Felix Culpa magazine
Felix Culpa
In an age where education often rewards specialization, curiosity across disciplines can be hard to sustain. Many lifelong learners crave a way to explore diverse subjects without being confined to a single field.
I wanted to design a publication that would celebrate curiosity itself — a magazine for readers who take learning into their own hands. The goal was to create something that invited exploration, made intellectual discovery approachable, and reflected the self-motivated spirit of the autodidact.
The result was Felix Culpa, a magazine dedicated to the art of self-education. Its design bridges the practical and the philosophical, featuring articles that range from concrete skills to broad liberal-arts ideas — history, science, philosophy, and beyond. The visual identity emphasizes openness and diversity of thought through varied typography, dynamic layout, and a balance of structured and organic forms.
Felix Culpa presents learning as a lifelong, joyful pursuit. It encourages readers to follow their curiosity wherever it leads and to see knowledge as something to be built, not bestowed.

a spread introducing a feature article about Seaplane racing in the Mediteranian

a spread with original illustrations
Felix Culpa vol. 1

a spread with custom typography introducing a series of articles on English grammar


spreads showing a layout for a feature article

a spread for a front of book article
Process
Felix Culpa's tone
Quirky, funny, off-beat, light-hearted. Irreverent and intellegent. A Kurt Vonnegut-style mixture of mid-western sincerity and acerbic humor.
Felix Culpa's readers





a portion of the flatplan for Felix Culpa vol. 1
Typography
The typeface used for all headings (except for feature articles that use custom display fonts) is Quasimoda, a friendly sans-serif with lots of different weights. If you've made it this far into my portfolio, you've probably noticed that I'm a big fan of sans-serifs like these. But to prove that I'm not some kind of fetishist for sans-serifs, the body copy for all of Felix Culpa is the indomitable Caslon, a serif font with a long track record.
Colors
The colors for Felix Culpa tend to be solid primary colors. There's a dark blue that gets used in the masthead and illustrations. I wanted the colors to feel warm and have a kind of a naïve simplicity.

Masthead design and sketches for Felix Culpa's branding





the moodboards for Felix Culpa
Special thanks to Jill Vartenigian for her feedback on this project

