Xandra Zamora: calligraphic hands

Designing Women presents Xandra Y. Zamora, a master at calligraphy, hand lettering, and classic styled quill work! Don’t miss this inspiration in hand lettering

Xandra Y. Zamora calligraphic hands

Having discovered and featured Carol Kemp
Carol Kemp in Designing Women, our ventures on the web lead us to another of those extraordinary women, Xandra Y. Zamora. Where Carol is aspiring into the uncharted realms of hand lettering, Xandra is firmly grounded in the sublime classics.

Xandra has been trained and has had experience in nearly every calligraphic hand — and she specializes and excels in pointed pen. Now, in case you don’t know what that is — you should: the pointed nib has a sharp point rather than a broad edge. Thick and thin strokes are achieved by varying the amount of pressure on the nib. Thick lines are created on downstrokes by pushing down on the nib, causing the nib tines to splay and allowing more ink to flow through the widened slit onto the writing surface. (more). If you ever try it, you’ll find it’s one of the most difficult and demanding arts of all calligraphy and lettering. While I was fairly good at the chisel point, and other calligraphy pens, I never could get to first base with the sharp point. Where most people are dismal failures — Xandra has become a virtuoso.

announcement scripts are the most difficult

99% of the world would use a computer font to do their announcements. You just cannot create this on a computer. Maybe after laborious drawing, sketching, and refining, then scanning and vectoring — you might eke this out. But to take a quill and letter this takes a master. (Here’s the whole card.)

beautiful lettering sends a visual and mental message

Xandra has studied with some of the world’s foremost calligraphic artists, having started out on her own, until discovering the Society for Calligraphy. XYZ Ink was launched in 1998 and Xandra has been providing calligraphy and design services from her studio in Los Angeles, California ever since.

calligraphy can send an emotion ... a message of mood and tone

Have you ever met someone and instantly thought … “Kiss me” ? Does this card send the message? Loud and clear! In these samples you see she can embody the feeling and intent of the product in the lettering. Do you love chocolate? So do I!

color ads to the overall visuals with good, clean pen script

Many of her clients are household names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Ozzy Osbourne, Quincy Jones, John Travolta and Oprah Winfrey. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines such as Brides, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Letter Arts Review, People and US Magazines, as well as print, television, and films such as Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Her work may also be seen in many books, such as Modern Mark Making: From Classical Calligraphy to Hip Hand-Lettering, and Simple Stroke Calligraphy.

Whether you wish to try your hand at true calligraphy, want your own personalized lettering for special occasions, or you just need to get a visual shot-in-the-arm for a classic mood, then be sure to bookmark the extraordinary works of Xandra Y. Zamora.

xyzink.com

Thanks for reading

Fred Showker

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