Architect Style

[a11en]

Hey Bob and Will!

 

When the University threw out some old drafting tables, Dad snagged up 2 of them. One has a great flat green-writing surface. A *huge* table. Certainly could do blue-print sized work on it if you wanted to... doesn't tilt. The second is a great old draft-table with 2/3 of the table that can tilt, it's tall, so you use a stool to sit at, and there are drawers and a back that has a place for paper and folders to slide in vertically (small vertical door in the back). Gorgeous. I hope to eventually get that one if I'm lucky.

 

Through the drafting course I learned how to draw better circles and straighter lines (look where the line is going to end up, don't watch the pencil tip move along the paper!!)... it's served me well numerous times. As well, there are some things that are just much easier to remember when you've done them slowly by hand. Like the hidden-lines... do they connect or don't they connect to the line? [Dashes that touch, or dashes that don't.] etc. CAD does this for you almost automatically, but of course, it can be wrong- but you wouldn't know unless you remembered the rules.

 

But, I'm making myself out to be some sort of draftsman. I'm defnitely not!! Just an engineering student who's done a bit of work with a machinist and taken the intro course. Nothing like these guys who can actually write in draft-style lettering!! <bows down here>

 

Thanks for the great thread!! This has been a ton of fun. I miss the days when I could take pride in my hand-drawn draft homework! [i'm checking now on the templates we used for the lettering- if there's a copyright symbol, I might have to do a bit of sample lettering and post that instead of the lettering guide.. I'm a wuss. ]

 

Cheers!

-Allen

[a11en]

Hi guys! I found the lettering sheet from my drafting course. I have no idea about the copyright validity of supplying it here- does anyone have any comments regarding this? As far as I can tell the book was compiled by a prof. and there is no acknowledgement of the copyright holders.

 

-Allen

[WillAdams]

Alphabet designs and lettering exemplars are ``useful articles'' and hence exempt from copyright.

 

Lettering _instructions_ (text beyond numbering beginning and end of strokes) can be copyrighted however.

 

So, scan the examples, remove any text beyond fair use (the title, source &c.) and you should be good.

 

William

[a11en]

Ok! Excellent. I'll chop things up a bit, and then post soon. I hope it won't be disappointing... it's a *very* simple script.

 

-Allen

[a11en]

Ok, guys, here it is... hopefully this works... will try the new attachment system...

 

-Allen

[Ann Finley]

It worked!

 

Best, Ann

[Kalessin]

By the way, if you look closely at the example at full size, there are numbered arrows to put down your strokes in order, which was taught to me as being important for engineering lettering. Some of the strokes are not in the order that you would have been taught for printing when learning how to write in elementary school. Note that on the D, you write the left-hand vertical line as a downstroke first, then a little "foot" out to the right, and then lift your pencil, start at the top of the vertical, and connect a loop down to the foot. Way-back-when, we used only uppercase letters on engineering drawings.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Kalessin

[a11en]

Ha, very interesting regarding the order of writing! I tell ya, they were really weird to learn at the time- especially the 8. Two small half-circles on the top, and two larger half-circles on the bottom. Really weird to draw at first- same with the 6. Although, I still sometimes tend to draw my 6's that way even still.

 

Glad to be a contributor here, guys. An absolutely wonderful thread. It was great to see the amazing lettering that some of you learned to do from scratch. I can't even come close to what I could do in class anymore, so it's all a bit lost at the moment.

 

My best to all of you this week!!

-Allen

[James Pickering]

Toward the end of WW2 I moonlighted as an Engineering Draftsman (Brit: Draughtsman) and therefor employed Capital Roman Lettering (Capitalis Monumentalis) extensively at that time:

 

http://jp29.org/cal73.JPG

http://jp29.org/cal74.JPG

Edited September 7, 2006 by James Pickering

[James Pickering]

.......... continued:

 

The Roman Capital letterforms employed by Engineering Draftsmen and Architects were more uniformly square than the original Capitalis Monumentalis -- more akin to the Inscriptional letterforms found on Roman Imperial coins as shown in my following exemplars:

 

http://jp29.org/cal234s.JPG

 

http://jp29.org/inscriptionheader.JPG

[James Pickering]

.......... and more:

 

I forgot to add to the below exemplar that we frequently used our T squares as a lettering base so the the bottoms of the letterforms were squared off (I don't have a T square at present to illustrate that):

 

http://jp29.org/cal327s.JPG

[a11en]

James,

 

Those examples are fantastic! I love them! To be honest, I think they have a lot more class than the letterforms I attached! Fantastic that you can still do them!

