Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Mindy

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

Pressure where it presses, hairline where it lifts.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A level and angular hand. The capital is only 1.6 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

One movement, barely interrupted, which is why it repeats.

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

A dense and restrained hand. The letters are packed close together. It is the rare one that runs a long swept approach into the M.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name · finished on a long sail

A rounded and grand hand. Every turn is rounded off. Almost nothing else here leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

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

the full name · finished on a long sail

An airy and long-running hand. The letters are set well apart. It is also one of the few here that leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A deliberate and airy hand. It is built in 11 separate strokes.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

Compact, with its weight gathered in one place.

the full name · a capital that drops below the line · underlined in one return stroke

An upright and deliberate hand. It stands almost straight up, 17 degrees off vertical. Almost nothing else here drops the M's tail below the line to weigh it down.

What Mindy gives a designer

Everything starts with the M. The studio holds 2 distinct constructions of that capital — drawn from how professionals actually open a name — and each direction below commits to one of them.

After that, the lowercase run does the work: the d reaches into the ascender line, which gives the mark its upper silhouette, the y drops below the baseline — a tail a designer can turn into an underline or let hang and the dotted i leaves a mark above the line that a fast hand turns into a flick.

5 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