Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Brennan

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

Drawn in stages, the way a considered mark is.

the full name

An angular and upright hand. The turns are cut rather than curved. 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

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

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A level hand. The capital is only 2.2 times the height of the letters after it. It is the rare one that lays a line back underneath the name.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A grand and urgent hand. The capital stands 3.3 times the height of the letters after it. Almost nothing else here lays a line back underneath the name. The double "n" in "Brennan" goes down as one motion, so the middle of the name never stops.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

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

the full name · closed with a small loop

A compact and urgent hand. It stays 2.0 times wider than tall, where most signatures sprawl. It is also one of the few here that ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

Nothing curls that does not have to, and nothing is missing.

the full name

An unbroken and compact hand. Only 7 pen lifts in the whole thing. It is the rare one that adds no closing gesture at all.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

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

the full name · a capital that drops below the line · closed with a small loop

A restrained and angular hand. No single letter is pushed past its neighbors. Almost nothing else here drops the B's tail below the line to weigh it down.

What Brennan 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 double n is a rhythm no other letter pair gives — two identical strokes that must agree.

7 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