Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Manuel

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 M · hover one to see it in use

Understated · flowing · fully readable

Compact, with its weight gathered in one place.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

An upright and level hand. It stands almost straight up, 17 degrees off vertical. 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 · finished on a long sail

An even and dense hand. It holds one weight almost the whole way through. It is the rare one that leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

It leans into the page, the way a hand in a hurry does.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A long-running and rounded hand. It runs 5.6 times wider than it is tall.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

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

the full name · closed with a small loop

A theatrical and upright hand. One letter is pushed well past the proportions of its neighbors. It is also one of the few here that ties off with a small loop instead of flying away.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

Generous with its loops, and unembarrassed about it.

the full name · finished on a long sail

A dramatic and theatrical hand. The stroke swells and thins by a factor of 3.3. It is the rare one that leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

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

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A deliberate and restrained hand. It is built in 13 separate strokes.

What Manuel gives a designer

The capital M 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 l reaches into the ascender line, which gives the mark its upper silhouette.

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