Tell Me How You Feel

A book to help you tell your own story. Made for my graphic design senior capstone class, spring 2023.

It’s difficult to regulate emotions when transitioning to adulthood, living on your own, and learning how to take care of everything else at the same time. It’s often one thing that is forced to be overlooked, and can be overwhelming or even debilitating.

Many people are able to easily identify emotions, but find it difficult to validate them, take themselves seriously, and to recognize their needs.

Tell Me How You Feel aims to let readers relate a series of stories to impactful feelings in their own lives, connect these feelings together because of the storytelling structure, and validate their behavior and experiences. Hopefully, a better understanding can help them advocate for help that fits their needs using this knowledge.

Process

I created a guiding question for myself: How can I use illustration to help young adults identify, validate, and communicate feelings caused by mental illnesses?

I conducted interviews with close friends about how they navigated their feelings in connection with illnesses, and also interviewed a licensed social worker on the relationship between emotions and disorders.

The Book

The book is divided into three sections, each focusing on one set of feelings: anxiety, mania and depression from bipolar disorder, and depression.

Each chapter follows a similar structure outlined by the same set of questions. The chapter examines the first experiences of the feeling, memories that stand out, questions invalidations, and celebrates recent improvements.

The end of the book features the same questions with a blank template left for the reader to create their own story.

The Website

Readers can upload their own story, and find more stories created by people like them on the project’s website, contributing to a growing community beyond the book itself.

While the book is complete, the website is just a conceptual mock-up.

The Exhibition

My work was presented in the end of the year Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition. I was able to order printed books for the event and sell them throughout the week.

BFA Exhibition site

Read on Issuu

Download from itch.io

More updates on Instragram

@Tell.Me.How.2023

Picture from the last day of the BFA show yesterday - thanks for everyone’s support! If you want to still see more of the project including process, my posters, and more, the BFA website is live - I reposted the link on my story. If you’d still like a printed book, message me! I have about 2 left :)

Some promotional posters. 2 days until the exhibition opening, woah!!

I wanted this project to be able to expand and grow in the future. While I didn’t have time to set up a full system during this semester, I did make a prototype for what I think a website could look like. It would let people upload their own stories in whatever medium they felt comfortable with, and read others’ stories as well, creating an online community of sharing, learning, and growing. :)

I made some mock ups for the printed book. I ordered some nicely print, perfect bound books and am very excited to see my work printed! They just shipped on Monday and so far, they’re scheduled to come Friday. You’ll be able to see them at the BFA exhibition and even purchase them as well!

Hi everyone! Here’s some background on this project. It’s difficult to regulate emotions when transitioning to adulthood, living on your own, and learning how to take care of everything else at the same time. It’s often one thing that is forced to be overlooked, and can be overwhelming or even debilitating. Many people are able to easily identify emotions, but find it difficult to validate them, take themselves seriously, and to recognize their needs. Tell Me How You Feel aims to let readers relate a series of stories to impactful feelings in their own lives, connect these feelings together because of the storytelling structure, and validate their behavior and experiences. Hopefully, a better understanding can help them advocate for help that fits their needs using this knowledge. You can already read the book online through the link in my bio! You’ll also be able to see the whole exhibit at KAM beginning at 4pm this Saturday and while the exhibit lasts through the week.