Instructions3000 is a fictional editorial design project we were assigned in school. The brief was to create a guide for aliens—not to explain life on Earth, but to give them instructions on how to live here.

In my magazine, I chose to simulate the life of a woman from the perspective of an alien observer. The concept is intentionally unconventional, naive, and ironic, with a staged aesthetic that is both brutal and absurd. Through this lens, the project reflects contemporary society—particularly the often contradictory and extreme lengths women go to in order to meet beauty standards, sometimes to the point of losing their sense of self.

The goal is to expose how paradoxical and self-defeating human behavior can be. Because the alien lacks social conditioning and any concept of established beauty norms, this creates the opportunity to present the absurd and incomprehensible as “beautiful” and aspirational.

This perspective adds a deeper layer of irony: the alien uncritically adopts the naivety and absurdity of human beauty ideals, thereby holding up a mirror to our cultural values and priorities in a strikingly exaggerated way.