Special thanks to:

Zoe Roytenberg Jeremiah Noel

for helping me with

my thought processes
and providing feedback.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Phase 1: Sponge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Phase 2: Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Phase 3: Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

About the Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

 When covid-19 hit, I had doubts that the pandemic would

resolve itself soon yet hoped it would. Starting March, I spent all

my time at home and rarely stepped foot outside of the house.

Two weeks into quarantine, I was thinking it was not too bad; I

saved time from commuting to and from school every few hours

and could attend class in my pajamas! However, I soon realized

how I missed seeing familiar faces and hanging out with my

friends--sure, I still talked to them through Discord and sure, I had

other friends I called every day, but it just wasn’t the same. I’m sure

I’m not alone when I say that I miss having a physical community

and enjoying a life outside of my cramped desk space.

Life in quarantine is dismal; it’s easy to be discouraged and

it’s easy to get depressed but how do we raise community

interaction when we’re wary of getting close to others? Despite my

lack of resources and difficulty with this public health issue, I want

to tackle the coronavirus through my project, “A post-it for your

thoughts.” Public health includes mental health and I hope this

project can help encourage people or even if I can just make them

smile.

1
 The concept is simple: I want to create a structure of post-its

where people can write one good thing that happened in their

day--a compliment, or anything positive and stick it in place. Any

public space with a large canvas would be ideal but because most

places here are businesses, I was thinking I could use the

telephone pole outside my house. Luckily, several people pass by

since I live a block away from a local shopping plaza and the street

corner happens to be at a moderately busy intersection. I will set

up a small table next to the pole with two cups: sanitized and used

pens, a pad of sticky notes, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. There will

also be chalk-drawn markings on the floor to indicate six feet

distances. People who happen to come by are all free to write

something on the notes and I’ll have some sticky notes already

prepared to start with! In these trying times, we should come

together and help each other as a community, just as long as we

are properly following guidelines for social distancing.

2
3
 Look book.

PC: Vigaray

PC: K., Kristen 4

Location.
Post-its posted on a telephone pole on the street corner in front of
my house.

Plan: The plan is to set up a table with a cup of sanitized pens, a

cup of used pens, and a pad of sticky notes. There will be a bottle

of hand sanitizer so that people can stay extra safe while

interacting with this design. I will use chalk to mark positions 6

feet away from each other as needed.

5
My target audience is my local community, most of whom have

family members of all ages. Since there is a grocery store a block

away, I imagine that more young adults and older people will stop

by to read or write on the notes. So in short, anyone and everyone

living nearby! Such as...

6
7
8
9
In all iterations of my design, I want the audience of this design to
see this intervention and participate in it. Ideally, they will write on
a post-it, but viewers who just want to read what others wrote are
more than welcome.

Post-its are generally bright and colorful, so they are eye-catching.

The idea is simple and it only takes a few seconds of your day to jot
down a few kind words. Although a mural would be a more artistic
approach, it’s much more difficult to pull off with a non-
coordinated community; I think if I wanted something more
image-based, a “kindness tree” would be a suitable design.

Of course, the most conventional place to put the post-its would

be on a wall, but there are multiple telephone poles down a street
and it would be easy to use more than one of them so that people
can walk down the street and view them like a gallery. It would
transform the experience of walking down the street from
something mundane to fun and whimsical and more people
would be able to participate.

10
 Idea 1. Original idea

Post-its on a telephone pole

so that people walking pass
can contribute to it. It is also
easily replicable onto other
telephone poles.

Idea 2. Post-its on wall

Through the substitution method, I

would use a wall instead of a telephone
pole. It is more conventional but finding
a community wall is more difficult
because there is no parks in my
immediate community.

Idea 2. Kindness Tree

By rearranging the post-its

from idea 2, we can create
a mural-like post-it wall. It
has a stronger visual
element in comparison to
the other iterations shown
here.

11
 During November 2016, after the election results had been
announced, a project dubbed the Subway Therapy project took over
Manhattan’s Union Square station (Gallucci). The project involved
thousands of post-its with simple, motivational messages that came
from complete strangers, but reminded people that they were a
community, and they were in it together. The post-it therapy wall
was validating and showed people that their anxieties were shared.
This project inspired my own because I believe the pandemic has
given people in my community similar worries and I want to have
the same impact on my community.

