Beyond the Type: Embracing Handwriting in Art Direction and Graphic Design
Building a Personal Connection in the Age of the Sans Serif
Before I became an Art Director, I was a Graphic Designer, and graphic design remains the foundation of my work. I still take on design projects regularly, drawing from principles I developed across food packaging, magazines, books, convention stalls, and more. My approach always blends art direction with design possibilities, considering both the overall mood and recurring elements before diving into the graphics themselves. Today, I want to share a design-focused insight—an element that can tie together and reinforce the right creative concept.
I want to focus on one stylistic element: the handwritten word in graphic design and how it can improve your concept. It’s a timeless way to add some human touch, creating a sense of personal connection rather than a overtly corporate tone. Like hand-drawn doodles or illustrations, handwritten text adds an extra layer to a design. It can communicate something beyond what’s conveyed by the images or typography, often creating a unique, light and relatable feeling.
This approach works especially well for artisanal or niche brands. I’ve used it in branding projects where the brand’s identity felt so personal and unique to its creator that pairing it with any sans-serif font seemed to clash with the brand’s authentic feeling. Handwritten or more organic typography preserves that sense of closeness, emphasizing the brand’s distinct, personal character rather than giving it an overly polished or detached look.
Legibility is, of course, important, but for niche or handmade products, an intentionally imperfect or mysterious look can enhance their appeal. This approach creates a sense of intrigue that large brands often can’t replicate because they speak to the masses. But if your product is special enough to not appeal to the masses anyways it can amplify the product’s uniqueness and add to its mystique.
Here are some recent examples that reminded me of the powerful effect of using handwriting in design:
Paloma Wool
Paloma Wool has long been one of the leading "cool girl" brands, known for its sustainable approach to fashion. Rather than encouraging constant new purchases, the brand emphasizes styling what you already own—a philosophy perfectly mirrored in its thoughtful art direction. (It's so good, I might expand on it another time.)
On their social media, handwriting is a recurring graphic element, adding a personal and organic feel to their visuals. Rather than sticking to a rigid branding style, Paloma Wool creates a cohesive "vibe" by using a few distinctive graphical elements across each asset. This approach ties everything together without feeling overly structured. Their recent World Tour, which featured pop-up shops in cities worldwide, is a perfect example of this aesthetic in action. These pop-ups allowed people to experience the clothes in person—a thoughtful idea, as Paloma Wool doesn’t yet have any physical stores.
For each location, Paloma Wool created entirely unique graphics, and they even collaborated with local creatives to feature different furniture at each stop. I missed the Berlin pop-up, but from what I’ve read, every location was curated with distinct elements to provide a fresh experience. This level of detail is a lot of work, but it’s exactly what sets the brand apart—it’s authentic, communicates their values in a tangible way, and feels genuinely community-driven. Instead of transporting a single set of furniture around the world, they emphasize sustainability by working with local artists and resources.
Their use of handwriting in their assets further enhances this approach, showcasing how thoughtful, hand-crafted elements can communicate a brand’s values in a subtle and cohesive way. This is particularly effective in an increasingly impersonal medium like social media, where authenticity and connection can often feel lacking. By incorporating personal touches, Paloma Wool stands out, creating a more intimate and engaging experience for their audience. It’s a prime example of how handwriting can elevate concepts, making the brand feel both approachable and artistically refined.
Port Magazine
Uncommon Studio recently did a redesign of Port Magazine, a publication that features essays and profiles of some of the world’s leading personalities across various fields, including architecture, design, business, film, environment, politics, literature, and comedy, all paired with fashion.
For their ambitious redesign, Uncommon Studio fully embraced the personality aspect of their cover stars and featured individuals. Rather than adopting a single new logo for the magazine, they allowed each cover star to write the magazine’s title in their own handwriting, which then serves as the masthead. This approach means that every issue has an entirely unique design, focusing on the content and allowing the form to follow personality in its most extreme expression. This innovative method highlights the individuality of each featured personality while reinforcing the magazine's commitment to authenticity and creativity.
This emphasis on individuality creates a truly unique aesthetic that resonates with readers. It reminds me a bit of the pseudopsychology of handwriting analysis, which I believe has been largely debunked. However, I do think there's a reflection of our personality in our handwriting. In a Medium post where the studio discusses their project, they compare the appearance of the stars' handwriting to the content in the magazine, pointing out:
'Passages star, Franz Rogowski’s logo is unusual and awkward — the letters are both blowout and falling within themselves. He talks about the paradox of being a performer and also hiding in real life. Taika Waititi is the opposite, the letters are playful and energetic — he is interviewed about his unpredictable body of work.'
The general layout of Port Magazine is designed to be graphic and clean, leaning into the magazine's heritage while adopting a modern approach. However, the cover stories take a different route; in each one, the design reflects the individual personality of the featured subject. This is achieved through creative use of fonts, whitespace, sizes, and the images themselves, resulting in a fresh and exciting look each time.
For me personally, this would be a dream project, as it presents the challenge of reinventing and questioning the design with each new issue. I love a typographical challenge.
These are just two examples that communicate a similar message between the lines.
I have so many other brilliant examples in mind. I might explore that further another time; we’ll see. I’m still figuring out what I’m interested in writing about, and I’m learning a lot about myself in the process, which is very fun. I hope you enjoyed this!
What project have you seen recently that featured handwriting? I’d love to hear about it.
Cheers,
Kimberly