 

[bTW, I can't see the shakiness! Besides- we can't expect to produce type like a computer! Some little variation tells me it's a human doing it. And your examples are fantastic!]

 

Wish I could have as good a script! Thanks for taking the time to share it!

 

One of my earlier memories as a kid was playing with Dad's T-square... something like a gun, I think... he had a great T- nice black plastic end, and clear plastic smooth sides for easy use/viewing through the plastic. Of course he didn't really like me running around the house with his T-square.

 

My best!

-Allen

 

[who's secretly jealous of James' lettering...]

[James Pickering]

And, of course, the Engineering Draftsman or Architect must have a good small Roman or minuscule hand for notes, references, lists of accessories, etc.

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal71.jpg

http://www.jp29.org/cal72.jpg

[James Pickering]

Thank you for your kind comments, Allen, and for your appreciative interest in this capitivating subject.

[a11en]

Thanks for your submissions of your lettering! As well, thanks go to the original starter of the thread, StanSoph, as this has been a very interesting thread. Honestly, I never thought back to my lettering in drafting class at all when I got started into FP's. I laughed when I read it, and realized that I had had some instruction (although minor) in lettering, and vowed I'd try it again.

 

It's been great to see the wonderful drafting letters and styles that everyone has used in the past, and I have to admit it's wonderful that you guys can all do it so well still! Even with the short time I haven't been doing it for, (approx. 10-12 years), I've completely lost it. (except for my o's and 8's) I'll jump back in here and practice a bit.

 

Hat's off to everyone on the thread who submitted lettering examples, they're all wonderful!

 

If I try my hand at this again at all, I'll be sure to show you guys all of it's ugliness. he he

 

My best!!

-Allen

 

ps- James- if you don't mind, in WWII, what was your primary work? My grandfather was RCAF loaned to RAF as a Whimpy Wellington pilot. (feel free to private message if you would prefer)

[PinarelloOnly]

Here is a quick sketch I did for someone recently who had to finish building their

home which required pouring a slab and building their steps coming out of the Bilco

head. Because they were pouring a new slab they needed a permit from the town they

lived in which required a drawing of some sort to put on file. Sooo stupid these

towns lately. I got a bottle of Ardbeg out of the deal.

 

http://fototime.com/%7BA52471F9-1E8C-43E4-BDBC-3B813E98A599%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B60ED0530-6A55-4574-9F9A-B3408FECA07A%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B032570B0-7A54-4465-8B2A-A6D30F9D33F8%7D/picture.JPG

Edited September 9, 2006 by PinarelloOnly

[rosey]

Beautiful penmanship everyone! I'm enjoying this topic immensely and would love to be able to write like this, as I print everything anyway. I'm trying to take pointers from here and practice them but I'm very impatient with myself!

[StanSoph]

Here is a quick sketch I did for someone recently who had to finish building their

home which required pouring a slab and building their steps coming out of the Bilco

head. Because they were pouring a new slab they needed a permit from the town they

lived in which required a drawing of some sort to put on file. Sooo stupid these

towns lately. I got a bottle of Ardbeg out of the deal.

 

http://fototime.com/%7BA52471F9-1E8C-43E4-BDBC-3B813E98A599%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B60ED0530-6A55-4574-9F9A-B3408FECA07A%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B032570B0-7A54-4465-8B2A-A6D30F9D33F8%7D/picture.JPG

That is IT!! The style I was after. Thanks for all the posts everyone it turned out to be a wonderful topic. Thanks again.

[Ann Finley]

PinarelloOnly, I really like the angular (as opposed to rounded) letters in the Architect style, most especially, the "a," "r," & "u." I also like your "m" going below the baseline and the "g" a lot.

 

I'm thinking like Stan--this is what I think of when I think of Architect style.

 

Best, Ann

[PinarelloOnly]

Thank you very much Ann and StanSoph,

 

Another “type” of architectural printing of my hand which is way more “angular”

can be found in my Aurora Blue Ink review. The style looks a lot better when it’s used

well on a drawing than being mashed up into paragraphs. I used it when working for an

independent contractor firm once but now I work for a utility in the nuclear industry and

that type of hand in the Aurora Ink review is too architectural for electrical drawings so

what you see above is my “daily “hand.

 

Thanks.

 

Scott.

 

 

Aurora Blue