Hand Lettering: National Parks

A trio of topographic maps depict three National Parks in the United States, and brush lettering screen printed onto the maps are the parks’ names. This project was  self-motivated after studying traditional Italic hand lettering and transitioning to watercolor brush lettering. 

The warm memories of family vacations spent exploring National Parks across the nation inspired this project. As a thank-you gift to my father and his significant other for these memories, these three pieces commemorate those times in three of my favorite parks. Rocky Mountain  National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and Yellowstone National Park are a few of our most special and memorable vacations together. 

Brush lettering needs a flowing feel to the letters and phrase to look natural and to achieve the best letterforms. The names of the three parks were repeated across butcher paper dozens of times to get the desired effect. These images around this text are examples which inspired my work.

A company called MyTopo prints custom topographic maps focusing on any part of the world one chooses, with varying sizes and types of materials. These maps were printed 11”x15” on 18”x24” waterproof paper, and the brush lettering was converted to screens to  be screen printed. Each place’s name is in a color representative of the mood and colors of the place.