Reddit reviews Logo, Font & Lettering Bible

This book has never let me down. 10 years in the biz and I still refer to it all the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Lettering-Bible-Leslie-Cabarga/dp/1581804369

You said it below: practice. The pen tool is a bitch to learn, but then it becomes your best friend. Some people suggest live tracing your scanned image to have a base outline and then modify the points. I, personally, have never found this useful and only serves to frustrate me more. I'm no master at digitizing sketches, but I find it best to just manually trace your work rather than rely on the janky Live Trace tool. One of the best bits of advice about learning how to master it are found in Leslie Cabarga's Logo, Font, & Lettering Bible in the section re: Points in Extrema.

I can't explain it any more succinctly than the author himself does, and absolutely suggest picking up this book for some very useful bits of information re: mastering Illustrator tools and treatment techniques. It's very easy to read and, despite a godawful layout straight out of 1993, is one of the best design technique books I've come across lately.

Godspeed.

I've been on a total typography book binge recently!

• Letter Fountain - This book is AMAZING! It's comprehensive, gorgeous and heavy. Note: There's a lot of overlapping information in all these recommendations, so if you buy just one book on typography from my list, make it this one.
  
• Designing Type by Karen Cheng - This book is a great one to get if you are designing a typeface yourself. It takes a close look at all of the letters and characters (serif and sans-serif) describing their key features, comparing and contrasting notable variations of significant typefaces and basically serving as an excellent reference.
  
• Logo Font & Lettering Bible by Leslie Cabarga - This one is a lot of fun, with a focus on practical tips, ie: software tips and tricks. If you're interested in illustration or decorative typefaces, this is the one to get. (I know if you judge this one by its cover and Amazon's 'look inside' preview it may not look the best, but the actual printed volume is attractive, dense and a joy to browse.) [EDIT: The paperback has a much nicer cover! This is the one I have.]
  
• Book Design by Andrew Haslam - Everything you might want to know about book design, naturally! I haven't read much else on this subject, but this seemed excellent to me. A great mix of history and practical advice for designing all kinds of book.
  
• Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works by by Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger - Smaller, but full of good information. This was one of the first 'proper' books on typography I read and I think it serves as a great introduction to the subject. If you only have a passing interest in the type, try this book. It reads like an opinionated personal essay. Perhaps skip it if you are looking to get hands-on quickly.
  
  Finally, I strongly don't recommend Type Matters! If you see it in the store you may be tempted - it's a very attractive leather-bound book with sexy black and red illustrations - but I found it to be overly simplistic. It also looks like there's quite a lot of reading to be had, but the vast majority of the text in there is all repeated sample copypasta. (And if I wasn't disappointed enough in the book, the elastic came loose on my copy!)

Best 20$ I ever spent as a designer http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581804369/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cuup-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1581804369

This is a list of books that was suggest to me by John Langdon (An internationally known typographer for his ambigram used in The DaVinci Code) while I was taking his class in College:

Type Directors Club Annuals: I just recently picked up the latest issue of this (32 I believe) and it shows current works of typography across a broad spectrum of mediums. These are great because they feature only current work and many of the featured designs are extremely creative and pushing the envelope in terms of readability and style.

Logo Lounge Master Library Vol. 1: I do not have a copy of this book but I have thumbed through it briefly and it features tons of logos that mainly deal with letter forms. This is certainly on my personal list of books I would like.

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1: I recently purchased this book as well and I have to say it is a MASSIVE collection of vintage typography and ornaments from type founders all over the world. The majority of the samples in this book are from before the 1900's so you are almost guaranteed to not recognize anything in it. Excellent resource for inspiration!

Logo, Font & Lettering Bible: This is another book on my list. Covers a broad spectrum of lettering and is also good for learning fundementals.

Some other books he has suggested to me but I have not personally look through or read are: Type & Typography, Fonts & Logos, and finally John Langdon's book: Wordplay.

I hope this helps!

If you're interested in font design, I would suggest you check out this book by Leslie Carbaga. Even if you're not interested in font design in particular, I would still suggest it... it's an amazing book, and a joy to read and look at.

I'm still learning myself so some of these books I'm recommending depend on your skillset and interest I guess. For typedesign and understanding fundamentals: Designing type is a good read, same with Stroke. Free stuff like briem superhandy. As a primer I'd read this before I buy a type design book. For lettering I don't really have books of preference. I generally go googling for info on whatever I may have a doubt in or if I just need inspiration. Like if I were looking at script, I'd look at works by Tony di spigna, tommy thompson, david quay and the like. When I once had a doubt about negative space within letters, I googled and stumbled upon this which helped. so for lettering it's a bit all over the place where I mostly just got info from googling. However if you want a book in lettering for a beginner-intermediate then logo,font & lettering gets you upto speed on a lot of things though he can be a lil old in his methods. Also books by Mortimer Leach and Doyald Young. For calligraphy I think I mostly learnt it from speedball manuals and then just googled but more importantly I did a lot of writing which is why I picked up on it. I think to understand type properly you need to do some calligraphy, once you get a grasp on calligraphy, typedesign makes sense so you go buy type design books, eventually lettering becomes super easy.

> You’re using too many points.

It turns out I was using too few, actually. I drew this font in illustrator by using as little points as possible (I'm lazy), but Fontcreator couldn't deal with some of the long handles, which fucked some of the curves up.
I know what a 'good' font is supposed to look like, but as I've pointed out before: that's not what I'm going for.

(As for that Bible, I had a look at it on amazon, but the front and back cover have some of the worst typography I've ever seen, so I think I'll pass.)

I'm new to design as well but I just happened to read something that you might find as a valuable critique. Check out this book and "Look Inside" at pages 10 and 11. I think some of the points the author raises about some of those logos -- irregularity of certain features among letters, namely -- will apply to yours as well. For example

• in the logo, the T is slanted but that is not the case in any other design you have
  
  
• the width of the stem of the T and the L and the E are all different
  
  
• it's not clear if there is a reason why the F, E, and R are not specialized but the U, C, and I are not -- it makes the text hard to read
  
• the lack of an F in the forum sig is especially confusing
  
  Personally, I like they style and think it's very creative; but I don't think it serves the function you'd like it as well as you'd like -- I had to read your username in order to initially pick up on your nickname from your design.

I actually got into typography because of Leslie Cabarga's Logo, Font, and Lettering Bible.

I think it's a typography goldmine regardless of whether you're completely new to this or already have some experience. And it's really entertaining, too.
If you don't have a problem pirating it, you can PM me for a torrent link.