Growing up is so overrated

For this personal project, I designed a humorous and relatable illustration centered on the 'harsh realities' of adulthood, starting with a birthday card and exploring its potential for versatile mediums.

What?

Birthday

Category

Illustration

Year:

2019-2020

The task

The goal of this project was to create a humorous birthday card design that pokes fun at the realities of growing up. I wanted to capture the emotional contrast between childhood innocence and the shock of adulthood in an engaging, humorous way. The project also explored how this concept could extend to merchandise such as tote bags, stickers, or coasters.

What I did / Challenges

  • Inspired by a conversation between my friend and me about finding adulthood hard, I wanted to emulate the contrast between our past innocence and our now struggling adulthood.

  • I wasn't a fan of cliche birthday cards with simple messages and wanted to address the humour market where a self-deprecating card is more appealing.

  • Drew the design using Illustrator, focusing on expressions to convey emotions clearly and humorously.

  • Took inspiration from Anton Ego in Ratatouille for the grown-up character, exaggerating a stern demeanour. This character also reconnects with a fond childhood memory, emphasising the subconscious longing for an innocent happy life.

  • Experimented with clean vector lines and still joyous colours to make the design adaptable across formats and presentable as a birthday card.

  • Explored scalability to ensure the concept worked not only for greeting cards but also for products like tote bags, stickers, and coasters.

Outcome

Aside from the friend who I gave the card to, I shared my designs with a group of friends. Their feedback was positive, with many praising the humour and relatability of the concept. They encouraged me to explore selling the designs online, highlighting their potential as a sellable product. This response reinforced the idea that the design could resonate with a wider audience.

Key takeaways

This project taught me how to incorporate humour and invite a joyous emotion into design, connecting with audiences in a playful yet impactful way. It also helped me refine my approach to scalable design, ensuring versatility across different product formats.