Background: I created the concept of Thought Noodles during a time of turbulence in my personal life that I struggled to come to terms with. I found that the best way for me to make sense of how I felt was to visually represent the conflicting feelings, in all of their winding complexity. I started to post them on the internet, and at its height I had almost 2,000 followers on instagram.

Situation: while working as the jewelry designer at Howard’s inc, I was approached with the opportunity to license my Thought Noodles designs and create a line of giftable plaques and necklaces.

Design Approach:

• I wanted the whole collection to have a cohesive feel, so although the art pieces had taken on many visual styles, I created a unified style for the purposes of this launch.

• The necklaces had a shortened version of the message on the plaque, to act as a reminder of the sentiment that the wearer could hold close the whole day.

• The plaques had a keyhole on the back for easy mounting on a wall, but they also had enough depth to work well as a desktop piece of decor.

Conclusion: The experience of licensing my artwork and introducing it to larger audience was so valuable and fulfilling. We received excellent customer feedback on the first launch, and I have hopes of someday trying new product categories.