Heady days for hand lettering in Hong Kong and why it can pay to master the strokes

If you haven’t yet spotted the hand-lettering trend, you’re sure to start noticing it after you’ve read this. It’s everywhere – from book covers and film titles to magazines and social media. Big brands are employing artists to do live demonstrations and there has been a surge of interest in learning the traditional art.

Hand lettering is not to be confused with typography, which is about arranging type and almost always uses preformed letters. Hand lettering is a different skill – it’s about the art of drawing letters and as such is more illustration than graphic design. Technically, hand lettering (which involves multiple strokes using pens) is also different from calligraphy (which involves single strokes using brushes), but the terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

Hand lettering is a trend that has travelled the world and Hong Kong is no exception. Thirty-year-old Jeremy Tow has been fascinated with the art of drawing letters since he was six. He puts it down to two key influences: his Vietnamese mother and Cambodian father, both of whom had beautiful handwriting, and growing up in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a gritty suburb of Paris, where he was surrounded by graffiti artists.

“When I was at school, I was always trying to write nicely and was always the last one to finish writing,” says Tow, who moved to Hong Kong seven years ago and works as a brand designer. “I never stopped doing that. It was always fun.”