Lettering for Planners: A Step-By-Step Guide to Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy for Bullet Journals and Beyond

by Jillian Reece, Jordan Truster (Illustrator)

“If you thought you couldn’t learn lettering, Jillian and Jordan will show you that you can.” — Erin Domoney of The Petite Planner
#1 Best Seller in Calligraphy
Learn calligraphy from two accomplished calligraphy experts
Calligraphy for your journal aesthetic.  Beautiful "bullet journals" are popping up all over Instagram and Pinterest. The joys of decorating the pages with drawings and lettering are many. If you want to start your own bullet journal or if you want to improve your journal aesthetic, this book is for you. Get this informational workbook that teaches lettering styles to help you organize and beautify your everyday life.
Learn calligraphy.  Follow a step-by-step guide to creating a basic hand-lettered alphabet for beginners. Then learn five additional alphabet examples in assorted styles, explore letter variations, and choose your favorites that best fit your style.
Hand lettering workbook.  You’ll learn how to build words using common word examples like days of the week, months of the year, and other words commonly found in planners. After learning the script styles, you’ll learn concepts of composition by discovering how to mix and match styles of lettering in creative ways.
Learn all the components of lettering.  You’ll also learn some key “don’ts” of lettering to avoid. Also find step-by-step instructions on how to draw decorations to embellish lettering including shadows, borders, banners, and flourishes.
Also
Fans of  The Ultimate Guide to Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering for Beginners ; CalligraphyPaper, Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy Notepad ; Creative Lettering and Beyond ; or  The Complete Book of Lettering  will love  Lettering for Planners.

Genres: Nonfiction, Journaling

200 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2019

Reviews

[Sameera Nanayakkara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in the middle of Stephen R. Covey’s ‘The 8th Habit’ when I felt that I needed a break from the serious psychology and picked up this book – ‘Lettering for Planners.’ To be honest I did not have much faith in a book guiding us on lettering, but I was in for a surprise.

“There are lots of benefits to learning hand lettering, particularly in the context of journaling.
• It’s a relaxing and therapeutic hands-on activity, especially in our digital age
• You can do it anywhere, unlike some other crafts and hobbies
• It’s completely customizable (no need to search for a stencil or buy a bunch of fonts!)”

If you are going to learn something from somebody, do so from somebody who is passionate about the subject. Jordan and Jillian are rightfully passionate about lettering and their work through their YouTube channel and their online teaching platform by the same name – ‘Loveleigh Loops’ is proof enough.

Loveleigh loops YouTube channel

“I was in eighth grade. I always decorated my homework pages with colorful lettering and borders and doodles. If anyone could make the words “Chapter 12: Homework” look less boring, it was me! Anyway… One spring afternoon after turning in my homework, my history teacher, Mr. B, told me to see him after class. Mind you, I was the straight-A student who never got in trouble, so I was terrified. After forty-five nerve-wracking minutes of class, I walked up to his desk. He held up my homework and said: “All this art and doodles? When you get to high school and college, your teachers are going to tell you to stop. Don’t ever stop.” I’ll never forget how unexpected and supportive his comment was.”

I do have a similar experience of my own. When was in my early teens I wanted to learn cursive writing. Almost all, including my own parents, were against that decision simply because they felt that I would get poor grades. They thought the teachers would find it difficult to read my answer scripts if I had written in cursive. My English teacher back then, Mrs. Sriyalatha Perera, thankfully encouraged me to learn cursive and that too in the proper way. To this day I write in cursive, and it indeed adds to my image, my identity.

“Lettering encompasses any letter, word or phrase that is drawn by hand. It focuses on the construction of the letter forms through drawing.”

Lettering, handwriting in general for that matter is a dying talent. With easy access to a keyboard nowadays people prefer to type in their documents rather than using ink and paper. Handwriting forces you to stay focused, dwell on the present moment and forget about the past and not worry about the future. Every pen stroke is your responsibility; every word you choose, you have to do so very considerately because unlike on a digital screen erasing is not an easy option.

