How to Create a Personalized Signature
Determine the content of your signature., Print your signature., Determine how legible you want your signature to be., Begin making changes to your signature., Perfect your signature.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Determine the content of your signature.
If you were to look at the signatures of a thousand different people, you would probably notice that they not only vary significantly in their appearance, but also in the content of their signatures.
Some people sign their entire name, some just their last, and some just their initials.
Start by deciding exactly what you want to include in your signature If you’re concerned about forgery, it may be a better option to make your signature a bit longer and legible by including your entire first and last name and writing clearly.
It is so much easier to forge scribbled signatures than to copy the nuances of a legible one.
Signatures that include just your initials (with or without the middle initial) are typically considered more formal and business-like than full-name signatures.
Sometimes, people who don’t like their first name will leave it out entirely and sign with just their surname, or they may include just their first initial. -
Step 2: Print your signature.
Before moving up into signing your name, start by printing it over and over.
You may find that in the process of recreating your printed signature, you automatically begin to add flourishes and details in appropriate areas.
Printing your signature will help you to analyze where you want to add or detract, and what should be embellished and what shouldn’t.
Determine your favorite qualities of your printed signature.
Do you like the slant, size, shapes of certain letters? Keep track of these so that you can recreate them when personalizing your signature.
Pay attention to the size of your handwriting.
Studies show that people with very small signatures tend to be overlooked, while people with very large signatures often are arrogant or grandiose.
Try to keep your printed/signed name at an average size, similar to the size of your regular writing., Before moving from printing to signing, you should aim for a certain level of legibility.
Some people’s signatures are equally as legible as their print, while others look like scratches or scribbles on a page and are completely illegible.
Although you want to make your signature difficult to replicate (which may come with illegibility), you want to stay true to your personality and avoid cluttering your signature.To make your signature more difficult to read, you can either push letters closer together, or flatten them and spread them further apart.
If you don’t want to make your signature easy to read, avoid doing so by leaving out letters or using bad handwriting.
These tactics are unprofessional and won’t make your signature look all that great. , On a piece of paper, practice signing your name in multiple different ways, trying out some of the changes you would like to make.
Start small, and work your way up to bigger changes in the way you sign your name (rather than jumping into something totally new right away).
Some options for changes may include:
Greatly increasing the size of the capitalized letters in your name.
Adding a flourish to the tail ends of letters (particularly ‘T,’ ‘Y,’ ‘E,’ and ‘G’).
Changing the shape of round/elliptical letters (particularly ‘O,’ ‘U,’ ‘C,’ ‘R,’ ‘B,’ and ‘P’).
Incorporating traditional cursive and calligraphy into your signature.
Underlining parts of your name.
Adding additional shapes and decorative elements. , When you’ve chosen all that you want to add/detract from your current signature, start the work of incorporating in each aspect into your handwriting.
Don’t make a huge change in your signature right away, as it will feel unnatural and you will likely forget some changes that you intended to make.
Instead, slowly add and drop elements over the course of a few weeks until you have created a personalized signature.
Practice writing your signature on a daily basis to help expedite this process.
Consistency is a key element in changing your signature.
If you can’t keep your signature relatively the same between each signing, then you should probably limit the number of changes you’re making.
When in doubt, less is more.
Although you may want to have a hugely elaborate signature, for the first few months that just might not happen.
Keep it simple, and over time add more detail. -
Step 3: Determine how legible you want your signature to be.
-
Step 4: Begin making changes to your signature.
-
Step 5: Perfect your signature.
Detailed Guide
If you were to look at the signatures of a thousand different people, you would probably notice that they not only vary significantly in their appearance, but also in the content of their signatures.
Some people sign their entire name, some just their last, and some just their initials.
Start by deciding exactly what you want to include in your signature If you’re concerned about forgery, it may be a better option to make your signature a bit longer and legible by including your entire first and last name and writing clearly.
It is so much easier to forge scribbled signatures than to copy the nuances of a legible one.
Signatures that include just your initials (with or without the middle initial) are typically considered more formal and business-like than full-name signatures.
Sometimes, people who don’t like their first name will leave it out entirely and sign with just their surname, or they may include just their first initial.
Before moving up into signing your name, start by printing it over and over.
You may find that in the process of recreating your printed signature, you automatically begin to add flourishes and details in appropriate areas.
Printing your signature will help you to analyze where you want to add or detract, and what should be embellished and what shouldn’t.
Determine your favorite qualities of your printed signature.
Do you like the slant, size, shapes of certain letters? Keep track of these so that you can recreate them when personalizing your signature.
Pay attention to the size of your handwriting.
Studies show that people with very small signatures tend to be overlooked, while people with very large signatures often are arrogant or grandiose.
Try to keep your printed/signed name at an average size, similar to the size of your regular writing., Before moving from printing to signing, you should aim for a certain level of legibility.
Some people’s signatures are equally as legible as their print, while others look like scratches or scribbles on a page and are completely illegible.
Although you want to make your signature difficult to replicate (which may come with illegibility), you want to stay true to your personality and avoid cluttering your signature.To make your signature more difficult to read, you can either push letters closer together, or flatten them and spread them further apart.
If you don’t want to make your signature easy to read, avoid doing so by leaving out letters or using bad handwriting.
These tactics are unprofessional and won’t make your signature look all that great. , On a piece of paper, practice signing your name in multiple different ways, trying out some of the changes you would like to make.
Start small, and work your way up to bigger changes in the way you sign your name (rather than jumping into something totally new right away).
Some options for changes may include:
Greatly increasing the size of the capitalized letters in your name.
Adding a flourish to the tail ends of letters (particularly ‘T,’ ‘Y,’ ‘E,’ and ‘G’).
Changing the shape of round/elliptical letters (particularly ‘O,’ ‘U,’ ‘C,’ ‘R,’ ‘B,’ and ‘P’).
Incorporating traditional cursive and calligraphy into your signature.
Underlining parts of your name.
Adding additional shapes and decorative elements. , When you’ve chosen all that you want to add/detract from your current signature, start the work of incorporating in each aspect into your handwriting.
Don’t make a huge change in your signature right away, as it will feel unnatural and you will likely forget some changes that you intended to make.
Instead, slowly add and drop elements over the course of a few weeks until you have created a personalized signature.
Practice writing your signature on a daily basis to help expedite this process.
Consistency is a key element in changing your signature.
If you can’t keep your signature relatively the same between each signing, then you should probably limit the number of changes you’re making.
When in doubt, less is more.
Although you may want to have a hugely elaborate signature, for the first few months that just might not happen.
Keep it simple, and over time add more detail.
About the Author
Marilyn Bailey
Dedicated to helping readers learn new skills in cooking and beyond.
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