First year
My design programme covered a bit of everything in year one. 3D modelling, web development, drawn art. Among all of it, one project felt the most personal: a public service announcement on OCD.
The spaghetti
I was diagnosed young but never truly understood OCD until a psychology course reshaped how I saw it. Compulsions, intrusive thoughts, the web of magical thinking that ties them together. Living with it often felt like having a bowl of spaghetti in my head. A tangle of thoughts, some dark, some kind, all indistinguishable. Reach for one hoping for clarity, and you never quite know if you’ve pulled a good noodle or a bad one.
The most grounding thing anyone’s ever told me came from my dad: “You are not your thoughts.” That sentence gave me distance from the noise.
The piece
The PSA was built around a Canadian Mental Health Association article. A composition of sputtering mouths atop a distorted head, developed through moodboards and mockups, refined with peer review and feedback. The final result. Messy, uncomfortable, deeply personal.