The latest project I tackled was creating stickers! This was a daunting task for me, I knew it sounded a lot easier than it would be. I was right, but wow was it fun! 

I wanted to create stickers that were cute and appealing to the eye, but I knew I wanted them to have significant meaning.

As someone who suffers from several mental health disorders, I think mental health awareness is incredibly important. I am passionate about breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and stickers are a great way to spread a message! 

My process began with lots and lots of sketches. I drew anything that came to my mind when I thought about mental health and what it means to me. 

I drew brains and tears, weather and flowers. Sometimes I think mental health can feel overwhelming, chaotic and scary. My drawings reflected this. However, I also think there is something beautiful about the strength of those struggling. In my head I saw rain helping flowers to grow and rainbows appearing. 

My initial concepts were a b(rain) cloud, a text based sticker reading "you matter" and a rainbow showing both ends of a spectrum of emotions. 

I wanted my images to be simple, almost childlike. I felt like I was on the right track but this version ended up a bit too simple. Some feedback from my peers included making my clouds a little less cartoony in shape, adding some details like folds to my brain and bringing the lettering in closer together on my flower. I also received some advice about adding some layers to my flower in an effort to create some depth. 

Moving forward I scrapped my rainbow completely and decided to go with a more complex version. I tried a few versions out. 

I focused on creating fluffier clouds rather than lumpy and by the end I liked the least simple version the best! 

I then focused on my flower and text based sticker. I made the pink petals longer and thinner, while adding a layer of white petals on top. I also brought all of the letters in and overlapped them onto the flower rather than underneath which got rid of some unnecessary space.

Finally I moved on to my brain which was the hardest to create of the three. I spent hours and hours trying to draw the shape using the pen tool or the shape builder and I just couldn't get it right.

I finally decided to try drawing it by hand on my iPad and that was the key. I wish I tried sooner but it worked out in the end. Once I had the shape I tried out many different types of rain drops and even the directions they were falling in. 

By the end I had scrapped all three of my original stickers and nearly started completely over on each. The final product turned out really cute with each sticker following a matching color scheme and stroke value as well. 

I am pleased and proud of the final stickers. I wanted to spread awareness and give people a glimpse into what mental health struggles can look/and or feel like. I used bright and happy colors to display a typically negative topic and I tried to get clever and creative. 

If there was one thing I could tell each person every single day, it would be that they matter. Their experiences matter, their story matters, they matter.