From Clunky Handwriting to a Heroic Signature
With
Handletter Hero
July 20 – August 14
Discover in just 4 weeks how much creative potential is already hiding in your handwriting.
Plus: Win one of three summer prizes! 🍒
Keep scrolling. It gets better. ↓
You have a crystal-clear vision in your head. But somehow, what ends up on paper feels awkward, clumsy, or just... off.
You want to improve, but you don’t know where to start. Every new attempt feels a bit like assembling IKEA furniture without the instructions.
You dream of lettering with swagger. With personality. With charm. But the harder you try to force it, the worse it seems to get.
Which brings me to a question.
What if there’s absolutely nothing wrong with your handwriting?
What if your handwriting is actually a giant amusement park...
...and you’ve been spending all your time in the bumper cars?
Maybe your letters aren’t the problem. Maybe you just don’t trust your hands yet.
You watch other lettering artists casually create the most incredible work.
As if it’s no big deal.
As if they woke up one morning and somehow became magical letter wizards.
And you?
You draw a B. Erase it. Draw it again. Erase it again. Decide it’s terrible. Try one more time. Still terrible. Twenty minutes later you’ve achieved absolutely nothing.
Except that your eraser is now half its original size.
Meanwhile, your brain won’t shut up.
“That B looks like an 8.”
“Can I do that?”
“Why does hers look so much better?”
“Ugh.”
But wait. What if your hands are smarter than you think?
By the end of Handletter Hero...
• You’ll step out of the bumper cars and discover just how versatile your own handwriting really is.
• You’ll experiment more freely, without asking your inner critic for permission first.
• You’ll see ten possibilities where you used to see only one way forward.
• You’ll create work that makes you stop and think: Wait... I made that?
Move your mind out of the way. Clear the road. Your hands already know where they’re going. ✍️✨
So who am I to tell you all this?
Good question.
I’m Marenthe. And I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by letters.
Literally.
I started experimenting with hand-drawn letterforms in art school. Then I started designing them for clients. For posters. For magazines. For books. For billboards. For anyone willing to give me a wall, a page, or a surface and say: “Go make something beautiful.”
Along the way, my letters won international awards and found their way into design books around the world.
Which sounds very impressive. And is. But that’s not the interesting part.
The interesting part is what happened after all those years.
Because after thirty-five years of drawing letters, studying letters, teaching letters, obsessing over letters and occasionally photographing letters instead of actual tourist attractions...
I’ve come to a rather inconvenient conclusion:
Every handwriting style is interesting.
The problem is that most people never discover what their handwriting could become.
They get stuck before they’ve even started. Because of their judgement.
We tense up. We overthink. We stare at letters as if they’re tiny mathematical equations we’re supposed to solve.
But letters aren’t equations.
They’re a language. And once you start understanding that language, something shifts.
Suddenly there’s room. Room to experiment. Room to play. Room to surprise yourself. And sometimes... Room to make something you didn’t know you were capable of making.
That’s what Handletter Hero is really about.
It’s about discovering how much creative freedom is already hiding inside your own handwriting. And what becomes possible once you stop giving that annoying little voice in your head the microphone.
Okay, but can she actually letter?
-
Fair question. I’ve spent the last thirty-five years obsessing over letters. Luckily, that obsession has led to some rather lovely things.
🏆 My lettering has won international awards in New York, London, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Tokyo.
-
📚 My work has appeared in design books and magazines around the world, including:
• Hand to Type, Gestalten Verlag
• How to Type, Taiwan
• Area-2, Phaidon Press USA
• Handmade, USA -
🎨 I’ve created lettering for clients such as Hallmark, Flow Magazine, Happinez, Philips, PostNL and Dutch Dance Theatre.
-
🌎 Through my wonderful American agent Lilla Rogers, my work found its way across the Atlantic and into places I never expected it to go.
-
🥳 Phaidon Press named me one of the 100 Most Visionary Designers in the World.
And then there was the time the founder of Eye Magazine compared my work to that of Ed Fella and MM Paris.
(Yes. The MM Paris behind Björk.)
I nearly fell off my chair.
The solution isn’t where you think it is.
You scroll Pinterest. Trace another alphabet. Watch another tutorial. Spend a mildly concerning amount of time trying to fix that one stubborn letter that refuses to cooperate.
Darling. 😅
You’re trying to solve the problem by applying more pressure.
More control.
More effort.
You focus on that curve. That leg. That corner. That tiny little dot. Until your forehead is practically steaming.
Meanwhile, while you’re having a heated discussion with a microscopic point...
...the entire alphabet is outside cheering and waving flags.
