Inspired by the art of typography and abstract story-telling infused with a pastel-like colour palette, Michelle places heavy emphasis on organic and genuine natural progression in her personalised works to form deep connections within the community, hence why she strives to be everyone’s companion and know that they’re not alone during dark days. Although her works may oftentimes be too deep, she’ll want to keep things fun and light-hearted – this is where creative puns come into place!

ana tomy x Michelle CPY’s FNF cover story

For the story behind her cover design, Michelle decided to share a little anecdote about contemporary life:

“Carrying a journal, being productive, and ticking everything in your to-do list is nothing but satisfying. With more work and responsibilities, we’ve always felt the need to accomplish everything, work on projects after projects, tasks after tasks, working round the clock with little to no breaks, and at the end, we’re faced with burnouts and mental exhaustion.

Productivity guilt is something that I’ve been dealing with for years and I’m still working on it. I know taking a break actually feels like you aren’t doing anything productive and that idea makes us all feel guilty but we have to understand that resting is not about doing nothing. It’s about giving time to ourselves to breathe in and giving our minds a sense of space and clarity. A moment to reflect and think things through so you’ll come back doing more, better.

I’ve designed this notebook specifically to remind us that it’s okay to spare some time in order to give love to yourself because we deserve breaks, we deserve freedom and clarity – today and everyday, we deserve to treat ourselves a little better.”

Michelle's Pick

wirebound