Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Alice

Each one is a genuine drawing of the name — not a font — made by the same studio that draws the paid commission, with the design decisions stated under it.

Drawn from the name · 6 directions · capital A

Understated · flowing · fully readable

Long and low, it takes the whole width of the line.

a swept capital · underlined in one return stroke

A restrained and spare hand. No single letter is pushed past its neighbors. It is also one of the few here that runs a long swept approach into the A.

Confident · flowing · signature-legible

Written at speed, and it shows in the best way.

a capital that cradles the name · finished on a long sail

An upright and restrained hand. It stands almost straight up, 23 degrees off vertical. It is the rare one that sits the whole name inside the A.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

One movement, barely interrupted, which is why it repeats.

a capital that cradles the name · finished on a long sail

An airy and theatrical hand. The letters are set well apart. Almost nothing else here sits the whole name inside the A.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

Generous with its loops, and unembarrassed about it.

closed with a small loop

A dense and deliberate hand. The letters are packed close together. It is also one of the few here that ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

The capital keeps its place, which puts the emphasis on the whole name.

a capital thrown inside a loop · finished on a long sail

An airy and theatrical hand. The letters are set well apart. It is the rare one that throws a flat loop right around the A.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

It turns corners instead of rounding them, and that is the whole temperament.

a swept capital · underlined in one return stroke

An even and grand hand. It holds one weight almost the whole way through. Almost nothing else here runs a long swept approach into the A.

What Alice gives a designer

The capital A carries the mark. There are 2 distinct professional constructions of it on the studio's shelf, and which one a design commits to changes the whole gesture.

The rest of the name sets the terrain: the l reaches into the ascender line, which gives the mark its upper silhouette and the dotted i leaves a mark above the line that a fast hand turns into a flick.

Alice is 5 letters: room for a real rhythm without the fatigue of a long run.

Making it yours

These studies are drawn on the first name alone, because that is how the question is usually asked — but a working signature is built on your full name: the second capital, the balance between the two words, and the short everyday version are where the real design decisions live.

The studio draws twenty directions for your full name in about a minute, and the kit — the files, the report that explains the design, and the stroke-order lesson — is what the three you choose become.