Everybody else get out of the way, because I got some signs to write.
Nan Parati
The moral of sign writer Nan Parati’s story is to get fired twice in order to find your true passion. This is what happened to Parati in her early 20s, ultimately leading her to the New Orleans Jazz Fest where she’s been the on-site sign writer for the last 42 years. The distinct hand-lettering style she’s developed over four decades is now synonymous with music festivals nationwide, as she also creates the signage for the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals, among others. Her style is unmistakably her own, with uniquely bouncy flourishes and swirls and flamboyantly exaggerated serifs. These personal Nan fonts set the tone for the festivals, reflecting and amplifying the fun, upbeat energy of the music.
I had the great joy of speaking with Parati recently after she wrapped on Jazz Fest 2026. Our spirited conversation is below!
What’s your backstory as an artist? I read that your dad was a graphic designer, how did that impact you upbringing?
There wasn’t really ever a choice to be creative. Not that my parents said, “Here’s what you’re going to do,” by any means, but I was always so fascinated by everything my dad did. My dad’s studio was in our house, so that was also kind of our playroom. He taught us all kinds of stuff. Just the other day, I found a book he’d given me a million years ago about how to make things stand out and about contrast. When we were little kids, we would drive around in a Volkswagen van with a big peace symbol on it (my parents were hippies) and my dad would pull over and he’d say, “Okay, kids, look at that billboard. Is that a good billboard or a bad billboard?” And we’d say, “That’s a bad billboard, daddy!” “Why is that a bad billboard?” “Not enough contrast! Too many words! The typeface isn’t a good typeface!” This was our entertainment as kids.
This is why I think that many, many, many years later when I came into being the art director for the Jazz Fest here in New Orleans, I was good at it because I knew how to make things stand out. Now, every single thing that people do is on a computer screen, so everything is bright. But when you get out in the middle of a field or on a billboard, nothing is bright, and so you have to know that stuff. So that’s one of the things I’m really grateful for that I learned from him as a kid.
We didn’t have much money, so every time we wanted toys, we’d say, “Mom, I want that!” and she’d say, “Oh, you can make that. Go make that yourself.” So we learned how to build stuff too, which is another thing that’s worked well in life for me.
So when did sign writing come into the picture?
I was in my early 20s, working in the produce department at Whole Foods, and I got fired for talking too much to people and having too much fun. So I said, “I should be in the cheese department, because in the cheese department you have to be able to talk to people!” So I went into cheese and I got fired again two weeks later for whatever, and that same day the sign writer was leaving. I said, “That’s my real job! I’ve never done it professionally but I know I know how to write signs, I know it, please let me try that!” “This is your last chance,” they said. Then, interestingly enough, after getting fired twice there, I became the art director for their advertising. It’s funny to go from getting fired twice to handling all the advertising. But it worked out!
Then two years later, in 1985, Jazz Fest came over and said, “Hey, we need a sign writer!” They asked me to write signs for all the performers’ names. I didn’t really have a specific font or style at that time, so I just wrote the artists’ names in cursive. Next year, I started trying to come up with something that would be easily read from far away, stand out, high contrast, all of those things. I had no serious style then, it really developed being here at Jazz Fest and having to come up with something that would be visually pleasing— I wanted a serif style, I love serifs and I don’t like sans serif. Then I just started going from there!
My style developed even more during the COVID era, because people started requesting signs all the time; when there were no festivals, they wanted festivals. So I got so many requests, and I had a lot of time to really work on them. They weren’t just quickly making no parking signs, people wanted them for their houses. So I really started developing this font even more, giving it grace, and width, and swirls, and style, and things like that, so that’s what you see today.
Can you shed more light on how you plan your sign composition? You’re making so many of these so quickly, but you’ve been doing it for so long, I’d imagine how to lay out names and words on paper is second nature to you by now.
