ProgressBook_Final_04-10-2020

Nice to Meet You!
My name is Amanda and welcome to my
thesis process book. I’m a Chicago-based
designer, illustrator, and maker.
Believe it or not, I actually grew up envisioning
that I would become a world-renowned pediatric
oncologist. Nevertheless, I was still drawing
and creating wonderful works of art. But I was
convinced that my life purpose would be to help
people heal or feel better- not be an artist.
Once I hit high school and took my first
Photoshop class, I found a passion for design.
And it took off from there, really. Still, I never
forgot that I wore my heart on my sleeve,
especially when relationships were involved.
Reasoning behind my thesis topic:
Throughout the past few years, I somehow kept
finding myself in situations where managing a
relationship was involved. Whether that was with
my own or a friend looking for advice, it always
found its way to me. The best advice I could
offer was “everything happens for a reason,”
something my mom would always tell me
when I was stressed.
Speaking of my own relationship, I actually met
my boyfriend in my junior year of high school.
To this day, I consider him to be one of my best
friends. However, he wasn’t always my best
friend. We hit lows I never thought we would hit.
To the point where I heard the words “toxic” and
“leave him” from others when I sought advice,
over and over again. And yes, we ended up
breaking up. But only for a few months.
The funny thing about this story is there’s a happy
ending, just like in the fairytales. We ended
up back together and learned from our own
mistakes and grew into healthier, better people.
But all of this took a lot of time, effort, and
choices. It took understanding who I wanted to
be to make the conscious effort to do better.
In coming up with my thesis, I thought about all
sorts of things. But the one I kept coming back
to was how commitment to a relationship
changed my life. Why did I choose this?
Relationships have been an important part of my
life and because I’ve struggled through them and
have come out stronger because of it.
As generations continue to pass, people
will constantly be facing the challenges of
commitment. Thus, I asked myself, “What
could I create to help make a relationship
just a little bit better?”
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