Reviwing Shop Keepers’ Lettering

Before back room printers and system fonts a rich brach of everyday calligraphy existed at grocery stores and super markets. For decades lettering, done by amateur scribes like shop keepers themselves, was used to make price tags on shop shelves and window posters announcing sales on a daily basis. Besides of that practical communication, writing style also worked as a signature for each store. It was marketing done by marker pens.

The writing followed certain rules which constituted the style in common for all writers. Yet everyone brought his or her personal mannerisms into texts to season the looks and making shop interiors unique. The rules kept lettering uniform and speeded up the process of writing. Arces are straightened into almost straight strokes connected with angles. This execrated the construction of the letters and leaved components of letters visible, an feature was further enforced by typical miss alignment of the parts. However, as any handwriting, it took a waste amount of practice to master the technique fluently. Some did it well, while others relied more on their personal charisma in lettering style. At it’s best the marker pen lettering was a combination of ambitious writing skills together with delightfully personal letter forms.

Strokes were typically done from bottom to top and with a nip angle flipped from classic calligraphy. Quickly drawn lines formed a kind of Broken Script where a corner often appears between the curved lines. In a continuous writing some connection points changed into a pointy curves when two strokes were drawn in a single stroke. Just as it happened for Roman letterforms in unofficial handwriting in the 15th century. This kind of italicization puts an attractive beat into marker pen lettering.