What is calligraphy really? Here’s where we scrape off any dull, half-hearted definitions that might be holding your calligraphy back.
Calligraphy is more than ‘beautiful handwriting’ or ‘ornate lettering techniques.’
Calligraphy is the art of forming beautiful symbols by hand and arranging them well.
It’s a set of skills and techniques for positioning and inscribing words so they show integrity, harmony, some sort of ancestry, rhythm and creative fire.
Useful notes:
Symbol here means a mark which has a specific agreed-upon meaning in a language, like a letter of the alphabet, a numeral or a word.
Integrity of a letter or other symbol means admirable proportions and form.
Harmony describes a pleasing relationship between different visual elements in a piece of calligraphy: parts of a letter, letters, words, the whole text and surrounding space.
Ancestry refers to the heritage of letter-shapes, materials and techniques which calligraphers use.
Rhythm means the calligrapher’s deliberate repetition and variation of marks and spaces to create feelings of pattern and emphasis when you look at the work.
So, next time a nice bit of ‘calligraphy’ passes you by in the street, ask yourself:
Perhaps you think I’m overdoing it. Not at all. Scroll down to the bottom to see a selection of ‘what is calligraphy’ comments by professional calligraphers.
Mythbusting: what is calligraphy not?
1. “What is calligraphy?” — “Ornamental decorated letters.”
Nope. Calligraphy is not just about decorated text, nor is it only about the use of letters as ornaments. It’s more than that.
True, calligraphic letters and pages are very often dressed up with some form of decoration: gold, colour, pattern, pictures, flourishes etc. (More about that elsewhere.) But this ornamental layer only decorates the underlying FORM. There is a big difference between a beautiful form and beautiful ornament on top of a form. Calligraphy is about symbols themselves being beautifully formed and arranged.
Think of the structure and form of an alphabet-letter, or even a whole page of text, as being like the bones and muscles of a body. Naked, undecorated calligraphy should look good just as it is, in the same way that athletes, models and healthy people would look good without their clothes on.
2. “What is calligraphy?” — “Beautiful handwriting.”
Not exactly and not entirely. Calligraphy means more than just beautiful handwriting.
True, the Greek derivation of ‘calligraphy’ translates simply as ‘beautiful writing’. But the word has taken on a larger meaning.
Bear in mind that the first goals of handwriting are to be quickly and easily written and accurately read. Beauty, personality and artistic impact are not as important in handwriting as clarity and speed.
So, although calligraphy is a kind of handwriting, and some handwriting is calligraphic in appearance, they are not the same. It’s the difference between ‘writing as an art form’ and ‘artistic-looking handwriting’. Calligraphy aims to produce an ‘art’ reaction, in which a deeper meaning is communicated from artist to viewer, and the viewer feels invited to think a new thought in response. Handwriting, by contrast, aims to be read.
3. “What is calligraphy?” — “It’s lettering that’s done by hand.”Well, no. Calligraphy is not exactly the same as ‘lettering.’
Lettering is a bigger subject than calligraphy: it is everything to do with the formation and use of alphabet letters to communicate meaning, and so it involves typography, sign-writing, graffiti, graphic design and many other disciplines.
Yes, calligraphy requires good letter-formation, and so calligraphy is a form or mode of lettering by hand. But ‘lettering’ and ‘calligraphy’ are still different disciplines.
Lettering can be excellent as lettering without having to be a piece of individual art (which is what calligraphy aims for). And, on the other hand, Chinese calligraphy (for example) can be the most beautiful art, but it doesn’t involve any kind of alphabet letters 🙂
There is a big overlap between calligraphy and lettering. But their purposes aren’t the same.
4. “What is calligraphy?” — “Just really old-style writing.”No, no, no. Calligraphy is not mere reproduction of historical alphabets.
True, calligraphers are highly conscious of the history of writing, and their work is shaped by a long, inventive heritage. Imitating historical handwriting is a wide, well-lit highway to calligraphic success because it gives us so much known beauty to learn from.
But only copying the handwriting-style or the work of others in the past is not the creative purpose of calligraphy.
Learning how to write historical hands is an excellent method of training the hand and eye, but it’s not the calligrapher’s final destination.
5. “What is calligraphy?” — “Oh, any kind of fancy font.”No, again! Calligraphy is not a font or a typeface.
Fonts are the styles of lettering used in machines and printing-presses. Yes, machine letters are a vital aspect of lettering and yes, beautiful fonts and typefaces are often designed by calligraphers.
Calligraphers even use software to arrange pieces and create or adjust letter-forms.
But the individual ‘stamp’ of the calligrapher’s personality on the work is ultimately what makes calligraphy an art form. The individual ‘fire’ or ‘soul’ which is unique to one piece doesn’t translate into letter-forms that have been standardized for machine use.
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