Editorial desk · Practical notes

Collect references without copying a whole sign

Photograph lettering you encounter where photography is permitted. Record what interests you: a rounded corner, the shape of a numeral or the rhythm of a word. Keep the source with your notes.

On a separate page, make small studies of the feature you noticed. Then try that idea with a different word and your own arrangement. The aim is to understand a design decision rather than reproduce someone else’s finished work.

Organize references by the question they help answer, such as spacing or contrast. A small annotated collection is easier to use than hundreds of unlabeled images.