USC Lecture: Calligraphy & Hand Lettering

Workshops & EventsCalligraphyGraphic Design
Written By Molly Suber Thorpe

In April I had the opportunity to give a lecture at USC's Roski School of Fine Arts. The subject was calligraphy and hand lettering, with a slant toward graphic designers who aim to incorporate handmade type into their digital work. Unlike other lectures and workshops I’ve led in the past, given this audience, I was able to go beyond the paper realm and delve into the nitty gritty details of digitizing hand lettering, answering all the geeky questions about bézier curves and pixel depth the students could throw at me. It was so much fun to meet a room full of young designers who approach their design work from wildly different angles but have a common love of all things typography.

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Molly Suber Thorpe

A calligrapher, teacher, and author, Molly’s work spans both modern lettering and historical script. She writes about calligraphy and handwriting as creative disciplines—shaped by tools, technique, habit, and attention—and considers what it means to write by hand in a digital age. In addition to designing custom lettering for clients, she creates books, free resources, and online classes for people who want to develop their calligraphy and handwriting, whether as a creative outlet, a professional skill, or both.

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