And so it begins...

For my senior thesis project I have decided to create my own company/product from scratch. As far as what my company/product is going to be is still in the works. What I do know, is that I want to create a company or product that brings happiness to people. I want to make a company that makes you smile, that can make you feel good about yourself. I love the idea of making some kind of product and/or service that gives you that brief moment to stop in the middle of your busy day to take a deep breath,  and smile.

The first idea that came to my mind was to create a type of greeting card company. However, there wouldn't be cards for holidays and special occasions, but for everyday things, such as, "Thank you for being such a great friend", or "You look beautiful today!". Things you could give to someone you know or even just an acquaintance at work. You could buy them in a book which would allow for you to tear them out when the occasion were to arise, or you could buy them in a drug store or grocery store. I would create the entire brand, illustrate the cards, create packaging, store space, display cases, etc.

The second idea I had would be to create a cookbook and even potentially a restaurant. I want all the food to be food that makes you "feel good", whether the dish makes you happy because its a healthy option, or happy because its a dish your mom used to make when you were little with lots of cheese. All of these dishes would be original recipes created by me and inspired by the foods I ate growing up by the people in my life that made me feel great. I would create one dish with a completely written recipe, photographs, and designed spread per week over the course of this project, as well as a brand for the cookbook. If I wanted to stem this into an additional restaurant concept (along with the cookbook), I would create menus, napkins, brochures, advertising (etc) and an extended brand.

The third idea I had was to come up with a board game. From start to finish; concept, research, branding, design, execution, etc. Unlike children's board games, I would want this to be educational. I had the idea of doing a medical themed board game that would help you learn various drugs and what conditions/illnesses/diseases that they treat. It would be a "House" type feel with real life conditions and diagnoses. You would draw "scenario" card with a situation, or symptoms and you would have either a multiple choice of four drug types that you would want to prescribe. Correct answers lets you advance or have some type of positive solution, getting the question wrong moves you back or has a negative consequence.  There would be a few other cards to pick up depending on what you land on that would quiz you in other ways, such as cards with just drug names on them, and you have to say what its prescribed for. Again, Correct answers lets you advance or have some type of positive solution, getting the question wrong moves you back or has a negative consequence. This would be a fun way for med and pharm students to learn rather than the standard "flash card" studying that all of my friends in these fields have to do. This would be a good opportunity for me to learn about a new field and gain education in the process. With half of my family in the medical field (microbiology, nursing, pharmaceuticals, etc.) I would have a lot of people to learn from.

By January 29th, I plan to have a solidified decision as to which of these three ideas I want to do, as well as a completely written out game plan- week to week, for the length of this whole semester.

Here we go! :D