“Calligraphy is considered to be part of the lettering category because it involves drawing letters using specific strokes. The characteristic look of calligraphy is achieved by a contrast between hairlines and shades (also known as thin and thick lines) within the letters.”
This booklet is a fascinating little treasure trove of step-by-step guidance into lettering with plenty of suggestions to make the ultimate result unique to you. No book can teach you to write, but they sure can guide, and this book sure does that. They guide you to start lettering with the basic resources you have. Plenty of joy with no added cost!"

If you still haven’t tried lettering yourself, or else if you still want to add a bit more flourish and flare to your handwritten notes, do grab this book. Read it, try out some of their suggestions. You will be surprised by your own results, and you will surely be amazed with the calmness it brings to your life. Happy reading and Happy writing 😊

Lettering for Planners: A Step-By-Step Guide to Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy for Bullet Journals and Beyond"

[Cynthia Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess the only way to create pretty fancy words in my planner is to practice! This book is a great start and explains how some of the extra fancy writing is created. Worthwhile read for me!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a lot of basic tips for hand lettering for beginners, including some examples and ideas for using the skill. A lot of the book is filled with blank pages to practise on but the size and structure of the book is not really conducive to writing (i.e. a coil binding would have been better to hold the pages open and the pages should be larger as the book is only 5 1/2 inches wide). Most likely you won't practise writing in the book, but take note that 60 of the 220 pages are blank.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slay?

[Felyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for beginners or people who have wondering how to even start handlettering in their planners. (Or anywhere, really.) I really enjoyed the thoroughness of the examples, and the fact there are simple banner and botanical embellishment how-tos. That's a really nice touch for people who want a little more deco to their planner pages.

I read the digital version of the book, which is fine since I have a dedicated lettering practice journal (yep, it's even a LT1917 woo). The paperback would be better for anyone just getting started as there are dot grid pages at the end of every chapter to practice what you've learned. I can't speak to the quality of the paper in that version, because again, I read the ebook, but you can get started with a pencil and an ordinary ballpoint pen on even the cheapest of paper.

If you're a novice or have done the #LoveYourLettering challenge/starter course, then there's not much in here that's going to be new to you. A few tidbits here and there, but nothing that would merit actually buying the book. (It's on Scribd, which is where I read it, or ask at your public library.)

[Andrea Rodrigues Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to learn lettering for your bujo!

I love loveleigh loops, and already knew their type of teaching. This book teaches the basic for hand lettering and calligraphy,especially towards those of us who like to embellish our planners or bullet journals. They give the theory, but the rest comes from you, your practice time! Recommend this to anyone that wants to make their planners look nicer.

[Wenqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything from Loveleigh Loops definitely deserve a 5 stars. As always, the twin sisters are so amazingly generous with their knowledge.

As someone who practises brushlettering for one year, I'm happy to learn that this book explains how to develop my own style, with lots of tips and examples to practise from.

No matter you're a beginner or an intermediate in brushlettering, I'm sure you'll gain new insights from this book.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plenty of examples, thorough explanation with the correct concepts, and different styles of lettering and flourishes. It could have had some more decoration ideas, but overall a thorough and varied book. Glad I bought this in a humble bundle!

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for hand lettering.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up a lot of helpful tips and used the book for a lot of practice. My faux calligraphy is getting much better and I made notes for continued practice.

[Kylie Cantwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little simplistic, very short chapters, but well focused for the target of planners and bullet journals.

[Tracie Sunseri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time to go decorate my planner!

[Dee’s Cozy Corner Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to practice. I wish they had traceable sheets.

[Adrijana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5. Dobra za totalne početnike.

[Pamela Likely · Rating 3 out of 5]

great reference to learn new techniques for lettering.

[Julian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This did not need to be a book.

[Allison Boyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro to hand lettering book

This book provides an excellent intro to get you starting in hand lettering. I especially enjoyed all the examples and ideas to help get the reader started. Jillian and Jordan break down hand lettering and calligraphy into into logical steps that make it easy to understand.