Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Brandi

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 B · hover one to see it in use

Understated · flowing · fully readable

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

the full name

A restrained and airy hand. No single letter is pushed past its neighbors. It is also one of the few here that adds no closing gesture at all. The "r" in "Worth" is the letter carrying it, because that is where your hand is already fastest.

Confident · flowing · signature-legible

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

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

A dramatic and urgent hand. The stroke swells and thins by a factor of 4.3. It is the rare one that runs a long swept approach into the B.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

Generous with its loops, and unembarrassed about it.

the full name · finished on a long sail

A long-running and dense hand. It runs 5.5 times wider than it is tall. Almost nothing else here leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

Drawn in stages, the way a considered mark is.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A theatrical and rounded hand. One letter is pushed well past the proportions of its neighbors. It is also one of the few here that lays a line back underneath the name.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name · finished on a long sail

An unbroken and angular hand. Only 8 pen lifts in the whole thing. It is the rare one that leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

Upright and composed, it never looks rushed.

the full name · closed with a small loop

An angular and grand hand. The turns are cut rather than curved. Almost nothing else here ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

What Brandi gives a designer

The capital B 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.

What follows the capital decides the middle of the mark: the d 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.

6 letters is the length most signatures are built on — enough travel for character, little enough to repeat exactly.

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