Graphic designer Cristina Vanko has been writing out all the SMS messages she sends by hand with a calligraphy pen.

Calling the project Modern Day Snail Mail, Cristina Vanko began to answer friends' text messages with photographs of handwritten replies after finding her father's old calligraphy pen.

"Basically, calligraphy is something that people just don't get enough of today," Vanko said in a post about the project on her blog, explaining that the soft gold tip of the pen allows for different thicknesses of stroke.

"The harder you press down on the pen's nib, the thicker the line. When less pressure is given, the thinner the line," she explained.

"I quickly began creating illustrious letterforms with the perfect balance of thick and thin strokes," she continued. "I wrote out the alphabet, popular phrases, curse words (that looked beautiful might I add) and then I sent doodle-filled text messages to a couple of my design-y friends notifying them about the magic of this pen."

"After texting some doodles, I decided to send handwritten messages to people for that next week," she said.

Some friends responded with their own hand-written messages and the designer concluded that "people feel more 'special' when they received handwritten messages."

She also noted that accuracy in spelling and grammar matter much more in a handwritten note and that modern culture relies heavily on emoticons for communication.

Cristina Vanko graduated in graphic design and Spanish from Indiana University in 2011 and now works as a multidisciplinary designer in Chicago.

Other stories about lettering on Dezeen include a typeface with strands of human hair, a font made of impossible 3D shapes and another font made of sugar.

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