The term handwriting or handwritten-style font refers to a letterform that was designed to mimic the unique shape of glyphs written or drawn by hand using a pen or marker. This unique letterform has withstood the test of time. It remains relevant in this digital era, especially in the time when people are being restricted from socially interacting with each other.
The rising craze of everything retro has brought back handwritten-style typefaces into modern graphic design trends. While most script typefaces today might not be as iconic as the older, more traditional ones (at least not yet), both are still causing quite an impact in each design they’re featured in.
What do They Bring to Your Design?
To better understand why handwritten-style typefaces are still relevant even in this digital era, we first need to understand how this peculiar letterform affects our design. We can do this by learning a bit about handwriting font psychology.
Font psychology is an essential aspect of typography, especially when designing a brand logo. Since brands want to show off their company’s spirit and ideology, designers must make sure the logo represents that. This can be a bit tricky if the client specifically asks the designer to create calligraphy for their logo. However, each letterform has its own representation or feelings people associate them with.
Since handwriting fonts were designed to look like handwritten text, incorporating this letterform may bring a feeling of craftsmanship to your design. Since penmanship is an actual skill one can master with rigorous training, people tend to associate script fonts as being “organic”, “elegant”, or “traditional”. People are also quick to perceive handwritten-styled typefaces as “creative”, “sentimental”, and “intimate”.
This association occurs due to the fact that we, as a society, still perceive that someone actually made an effort to write that beautifully whenever we see a handwritten typeface in something. It’s not because we don’t know that it might just be a computer-generated text—it’s just our how our collective memory as society perceives that text.
Handwriting Fonts for Design Occasions
Choosing a suitable handwritten-style font for your design project might seem intimidating at first due to their unique shapes. Some of them are practical, while many others are heavily decorative. This and the fact that you have to match the feel of the typefaces with the overall mood of the design are a challenge unique with working with this particular letterform.
These few examples of handwriting fonts might help you find inspirations for your next project:
- Lightning Cover, this font is perfect for media targeted at urban youngsters.
- Mellisa is classic and sophisticated; perfect for more mature demography.
- Raisa Lovers, featuring both the script and sans-serif versions, this font is suitable for chic media.
- Blacksmith Signature, if you are aiming for a vintage feel, this one’s for you.
- Santiago, if quirky and playful is the game, then Santiago is the name.
A Few Tips
If none of those mentioned above fonts are up to your preference, or you just want a more personalized touch in the lettering, you can always try to create your own! We’ve summarized a few tips from lettering.org to help you design your own unique handwriting font(s):
- Stop writing, start drawing. Hand lettering is more akin to drawing rather than writing. Basically, you are supposed to put more effort into the details of each glyph instead of writing a comprehensible text.
- Experiment with your tools. Different types of pens create other strokes or textures, too. Likewise, you can also try lettering with a brush or a marker for additional lines.
- Train in an orderly manner. Before you start drawing the actual letter, practice your basic strokes first. This way, you’d have a minor error when actually drawing the glyphs.
- Please think of how you connect them. Pay attention to how you would connect the letters. This is important so that your font can be used seamlessly.
- Add some decors. Once you’ve mastered the basics, whether you want to add some decorative aspects to your design is entirely up to you. If you want a truly unique handwriting font, adding a few accessories wouldn’t hurt.
Handwriting typefaces is indeed beautiful to look at. However, considering how every font in this letterform has its own uniqueness, designing a project using this kind of font might be intimidating for newbies or junior designers. Just keep on practicing, and you’ll get better in time.
