zil Posted January 28, 2019 Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 (edited) I was reading an "official communication" today, and because it was so short, I noticed the signatures more than I usually do: ...and studied them for a while. I've decided which one I like best (from a strictly handwriting / visual / style point of view! not a spiritual, symbolic, metaphoric, whateverish point of view!), but haven't voted yet lest I impact the opinions. What do you think? Which one do you like best? Why? Edited January 28, 2019 by zil No, the watermark was not part of the communication; I added it. NeuroTypical 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonJones Posted January 28, 2019 Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 No opinion? They are all legible so that's a bonus. zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 1 minute ago, JohnsonJones said: They are all legible so that's a bonus. Yes, that is interesting. I wonder if they do that intentionally or automatically. Mine is not remotely legible, but I spent 20 years in a place where I had to either sign or initial so often that there was no way I was taking the time to do it legibly. 4 minutes ago, JohnsonJones said: No opinion? Apparently everyone's off doing work, or something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirkwood Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 Oh darn, I thought it was going to be forum and email signatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 OK, well, you all are no fun... I like President Eyring's signature best - those big swoopy descenders, the inconsistent capital Es, the skipping on the downstrokes of the B and E, the slight line variation - I'm thinking there's a fountain pen in his hand, probably a stub nib. President Oaks clearly likes broad strokes, and his capitals are all very unique - the D is a very efficient alteration to how we're taught to make Ds, while the H has plenty of extra lines - but doesn't require the pen to leave paper, and I'd love to know how he came up with that angle bracket (aka less than sign) in his O rather than a simple curve or picking up the pen like post people do. President Nelson's R is completely unique - I'm thinking the swoop to the s came first, then the second leg of the R is made as a lead-in the u. And I like the trailing swoops on his first and last names. His writing in general makes me wonder if he's left-handed - and if he is, he does better than a lot of left-handers. Just_A_Guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiterateParakeet Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 Zil, I loved your analysis of the signatures. I bet you are right about Pres.Eyring using a fountain pen, stub nib, of course! Those descended are amazing! Pres. Nelson's "R" confuses me...it unreadable to me, but the rest of his signature is so neat and tidy. I hadn't noticed Pres Oaks "O" till you mentioned it...that is so cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordorbund Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 I was torn between the Eyring and the Oaks signature. I almost voted for Eyring, but then I tried to figure out what it was that I liked so much about it. It's the loopy y's. I then changed my vote because what I like most about the Eyring signature is the Eyring name, not necessarily the signature. The Oaks signature employs a creative aesthetic that parallels the D and the O. Connecting the O to the a with @zil's angle bracket drives a line through the interior of the O. Note that the angle bracket ends grounded on the signature line before going into the a. Contrast that with the D, which is rounder than traditionally to more closely resemble the O, and the bridging line matches the adjoining a at the top of the a. It's a different lead-in to the a than what O's a gets, but improves the D by drawing a line through it. So the Oaks signature gets my vote. zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordorbund Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 Of course, the signature that should get all the votes is mine. Quote This is why we need arranged marriages. zil and SilentOne 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 22 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said: Pres. Nelson's "R" confuses me...it unreadable to me Yes, I had to study it for a while, follow the line, figure out what he was doing. I see the R, I'm not sure why the intro is U like rather than a single up-sweep, nor why he starts at the bottom instead of the top like we're all trained to. Ending his R with a swoop to the s rather than leading into the U makes me wonder if he developed that R because he had to initial things a lot and it just became habit to do the swoop regardless and then add his name, if signing, or the remaining initials. I spent the past 20 years (almost) working at a lab where everything had to be signed or initialed (e.g. the first page was signed and subsequent pages initialed - sort of like your mortgage). After so many of those, you start to change both your signature and initials into something else - quick, distinctive, easy, legible - what you choose depends on the person and the environment. I can easily imagine that as a doctor, he had to do lots of signing and initialing and may well have been very deliberate about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 I voted for Eyring because his signature seems the prettiest, even though it's barely cursive (in which sense I like either of the others better). I was also the first to vote, so that should count for something. Like I get a "First" sticker on my forehead. zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 15 minutes ago, Vort said: I was also the first to vote, so that should count for something. Like I get a "First" sticker on my forehead. Here ya go: classylady, askandanswer, Vort and 1 other 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordorbund Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 23 hours ago, Vort said: I voted