Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Anastasia

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 · hover one to see it in use

Understated · flowing · fully readable

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

the full name · a swept capital · underlined in one return stroke

An upright and long-running hand. It stands almost straight up, 22 degrees off vertical. It is also one of the few here that lays a line back underneath the name. The "s" in "Anastasia" is the letter carrying it, because that is where your hand is already fastest.

Confident · flowing · signature-legible

One weight the whole way through, which is what makes it read as modern.

the full name · finished on a long sail

A long-running and urgent hand. It runs 8.5 times wider than it is tall.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

Everything rounds, nothing is cornered.

the full name · a swept capital · underlined in one return stroke

An urgent and grand hand. It leans 26 degrees off vertical. Almost nothing else here lays a line back underneath the name.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

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

the full name · a swept capital · closed with a small loop

A generous and compact hand. It spends 54 loops getting through your name. It is also one of the few here that ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

It gives itself room, and reads as unhurried because of it.

the full name · a swept capital · finished on a long sail

A level and theatrical hand. The capital is only 1.9 times the height of the letters after it.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

Pressure where it presses, hairline where it lifts.

the full name · a swept capital · finished on a long sail

A grand and deliberate hand. The capital stands 3.3 times the height of the letters after it.

What Anastasia 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 t 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.

Anastasia gives a hand 9 letters to carry. The professional answer is not to slow down but to decide early which letters are load-bearing.

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.

Other names