Anaïs Nin: Typographic Portrait
My typographic portrait was created using Al Fresco, a sans-serif typeface created by Lura Worthington in November 2013, which is available via Adobe Fonts (Worthington, “Al Fresco Type”). I elected to use this font to represent my celebrity, Anaïs Nin, best known for her biographical fiction, poetry, and short stories (The Anais Nin Foundation). Due to the nature of her writings, I felt this font was bold, elegant, sophisticated, and approachable – much like how I would describe Anaïs Nin. Anaïs Nin faced many obstacles but remained true to herself and her beliefs, which shines through in her writing that she was very passionate and driven. While Al Fresco demonstrates strength and boldness, it also has elements of whimsy and embellishments that add grace and femininity to the font. Al Fresco also can lead viewers into an emotional interest with the dramatic ascender, descender, stroke, and aperture settings (Worthington, “Al Fresco Family”). When I selected this font, I knew creating a typographic portrait without variations would be challenging. Still, I also felt that in making this selection, I was also honoring who Anaïs Nin was a person because she never backed down when challenged in her way of life, but instead embarked on a journey to show the world what it means to walk your own path in the face of adversity; at least that is my takeaway from her intimate works.
“The Storm” by Anaïs Nin
I selected one body of work, a poem titled “The Storm” to create this visual because I felt it would be more impactful to use a single work than select keywords or phrases to describe Anaïs Nin. This poem showcases man’s interaction with nature and God, describing how ‘The Storm’ impacts birds, the waves, and a ship. While I did not keep the order in which the words appeared, the entire poem is used, and I did ensure that I called out the title and author on the bottom right-hand side; so that if anyone is genuinely interested, they can do a quick Google search and find this work. Because Nin lived her life in a manner that wasn’t standard, I felt that using one of her works was important and this poem stood out to me because it is not necessarily a happy poem, but it is still a descriptive one that invokes more than pretty words; she challenges the beliefs of those witnessing ‘The Storm’ and also discusses the importance of staying the course, no matter how difficult (Nin).
Because this font only has one variation, I had to get creative with my stylistic choices. I opted to layer different colors and sizes to create dimensions within my portrait. The first thing I did was decide on a color pallet that corresponded with the words I planned on using; the poem ‘The Storm’ was selected because it spoke of strength, fear, and triumph. Colors can evoke emotions, which was my aim in opting for this color pallet. Blue is often associated with sadness, and other negative emotions but the ancient Egyptians and Romans revered this color because of its rarity, so it was cherished and celebrated (Van Braam). By using shades of blue tinged with grey, and a very dark, almost black color, I wanted to embody the feelings of being ‘inside a storm’ akin to that of conflict and turmoil. Additionally, I highlighted certain impactful words by making them larger and providing a white outline to emphasize their existence further, forcing the viewer to see by drawing the eye naturally.
Design Intentions
My intention with the mood was to create a sense of wonder but also set the scene for the context of the design, by applying colors that are naturally associated with a weather event such as a ‘storm’. This further aided in my tone creation by invoking emotions such as wonder, curiosity, and a healthy amount of respect which is demonstrated in specific words that are called out like sky fury, coast, frightened, thunder, fear, anger, The Storm, and God. Because Nin is not necessarily a well-known individual, I wanted to create an image that drew interest and provided insight into what she wrote about. This poem was perfect because while it is, perhaps, on the darker side, so is some of the content she wrote. Her life was complicated, much like a storm is, and I believe that I managed to create a portrait that demonstrated her works, her personality, and a bit of her beliefs.
Work Cited
The Anais Nin Foundation. “Anais Nin Bio.” The Anais Nin Foundation, 2020, theanaisninfoundation.org/bio. Accessed 16 June 2023.
Nin, Anaïs. “The Storm.” Famous Poems, Famous Poets. – All Poetry, allpoetry.com/poem/11576016-The-Storm-by-Anais-Nin. Accessed 16 June 2023.
Van Braam, Hailey. “Blue Color: Psychology, Meaning and Symbolism.” Color Psychology, May 2023, www.colorpsychology.org/blue.
Worthington, Laura. “Al Fresco Family.” Laura Worthington Design, 2016, lauraworthingtondesign.com/products/collections/al-fresco-regular-bold. Accessed 14 May 2023.
Worthington, Laura. “Al Fresco Type.” Adobe Fonts, fonts.adobe.com/fonts/al-fresco#fonts-section. Accessed 16 June 2023.