Extended project · Typography & editorial

The Diary of a Nobody, retold by the housekeeper

Brief: Re-contextualize a book as a magazine article
Role: Graphic Designer
Tools: InDesign · Figma · Procreate
Year: 2024
Influences: Art Deco · Russian avant-garde · Harper's Bazaar

The Housekeeper typographic magazine spread design

Extended case study — includes research, iterations and feedback rounds. Short on time? Read the condensed version →

01The concept

The Diary of a Nobody is a Victorian comedy told by Mr. Pooter, a well-meaning, clueless middle-class clerk. My brief was to turn a book into a magazine article, and the angle I chose was to move the camera: same household, seen by the person who cleans it.

Through typography, layout and imagery, the spread gives the housekeeper a voice and turns light comedy into social commentary about unseen labor and the class divide it rests on.

02Ideation

Idea generation: whose story is missing from the diary?

More idea generation — Angles I tried: satire, sympathy, resistance.

Layout sketches: how much space does a voiceless character get?

Moodboard — The moodboard: Art Deco polish for the family's world, avant-garde edges for hers, and labor movement graphics from the same era.

03Building the visual language

Grid system — The grid: early 20th-century magazine bones.

Color scale — The palette: polite parlor tones, undercut by harder ink.

Typography system — The type does the storytelling: a refined serif for the family's world, harder edges for hers.

Asset creation — Assets drawn and collaged by hand, then digitized.

Test prints. A magazine spread has to work on paper, not just on screen.

Initial spread design — The first full spreads, before feedback.

04Feedback, and what it changed

Round 1: the final spread's message.

Further exploration of visual elements beyond conventional imagery, such as the “wet floor” sign, presents an opportunity to deepen the emotional resonance of the project.
Design review

My original closing image was a wet-floor sign. On theme, but it didn't go far enough, and the feedback made me re-ask the basic question: what should this magazine stand for? I replaced the sign with a graphic inspired by Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. The spread stopped offering sympathy and started calling for action. That was the message all along; the feedback helped me find it.

Final spread before feedback, with wet floor sign — Before: the wet-floor sign. On theme, but timid.

Revised final spread with Liberty-inspired graphic — After: Liberty for housekeepers. Support became a call to action.

Round 2: texture and materiality.

Texture and materiality in typography offer a rich avenue for enhancing the project's conceptualization, providing tactile and sensory dimensions.
Design review

I resisted this one at first. My early texture tests fought with the text and felt heavy-handed. Coming back to it later with fresh eyes, I compared a flat version against a textured sample and saw the reviewer was right: the flat version lacked presence. A restrained amount of grain gave the piece the tactility a print magazine needs.

Flat design before texture — Before: clean, but weightless.

Design with texture applied — After: just enough grain to feel like paper and labor.

05The final spreads

Final magazine spread 1 — The opening spread. Her voice sets the headlines now.

Final magazine spread 2 — The comedy, re-read as social commentary.

Final magazine spread 3 — The closing call to action.

06What I learned

Type and layout decide things together. The magazine format shaped which typefaces could carry the tone and still read well in print.
Tight constraints force strategic cuts. Two spreads had to carry the whole counter-narrative, so everything on the page had to earn its place.
Pick references people can read. Delacroix works because people recognize it. A reference the audience can't place can't carry the meaning, no matter how well it fits.

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