Hi, I’m Molly Suber Thorpe.
I design custom lettering for brands and individuals around the world, digital assets for artists, and bestselling books for calligraphers.
I’ve helped thousands of letterers hone their skills, opening doors to new creative opportunities and careers.
Since 2009, I have worked with clients including Google Arts & Culture, Michael Kors, Martha Stewart, Lonely Planet, and Fendi. My work has been featured in such publications as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Weddings, Los Angeles Times, and Buzzfeed.
I’m the author of five books about lettering.
Modern Calligraphy (2013) is a beginner’s guide covering the basics of pointed pen script.
The Calligrapher’s Business Handbook (2017) is a guide for crafting a thriving freelance career out of hand lettering.
Mastering Modern Calligraphy (2019), picks up where my first leaves off. It is an in-depth guide to modern calligraphy, and the perfect companion for pointed pen and digital calligraphers alike.
Decorative Alphabets (2021) is a coloring book for learning new lettering styles by tracing the exemplars, or just having fun coloring the ornate illustrations.
Modern Cursive Handwriting (2022) is a comprehensive guide to script penmanship for adults and teens, with beginner-friendly directions and guided practice pages.
I love to teach!
My pointed pen calligraphy workshops are always small, emphasizing focused, individual attention. To date, I have taught over 700 students at my workshops, private lessons, and lectures around the United States and Europe.
In addition to my in-person workshops, I am honored to bear the badge of Top Teacher on the Skillshare platform, with over 40,000 students and 1.5 million minutes of watch time.
My lettering toolkit is a free resource bundle that’s always growing.
Subscribers to my newsletter get lifetime access to all the downloads, then get more free products straight to their inbox as I release them.
The bundle includes modern calligraphy practice sheets, Procreate brushes and workbooks, printable guide sheets, and more.
I also design digital assets for lettering artists.
My lettering work isn’t only hand lettering. I love to design digital lettering brushes and ligature-rich fonts, too, many of which have a handwritten look and feel.
Giving back to the lettering arts community is very important me, so I have created a number of resources for lettering freelancers to grow their businesses.
In 2016, I founded Calligrafile.com, a free, curated database of trusted tools and resources for calligraphers, hand lettering artists, type enthusiasts, and creative freelancers.
I also design brushes and digital art tools for lettering and illustration. These are tools I originally created for myself to use in my own work, and have made available to other artists and creative freelancers.
My background
I graduated from UCLA’s Design Communication Arts program (Los Angeles, California) in 2009 with a concentration in typography and layout design. Prior to that, I studied art history, comparative literature, and creative writing at The American University of Paris (Paris, France).
