Big of Love: A Handwritten Font That Feels Like Real Personality
I opened a fresh brand board last week—no moodboard yet, just a blank artboard and a quiet café client who said, “I want people to feel like they’re being welcomed by a friend, not sold to.” That’s when I reached for Big of Love.
Right away, it stood out—not loud, but alive. This isn’t a stiff script font with perfect loops and uniform spacing. Big of Love is a handwritten font with gentle inconsistencies: a slightly wobbly baseline here, a playful upward flick there, subtle variations in stroke weight that make each letter feel drawn in real time. It’s joyful without being childish, quirky without sacrificing legibility, and authentically human—exactly what the project needed.
We were designing a visual identity for a small-batch herbal tea shop with a cozy brick-and-wood storefront, handwritten chalkboard menus, and reusable cloth bags stamped with simple illustrations. The vibe? Warm, grounded, quietly confident—not trendy, but timeless in its sincerity. Big of Love landed perfectly as the primary display font: ideal for logo lockups, signage, and packaging labels where personality matters more than dense text.
In practice, I used Big of Love first on the shop’s logo wordmark. No uppercase all-caps treatment—just lowercase “thistle & root” (the working name), spaced generously, with the ampersand drawn in a custom flourish. It read clearly at 36pt on a business card, held up beautifully at 120pt on a matte-finish window decal, and even translated well into embroidery on aprons. That’s rare for a script font: many lose charm or clarity at smaller sizes or across textures. Big of Love keeps its soul intact—even when scaled down to 14pt on a tea tag or printed on kraft paper.
For body copy and supporting text, I paired it with a warm, open serif font—a low-contrast, slightly rounded design with generous x-height. The contrast worked intuitively: Big of Love brought voice and warmth; the serif grounded everything with quiet authority and readability. No clash, no competition—just complementary roles. I also tested pairing it with a clean, airy sans serif font for social media graphics, and it held up beautifully: the handwritten energy popped against minimalist layouts without overwhelming them.
One thing I always check early is font licensing. Big of Love is part of the Script Amp collection—a curated set of high-quality fonts built for real-world use. It includes full OpenType features: stylistic alternates, ligatures (like the charming “fl” and “st” connections), and multilingual support covering Western European languages. That meant we could confidently use it across bilingual packaging labels and digital assets without hitting rendering hiccups. And yes—it’s a commercial font, fully licensed for client work, merchandise, and web embedding via @font-face or variable font hosting services.
I didn’t drop Big of Love into every headline blindly. Instead, I treated it like a trusted collaborator: reserved for moments where tone and feeling mattered most. On Instagram posts, it anchored the hero text—“Steep Slowly,” “Brew With Intention”—while the caption stayed in the supporting serif. On product labels, it lived only in the flavor name (“Lavender + Lemon Balm”), never the ingredients list. That intentional restraint kept the brand feeling cohesive, not chaotic.
What surprised me most was how well it performed in editorial design. We mocked up a seasonal zine—half printed, half digital—with recipes, grower spotlights, and brewing tips. Big of Love appeared only in section headers and pull quotes, always at 28–36pt, always with generous line height. It added rhythm and humanity without slowing readers down. In fact, test prints showed people paused longer on those lines—not because they were hard to read, but because they *felt* inviting.
It’s not a workhorse font. You wouldn’t set a 500-word website FAQ in Big of Love—and you shouldn’t. It’s not designed for long-form reading. But as a logo font, a headline font, or an accent font for short, emotionally resonant phrases? It shines. Its authenticity doesn’t come from imperfection alone—it comes from intentionality. Every curve, every tilt, every slight asymmetry feels chosen, not accidental.
Before locking it into the final brand guidelines, I ran three quick tests: printing a label on actual sticker stock, viewing the homepage hero text on a phone screen in daylight, and asking two non-designer friends (one who runs a flower shop, one who teaches yoga) what emotion the logo evoked. All three said some version of “friendly,” “calm,” and “real.” That’s the sign you’ve picked the right typeface.
If you’re building a brand identity for a handmade shop, creative studio, local restaurant, or wellness-focused business—and you need typography that communicates care, craft, and connection—Big of Love is worth your time. It’s not flashy. It won’t win awards for technical precision. But it delivers something harder to find: a voice that feels like it belongs.
And that’s the quiet power of great handwritten font design: it doesn’t shout. It leans in, makes eye contact, and says, “I’m glad you’re here.”
- Best used for logos, packaging accents, social headers, posters, and editorial highlights
- Avoid using for long paragraphs, data tables, or interface labels
- Always test on physical mockups—especially for stickers, signage, and fabric
- Pair with a friendly serif or neutral sans serif for balance and hierarchy
- Check included OpenType features before finalizing layouts—they add polish fast