I made my first D in math in the fourth grade, and no math class ever went well until I took geometry—I made an A, and I think it was because that’s how my brain thinks. My brain thinks in the logistical side of things, and that’s why geometry worked for me. I would love to do a brain scan of my brain when I’m writing signs, because people ask how long it takes me to write a sign, and I always tell them 42 years and three seconds. Because for 42 years I’ve been laying it out, and laying it out, and laying it out, and now it’s just automatic. So I know exactly where the center of a board is, the center of a letter is, so I can do it pretty quickly now.
People ask how long it takes me to write a sign, and I always tell them 42 years and three seconds.
Do you have a favorite letter to draw?
S is my very favorite; I love me some S’s. The only letters I don’t get along with are K’s, everything else is good. I say that the signs talk to me, the letters talk to me. I’ll finish a sign, and that sign will look at me and go, “Are you serious? Did you really mean to do it that way? I am not going anywhere. No, I’m staying right here in this studio. You are going to write this again.” And it’s really funny, I get in arguments with them sometimes when they tell me what to do, but I have to listen.
What does your studio set-up look like?
I always say that my house is a studio with a bed in it. I’m always working, so I don’t necessarily clean it up when I’m done working for the day, because I’m just coming right back to it tomorrow morning! The kitchen table is a really nice height for writing signs on, the dining room table is really good for cutting things out on. Then Jazz Fest is held at a horse racing track, so the Art Department is in barn number 12! Everything is just written in the barn.
And the tailgate of my truck works really, really well as a desk. Wherever I’m at, that’s where I work out of! The whole world is my studio! Everybody else get out of the way, because I got some signs to write.
How does it feel having done signs for Jazz Fest for 42 years (and counting)? Does it ever get old?
I still love it after 42 years, I love it a whole lot. I hand-write over 3,000 signs every year, just for Jazz Fest, and it’s absolutely my happy place. A lot of times I won’t even go to lunch, I’ll just stay here so I can just be quietly writing signs. I can just sit and interact with my letters, and we’re all happy. I don’t just write signs for them, I also design the backdrops and most everything you see on site at Jazz Fest.
And Jazz Fest isn’t the only festival I do, I do Newport Jazz, Newport Folk, and several other festivals around the country. For those festivals, I’m more just the signwriter. After all these years, people have associated my style with festivals, and they want that look. The name of my serif font is Fun Times Roman, and then my more cursive script is called Nanuscript. Sometimes people will send me pictures of signs at other festivals and ask, “Did you do those signs?” But someone’s copying. I don’t really appreciate when people copy it.
About 10 years ago is when people started copying. There’s that odd split between, “Hey, I’m really honored that you want to copy my font,” and, “Hey, stop it! It’s mine!” I’ve worked really, really hard, for many years, on developing this, and I support anybody else who wants to develop their own child. Go, do it! I’m not going to stop you. You can go work on your festivals, but come up with your own style. Just don’t do mine. That’s what I want to say to them.
Why do you think your sign style is so beloved?
I think it’s maybe three things. One is history; having done it for such a long time, my fonts have been evolving as I’ve developed them. There are pictures at the festival of signs I wrote 25, 30, years ago, and you can see the evolution.
Another thing is I try to make them fun. That’s the whole point: to make them jaunty and fun, and like, “Hey guys, we’re out here having a good time!” So I think that’s a part of it too; I intentionally make them swoopy and fun.
Then the third thing is that I think, oddly enough, in this world where every single thing is done by a computer, people love the idea of a handwritten anything. I think they’re very excited by that.
What sort of work do you take on in between festivals?
If I’m not working on a festival, almost my entire workload is making signs for people. That really started right around COVID time. Now, I get sign requests all year round. So I do festivals all summer, then I have about three months when I’m not doing festivals and that’s before Christmas when everyone wants Christmas presents.
It’s just so amazing. It’s certainly not anything that I ever could have said when I grew up. “I’m going to be a sign writer!” Yeah, right, sure… Nobody ever saw that coming. It’s just been such an amazing life I’ve been able to lead.