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The Heavy 20s
Project Summary
This project was built as an editorial design response to a written article about anxiety,
depression, and loneliness in young adulthood. I wanted the final cover to feel minimal but still
emotionally loaded, which made the editorial format a strong space to explore metaphor and visual
compression.
Concept Development
I started by identifying two opposing ideas, carefree and burden, then sketched different ways those
states could be shown visually. From there, the challenge became finding one image that could hold
both meanings at once without becoming visually noisy. That pushed the project toward a more reduced,
symbolic solution.
Process
After the sketch stage, I moved into digital directions and tested a range of layouts, typography
treatments, and color variations. The balloon-and-chain image became the clearest final direction
because it communicated emotional weight quickly while still leaving room for the editorial tone of
the piece.
Reflection
The Heavy 20s became one of the projects I spent the most time refining, and that process taught me
a lot about spacing, typography, cropping, and the role of contrast in editorial design. It also
reinforced how effective a simple image can be when the concept behind it is clear and well resolved.
