I have always had a fascination with letters and words for as long as I can remember and until a few years ago I didn't realize that my true fascination was for typography and lettering. The way the letters can form so beautifully leaves me speechless. It seems natural to me to focus my thesis on lettering and typography. The terminology is often confusing. Lettering is the art of drawing letters by hand, usually in a decorative and ad hoc manner. While typography is the study of letters applied to typefaces and generally the creation of fonts, such as Helvetica. In my thesis I plan to explore lettering in the digital age and how it is used in branding and advertising rather than modern techniques such as vinyl and regular fonts whilst questioning its value in our time. I would like to focus specifically on sign writing and painting and wonder if there is still a need to use these old methods when there are simpler, quicker and cheaper options available. Will it one day disappear completely? How much of our culture, as well as American culture, will we lose if this is the case? After watching a documentary called “Sign Painters” which told the story of several sign painters and their trade, it got me thinking about the cultural, aesthetic and historical value of the trade. In recent times, the vinyl machine has put many sign painters out of business and at what cost? Looking at old brick buildings, you can see the ghost of an old painted sign – whether it's a factory sign or an advertisement for what the building contained or sold. In the future there will be no trace of what was once in the building as all tradesmen, apart from a small number of independent businesses, use vinyl and plywood. .... middle of paper ...... o of our own softness – of our own fallibility” (Sign Painters) and I can't help but agree with him. With our world being so technology-driven, do we crave more human contact in our everyday lives? I believe so. Being a letterer myself, I appreciate delicate work and I prefer the human hand to the digital, reproduced and non-original option. Although technology makes our lives easier, we are losing human contact and this almost alienates us from each other. However, the current onslaught of technology could be the reason hand lettering remains alive and could even fuel its comeback, because "it is at the moment a craft disappears that its cultural value suddenly becomes evident." (The Sign Painters, Glenn Adamson) and perhaps we are finally realizing the value and virtue of commerce in our technological world of gratification