August 12, 2016

Article on 99U

99uMartinaflor

Sean Blanda interviewed me for 99u Magazine and we spoke about the lettering boom, social media, freelancing, success and life. Read it here.

 

July 2, 2016

My lettering work

THE DECISION

I believe I’m one of these people with big career turn and moving to Berlin has a lot to do with that. I started to work exclusively as a letter designer more or less at the same time that I moved to the city. Working as a graphic designer and being an art director for 7 years I had of course been doing typography related stuff before. Still, it wasn’t until I moved here that I decided to stop doing any other graphic design work and pursued making a living exclusively from my lettering work.

My first step towards it was to clean up my website of all the things that I had done but I didn’t want to do anymore. My second step was to print new business cards. This was my way to say to the world that I was a letterer.

businesscards-martinaflorMy first business cards as a letter designer

THE CONTEXT

Berlin is one of the cities with more type designers per square kilometre in the world. Berlin breaths typography: there’s monthly meetings (called Typostammtisch) where the typographic community comes together to discuss typography related topics, there’s a few conferences with a focus on the mater and there’s a vibrant community of designers working in the field. You can even find a  museum of Letters (Buchstabenmuseum) that rescues abandoned vernacular signs from the streets from all around Germany.

kosmetik

Vernacular signs are all over the place in Berlin

Traditionally Germany has a focus on formal typography. Topics as readability, legibility and clarity are essential. And these are all things that my work doesn’t necessarily pursue. My work is colourful and expressive, at times is even not readable. It's about conveying an idea and telling a story. For this I use letter shapes that combined with color and texture create a new visual text.

I was truly hesitant whether this typographic community would accept my approach to letter design. Topping all my expectations, this community welcomed my work and ultimately triggered it. Throughout these years living and working in Berlin my work became more colourful, expressful and playful than i's ever been.

THE WORK

When started working commercialy with lettering I quickly realised that I had to improve my workflow. On the first place, to be able to manage multiple projects at the same time. On the second place, to cope with tight deadlines of agencies and publishing houses. My work process is moulded through that and has become more effective with the time.

Throughout this years I have parallel run a few side projects. The biggest one that I started was Lettering vs Calligraphy, where together with calligrapher Giuseppe Salerno we organised an online battle that got a lot of attention from the audience and the media. That was one of the most exciting times of my life. Also, the way this project improved my work showed me for the first time the impact that this sort of endeavours may have in your bulk of work and the sort of commissions you get.

letteringvscalligraphy

The variety of letters we created together with Giuseppe Salerno.

Some years after that I started Letter Collections where I was designing and sending postcards to friends, colleagues and complete strangers. As a result, I created a collection of 100 postcards where I experimented with several lettering styles that informed my work immensely

Side projects, commercial work and my teaching has been my main occupations during this years. Thanks to the growing attention towards my work, I have been regularly invited to speak at conferences.

THE TALKS

Speaking about my work and teaching has been one of the most nurturing things I have done so far in my career. It pushed me to organise my ideas, to question my methods and to identify what is important and what is not.

I have the luck to travel often to speak at design and type conferences, and it amazes me every time the fact that I share the stage with people I have admired since I was a young design student. Speaking about my work is just something I love to do and allows me to keep in mind the few things that are essential.

thegoldensecretsoflettering-slideThe title and the slides of my presentations about my experience at teaching lettering where made my hand. 

TypeCon 2014 was the conference where for the first time I presented a talk exclusively focused on my teaching. I gave a similar talk at AtypI 2014. Breaking down my teaching method into a few clear simple steps that would fit in a 20 minutes presentation made me realise that I had an own personal method, that it was also didactic and certainly effective to achieve personal results. These talks, called after my online clases The Golden Secrets of Lettering first planted the idea of making a book about it in my head. And so I did.

 

line

In my next post I'll be speaking about my the book Lust auf Lettering and its content. Click here to read it. 

