Beneath the Surface of a Signature Art Project
Beneath the Surface of a Signature Art Project
“In some way, I’m trying to bring back a lost art,” said Liberty Junior School art teacher Stephanie Gauer, who kicked off her semester course with a lesson in cursive. At the surface, students were learning how to sign their name. But digging deeper, Gauer’s budding artists gained a whole host of other skills and knowledge that will serve them well - future artists or not.
Springboarding off the fact that a signature has “everyday application,” Gauer first challenged her students to perfect their own John Hancock. The idea first took shape when her own daughter was tasked with signing a form and posed the question, “What’s a signature?”
Since 2019 and up until December 2024 when it became state law, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce deemed handwriting and cursive a recommendation for Ohio schools. Typically, Lakota students learn cursive in third grade, but in light of the new law, Lakota is now developing a more consistent approach. Regardless, Gauer discovered that it’s not something that students practice regularly even after learning it.
Naturally, Gauer folded into the lesson the importance of a signature in the art universe - for reasons like copyright, identification and a signal that a piece of art is complete. But she also reiterated to her students the legally binding significance of a signature and when in life they’ll need to use it - like when they get their driver’s license or buy their first car or house.
Gauer also explained why the lesson was perfect for kicking off an introductory art class, in particular, because of its focus on fine motor skills.
“Writing is drawing,” Gauer said. “There’s nothing better than writing to get the basics of drawing down. It’s the best way to warm up your hand eye coordination and figure out how to control your pencil and put what’s in your head on paper.” In a short time, Gauer noticed in her students different signs that they were building up their writing stamina.
But the technicalities of cursive only scratch the surface on Gauer’s full lesson. Students watched a video of a calligraphy artist before experimenting with how to make their own signature unique and more expressive. They also analyzed the unique marks of famous signatures like those of Walt Disney and Oprah Winfrey.
From there, they dove into typography, exploring the idea that behind every single font is an artist who wants to convey a certain mood, message or meaning. They studied recognized logos with iconic typography and even the signs around their classroom. They also experimented with lines and line designs to understand how such elements can also convey feeling in a piece of art.
And finally, they took everything they learned to make the first letter of their first or last name a truly personalized work of art (examples at right of completed projects from Plains Junior students last semester). Students were essentially tasked with creating their own unique font face.
“Like their signatures, I encouraged them to put their own spin on it and the results were amazing and all their own,” Gauer said.
- curriculum
- fine arts
- personalized learning