League of Letters 2026
Have you ever been in a room full of people cheering for the letter H???
League of Letters is a hand-lettering knockout tournament. Contestants battle head to head to draw the better letter - and only one person can move forward. Who will be our lettering legend??
Come grab a drink and watch the games unfold. Will the watercolour serif beat the pen and ink script? Will the paint marker graffiti survive against ornate charcoal blackletter? How do you draw an uppercase I that looks good??? You have to be there to find out!
What to expect
Bring your friends or make new ones! You'll be surrounded by design, typography, and lettering lovers. Doors open at 6pm and the tournament begins at 6:30pm. Drinks and pizza will be available at the bar, and doodle tables will be set up in the loft. We expect the games to wrap up around 10pm and we can celebrate and chat until 11pm.
Please use the door at 209 Wellington St. W. to enter The Combine (just east of the 225 address).
Who’s Competing
The Qualifying Round happened on Oct 4, where 50 registrants had 24 hours to draw their best uppercase K. Sixteen contenders were selected from those submissions to move on to the in-person tournament on Oct 15. This is the talent you’ll see at the lettering table!
What is League of Letters?
League of Letters is a knockout lettering tournament where designers, letterers, calligraphers, and type aficionados of all kinds compete to win. We start with 16 players competing in head to head lettering challenges. One by one, players are eliminated until we have our champion!
LofL is a celebration of the skill of hand-lettering in all styles. As modern designers and artists we have every digital resource and tool we could want at our fingertips. But for hundreds of years designers, illustrators, and artists developed typefaces and lettering styles by hand to incorporate meaning and emotion into text that was printed, drawn, and carved.
This tournament was created to bring us back to our foundations, work with analog tools again, and remind each other what we're capable of without computers. And give out cool prizes!
How the tournament works
Each game, a random letter is chosen. Two players have to draw their best version of that letter - and quickly! Round one is 4 minutes long, and the rounds get shorter and shorter as we go. By the final round players only have 1 minute to prove themselves!
This tournament tests your lettering technique, your design instincts, and how quickly you can execute your ideas on paper.
League of Letters is analog only: no computers, no tablets, and definitely no AI. Players can bring their favourite pens, markers, brushes, paints, pencils, crayons, or whatever you use to make your letters better, in any style. Choose your weapons wisely!
Check out our website for full details
Part of Swash & Serif Festival
Swash & Serif has been bringing people together to celebrate typography and lettering in Toronto since 2014. Check out all our typography events this serif season:
League of Letters
A hand-lettering knockout tournament, October 15.
Attend or register to compete ↗︎
Swash & Serif 10
Our 10th annual type exhibition, runs November 12 — 17.
See the show or submit your work ↗︎
Swash & Serif Conference
A brand new typography conferenece, November 20.
Register to attend or apply to speak ↗︎
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Thanks to our hosts at The Combine
Brought to you by Toronto Design Directory
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