How to Celebrate Your Birthday — Editorial Design

Editorial Design | Typography | Art Direction

For this project, I created an eight-page, six-step booklet titled How to Celebrate Your Birthday, taking a humorous and satirical approach to the ups and downs of celebrating another year. Inspired by my own approaching birthday and conversations with friends, I wanted to create something playful and relatable that told a story through design.

I drew inspiration from Neo-Brutalist design, experimenting with bold typography, pastel colors, and expressive imagery. Using a palette of purple, yellow, and blue, I developed a layout system where each color followed its own set of design rules. This allowed me to create variety from page to page while maintaining a cohesive visual identity throughout the booklet.

The six steps — Wake Up, Ponder, Eat Cake, Cheers, Dance, and Cry — take the reader through the emotional roller coaster of a birthday. My goal was to balance humor with strong visual storytelling, creating a piece that felt energetic, engaging, and a little unexpected.