Learn Calligraphy, Penmanship and the Lettering Arts

“Our intention is to ensure that the art of beautiful writing does not just survive, but truly thrives”  - Suzie McKig, Founder

Since men started writing in stone, the lettering arts have been practised on every continent on earth for centuries. This human artform merits an international center of education. In establishing Ink Academy, we are building a full online curriculum of classes, accessible from anywhere in the world with full one-on-one mentorship. Taught by Master level instructors, each specializing in a unique range of style. Our wider aim is to propagate calligraphy within contemporary culture as a vibrant means of expression, communication, and letter-based art form. By providing excellence in education across all aspects of practical and historical calligraphy, penmanship & lettering arts, thus saving this valuable culture from extinction!

Founder

Suzie McKig became involved with calligraphy as co-owner of and artistic director or Twig & Fig—a custom event invitation design and production company based in Berkeley, California, USA. After working closely with a number of calligraphers over the years, she too was passionate to learn calligraphy. She sought out taking classes and got frustrated.  Learning calligraphy was an episodic process—a weekend workshop here, a couple of classes there. It would take her years to piece together a basic education in calligraphy. In collaboration with Master calligraphers she sought out, plans were hatched for a new school offering live and online classes. Where people from anywhere in the world would have the opportunity to learn calligraphic arts from recognised Masters. In this moment, Ink Academy was born.

Suzie began envisioning a place that could mirror the scholastic institutions like the Zanerian College of Penmanship and Bryant & Stratton Business College. Places that heralded the Golden Age of Penmanship in the United States from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. A place where she and others could learn everything they wanted on a regular timeline and schedule. The academy will maintain a beautiful digital environment that is both warm and visually luxurious.  An environment where you learn and appreciate the craft, through exceptional cinematographic techniques, as if the camera rides your Mentor’s nib!

Academic Director

Michael Sull  is considered America’s foremost living Spencerian penman, the author of “Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship”, “Learning to Write Spencerian Script”, and “American Cursive Handwriting”. Michael has published various other educational materials focusing on pen writing.  He travels around the world, teaching and promoting the Spencerian Script. Michael is excited to encourage and foster future Spencerian enthusiast, and mentor potential Master Penman around the world!

Perks - Online Courses

We have added all the Ink Academy online courses to our Indiegogo page. Here is the full overview of all the different options:

Calligraphy courses: the calligraphy courses include 12 online lessons taught by Master Penman Michael Sull (Spencerian and Ornamental Penbmanship), MP Barbara Calzolari (Copperplate and Gothicized Italic) and Giovanni de Faccio (Fraktur). In these online courses you will learn all foundational drills from the very beginning to assure proper form and study path and experience a full exploration of minuscules, majuscules and their variations, numbers and associated techniques. You will receive 12 homework assignments to be completed between each class. 

The “Basic” versions of our online courses include the full online video series taught by our Faculty teacher PLUS you will be assigned your own Master Student advisor that will guide you throughout the course. Your assigned Ink.Academy Master Student will correct your homework assignments and mentor your progress to assure you stay on track and supported throughout the full course. These courses are now available on our Indiegogo Campaign for $650 ($875 value). 

The VIP versions of our online courses include the full online video series taught by our Faculty teacher PLUS you will be mentored by the same Faculty instructor that will guide you throughout the course. Your assigned Ink.Academy Master instructor will correct your homework assignments and mentor your progress to assure you stay on track and supported throughout the full course. Typically there will be approximately 30 minutes they spend to correct your homework plus an additional FaceTime video mentorship of 30 minutes per lesson (in this case 12). This option is now available on our Indiegogo Campaign for $750 ($1035 value)

• Spencerian Course (VIP option with MP Michael Sull available) - Anticipated release date Fall 2017
• Ornamental Penmanship (VIP option with MP Michael Sull available) -Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Copperplate Course - Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Gothicized Italic - Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Fraktur Course - Anticipated release date Summer 2018

Advanced Classes: we offer these specialized courses for students that feel confident about their foundational skills in either Spencerian or Copperplate writing. These advanced classes will remain very limited in number as it involves the time of the Master instructor, who only has a finite bank of hours for mentorship. Our Indiegogo contributors will have the FIRST rights to “seats” in these classes so book your class now before they will be filled up for the year!

The Advanced Classes in Spencerian and Copperplate include a 5-part online video series taught by MP Michael Sull/Barbara Calzolari/Pat Blair, a course workbook, exemplars and special goodies! Your Master Penman/Penwoman will be your personal Mentor to correct the assignments and support you throughout the course. These courses are now available on our Indiegogo Campaign for $550 ($700 value).

