lostintokyo.html
  68. 68 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Reckless-Erica-Entry/195909
  69. 69 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Reckless-Erica-Entry/195909
  70. 70 http://www.typographyserved.com/Gallery/Visual-profile/155208
  71. 71 http://www.typographyserved.com/Gallery/Visual-profile/155208
  72. 72 http://www.flickr.com/photos/xomeagain/3433509196/
  73. 73 http://www.flickr.com/photos/xomeagain/3433509196/
  74. 74 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachealanilyse/3400498874/
  75. 75 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachealanilyse/3400498874/
  76. 76 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachealanilyse/2858191632/
  77. 77 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachealanilyse/2858191632/
  78. 78 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Typography/83203
  79. 79 http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Typography/83203
  80. 80 http://chuckandchucky.deviantart.com/art/Old-school-62461065
  81. 81 http://chuckandchucky.deviantart.com/art/Old-school-62461065
  82. 82 http://www.behance.net/
  83. 83 http://typeinspire.com/
  84. 84 http://www.deviantart.com/
  85. 85 http://www.flickr.com/
  86. 86 http://welovetypography.com/
  87. 87 http://vi.sualize.us/
  88. 88 http://www.typographyserved.com/
InspirationShowcasesTypography

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Steven Snell is a Web designer and blogger. In addition to maintaining his own blog and writing for a number of other top design blogs, he also manages an online shop that offers premium graphic design resources.

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  1. 1

    Timotej Neonski

    August 11, 2009 3:53 pm

    Awesome post.

    0
  2. 2

    Nick Perez

    August 11, 2009 4:12 pm

    So awesome.

    Love the fresh typography

    0
  3. 3

    Mike

    August 11, 2009 4:36 pm

    I see this style a fair bit. But to my eye, many of these samples look like the kind of doodling I’d expect from a teenager in a school workbook during a particularly boring class. There are a few beautiful works in there, amongst a lot of noise. Many of the ones with multiple words are just a “mind-dump” of ideas, again reminding me of bad teenage poetry where ideas are just spewed out randomly without much cohesion.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love hand-drawn typography, calligraphy especially, but there needs to be appropriateness in the application of this style. If you’re aiming for a teen audience with the “workbook doodle” style, then that’s perfectly fine. I find similar feelings with the scrapbook collage style. For a professional business though? I don’t feel it is as appropriate an image to be conveying.

    -1
  4. 4

    Lauren

    August 11, 2009 5:03 pm

    Thank you! I do not feel that these are amateurish or just random “mini-dump” pieces but if I had, I would share the opinion that they were nothing special. Quite the contrary, I think these are perfect examples of this playful and humble hand-drawn look that is quite fresh and stylish at the moment, as opposed to the tired and disingenuous fashion of computer graphics that “simulate” a hand-drawn look. Thank you, for this lovely collection!

    1
  5. 5

    Bert

    August 11, 2009 6:06 pm

    Some of these are fantastic, but I must say I’m really getting sick of the whole “exploding swirly fluorishes” thing.

    1
  6. 6

    Brett

    August 11, 2009 7:32 pm

    The New York one and the Nice To Meet You one stood out to me. I enjoyed them all though!

    0
  7. 7

    Matt

    August 11, 2009 7:44 pm

    I believe you forgot one of the kings – Ray Fenwick

    0
  8. 8

    gr8pixel

    August 11, 2009 8:07 pm

    awesome typo.. wonder if someone could turn em all into real fonts! :)

    0
  9. 9

    Bill Snebold

    August 11, 2009 8:13 pm

    Beautiful! Thank you for posting these!

    0
  10. 10

    Nicolas

    August 11, 2009 9:39 pm

    The House Industries font is just awesome!

    0
  11. 11

    Stoyan Delev

    August 11, 2009 10:31 pm

    Beautiful…

    0
  12. 12

    Tenshut

    August 11, 2009 10:44 pm

    The french in Si Scott typo says : “our story will become legend, together we are invicible. Together its for life, here it’s…
    You’ll never be alone, always faithfull”

    0
  13. 13

    Oliver Ruehl

    August 11, 2009 11:19 pm

    This post is a tragedy for me!

    Now that I spent hours on getting the CSS right on my site…
    I’m thinking about doing everything again on paper and scan it ;-)

    No seriously, amazing works!

    0
  14. 14

    Quakeulf

    August 11, 2009 11:23 pm

    Lol, the last one, “OLD SCHOOL” is seriously old school. Almost like something I’d see on a desk in class back in the early 90’s when I was still young. :’3

    0
  15. 15

    Charleen

    August 12, 2009 12:29 am

    Mike its just a post calm yourself down. Get on with some work.

    0
  16. 16

    Nathan

    August 12, 2009 1:55 am

    Charleen

    You should work for the UN.

    0
  17. 17

    website design

    August 12, 2009 2:48 am

    hey gr8.

    wish we’d have thought of that.

    0
  18. 18

    TaoGOGO

    August 12, 2009 3:56 am

    TaoGOGOhas read your article,it perfect, and i share it with my friends!

