Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Chantel

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 C · hover one to see it in use

Understated · flowing · fully readable

Generous with its loops, and unembarrassed about it.

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

A level and dense hand. The capital is only 2.0 times the height of the letters after it. The "r" in "Worth" is the letter carrying it, because that is where your hand is already fastest.

Confident · flowing · signature-legible

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

the full name · closed with a small loop

An urgent and long-running hand. It leans 25 degrees off vertical. It is the rare one that ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

Compact, with its weight gathered in one place.

the full name · finished on a long sail

A dramatic and unbroken hand. The stroke swells and thins by a factor of 3.7. Almost nothing else here leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

Upright and composed, it never looks rushed.

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

A generous and even hand. It spends 37 loops getting through your name.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

One letter does the performing, and the others hold still for it.

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

An unbroken and rounded hand. Only 8 pen lifts in the whole thing.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

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

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

A grand and quick hand. The capital stands 3.4 times the height of the letters after it. Almost nothing else here ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

What Chantel gives a designer

A signature is won or lost at its opening letter. For C, the studio draws from 2 constructions observed in professional hands, and every direction below chooses one and holds it.

The rest of the name sets the terrain: the h, t and l reach into the ascender line, which gives the mark its upper silhouette.

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