The reasons we love you. A birthday tradition, elevated.

In my family, on a big birthday, we celebrate by pulling together a list of some of the reasons we love you. My Mom used to have the local sign shop make the design, but I decided to take over the family tradition a few years ago.

Constitutional amendments

To celebrate the 90th birthday of the most patriotic man I know, and to accomodate the 90 things, I styled this one like the Constitution. I rewrote the into copy to be relevant and even grouped the reasons by category as the “Amendments.” I might have snuck a baby picture of myself into this one :)

B-i-n-g-o? More like L-o-g-a-n

There wasn’t much concept to this design, but I loved how the style came out, so I also turned it into a Bingo game we could play with the whole family, from the 9 to 90 year olds.

A hunter’s tale

For my Dad’s 65th, the theme followed one of his passions, hunting. Not that I am supportive of this particular hobby, but his goal was to shoot a bear in his 65th year, so that began the central focus of this birthday list.

A shopper’s delight

For my Mom’s 60th, I made a shopping themed posted with all of her favorite things interspersed.

Our olive tree

The matriarch of my family got a sturdy olive tree to hold the many reasons we love her. I also designed a shirt for this celebration, that played on label designs for old pickle jars.

The year before, for her 89th birthday, it was during the covid-19 pandemic and I used my creativity and limited After Effects skills to pull together a music video featuring all the members of my family singing our version of Gangsta’s Paradise.