Billy Joel Tribute Booklet
A sixteen-page tribute booklet exploring Billy Joel's music, with particular attention to Vienna, through archival photography, serif typography, and a cream, charcoal, and burgundy palette.
- Deliverables
- 16-page booklet, typography and layout, colour system
The project explores Billy Joel's music through its reflective themes and emotional atmosphere, rather than presenting a conventional biography. I wanted the publication to feel considered and personal, using the visual language of vintage print media to support the subject.
The design relies on pacing, image treatment, and typography to create variation across the pages while maintaining a consistent visual identity.
- Research into Billy Joel's music
- Editorial moodboard and references
- Typography and layout development
- Color palette and image selection
- Sixteen-page booklet
- Front and back cover design
Listening first
I started with the music and the era around it: album art, archival photographs and the printed look of vintage magazines. From those I pulled a palette of cream, charcoal and burgundy.
Pacing sixteen pages
Thumbnails mapped how the booklet would move from the cover to the back, alternating full-page photographs with pages of text so the rhythm stays steady.
Cover and spreads
I rejected the biography. A timeline of dates would have been accurate and flat, and the music is what people remember. So the booklet follows the songs instead. Photos are black and white or burgundy duotone, never full color, so the archival images read as one collection instead of a scrapbook.