• Advanced Spencerian - MP Michael Sull - Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Advanced Copperplate - MP Barbara Calzolari or MP Pat Blair, Chief White House Calligrapher - Anticipated release date Spring 2018

Flourishing Classes: these courses are for students who are at least an intermediate level. The Flourishing Classes put the finishing touch on your calligraphy work, bringing it to a new level of polish. These courses will bridge the gap between creating simple calligraphy and that of elegantly decorated, advanced calligraphy. As easy as accomplished calligraphers make this art form look, flourishing is actually quite full of rules, technique and guidelines. Without this guidance from experienced calligraphers, flourishing can easily look random, disconnected and without purpose—basically like spaghetti! Each of these classes will be comprised of a 4-part, online video series taught by the Master indicated, and the corresponding one-to-one mentorship with structured homework assignments.  These courses are now available on our Indiegogo Campaign for $375 ($475 value).

• Ornamental Flourishing - MP Michael Sull - Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Copperplate Flourishing - MP Barbara Calzolari - Anticipated release date Spring 2018
• Flourished Gothicized Italic - MP Barbara Calzolari - Anticipated release date Spring 2018

NOTE: The more students to sign up for each course the sooner the class will be able to be available!!!

Perks

As a contributor, you will receive unique gifts that are only available through our IndieGoGo campaign. From handmade, rare inks to private dinners with the Masters, we are sure we have something to brighten your calligraphy heart! For the more exclusive and costum tailored perks, please contact us at hello@ink.academy.

Iron Throne Ink (250 ml) - $79

Special edition iron gall ink, custom made by Fox + Quills using original recipe by James Stark from Scotland, 1800's. The Irone Throne ink will be bottled in a limited edition longneck flask.

Vintage Print Blocks - $99

Experience the high days of Spencerian Script with these Vintage Letterpress Print Blocks from the Zenerian College. 

Limited edition ink set (2x50ml) - $129

Set of special edition Iron Gall inks. The set contains two colours: Mediterranean Blue and Balsamic Burgundy (2 bottles of 50 ml).

Oblique pen holder - $199 

This is your chance to obtain one of Michael Sull's custom Spencerian/pointed pen holders made out of exotic woods! Each holder is hot stamped with Michael’s last name on the end to assure you that you are receiving an original, hand crafted Michael Sull pen holder!

An Original Masterpiece (16"x20"/40,64x50,80cm) - $49,999

You can own an original piece of calligraphic art with your name/subject of choice, by Master Penwoman Barbara Calzolari or Master Penman Michael Sull in collaboration with Tiziana Gironi, Master Illustrator.

Teaching through Giving

Generous in heart and soul, our Mentors foster a supportive environment that makes learning a true pleasure. Students will enjoy their knowledge, skill and appreciation of the riches of the past, while looking to a future not yet written. We offer programs from age 4 and have no maximum age, if you can hold the pen you can join us. Common students are:

• Complete beginners
• Artists
• Illustrators
• Graphic Designers
• Tattoo Artists
• Sign Painters
• Wedding professionals
• Experienced calligraphers
• Calligraphy Instructors
• Children (age 4 to 16)

Educational Formats

We want to make sure to offer a really comprehensive range of classes to assure our courses meet our students' desires. Therefore, we will present the following educational formats:

• Online education classes: we will offer complete courses from the very beginning in all disciplines of study (Pointed Pen, Broad Edge and Hand Lettering), including business and marketing classes so future calligraphy professionals can establish themselves properly.
• Ink Academy library: Ink Academy will truly be the place where calligraphy knowledge will be cherished. To that end, we will establish an online library and archive, that will contain exemplars of letters that go back as far as the first Roman Letters.
• Children's online courses: there will also be a specialized Children’s Cursive Program with targeted studies for kindergarten, elementary and older kids alike!​
• Online Proficiency and Master’s Certification Program: for those students wishing to accomplish an area of specialty, challenge themselves to a intensive, long-term, one-on-one, mentor-student program, Ink Academy will be offering several specific Certification Programs in the Lettering Arts. The Master’s programs will consist of a wider and more comprehensive subject range than the Proficiency program, thereby providing the student with a thorough curriculum of theory, technique, knowledge of materials, history, and practical use of the skill-set being taught.
• Live workshops: held in Berkeley California with hopefully international satellite locations in the future
• Yearly international Retreats in North America, Asia and Europe: the first International Retreat will take place in Siena, Italy from July 14 - 28, 2018.
• Documentary series featuring individual profiles on our calligraphy Masters

'But what if I have terrible handwriting?'

The surprising thing about calligraphy is that it's so accessible to all of us! Even if you have terrible handwriting you can definitely learn calligraphy. How? Calligraphy is a manual skill that is learned by practicing very simple shapes. Once you learn one shape you learn another, and another one after that. Before you know it, you are combining these straightforward shapes together and forming letters. Then letters become words and without even realizing it you are doing calligraphy.  Really, if you can hold a pen, you can become a calligrapher! 

