Select a historical figure that inspires me and choose a typography that best represents their personality
Create a typography portrait using words that describe the subject
Inspired by the life and art of Frida Kahlo, I selected her as the subject of my typgraphy portrait and I carefully chose words for the piece that would describe her personality, art work, polictics and struggles.
Nickolas Muray's photograph "Frida, Pink/Green Blouse, Coyoacan, 1938" served as the base portrait of my work.
Kabut Hitam was chosen as the typography since the brushlettering most represented Kahlo’s identity as a painter.
To define the parts of Kahlo's face and ensure that the audience could visually tell who the subject of the portrait was, I used different stroke sizes of this typography, as well as outlines only, in order to create texture in the portrait.
Adobe Illustrator was used to create this project. Options like the Type on a Path Tool, or using text to fill a space as defined by certain shape, were utilitzed to design the portrait
Balance was also taken into consideration when deciding what size and thickness of the text needed to be included in each section in order to not take away from the features of the portrait, but to also make sure the viewers’ eyes were drawn to specific words throughout the piece.
Color was added to the museum exhibit add to not only act as a background to the typography portrait, but to fill in negative space and ultimately represent the bold colors often associated with Kahlo’s paintings.