for Eyring because his signature seems the prettiest, even though it's barely cursive (in which sense I like either of the others better). I was also the first to vote, so that should count for something. Like I get a "First" sticker on my forehead. Voting wrong negates any virtue of voting first. Vort, zil and askandanswer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 I can't believe @Just_A_Guy hasn't jumped in to help President Oaks in the voting! Vort and Just_A_Guy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just_A_Guy Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 34 minutes ago, zil said: I can't believe @Just_A_Guy hasn't jumped in to help President Oaks in the voting! Wish I could, but as a matter of aesthetics I prefer Eyring’s—in spite of its devil-may-care admixture of capitals and lower case. I’ve never really cared for the way cursive softens capital letters like D, E, H, M, N, etc (though I delight in the novel squiggles that make up letters like “J”, “S”, “Q” and “Z”), and President Oaks’ rounded “D” sort of kills the magic for me. zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Well then, maybe we can get @mikbone to give President Nelson a sympathy vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 11 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said: Wish I could, but as a matter of aesthetics I prefer Eyring’s—in spite of its devil-may-care admixture of capitals and lower case. I’ve never really cared for the way cursive softens capital letters like D, E, H, M, N, etc (though I delight in the novel squiggles that make up letters like “J”, “S”, “Q” and “Z”), and President Oaks’ rounded “D” sort of kills the magic for me. This is why I like lawyers (or at least JAG): They analyze (he analyzes) things minutely enough that I get a real insight into them, and find myself nodding in agreement over points that I had never actually considered that closely. I, too, dislike the roundedness that cursive tends to lend to capital letters, which is probably why early on (like around fourth grade), I started writing most capital letters like printed letters. I just liked how they looked better, especially "boat" letters like 'S' and 'G', and especially 'I'. I will occasionally write a cursive G, but it looks ungainly. Ts, Zs, and Js (and usually Ys) I write as cursive capitals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 2 minutes ago, Vort said: cursive G It's next to impossible to make this letter look good in cursive! I have great admiration for people who can manage it. J, on the other hand, is one of the best cursive letters. (But I hate the capital, cursive Z.) The capital A is probably my favorite to do in cursive. Vort 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just_A_Guy Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 13 minutes ago, zil said: It's next to impossible to make this letter look good in cursive! I have great admiration for people who can manage it. J, on the other hand, is one of the best cursive letters. (But I hate the capital, cursive Z.) The capital A is probably my favorite to do in cursive. I grew up in a town where a General Mills plant with its big cursive capital “G” logo painted on a grain silo that dominated the skyline. So I have kind of a soft spot for that particular letter. zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Just now, Just_A_Guy said: I grew up in a town where a General Mills plant with its big cursive capital “G” logo painted on a grain silo that dominated the skyline. So I have kind of a soft spot for that particular letter. Sure, when all you're doing is reprinting the logo with precise specifications, it'll always look good, but I find it really hard to make a good-looking one when I'm the one writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikbone Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 51 minutes ago, zil said: Well then, maybe we can get @mikbone to give President Nelson a sympathy vote. I can’t really vote for any of them. And I’m sure the Nelson signature is his ‘presentation / legible signature’. His real signature is probably more like mine. The amount of paperwork I sign is stupid. zil, JohnsonJones and Just_A_Guy 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 On 1/29/2019 at 9:37 AM, zil said: OK, well, you all are no fun... So, what's new? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 11 minutes ago, mikbone said: I can’t really vote for any of them. And I’m sure the Nelson signature is his ‘presentation / legible signature’. His real signature is probably more like mine. The amount of paperwork I sign is stupid. Is that actually reproducible? zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Just now, Vort said: Is that actually reproducible? You'd be surprised... When recording raw data in a regulated laboratory, if you make a mistake, you cannot obscure the original data. To make a correction, you draw a single line through the erroneous data, enter the correct data, then initial, date, and justify/explain the correction. Thus anything that is lined through must be initialed, dated, and justified. So, where I worked, there was a guy whose signature looked like his initials with several lines through them (a lot like a scribble). It was very common for people, upon getting his signature on something, to ask if he shouldn't initial and date it. His scribbles were easily distinguishable as his signature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 17 minutes ago, mikbone said: The amount of paperwork I sign is stupid. I will not miss that aspect of my old job. (Of course, I won't miss anything except some of the people, but that's another story.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikbone Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 10 minutes ago, Vort said: Is that actually reproducible? Over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over zil, askandanswer, Just_A_Guy and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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