Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis
Written Words: An Exploration into Hand Lettering
Big Question:
How can the meaning received through song lyrics be effectively translated to visual communication with the use of hand lettering?
Steps of the Process
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Reading typography books
Gathering real world inspiration
Searching for inspiration online
Practice sketching individual letters
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Weekly sketches / creative compositions of a specific set of song lyrics
Sketched 3-5 unique hand drawn compositions of the lyrics
Created 50+ options of compositions I can solidify and build into an exhibition piece
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Chose the most successful/interesting hand drawn fall compositions to digitize and bring to life
Used primarily Procreate to form final posters, but explored compositions in Adobe After Effects and Illustrator as well
Concluded the project with six different lyric posters displaying hand lettering, and a coloring book
Research Phase
The research and inspiration collection for this project began in June of 2025. I studied type books, social media posts, and other artists’ work. Jessica Hische’s “In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist’s Sketchbook and Process from Pencil to Vector” was a great inspiration. The “Typism” book from Finesse Press and “Hand-Lettering Ledger” by Mary Kate McDevitt also helped to inspire me through this process.
As my initial understanding progressed, I sketched individual letters to actually understand the process of creating them. Through photos I took in the wild, and inspiration websites like Pinterest and Dribbble, I gathered and organized all of the necessary information to continue my in-depth creative exploration in the fall semester.
Creative Exploration
At the beginning of the fall semester, I set a strict routine for how I would go about each week of exploration. I started by choosing a lyric from a list that I had created in the notes app of my phone. These lyrics were collected based on any phrase or saying that gave me pause while listening to music. Each week, I would choose the lyric that either connected to me and my emotional state that week, or lyrics that felt compositionally inspiring. Pictured below is one of the earliest weeks of the complete process that I followed throughout the fall.
After choosing the weekly lyric, I would make a cover page and begin creative exploration of 4-6 thumbnail sketches. Doing this allowed me to take the strongest ideas to create 3-5 unique, purposeful, hand-drawn compositions of that week’s lyrics. To start the following week, I would create a journal page in the sketchbook of why I chose the lyric, how the exploration went, what I had learned, and what I wanted to do differently for the following week. At the end of the semester, I had 50+ options of compositions that I could carry into the spring to potentially solidify and build into an exhibition piece.
Diving Deeper
In the spring of 2026, I reflected on all of the work that I had done in the fall semester and chose the compositions that I was most proud of to further develop. I primarily used Procreate for the exploration of each poster, but I also experimented in Adobe Illustrator and After Effects as well. Throughout this stage of the project, I went through many iterations, different songs, and individual color palettes in order to discover what would be most successful. I concluded the creation element of the project with six different lyric posters displaying the explorations in hand lettering.
Final Color Posters
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!["I belong to the" (round, high contrast bubble letters) "stars and sky" (thin, delicate, and curvy letters)]()
Real Love Baby ~ by Father John Misty
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!["LET'S TRY TO" (high contrast serif letters with wavy, ombre blue and purple colors), "Outrun the Sun" (high contrast script letters with yellow, orange, red, blue, and purple wavy ombre colors)]()
Cigarettes ~ by Coastal Club
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!["Dumb or happy?" (spotted texture, bubbly lettering, purple, teal, and green colors) "that's the question." (same lettering and texture with yellow and orange colors)]()
Swim Between Trees ~ by flipturn
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!["Why does the wall / Insist I have my Back Against it" in blackletter]()
Growing/Dying ~ by the Backseat Lovers
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!["don't you find the" "calming world" "a little scared to" "Dive in... might" (black script lettering and thick sans serif, blue color) "SiNK" (large, dark blue lettering) "but imagine if we end up SWIMMING" (yellow glow fluid lettering)]()
Paradise ~ by Briston Maroney
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!["Well I think I've had enough" (bold lettering with red and yellow hues, rough texture) "of all these people in this place" (delicate, loopy, half script that fades at the end of each line)]()
Snowbank Blues ~ by The Backseat Lovers
Coloring Books
After printing and framing the posters, I also developed coloring books to use as part of my research on whether or not my compositions were successful. My goal was to use these coloring books and color theory as a way to understand how viewers were interpreting my work. On the back of the coloring book, I included a description of my research process, as well as a QR code to a survey that would allow me to gathering more concrete information.
Black and White Coloring Pages
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!["I belong to the" (round, high contrast bubble letters) "stars and sky" (thin, delicate, and curvy letters)]()
Real Love Baby ~ by Father John Misty
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!["LET'S TRY TO" (high contrast serif letters), "Outrun the Sun" (high contrast script letters)]()
Cigarettes ~ by Coastal Club
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!["Dumb or happy? that's the question." (bubbly lettering)]()
Swim Between Trees ~ by flipturn
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!["Why does the wall / Insist I have my Back Against it" in blackletter]()
Growing/Dying ~ by the Backseat Lovers
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!["don't you find the" "calming world" "a little scared to" "Dive in... might" (black script lettering and thick sans serif) "SiNK" (wide, large lettering) "but imagine if we end up SWIMMING" (fluid lettering)]()
Paradise ~ by Briston Maroney
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!["Well I think I've had enough" (bold lettering with red and yellow hues, rough texture) "of all these people in this place" (delicate, loopy, half script that fades at the end of each line)]()
Snowbank Blues ~ by The Backseat Lovers
In Conclusion
This 9 month exploration has helped me grow so much as a designer, and illustrator, and a hand letterer. Throughout each step of the process, I learned how to revise my thoughts and techniques in order to create a final product that truly felt successful. The research gathered was especially beneficial because it showed me that, even with songs that so many people did not know, I was able to communicate a emotional message that matched each song. I will continue to carry forward what I learned from this project, look over my research and results, and practicing lettering. At the end of this product, I have progressed my skill as an communicator, which I deeply believe has made me better designer.