stay uncool and one day you’ll be cool (personal project)
handmade visual journal
may to july ‘25
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 memories and joy I once felt.
I started to make it on the computer in Adobe InDesign like I had done with the others but about a third of the way through it just didn’t feel right. So, I ordered and printed some of my photos and bought a ~letter-sized unlined sketchbook and decided to do it completely by hand: 60 pages of layout and stories and photos by hand. Each page was carefully curated and I wrote mini stories like a journal about each part of the trip.
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 some kinda therapeutic activity that allowed a lot of reflection. Doing this was a way to unmask; to process a little more about who I am under this autistic mask (I’m learning that it’s a layered journey that takes years). In that, I learned a little more about what I want, what I love, and maybe that’s how we actually are cool.
All I know is that I can’t wait to look at it just before my life ends and hopefully think, “my life may not have been much, but I definitely did do what I loved whenever I could.” And to be honest, that’s the only thing I hope to think before I die.
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 (like traveling to California to see Hanson four times). Who cares if anyone else sees it as cool or not? It made me happy. The end.
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The name of this book is largely inspired by the movie Almost Famous and the ‘one day, you’ll be cool’ shirt I bought from Paper 8 in LA that week.
I’ll finish this off with a quote from Almost Famous, one of my favourite movies of all time:
