Signature ideas

Six signature directions for Solomon

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 S · hover one to see it in use

Understated · flowing · fully readable

Generous with its loops, and unembarrassed about it.

the full name · underlined in one return stroke

A dramatic and level hand. The stroke swells and thins by a factor of 2.6. The "m" in "Solomon" 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 · underlined in one return stroke

A restrained and compact hand. No single letter is pushed past its neighbors.

Commanding · sharp · signature-legible

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

the full name · finished on a long sail

A grand and urgent hand. The capital stands 3.3 times the height of the letters after it. Almost nothing else here leaves on an exit stroke long enough to carry the eye off the page.

Confident · sharp · fully readable

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

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

An airy and long-running hand. The letters are set well apart. It is also one of the few here that runs a long swept approach into the S.

Understated · sharp · signature-legible

Pressure where it presses, hairline where it lifts.

the full name · a capital that drops below the line · finished on a long sail

A level and measured hand. The capital is only 1.9 times the height of the letters after it. It is the rare one that drops the S's tail below the line to weigh it down.

Commanding · flowing · fully readable

Tightly massed, so it holds together small.

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

A generous and upright hand. It spends 64 loops getting through your name. Almost nothing else here drops the S's tail below the line to weigh it down.

What Solomon gives a designer

Everything starts with the S. 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.

What follows the capital decides the middle of the mark: the l reaches 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