OUGD603 - Personal Typographic Signature ( 1 day brief )

Briefbox.com posted an online typographic brief, which involves creating your own signature within a 5 hour time limit. I chose to undertake this brief as I do not currently have a stylised signature and I think that creating one would allow professional emails and documents to look more design focused if they included my own personal mark.

Therefore, today I plan to use the time constraint as a challenge for my design abilities, to see how I manage time during the task. As a result, this may help me to work faster during the design process and subsequently improve my skill set. This will also prove useful for other projects that the signature may be used in, including my personal branding or when networking with professionals.

Time plan

• 30 - 45 mins research and typography inspiration research
• 1 - 2 hours sketching ideas
• 1 - 1.5 hours digitising the signature
• 30 - 45 mins applying to mock ups

*BriefBox description*

(Today we’re going to look at creating a quick email signature to add a little professionalism to your emails. As a designer, you should use every opportunity to show off your skills. Emails and letters that you send out should reflect your skills as a designer and show that you mean business!

Today we want you to create a stylised, typographic signature of your name. It can be just your first name, your initials or a combination of both… your choice. The finished product doesn’t necessarily have to look like a signature per say, it can be more advanced than that, this is a great opportunity to show off your lettering skills.

Start, as always, by searching for some great typographic inspiration (Check out the useful links sections below to get you started). Think about the style you want to achieve, do you want your signature to be rough and ready, in a script style, or in more refined serif or sans serif letter forms? Your decision. Once you have an idea start sketching out some concepts. These can be quick, rough ideas at first, we can refine them later on.

What I do at this stage is pick one or two of my preferred sketches, scan them into the computer and then print them off at a larger scale. From here I trace the original sketch using thin layout paper, making slight improvements to the letter forms as I go. You can repeat this process again and again until you’re happy with it. Don’t rush straight on to the computer, it will take more time in the long run.

Once I’m happy with the refined lettering, I will once again scan this into the computer and then begin digitalising it using the pen tool. Try and use only horizontal and vertical bezier curves to keep the angles consistent. The awesome guys over at the AGSC created a great tutorial for this technique. 

Once you have you digitalised letter forms you can play around with colour and texture until you have your final piece. This is a great little asset to add to letters, emails, bios, portfolios and resumes. Don’t forget to upload your submissions for feedback from myself and the rest of the community!)