Into the Unknown! is an homage to the essence of love in life’s ordinary moments, and the profound philosophies accumulated through mundane interactions. Amidst the uncertainty and personal stagnation brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, the piece combines my design and psychology backgrounds to reflect on my journey through isolation, hopelessness, and the desire for purpose and connection during my stunted transition to young adulthood. Unable to move forward from my first breakups or engage with the world outside my bedroom, I found solace in All About Love by bell hooks, my preexisting relationships, and the memory that forms the foundation of the piece itself: when my parents brought me to San Francisco to see that my school, the world, and life were still out there. For the first time in months, I finally saw it in the form of two gold-foil balloons—the number “30”—hanging in a random apartment window. Despite the absolute horror people seem to have developed at the notion of turning thirty—I definitely couldn’t imagine it at the time—someone out there decided to treat it as something joyful, with a group of loved ones, in the home they had created for themselves. This thought alone was enough to shift my apprehension toward the future into an excitement for all the love I hadn’t experienced yet.

I wanted to revisit that period of my life now having gotten to the other side of it—an impossible feat to imagine at the time—and was inspired to try my hand at scenic design after years of working backstage in theatre, an increasing desire to do art direction, and a lifelong fascination with how theme parks create immersion through design—especially Children’s Fairyland in Oakland and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. To deepen the world of this abstract scene, I built a stand to house a publication I designed that centers around the conceptual research and psychological foundations of the piece, should any passersby be curious about what’s in the “news” today. Into the Unknown! intertwines craftsmanship and playful design with an appreciation for the little, lovely moments that make life worth living, and for the company that make it so.