Handletter Hero gives you your joy back by teaching you how to see differently.
And the moment your perspective shifts, delicious things start to happen.
Your horizon expands. You start seeing possibilities where you used to see mistakes. You make things you were absolutely convinced you couldn’t make.
Then one day you look down at your paper.
You blink.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
And think:
“Hang on...”
“Wait...”
“THAT 8 IS A B!”
Look what happened when people stopped arguing with their letters 👇
P.S. Yes, you can do this too!
Sharon Nullmeyer
Judith Hofmann
Kathy Reed
Kiki Posthuma
Julie Marz Wood
Sharon Nullmeyer
Judith Hofmann
Judith Hofmann
Kristel Olthoff
Louise van der Merwe
Judith Hoffman
Judith Hofmann
Judith Hofmann
Marlon Wa
Suzan Schapendonk
Judith Hofmann
Merel de Boer
Judith Hofmann
Kristel Olthoff
Marion Wa
Susanne Van Der Lee
Olga Martens
Rebecca Johnstone
Sharon Nullmeyer
This is not a course where you practice the same letter 37 times.
Handletter Hero is a playground.
One week you’ll create a dancing alphabet on a colorful background. The next you’ll be drawing bold vintage letters straight out of the sixties.
You’ll stack stripes. Discover shadows. Experiment with texture. And yes, you’ll even get your hands on medieval lettering and gold.
We’ll travel back to 1809 with George. Then jump forward to a Hungarian designer who made letters dance. And we’ll finish with a remarkable woman who devoted her life to God, and somehow still found time to create some of the most beautiful posters ever printed.
Every lesson introduces a new artist. A new style. A new way of seeing.
And whenever you’re thinking: “There’s no way I can do that...”
You simply start by drawing along. One line at a time. And before you know it, you’re making it your own.
Here’s what you’ll get:
A warm-up week with 5 lessons
To loosen up, explore materials, and get your creative gears turning.
Three weeks of lessons
15 carefully designed lessons that will stretch your lettering skills in all sorts of unexpected directions.
2 bonus lessons
Because I always end up thinking: “Ooh. They need to see this too.”
15 beautifully designed worksheets
Download them. Print them. Fill them with letters.
Inspiration from iconic lettering artists
The kind of artists who make you stare at your sketchbook and immediately want to try something.
Lifetime access to the academy
No rushing. No deadlines. No panic. Come back whenever inspiration strikes.
Access to the international community until December 31, 2026
A lovely corner of the internet filled with fellow letter nerds.
Two live Zoom sessions with me and the group
We’ll draw letters together, answer questions, and spend some quality time geeking out over typography.
Letters from former Handletter Heroes ✍️
From letting go to heroic letters: Your Handletter Hero Journey
During the warm-up week, you’ll throw the rulebook out the window.
You’ll play with materials. Explore different styles. And give letters a personality of their own.
Yes. Even happy letters! And grumpy ones.
Then we spend three weeks traveling through different lettering worlds.
You’ll create a dancing alphabet with Debbie. Draw bold, angular 80s-inspired letters. Add shadows. Dive into vintage styles. And discover how to make letters swing. Along the way, you’ll visit the Middle Ages, the Wiener Werkstätte, and even Dadaism. (Which is exactly as delightfully strange as it sounds.)
Meanwhile, your sketchbook slowly fills up with letters of your own.
Your letters.
And somewhere along the way, something shifts.
You stop asking: “How do I draw this?”
And start asking: “What can I do with this?”
By the end, you won’t just have drawn a lot of letters. You’ll understand how to make them your own.
That’s how you go from experimenting to developing a signature style that feels unmistakably yours.
Ready for the ride?
Who is Handletter Hero for?
✔ For people who can’t walk past an interesting sign without stopping to look at the letters.
✔ For curious creatives who are eager to make things and love being surprised.
✔ For people who understand that a course is not a magic wand. Your hands are still doing the work. 😉
✔ For people who dream of filling sketchbooks with letters.
✔ For beginners and experienced creatives alike.
Who is Handletter Hero not for?
I can’t promise that you’ll be the next Jessica Hische after four weeks.
What I can promise is that you’ll never look at letters the same way again.
And once that happens...
There’s no going back. ✍️
Maybe your inner critic is saying...
“This sounds amazing, but...”
“...I’m going on vacation.”
Perfect.
Seriously.
You can do Handletter Hero from just about anywhere.
A campsite in France. A cabin in the woods. A balcony in Spain. Or your favorite lounge chair in the backyard. Hand lettering travels well.
“Okay, but what about expensive materials?”
