Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Delaney

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 D · 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 · finished on a long sail

A dramatic and quick hand. The stroke swells and thins by a factor of 2.5. It is also one of the few here that runs a long swept approach into the D.

Confident · flowing · signature-legible

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

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A restrained and airy hand. No single letter is pushed past its neighbors. The "r" in "Worth" is the letter carrying it, because that is where your hand is already fastest.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

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

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

A grand and unbroken hand. The capital stands 3.6 times the height of the letters after it. Almost nothing else here runs a long swept approach into the D.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

Measured rather than dashed off, and the steadier for it.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A theatrical and deliberate hand. One letter is pushed well past the proportions of its neighbors.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name

An urgent and compact hand. It leans 26 degrees off vertical. It is the rare one that adds no closing gesture at all.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

Pressure where it presses, hairline where it lifts.

the full name · closed with a small loop

A dense and compact hand. The letters are packed close together. Almost nothing else here ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

What Delaney gives a designer

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

What follows the capital decides the middle of the mark: the l reaches into the ascender line, which gives the mark its upper silhouette and the y drops below the baseline — a tail a designer can turn into an underline or let hang.

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