Author Archives: steveczajka

Designer Type – One Letter at a Time

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Rotunda aSteve Czajka on Designer Type
Since I was a kid, I have been surround by letters as my Father owned his own sign painting shop. Letters were in my blood. My Father would take me to the job sites where he worked, and his sign shop occupied most of our basement. As his helper, he showed me the ropes to old school hand lettering and sign painting. Continue reading →

The Genesis of Designer Type

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The idea for Designer Type came to me around 2010 while working on a piece called, “Wild Horses.” I was using a common graphic design technique called ‘paste up.’ I had used paste up in the 1980s where I created an entire composition based on the best lines of calligraphy, then paste them onto an artboard — an old school technique prior to the digital age. Continue reading →

Making the Jump into Digital Calligraphy

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GIMP Magazine - Issue 9 v4-page001So many people have asked me how to move authentic traditional calligraphy & illustrations into the digital world.  I started calligraphy back in the 1980s, and my first digital calligraphy piece was around the mid 1990s when “Pagemaker” was king.  All of my calligraphy today is still authentically created by hand, but the vast majority of my work is digitally post processed. Here are my recommended steps to get you started into this totally creative world of digital calligraphy. Continue reading →