Sapna Badhan earned her BFA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. She is now an MA candidate in Graphic Design/Visual Experience at the same institution.
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Introduction — Turning Emotion Into Design
Design isn’t only about color, type, or layout; it’s about the human stories behind the work. As a designer, I’ve always believed that creativity is deeply connected to emotion. During my Master’s candidacy review at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), I explored this connection through a personal data visualization project called Flourish My Review.
Over six weeks, I tracked my emotions, sleep, eating habits, and support system to understand how my well-being shaped my creative performance. What began as a self-assessment for my review turned into a powerful reflection on resilience, self-awareness, and the emotional side of design.
The Beginning — Gratitude as My Foundation
Before I created a single visual, I began with a dedication page, a note of gratitude to the people who supported me through this journey. Professors, peers, mentors, and especially my family played vital roles in helping me stay grounded during the process.
My mother’s encouragement and the steady presence of friends gave me the confidence to face the uncertainty of critique and revision. That network of care became the invisible thread holding the project together, and I wanted to make it visible through design.
The Legend Page — Building a System of Feelings
The first page of my project, the Legend Page, served as the key to everything that followed.
It featured a three-row floral pattern enclosed within circular forms, each layer representing one level of emotion. The floral motif symbolized growth, transformation, and renewal. Although rendered in black, variations in the floral structure reflected rhythm and balance over time.
This legend explained the categories I tracked and the visual logic behind them:
- Emotions: happy, blessed, thinking, sad, angry, crying
- Sleeping habits: restful or interrupted
- Eating habits: balanced or irregular
- Support system: self, professors or mentors, family and peers
To represent these experiences, I built a consistent system of symbols:
Star — Professors
Cross — SCADAMP Coaches
Circle — Self preparations
Each element formed part of a larger visual language of emotion, turning personal experiences into data and data into design.
The Six-Week Journey — From Worry to Clarity
The project spanned six weeks, capturing my emotional state each day as I prepared for my review. Each visual represented a genuine moment, an honest reflection of how I was feeling, thinking, and evolving throughout the process.
Day 1: My thinking was steady, not high or overwhelmed. I hadn’t slept very well, and there was a sense of worry as I prepared for college. But by evening, calmness returned once I began sketching ideas and reconnecting with my creative flow.
Day 15: This day became an emotional turning point. I was finally sleeping well and even felt a sense of blessing. I had received new work that initially felt like a step forward. But later that day, things shifted. Between 5 p.m. and midnight, sadness set in as I realized the project wasn’t what I expected. Deep down, I was hurt knowing I had to start over and work through it. That moment taught me how quickly creative energy can change and how essential it is to stay grounded, even when progress feels uncertain.
Day 36 (Final Review Week): By the final week, the data told a different story. I was sleeping and eating well, surrounded by support, and feeling grounded. My reflections revealed a growing sense of confidence and completion, proof that persistence can transform uncertainty into clarity.
Each phase told a story of creative endurance, the process of refining not just the design work itself, but also the designer behind it.
The Data — What My Emotions Revealed
After completing all 38 days, I summarized the emotional and behavioral data into measurable insights. The numbers revealed the rhythm of my creative growth:
Happy: 38%
Blessed: 16%
Thinking (Reflective): 14%
Angry/Sad: 13%
Crying (Release): 17%
Angry (isolated spikes): 0.9%
My sleeping habits were positive about 79% of the time, and healthy eating habits remained consistent about 66% of the time.
Even during stressful moments, the overall trend showed that positivity outweighed negativity. Emotional awareness directly influenced my creative rhythm. When I rested well, nourished myself, and leaned on support, my design thinking became clearer and more intuitive.
The Design Execution — Where Emotion Met Visualization
The entire visualization was built in Figma, designed as a working interactive prototype. Each layer of the system represented emotions, sleep quality, and external support, all connected through a structured yet organic rhythm.
The floral pattern served as the metaphorical core of the project: evolving with each week, reflecting my growing self-awareness and adaptability. This structure transformed raw emotion into an analytical yet deeply personal design form.
The final visualization felt like a digital self-portrait, not of appearance, but of emotional growth.
Conclusion — Flourishing as a State of Being
Flourish My Review represents more than a project; it’s a philosophy.
To flourish doesn’t mean to be perfect or endlessly happy; it means to stay aware, balanced, and resilient.
This experience reminded me that emotions are data, and data can tell deeply human stories when interpreted through thoughtful design. It’s a reminder that growth isn’t linear; it’s lived, felt, and visualized.
In the end, Flourish My Review isn’t just about what I created; it’s about who I became while creating it.