Saving a Culture

Serving as a bridge between past and future, each Mentor has studied under their mentors, who learned from their mentors in turn, and so on.  This unbroken chain will link you, as a contributor, to a heritage of rich history in calligraphy and the lettering arts. The last calligraphy school closed over 70 years ago and there currently are no comprehensive calligraphy programs anywhere in the world offering specialization in a wide variety of calligraphy styles. If we don’t establish a school during this generation, there is a huge risk in diminishment in maintaining the integrity of thousands of years of the past. We can’t let the chain be broken!

Masters + Experts

Michael Sull, MP and Academic Director

Michael Sull is an IAMPETH Master Penman and author living in Mission, Kansas, United States. An expert on penmanship, he was Ronald Reagan's calligrapher after his Presidency and is known worldwide for his skill and teaching ability. He regularly teaches handwriting, calligraphy, and engrossing programs throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

Considered America’s foremost living Spencerian penman, he is author of Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship, Learning to Write Spencerian Script, and American Cursive Handwriting, and publishes various other educational materials focusing on pen writing. He also manufactures period style oblique dip pen equipment for use by penmen today.

Barbara Calzolari, MP

Barbara Calzolari is an accomplished and talented Master Penwoman, living in Bologna, Italy. She has been working full-time as a professional, freelance calligrapher for over 15 years. She combines a passionate, technical and artistic approach to every style she learns--and generously shares both the practical and philosophical aspects of her knowledge with her students. She has been recognized by IAMPETH as a Master Penwoman and is fully accomplished in a wide array of pointed pen, broad pen and brush pen mediums. To learn more about her history, please read here.

Pat Blair, MP and Chief Calligrapher at the White House

Pat Blair has been a professional calligrapher for 29 years, and currently holds the position of Chief Calligrapher at The White House in Washington, DC. Her work has been published in Letter Arts Review, The Calligrapher’s Engagement Calendar, Scripsit, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Tabellae Insatae. Sharing and teaching what she loves is a high priority, and she teaches at the Loudoun Academy of the Arts in Virginia, and has been on the faculty of several International calligraphy ciao!!!conferences. Pat has served two years as President of the Washington Calligrapher’s Guild, been Chairperson of The Graceful Envelope Contest, and has been Co-Director of Letterforum, the 26th International Calligraphy Conference. Pat’s love of pointed pen lettering led her to her study of copperplate and spencerian letterforms. The International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting recently awarded her the honor “Master Penman” for her work in this area.

Giovanni de Faccio, Professor of Calligraphy

Giovanni has been a professional calligrapher, type designer and teacher since 1990. He is one of the founders of the first modern Italian Calligraphic Association and leads their specialized courses. He teaches calligraphy and type design at the New Design University. If you're not yet familiar with Giovanni and his work, you are in for a wonderful treat. He has dedicated his life to the formal study of traditional calligraphic letterforms and designed several digital fonts. He won the Art Director’s Club prize in 2002 for his type system Rialto DF. He is also skilled in chiseling letterforms in stone. Among his most accomplished students are Italian calligrapher Luca Barcelona and Italian Master Penwoman Barbara Calzolari. His work is immensely steeped in the tradition of historical lettering and richly imbued with his heart. Currently living in Austria, Giovanni was raised in Italy. He says “Stop writing with your mind…Write with your heart!”

Tom Kemp, Calligrapher

Tom Kemp first saw an edged brush being used when he was sixteen years old, having started his calligraphic training four years earlier with an edged pen. It was a stunning moment, watching these huge, black, glossy, swelling strokes appearing effortlessly through the dust on an old blackboard. He realised then that he had been using the wrong tool! Something about the flexibility and precision of the brush entranced him and he rushed to the local library to study one of the very few copies available (at that time) of Edward Catich’s book, The Origin of the Serif. Several years later, he felt confident enough to start teaching the ‘Trajan' script which Catich had rediscovered, and even to try to improve on and refine his ideas, leading to Tom's own book, Formal Brush Writing, in 1999.

What followed was a long period of doubt about the entire modern calligraphic enterprise. He stopped formal writing and started using the brush to make ‘writing without language’, a kind of abstract painting which used all the knowlege he had gained about the use of tools, media and surfaces, and about how one's own body and mind work in conjunction with these three.

Five years ago, he began to learn another surprisingly calligraphic technique: making ceramic pots on a wheel. He now makes porcelain vessels as surfaces on which he continues to 'write' with an edged brush.

