Create a Signature-Style Logo

The Typism Skills Summit is a series of masterclasses by lettering professionals, developed with our online community in mind. You can access the 85+ instructional videos from the summit as part of your Typism Membership.

This week we are taking a look at how to create your very own Signature-Style Logo using brush pens with lettering artist Matt Vergotis.

Matt Vergotis is a left-handed lettering artist based on the Gold Coast, Australia. He loves to surf, design labels for beer companies, and create typefaces in his spare time. He is best known to the Typism community for his signature brush pen lettering styles, such as these ones:

Meet your Typism Tutor: Matt Vergotis

In this Typism Skills Summit masterclass, Matt will teach you how to use brush pens to create your very own Signature-Style Logo, just like this one.

Tools

Matt starts off by showing us his lineup of lettering tools, including markers, brush pens and pencils. You can complete the activities in the masterclass using a pencil and a basic brush pen, but there are links to buy some of Matt's tools below if you want to practice like a pro.

Staedtler Mars Technico 780C Mechanical Lead holder

Tombow 62039 Fudenosuke Brush Pens

Refillable Calligraphy Brush Pens

Pentel Fude Brush Pen

 SAKURA Pigma Micron Black Ink

Pencil: Warmups

When starting this process, you need to warm up using a pencil. According to Matt, this helps to build muscle memory that will help you later on when your start using your brush pens.

In the masterclass, Matt shows us how he fills pages and pages of lettering. He experiments with writing the same word over and over using multiple different styles. Try different speeds and hand placement to learn how the letters of your signature will work together.

Brush Pen: Warmups

 After the pencil warm-ups, it is time to pick up your brush pen. Again, Matt advises you should spend some time warming up using your brush pen. This will help you get familiar with the best approaches that suit the word and style of the brush pen.

Some pens are much softer than others and lend themselves to different techniques, so spend some time getting to know how your pen responds now.

Brush Pen: Styles

Once you have warmed up using a pencil and then your brush pens, you can begin to make some creative decisions about how your wordmark will look.

In this section of the masterclass, Matt demonstrates how to decide on your style and refine the finished piece. It is not an easy process, and it might take some time before you are satisfied with the results.

Matt suggests you trace and repeat your brush lettering multiple times and then refine the finished wordmark with a Micron.

A final tip from Matt: The brush pen gives a flow and energy to the wordmark and then finishing with a fine-tip Micron ensures the edges of your wordmark are clean. You can then scan and vectorise the finished wordmark easily once you've cleaned it up by hand.

There are 85+ videos in the Typism Skills Summit included with the Typism Membership, as well as the Typism Conference Talks and Membership Roadmap. Click here to find out more about it.