PC: Gallucci

12
PC: thaicryptokitty

PC: Roma ISD

PC: Goldberg

13
14
Idea 1.
Post-its on telephone pole
(Original idea)

15
Idea 2.
Post-its on community wall

Idea 3.
Post-its on community wall in the form of a tree; a “ kindness tree ”

16
Concept / Tone: Fun, colorful & light-hearted

Color Palette: similar to post-it colors; simple and colorful but still
harmonious

Miscellaneous concepts:

1. Binder paper or grid paper

underneath text to add to the
stationary feeling

2. Binder tabs/post-it markers (like in

the left photo) would be a fun way to
separate the process into sections

17
Typefaces:

Shorelines Script

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy

Reason: I want to use “shorelines script” for headers exclusively

because:
1. It’s fun and whimsical
2. It has a “hand-drawn” charm to it

Monserrat
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG

Reason: I want to use “Montserrat” for body text exclusively

because:
1. It’s round (friendly) and simple
2. Easy to read

18
19
Faires, Robert. “Seeing Life's Brevity in the Art Poles of South First.”
The Austin Chronicle, Austin Chronicle Corp., 2 Sept. 2016,
www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2016-09-02/seeing-lifes-brevity-in-
the-art-poles-of-south-first/.

Gallucci, Nicole. “The Mighty Power of the Simple Post-It Note

Protest.” Mashable, 31 Oct. 2018,
www.mashable.com/article/power-of-post-it-note-protest-subway-
therapy/.

Goldberg, Haley. “Sticky Note Therapy Is Helping People Heal After

an Emotional Election.” SELF, SELF, 17 Nov. 2016,
www.self.com/story/post-it-therapy-is-helping-people-heal-after-
an-emotional-election.

Jakarta. “Post-It Exhibition in South Tangerang Showcases Art of

Handwriting.” The Jakarta Post, Niskala Media Tenggara, 6 May
2019, www.thejakartapost.com/life/2019/05/04/post-it-exhibition-in-
south-tangerang-showcases-art-of-handwriting.html.

Ko, George. “The Post-It Show.” Giant Robot Media, Giant Robot
Media, Inc., Los Angeles, 11 Dec. 2017,
www.giantrobot.media/stories/2017/12/11/post-it-show.

K., Kristen. “Sticky Note Wall.” Cut Out + Keep, Cat Morley , Tom
Waddington, 12 Mar. 2017,
www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/sticky-note-wall.

20
Krisel, Brendan. “Union Square 'Subway Therapy' Post-It Note Wall
Moving to Upper West Side.” Upper West Side, NY Patch, Patch, 17
Dec. 2016,
www.patch.com/new-york/upper-west-side-nyc/union-square-
subway-therapy-post-it-note-wall-moving-upper-west-side0020.

Roma ISD. “Kindness Tree.” Facebook, Facebook, 17 Nov. 2017,

www.facebook.com/roma.isd/posts/check-out-the-awesome-
kindness-trees-the-team-at-roma-middle-school-made-with-
th/1129370993864907/

thaicryptokitty. “Love Wall At Kids Museum (and Some Food Too).”

Steemit, 2017,
steemit.com/foodphotography/@thaicryptokitty/love-wall-at-kids-
museum-and-some-food-too.

Vigaray, Alba. “Subway Sticky Notes Aim to Uplift New Yorkers

Post-Election.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 14 Nov.
2016, www.nbcnews.com/news/photo/subway-sticky-notes-aim-
uplift-new-yorkers-post-election-n683721.

All materials uncredited are created by me.

21
In general, I regard aesthetics extremely important in design but I
believe that the interaction and experience are just as, if not more,
impactful.

As a designer, I enjoy using bright, fun colors because I enjoy more

optimistic themes. Instead of focusing on the negatives by dramatizing
darker themes, I feel it’s more important to lift up what we do have.
That’s how this project was born.

/Thank you for reading/

-jessie zhang 22