Join thousands of readers in this community and upgrade your lettering skills! If you're as excited as I am, send this link to a friend, so they can subscribe too. 

March 24, 2015

My new Skillshare Class

I'm really excited to release my new online class 'The Golden Secrets of Lettering' on Skillshare.  It's rewarding to be able to share my skills and reach students across the globe where I mostly find hard to go with my workshops.

The concept of this class is based on my Letter Collections  project where I design and send postcards around the globe and will share my making of process with you. Together, we will go through the assignment of creating a piece of lettering for the perfect postcard: from concept, to sketch to digitisation, including tips to add texture and color to your final work.

martinaflor-skillshare


In this class we will start by training our ‘typographic eye’ by looking at examples of typographic pieces that surround us. I'll show you some theoretical principles to understand the structure of letter shapes and I'll share with you the technique I use to sketch and achieve more extreme, personal and interesting results.

skillshareclass-martinaflor

This class is suitable for beginners as well as for those with previous experience who want to go a step forward into the art of lettering and expand their set of creative skills. You'll walk away from this class with a sharper eye when working with typography and essential and practical tools to draw lettering and to guide your own improvement afterwards. After this class, you will see typography in a completely different way.

Watch the trailer and enroll in the class here.

skillshare-martinaflor

This makes my online classes available in two languages: English (at Skillshare) and Spanish (at Domestika.org). What's next? A class in german language perhaps?

October 16, 2013

Talk at Selected D Conference

I'm travelling to Bilbao to give a Talk at Selected D Conference. I'll speak about drawing letterforms and the importance of sketching on design processes.

October 16, 2013

Future lettering Workshop in Berlin

I'm giving a workshop in Lettering techniques at MAKE - Skilled Hands, a new place for Berlin based workshops and events. You can already save a spot.

October 16, 2013

Official Good Type Diplomas

I have brand new official diplomas for my Good Type Workshops. I used my Supernova and a new typeface I'm about to release.

August 16, 2013

Lettering Workshop in Berlin

In this is a hands-on intensive workshop you will drive the process of thinking, drawing and refining a custom lettering. In this one day  session you will be introduced to effective techniques to create a lettering from scratch.

It is ideal for beginners and for those with previous experience who want to improve their techniques to draw type. You will walk away from this workshop with a sharper eye when working with letters and with practical tools that will improve your own creative work.

The workshop will be documented at Good Type site and participants will get an official diploma.The session will be held by Martina Flor, a Designer and Letterer based in Berlin on the 5th of October  2013 from 12.30 to 19 hs. (with a coffee break in between) at Betahaus Berlin. Limited to the first 12 applicants.

What you need to bring: your favourite mechanical pencil. All the materials will be provided.
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SOLD OUT!

Location: Betahaus Berlin - Prinzessinnenstraße 19-20, 10969 Berlin.

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January 2, 2013

Happy New year!

The greetings card we made together with Giuseppe Salerno for our project letteringvscalligraphy.com. Happy new year for everyone!

December 6, 2012

3 for 13 postcards give away!

I am giving away 20 signed and stamped 3for13 postcards tomorrow December 7th.Pay attention to my twitter @martinaflor or my Facebook. I will give an e-mail address and all you will have to do is sending me your name and address by e-mail.

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Mañana 7 de Diciembre voy a regalar 20 tarjetas 3 for 13 selladas. Está atento a mi twitter @martinaflor or my Facebook. Voy a postear una dirección de e-mail. Todo lo que tenés que hacer es enviarme tu nombre y dirección por correo electrónico.

 

Sparrstraße 20,
13353 Berlin, Germany (by appointment only)
+49 (0) 30 33877574 

Sparrstraße 20,
13353 Berlin, Germany (by appointment only)
+49 (0) 30 33877574 

Sparrstraße 20,
13353 Berlin, Germany (by appointment only)
+49 (0) 30 33877574 

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©2019 Studio Martina Flor. All rights reserved.

 

 ©2019 Studio Martina Flor. All rights reserved.