    0
  19. 19

    Micael Delgado

    August 12, 2009 4:49 am

    For some jobs it’ll be very interesting.

    0
  20. 20

    Bandeira

    August 12, 2009 5:10 am

    What about Eduardo Recife from misprintedtype.com ??

    0
  21. 21

    Sivakumar

    August 12, 2009 5:10 am

    These type of typo we can use it in banners I think so.

    0
  22. 22

    BongoBox

    August 12, 2009 5:29 am

    There’s some awesome stuff here, and also (at least) one with a typo…

    Been there myself, drawing myself giddy, when suddenly I realize “donkey” does indeed have an “n” in it.
    heh

    0
  23. 23

    Nick Healy

    August 12, 2009 6:20 am

    not sure how you can have a list about hand drawn type and not include Marian Bantjes
    Just one example of a huge range of beautiful type.

    Also check out Luca Barcellona and Chris Piasik

    0
  24. 24

    kittu k

    August 12, 2009 7:34 am

    WOWWWWW.. awesome man.. wd lov to learn typography.. looks soo cool..
    Kittu k

    0
  25. 25

    Erik Kubitschek

    August 12, 2009 7:40 am

    Nice compilation, love this stuff. (Good to see you have recovered from the Photoshop post lol.)

    0
  26. 26

    colin

    August 12, 2009 7:47 am

    I submit Aaron Horkey’s work for consideration. The guy is amazing. Check his Flight of the Conchords poster.

    Not to mention the fact that he’s a ridiculous illustrator…

    0
  27. 27

    kittu k

    August 12, 2009 8:31 am

    WOWWWWW.. awesome man.. wd lov to learn typography.. looks soo cool..
    Kittu k

    0
  28. 28

    Briana

    August 12, 2009 9:06 am

    RE Mike’s comment: I actually think most of these are much more sophisticated than “just a ‘mind-dump’ of ideas” reminiscent of “bad teenage poetry”. The styles are quite casual, if that’s what you’re referring to. But there are actually some well thought out layouts going on here, good use of color, and some nicely drawn typography. If this is what you expect of a teenager who’s bored in class then you must know some very talented kids!

    1
  29. 29

    Lucas Tadeu

    August 12, 2009 9:24 am

    Wow, that’s a awsome collection =O

    0
  30. 30

    sayan mukherjee

    August 12, 2009 10:40 am

    lovely and new and fresh….thanks for sharing

    0
  31. 31

    Anthony Cruz

    August 12, 2009 11:04 am

    Wow, thanks for including my work in this post. I would appreciate it if my piece was linked to my actual website and not my old deviantart page.

    http://artbycruz.com/print/kanye-west/

    Thanks!

    0
  32. 32

    Viviana

    August 12, 2009 5:34 pm

    I-N-S-P-I-R-A-D-O-R!

    0
  33. 33

    aR

    August 13, 2009 6:20 am

    This awesome post prove that in this digital world hand are still more creative then mouse.

    Thanks for this fabulous collection.
    I made a post about this collection and add a link to this page at my blog.

    0
  34. 34

    Michael Z

    August 13, 2009 7:07 am

    Great work! It is so encouraging to see a revival of hand drawn typography. Nothing beats picking up a pencil and actually DRAWING, away from a computer.

    0
  35. 35

    david

    August 13, 2009 8:03 pm

    To be a term elitist, this is all lettering, technically, not typography: It’s like calling a photograph a painting just because they’re both images.

    1
  36. 36

    beedee15

    August 26, 2009 6:23 am

    frankensteining ??? good idea

    0
  37. 37

    Liz

    October 30, 2009 6:41 am

    Very cool ideas, I always like seeing designs that merge drawing and type! No one can argue the importance of computers, and clean typography definitely has its place, but drawing by hand lends a certain personality you’ll never get from a machine.

    0
  38. 38

    Jen Mussari

    March 22, 2010 3:49 pm

    Thanks for including my work! I would also appreciate it if I was linked back to my actual website and not that goofy monicker I went under when I was 14 on DeviantArt… http://www.jenmussari.com

    0
  39. 40
  40. 41

    designer renji

    June 17, 2010 10:07 pm

    Beautiful…

    0
  41. 42

    Jesse Penico

    July 14, 2010 9:44 am

    I really appreciate you including me on a list with such amazing work and artists. The link to my portfolio is, unfortunately, not working. Could you link it again to here: http://www.behance.net/jpenico

    0
  42. 44

    joshua

    August 9, 2010 1:56 am

    I am following your blog regularly and got great information.Thank you so much for sharing this information. I have bookmarked this page for future use.Keep blogging.

    0
  43. 45

    Matt BK

    September 22, 2011 7:34 pm

    It’s too bad you’re linking to images on Tumblr instead of tracking down the original artists. Tacky.

    0
  44. 46

    Freya MD

    January 3, 2014 3:12 pm

    Wonderful post, I love all these beautiful examples of handmade, illustrated letterforms. I am writing an essay about Handmade typography within the advertising industry and would love some opinions. Here is a link to a short survey if you would like to participate: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8QNVSYK

    Thank you for your time.

    0

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