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Almost every day I think about the fact that, to so many readers and non-letterer creatives, their idea of good lettering is rooted in one of two extremes: either that it’s “invisible,” or extremely loud/flashy and overproduced. Very few appreciate the fundamentals.
Because of this, some of the absolute best letterers in the game are then severely underrated, or (at best) taken for granted. And they're doing some of the most cutting-edge and exciting things and getting ignored because it's not punching you in the face with every weird tail.
Melding the lettering with the art is a tricky balance, to be sure, and one that I am challenged with on every project. I used to be WAY too hyper-focused on developing "my style" when really I was ignoring the cohesion that needed to happen to make a better comic.
The best letterers are the ones who don't let "their styles" get in the way of working with the rest of the team. There's no ego at play, no bag of tricks that you can tell they're dying to use, regardless of whether or not it fits. They play WITH the band, not on top of it.
I love being able to spot a letterer's style in subtle ways in their work. Whether it's a certain placement approach/a technique they devised. But what I love even more is when I CAN'T immediately recognize them. When the harmony is pitch-perfect and they've disappeared entirely.
(I'm not sure why I went into a music metaphor here, but hopefully that makes sense)
Anyway! I have no idea what the solution is here. People like what they like and part of this is subjective. But I hope people can move past thinking of lettering as being in one of these two extremes, and start to see when it really shines somewhere on that scale.
