Incipit vita et opera

Victor Frankenstein

Calligrapher & Lettering Artist · Salzburg, Austria
victor.frankenstein@example.com· +43 555 88 214· frankenstein-letterhaus.example.com

I have worked as a calligrapher and lettering artist for 12 years, completing about 400 commissions for private clients, publishers, and civic institutions. I taught 60 workshops on broad-edge and pointed-pen scripts, and drew complete alphabets for 3 type foundries. My gilding still smells faintly of garlic, which is what happens when you make your own gesso.

Opera · Commissions & Practice

Here beginneth the record of works
Independent Calligrapher & Studio Owner · Letterhaus Frankenstein, Salzburg
2018 – present
  • Completed 260+ commissions since founding, including 40 illuminated certificates for the Salzburg city archive and 3 full wedding suites per month in peak season.
  • Hand-lettered a 96-page facsimile psalter for a private collector over 14 months, with 22 gilded initials on prepared vellum.
  • Run a waiting list averaging 9 weeks; repeat clients account for 38% of annual revenue.
Lettering Artist · Grubenthal & Söhne Verlag, Vienna
2016 – 2018
  • Drew cover lettering for 31 published titles, including an 8-volume folklore series set entirely in revived Fraktur.
  • Cut production time for title comps from 5 days to 2 by building a house library of 120 reusable letterform studies.
Junior Scribe & Restoration Assistant · Atelier Maribel, Innsbruck
2014 – 2016
  • Retouched flaking gold leaf and faded rubrics on 17 archival documents under conservator supervision.
  • Prepared quills, inks, and gesso for a 4-person workshop; ground pigment for roughly 300 working sessions.

Doctrina · Teaching

Of instruction given to students
Workshop Instructor · Volkshochschule Salzburg & guest venues
2017 – present
  • Taught 60 workshops (Textura, Italic, Copperplate, and gilding basics) to about 700 students in total.
  • Wrote a 48-page self-published exemplar booklet now in its 4th printing, 2,100 copies sold.

Typographia · Foundry Work

Alphabets delivered unto the founders of type
Contract Alphabet Design · Steinfeder Type, Bergamot Foundry, Casa Tilde
2019 – 2025
  • Delivered 3 complete alphabets from broad-pen originals: a Rotunda revival (Steinfeder), a chancery italic (Bergamot), and a display blackletter with 210 glyphs (Casa Tilde).
  • Supplied 600+ scanned master drawings with written stroke-order notes for the digitisation teams.

Artes

Skills of the hand
Scripts
Textura quadrata, Rotunda, Carolingian, Italic, Copperplate, Spencerian
Materials
Gum ammoniac and gesso gilding, iron gall ink, vellum preparation, quill cutting
Studio
Letterform digitisation prep, exemplar design, colour matching for restoration

Studia

Formation and honours
Diploma, Book Arts
Werkstätte für Schrift und Buch, Linz · 2011 – 2014
Honours
Silver medal, Alpine Lettering Biennale 2022 · Juried member, Scriptorium Guild of Austria (since 2019)
Languages
German (native), English (fluent), Latin (reading)
❦ Explicit curriculum vitae · written and set by the hand of Victor Frankenstein, Salzburg, in the year 2026 ❦