stay uncool and one day you’ll be cool (personal project)
handmade visual journal
may to july ‘25
The title means to stop chasing what someone else perceives as “cool” or “trendy.” Do what you want, like what you like, wear what you want to…. and stop making decisions based on what might “look” cool for social media. If you stay true to yourself, you’ll be the coolest even if the things you do and like aren’t seen as “cool” to someone else.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with one another when we’re uncool.”
(almost famous, one of my favourite cinematic masterpieces)
a story about this project:
Immediately out of college and before my first job as a designer, I designed a lot of ‘zine style photo books from some music travel adventures I went on. It was just a way for me to keep designing things and not forget everything I learned in school, build my portfolio with more work that I loved, while I was a barista as my day job and job searched but more than that it became something that made me really love to tell stories in a visual way.
Earlier this year I was itching to design something similar——and since I went to California near the end of last year to see Hanson (yes, those brothers) four times in a week, this trip felt like something that needed a physical memory of. I had done trips like this before but it had been YEARS and doing it again brought back a lot of feels [joy].
I started to make it in Adobe InDesign like usual but about a third of the way through it just didn’t feel right. I immediately had a handful of photos printed and bought a ~letter-sized unlined sketchbook and decided to do it completely by hand: 60 pages of layout, journal-esque stories, and photos by hand, each page intentional.
I’m not sure what to even call this project. A visual journal? Handmade ‘zine? Travel journal? For me it’s just a memory to keep forever and the process was slower than digital layout so it allowed a lot more thought and reflection.
In this process, I learned a little more about what I want, what I love, and following those things is maybe the only way we can ever be cool.
With that said, I can’t wait to keep it forever and look at/read it just before my life ends and [hopefully] think, “I may not have done everything, but I did what I loved and made the most of things whenever I could. And I was myself.”
