signature design is an artistic creation process that exaggerates, changes and combines the strokes of Chinese characters on the basis of using calligraphy lines, plane composition and aesthetic structure, and conforms to the characteristics of the times and the personality characteristics of the name owner.
a good signature should not only have the aesthetics of calligraphy and graphic design, such as graceful lines and the echo between strokes, but also include the customer's personality characteristics, job characteristics and original handwriting style. Because each customer's personality and position are different, the handwriting is even more varied. Therefore, a good signature design should design different styles according to different customers, so as to truly belong to the customer's own signature, rather than the designer's style. Just like this, it can be regarded as a real signature design, and it is a personalized signature that truly conforms to the customer's personality and belongs to the customer. So to meet these requirements, not everyone can make a signature design with a pen. Since I was engaged in the signature design industry, many friends have said to me: "Signature is just to write a name, and by the way, simply draw a few strokes." Indeed, in the eyes of most people, the signature is too simple, but is it really that simple behind it? Here are some examples of my own creative experience for your reference.
First, the basics of calligraphy
A good signature designer must first master the basic line control ability, and the line control ability, the basic skill of China's calligraphy is necessary. I believe that everyone can write, but knowing how to write does not mean that you have the ability to control lines. This is why in China, everyone can write, not everyone can sign designs. Calligraphy practice can't be achieved overnight or in three or two years. Therefore, as a signature designer, he must first be a calligraphy enthusiast and have a foundation of calligraphy practice for three or five years, so as to ensure that he can make a unique line writing method for the lines of each word when designing a signature.
Second, the aesthetic view of fashion
Calligraphy needs to pursue the ancient meaning, but the signature design is changeable. Only the ancient meaning can't be a good signature. It must also keep pace with the times and be familiar with the aesthetic view of the times, which is what we often call fashion. Without a designer with a fashion aesthetic view, it is impossible to design a signature with the fashion sense required by modern people. As a good signature designer, we must always refer to some fashionable works of art, understand the popular fashion sense now, and design a signature that conforms to the characteristics of this era for people of every era, so as to meet the individual signature that everyone pursues. Although the signature also has the style of a designer, it is not like calligraphy. As long as you have your own style, you can carry forward this style, form your own family and start a school. Therefore, a good designer must be an advocate of fashion trends and at least a follower of fashion.
Third, the ability of aesthetic structure and plane composition
Although Chinese characters are square characters, each character has a different structure, and these varied structures are a good carrier for designers to create. China people's names are basically composed of two to four characters, with fewer words, but they must be aesthetically pleasing when designed, which is not as simple as how we practice calligraphy horizontally and vertically. We must be specific about the basis of conventional strokes, but we must break through the conventional stroke composition. The length and short of stippling, hidden and present, strange and positive, big and small characters, high and low, etc. are all based on aesthetic structure.
Fourth, graphic design ability
When it comes to graphic design ability, it is not required that the signature designer must be a graphic designer, but that the signature designer should learn a little about the imaginative thinking ability of the graphic designer when designing and creating, and don't limit his strokes to some rules of calligraphy and some rules imagined by ordinary people, so that the designed signature can have personality and fashion sense. Because graphic design must be required to break through the tradition, everything is based on beauty, and everything else is created around beauty, so that the designed works can have connotation and flavor of the times.
V. Influence of Ancient Literature
China is a world power with a history of thousands of years of civilization, and ancient poetry and other ancient literature are one of the most precious cultural heritages left by our ancestors. In ancient poetry and ancient literature, the word "rhyme" is the most important thing. If there is no "rhyme", the work will have no connotation. The same is true for signature design. A good signature also needs the root of rhyme. Without rhyme, there will be no connotation. Without connotation, the work will become bland, just like a cup of boiled water, people will not feel anything other than words, and there will be no beauty. This is just like the rhythm in music. Music without rhythm can't be a good musical work.
6. The ability to explain works
Although this is not very important, if a designer designs his own works, even if he can't figure out why he designed it this way, why this one is long, why that one is short, why this word is bigger, why that word is smaller, etc., it will make customers wonder where your design significance and its connotation are, and at the same time, it will also produce a kind of understanding for customers when practicing. As long as the image is painted, the rhyme, connotation and so on of the designer's design are just plain and straightforward in the hands of customers, and the charm of the signature design is not understood by the appreciation, and the meaning of the word "design" is lost.
The above points are just the basic skills that a signature designer must possess. In fact, besides these, a good designer must go deep into life and experience life, which is often said that "art comes from life". At the same time, we need to know all kinds of life, wait and see the world, have some knowledge of handwriting analysis, know some principles of China's Yin and Yang gossip, know a little about Zhouyi, and know some geomantic fate studies, which are not as simple as ordinary people think.