Bounce lettering

Bounce lettering is a brush lettering technique where letters are deliberately shifted up and down away from a straight baseline, instead of sitting evenly in a row the way standard lettering does. The effect creates a playful, energetic rhythm across a word, which is why it is popular for casual signage, social captions and greeting card style lettering rather than formal or traditional pieces.

Despite looking freeform, bounce lettering is usually planned rather than random. Letterers commonly alternate which letters sit high and low in a semi-predictable pattern, and connecting strokes between letters are adjusted so the word still reads clearly even though individual letters are offset from the baseline. Overdoing the bounce on every single letter tends to hurt legibility rather than add character.

Practicing bounce lettering usually starts from standard brush lettering basics, since the underlying letterforms and stroke technique do not change, only their vertical placement does. A common mistake is bouncing letters so aggressively that words become hard to read, or applying a completely random pattern instead of a semi-rhythmic one. Sketching a word in pencil first, planning which letters rise and fall, produces more balanced results than lettering directly in ink.