'The Masters' Documentaries

We will also create beautiful documentaries on all of Ink Academy’s faculty Master Penmen and Penwomen. We will take you on a visually poetic calligraphy adventure to Bologna, Italy to meet Barbara Calzolari, or to Kansas and Ohio on field trips with Michael Sull, then onto Vienna, Austria to meet Giovanni de Faccio and Washington D.C to meet Pat Blair. They will give you a little tour of their favorite places to walk, to have coffee, to meet with friends to shop or which flowers they like to plant in their garden. You’ll hear about their calligraphy journey, the struggles, the highlights, the realizations and insights. You’ll have a view of their inner world as well as the physical one—allowing you to be more deeply connected with your mentor as well as the others in the faculty from whom you’ll also likely be learning. Each episode of the documentary will feature a 45 minute profile on one of the Faculty Members (estimated release in October 2018)

Our Budget Goals

For Ink Academy to have the impact and global reach we are planning for we need to raise a minimum of $30,000. Below is a break down of the allocation of the funds raised:

Concerns + Risks

All new ventures and projects inevitably run into challenges when adding more complexity and richness. We have broken these concerns and risk into two categories: Tangible Perks and Education.

Tangible Perks: there is no risk involved with the perks we will send out to our contributors! We will make sure you will receive your gift, no matter we reach our goal or not.

Education: The biggest challenge is to finance multiple classes within the first 12 months of Ink Academy’s launch. At minimum, we will create the initial Master’s Program in Penmanship this Fall. Our goal is to roll out a wider variety of calligraphy courses and certification programs if we raise sufficient funding during this campaign. Otherwise, we will start more simply and the additional courses will be unfolded over the next several years. Volume of funding will determine the filming and editing schedule for the courses. We anticipate the release dates to be reasonable but our estimated timeframe could be delayed if funding prohibits a more efficient production schedule. Our goal is to succeed and post all the classes over time, no matter what.

Of course, unforeseen things happen in life, and we do accept there are things out of our control and responsibility.

Follow us on Social

Instagram: @ink.academy - https://www.instagram.com/ink.academy

Twitter: Add twitter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkacademycalligraphy

Website: http://ink.academy

FAQs

Why are you using crowdfunding?

We have such a HUGE variety of calligraphy classes and programs and intimate documentaries lined up for you. HOWEVER we can only produce one or two per year with the funds we currently have in place. If we meet our goals we will be able to start rolling out SEVERAL courses within the first 12 months so you have more options from which to choose. Wouldn’t that be amazing? You could choose a pointed pen course, a broad-edge course, and maybe one of our artist’s series of business courses to help you market yourself as well as your work.

When can I expect my perks?

You will receive your gifts within 6 - 8 weeks after the campaign has ended. We provide tracking numbers for the larger items that we ship out. For all non tangible orders, we will contact you personally to discuss the designs and/or travel itinerary.

What if I can not afford these courses, do you offer scholarships?

We're not there yet, but please know it's important to us to let you know that scholarship programs will be offered eventually. Once Ink Academy has established itself with a strong base (both financially and academically) we will offer a variety of scholarships. If you or an organization you know would be interested in contributing to a scholarship fund to allow a student to learn a full course of calligraphy skills our contact information is at the conclusion of this email.

What will the certification entail?

There will be a standardized academic curriculum for either a Master’s Program or Proficiency Program in one hand. All students will be required to take the same path of study, regardless of their level of accomplishment. Students will be required to study a minimum of 1 to 2 hours per day, and complete an extensive homework assignment after each video segment. Upon completion of homework assignment, there will be a face to face video meeting with their Mentor to review their work. To assure the highest level for academic outcome, a student will need to complete each assignment to the Mentor’s satisfaction in order to advance to the next lesson in the series. Once the student has completed all the lessons and assignments in their program, they will be granted certification by the Ink Academy Faculty.

Where do the classes take place?

The complete Academic and Certification courses will be online based. We will also offer live workshops and international retreats in various locations. Click here to browse through the upcoming live workshops or click here to read more about the 2018 Siena, Italy Retreat.

Do I need a special computer or for these courses?

No! You can access Ink Academy from any desktop and laptop computer. Mobile and tablet functionality is currently under development.

What if I have zero experience with calligraphy?

Then you have come to the right place! Each of our courses will start at the VERY beginning.

Do I have to be an English speaker?

Yes, all courses are conducted in English. Since much of the education is visual, you don't have to be fluent in English to participate in the online courses. In the future we plan to offer subtitles for a variety of languages.

Can I select my Master to work with?

In the beginning of Ink Academy, there will only be one Mentor for each Program category, although in the future if we have multiple Mentors for one program, you will have the option to request the Mentor of your choice.

Got more questions?

You can always contact us for questions/tips or just say hi at hello@ink.academy.

THANK YOU AND PLEASE SHARE WITH FRIENDS!