Hand lettered, angled and curved text: Which way? How much? How far? Good question. Most of us take text for granted. We see it nearly everyday of our lives starting from a very young age. Its purpose is universal.

Text allows societies to transmit information and share knowledge. Without it? Chaos. Although, there is a certain amount of chaos, due to the sheer variety of text images worldwide – Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Russian, etc. However, for the purpose of making signs, we’ll focus on English and its artistic treatments found in our culture.

Enter: The Sign Makers!

Sign makers have perfected artistic text. Specifically, we’ve done this by adding dimension, flourishes, faux finishes, and creative alternatives. However, the industry’s most significant contribution is form. This means the shape of the text block and its direction.  Furthermore, with the advent of computer graphics software, creative sign designs have flourished. Still, hand-lettering skills have held their own. These applications run from plain to fancy, including hand-carved gold leaf. Although traditional hand applications are still used and revered, combining them with computer-assisted designs now proliferates the industry. The results are spectacular.

A logical, predictable pattern

But, which way? How much? How far? If we consider using angled text on a sign, we make sure that it always angles ‘uphill’ (with the right side higher than the left). It simply looks better, and ninety-nine percent of angled text finishes upwards. See how this works in the SweetSpot Guitars graphic. Next, curved text should follow a logical, predictable pattern. It should curve no more than twice. One curve has sufficient impact, as shown in the Letterheads Signs and Show Cards graphic.

As sign designers, our challenge is to fit text into the available space and in the most beautiful and effective way possible. Even though most signs use horizontal text – since it’s the most readable and designed to be written in horizontal lines – the world is overloaded with it. So, every now and then, an angled or curved text element can catch people’s attention simply because it’s different.

We specialize in communication art!

Paxton Signs’ more than 39 year history includes hundreds of signs. Some are major monument signs, some small business signs. We’ve created ranch signs, lighted signs, signs made from recycled wood, hand-painted signs, carved signs, vehicle and fleet graphics – a continuous variety of communication art, serving Fort Collins, northern Colorado, and surrounding mountain communities.

Find us on Pinterest at, https://www.pinterest.com/boliver0474/

You can view Paxton Signs’ quality gold leaf signs at, www.paxtonsigns.com/dimensional-signs/