Congrats!
Celebration is intrinsic to living and experiencing life. But why are birthdays, anniversaries, and other dramatic events the only ones deemed worthy of celebrating? Various moments mark our transition to adulthood, such as the first time you file taxes, quit a job, face your fears or replace a flat-tire.
My thesis celebrates these overlooked milestones. Through vehicles of exaggeration, humor, and satire, I invite the audience to reflect on our forgotten rites of passage.
ROLEEditorial Illustrations, Publication, Art Direction
MENTORS Ellen Lupton, Abe Burickson, Jennifer Cole Phillips, and Jeff Glendenning
These unusual milestones are commemorated with a greeting card that encapsulates the feeling behind the particular milestone. For instance, the ‘you quit your job’ card has a trash can filled with work apps to convey the frustration and burnout behind a stressful job.
The visual on the card for filing taxes is inspired by the vernacular of a tax form. It subverts the language used in these forms by revealing the true feelings associated with the experience of filing taxes.
Getting through braces is a deeply uncomfortable experience. The visual on the card uses exaggeration to combine brackets and barbed wire to illustrate the discomfort viscerally.
For my thesis exhibit, I scaled up my cards as life-sized posters to echo the idea of taking something seemingly small and making it grandiose and over the top.