You don’t need a Samsonite suitcase full of professional supplies. No lightbox. No fancy drafting table. No collection of markers that costs more than your holiday.
What you do need?
A black pen. Some paper. A sketchbook if you’re feeling fancy. And yes, paint, brushes, colored pencils, ink, a dip pen or a brush pen are all wonderful.
But they’re not required.
You’ll receive a materials list well before we start, so you’ll have plenty of time to gather what you need.
“I don’t have an art degree.”
I do.
Which saves you several years of studying. 😉
Listen.
You don’t have to be a designer. Or an illustrator. Or a typographer. And you certainly don’t have to be some kind of creative genius.
I’ve designed the course so you can join at your own level and work at your own pace.
Will some assignments be more challenging than others?
Of course. Otherwise we’d all be very bored.
“I’m afraid I’m not good enough.”
Welcome to the club.
Almost everyone who joins Handletter Hero brings that thought with them.
We all erase. We all doubt. We all grumble from time to time. And then, a few weeks later, people start creating pages they can hardly believe came out of their own hands.
“I can’t draw.”
Good news.
Handletter Hero isn’t really about drawing.
It’s about observing. Experimenting. Trying things. Trying them again. And discovering what happens when you approach an ordinary letter from a slightly different angle.
“I’m worried it might be too difficult.”
Some assignments will feel easy. Some letters will come together right away. And some will make you stare at the page and say: “What the hell is happening here?”
I can’t promise every letter will work. I can’t promise you’ll never get frustrated.
But I can promise this: You’ll never look at letters the same way again.
And honestly? That’s a pretty wonderful thing.
Questions, Questions...
Or: everything you’re secretly wondering before clicking that button.
❖ Is this a calligraphy course? No. Calligraphy is built around specific rules and a particular look. Handletter Hero is about exploration. Composition. Rhythm. Style. Form. And discovering your own creative fingerprint. There are a thousand ways to draw a letter. That’s the whole point.
❖ Can I join as a beginner? Absolutely. You don’t need to be a designer, illustrator, or artist. That said, if you’ve never held a pencil before, this challenge might be slightly ambitious. 😉 Curiosity and a willingness to experiment are far more important than experience.
❖ How much time does it take? On average, about 3–5 hours per week. You can also work through the course at your own pace. As with most things in life: The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.
❖ What materials do I need? You’ll receive a materials list before the course begins. No need to panic. A few simple supplies will take you surprisingly far.
❖ Do I need to attend the Zoom sessions live?
Nope. All Zoom sessions will be recorded. But... Joining live is definitely more fun.
❖ Can I take the course while I'm on vacation? YES. A campsite. A balcony. A shady spot in the garden. All of the above. Hand lettering travels remarkably well.
❖ Where can I access the lessons? All lessons are hosted inside the academy. You can watch, rewatch, pause, and revisit them whenever you like.
❖ How long will I have access? You’ll have lifetime access to the academy. The international community will remain open through December 31, 2026.
❖ What happens after I sign up? We’ll save a spot for you. Shortly before the course begins, you’ll receive all the information you need. The warm-up week starts on July 13, and that’s when the fun begins.
❖ Is this a repeat of a previous edition? Yes. This is the same Handletter Hero course that ran in 2025. The difference? There are now even more videos included.
❖ Can I join again if I took the course last year? If you joined in 2025, you won’t automatically receive access to this new round. You’re welcome to enroll again if you’d like to revisit the course.
However, if you purchased Handletter Hero after July 2025, send us an email with your order number and you’ll be able to join this round at no additional cost.
❖ Can I cancel? Yes. There’s a 14-day money-back guarantee. If the course isn’t for you, you can cancel through our website via customer support.
❖ My question isn’t listed here. Send Marenthe an email at hallo@marenthe.nlShe doesn’t bite. (Unless you use Comic Sans.)
Quick warning.
Handletter Hero comes with some rather unfortunate side effects.
You’ll start seeing letters everywhere.
On shop signs. On packaging. On restaurant menus.
Been there. Done that.
When I used to go on vacation to France, I’d come home with hundreds of photos of weathered shop fronts and crumbling letterforms instead of actual vacation pictures.
Priorities:)
It gets worse.
You’ll discover that all those lettering artists you’ve been admiring from afar don’t actually possess magical superpowers. You simply start understanding what they’re doing.
You see the steps. You see the decisions. You see how the whole thing comes together.
The magic doesn’t disappear. But it becomes a lot less mysterious.
And before you know it, you’ll be sitting on the couch with a sketchbook full of letters in your lap.
Bad news for your cat.
That’s their spot now.
Anyway.
Time to make a decision.