Statement of Intent
I was a college athlete during my undergraduate career, and I had grown up doing sport my entire life. I had a lot of love and support from my family and friends in my sports. My last two years (especially the last) were the most difficult parts of my career which affected my life.
From hard work and training, I was able to qualify for the NCAA National Championship for Track and Field. For this end of season meet, the top 24 makes qualified and with my first year going in at 4th, and my second year going in at 1st. Both years, I had my worst meet of the season which led to not making to finals to place. It was my second Nationals, last meet that I would ever compete in, that the emotions hit deep. In the moment, I felt as though my practice, hard work, and passion was all for nothing. I then went into a spiraling depressive state where I pushed off everything, didn’t have a healthy lifestyle, and wasn’t motivated to do
anything.
As a graphic designer, I have never created work that has connected my sports to my art. I also had not created work that was solely for myself since I was in High School. This series was my exploration in combining my side of my life as well as coping with my emotions from Nationals. I started writing down all the different thoughts that I had before, during, and after the track meets. This not only helped brainstorm ideas for my work but also work through the feelings I experienced. I then sketched out different ideas for how to execute my goals. After sketching out the different ideas and trying many forms of the work, I finally had it. I grabbed still images from my track meet and drew an outline of me mid throw. I took the three main stages of the throw and decided that I wanted to capture the movement, hence the swoosh visuals. This allows the viewer to not see a still figure, but how the figure moves through the ring. I also chose these moments and created three discs because you are only guaranteed three throws in a meet.
After getting the motion of the figure done, I moved on to the thoughts (typography). The larger text symbolizes the positive affirmations that I would tell myself before or during the throw to calm my nerves. The text on the inside were the subconscious thoughts that would haunt me before and after each throw. The large text is bold and well put together because that is the stability that I depended on, while the handwritten text is the true feelings and emotions that ran through my mind. When the viewer looks at the series, I hope they can see the opposite thoughts that go through your head during certain events of our lives. Whether it’s a job interview, first date, major project, or any other thing that could bring self-doubt. These thoughts happen in our everyday lives as well as in athletics. There is a lack of awareness of mental health for the athletes at all levels of sports.