Today we’d like to introduce you to Nalani Manyak.
Hi Nalani, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ever since I was little, I have always paid attention to the small things that make daily life a bit more special. There is an art to communication, whether it be through a commercial, a song, a painting, a cinematic experience, or even a single written word. I have grown up with an appreciation for the different ways we, as a species, convey messages, and for the psychological “why” behind a person’s desire to accept that message.
Growing up for the majority of my life in St. Augustine, I was a lonely kid who often retreated to drawing, writing poetry, watercolor painting, dancing, and smoothie-making to keep myself busy, and to process a world rapidly changing with the development of new social media platforms, which I had no desire to be part of for many years. How does one person find true connection within a community when you are competing with the electronic ghosts of people all over the world? What message is really being conveyed when everyone is putting out the same curated imagery and text?
Throughout my adolescence, I began experimenting with Yearbook classes, Digital Arts classes, and Fine Arts classes, which developed my early skills as an artist and designer. This allowed me to catch a glimpse of what visual and verbal communication was capable of: the catharsis of bringing a community together. Most people bond over different types of media, and need an outlet to feel that joy and love. I finally realized that is where I can come in to help start that ripple; to design the visuals and write the content that bring people together. Combining these classes while taking the highly rigorous AICE Cambridge program at St. Augustine High School, which taught me much in the ways of critical thinking, I developed a passion for thoughtful communication, and making sure that everything I ever did and said had a reason.
I would graduate from St. Augustine High School with a 4.74 GPA, fifth in my graduating class overall, with the goal of becoming a graphic designer and writer at the University of North Florida (UNF), a goal which I would pursue doggedly for the next 3.5 years. That specific major was a limited access program I had to apply for after roughly two years of classes taken, and only twenty students could be accepted every semester. I was gratefully accepted and would continue my education with new dreams of being a creative director at an agency one day.
As of December 2025, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from UNF with my BFA in Graphic Design, and a Double Minor in Professional & Public Writing, as well as Leadership. I have left the collegiate experience completely free of debt, and I am now working freelance with a few different companies, including Wanderlust Elevated Marketing & Branding, Hybrid Design, and LeppDesign, but I am always looking for more wonderful opportunities in the graphic design space for networking, career growth, and freelance.
I am also currently writing a book of poetry I hope to publish in the next year or two. The book will be split into sections based on concepts like romance, societal division, work ethics, and nature, all topics that relate to my emotional and psychological development as a young woman growing up throughout the 2010s and 2020s.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely not been the easiest road to becoming a graphic designer, although I know I have not faced the rejection that some of my peers have.
Almost every graphic designer I know likes to say they are a perfectionist, and unfortunately the same goes for me; my issue has always been that not only do I search for perfection in my design work, but also in myself as a person, my health, my art, and even in the standards I hold for everyone else around me. I look at all the tiny details of my work and society at large equally, but to an impossible metric that no one person or thing could ever hope to meet. I come by this habit honestly, because I see so much potential in the world around me. However, this expectation that life will always go by my design—pun certainly intended—can sometimes leave me feeling depleted. I have been working to realize that there comes a point you have to let your expectations go, and to remember one of my favorite quotes from a tv show I love that says “if you look for the light, you can often find it, but if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.” Perhaps that is how I will learn to be more hopeful, more forgiving, and to realize I do not have to be the same person I was yesterday; you always have time to be a better person and a better artist.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I consider myself a multi-disciplinary graphic designer, known for many different niches including branding identity, poster design, advertising, publication design, motion graphics, social media design, and even web design to an extent. I like to say my work has a bold, yet elegant style that is capable of being cleanly expressive. I am also a skilled copywriter and creative writer, as well as a fine artist who works with watercolor, colored pencil, graphite, charcoal, pen, collage, and oil pastels, and even a photographer. In short, I strive to be artistically productive and multi-faceted.
One of the projects I am the most proud of is an experimental typography book I created in 2025, entitled PROXIMA, focusing on the study of physics, and how an artist would visualize those mathematical concepts in a more abstract, maximalist form. I actually went back to my old high school to take photos of the lab, the pendulums, the circuitry, a solenoid, and then turned these items into textures in the backgrounds of these pages, so almost everything in the book comes from my own imagery sources. It is by far the best design work I have ever made, and I am currently selling it on Blurb.com if anyone is interested. It really allowed me to stretch my creative muscles.
My life motto is that I want to be someone who turns art into language and turns language into art. What separates me from others is not only that my style is capable of being adaptive, but also that I am not confined to just one niche. I am strong in—and enjoy creating—all types of graphic design, making me very versatile, and I can combine that visual language with my rational thinking and writing skills. Most designers like to enter the industry just to make things look pretty, but every design choice needs a reason. I also rarely consult AI for any of my work, as I believe the best work is made by humanity; there is something beautiful about an idea coming from the human brain and translated through the body to the hands.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I am not sure I have a favorite childhood memory, there are many sensory moments I look back and smile at, but I could not pick just one, or I’d be here all afternoon! I will say the best parts of my childhood were spent with my family, whether it was mundane like eating dinner at Red Robin after dance practice, or sweet like me and my older brother bonding over a tv show for the first time, or exciting like going to Disney World the last days before COVID-19 shut down the parks. I have never needed much to be happy; the experiences in the quality time is what mattered the most to me.
Pricing:
- PROXIMA available for $78 on Blurb.com (discounts may apply)
- Branding and Publication Prices may vary
- Motion Graphics Prices start at $550
- Social Media Advertising Prices start at $300
- Personal/Portfolio Web Design Prices start at $1,800
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nalanimanyakcreative.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nalani_manyak_creative/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nalani-manyak-015445346
Image Credits
Self Portraits Taken by Emily Voykovic and Mackenzie Gentz
