Mental Health Ramen And Carousel

Hi, I’m Tim, CEO/Founder of Vite.

October 10th is World Mental Health Day. Maybe you’re seeing it on the day, and maybe you’re seeing it afterwards.

I have autism and ADHD, and come afflicted often with anxiety and depression. I mask and put on a face, and study how their expressions change and shape mine to match in a desperate effort to not seem scary, listen intently to their pitches and tones and learn to raise and lower my voice past the low monotone that makes people feel instinctively uncomfortable. 

There’s so much I want to say, and yet, when I try, it all comes forth as a messy, jumbled mass of half-formed words and thoughts and emotions crammed in a little hole, trying all at once to force their way out and getting stuck as they wedge themselves trying to get out.

I care deeply about mental health, and how it’s affected me, and others, and yet, when pushed to talk about it, I freeze, and hesitate, and become paralyzed. Fitting, in some ways, I think. Ironic, that I have so much to say, and yet struggle to say it.

Then, for me to talk about this is to not be constrained by trying to find the perfect words, but rather to open those floodgates, and let out all those words and thoughts and emotions in their flawed, haphazard, and beautiful ways.

In my position as a leader, there is a social responsibility, a societal pressure to not show imperfection. A leader should be strong, and stoic, and powerful, and not show emotions they say. A leader shouldn’t show faults. A leader shouldn’t make mistakes. A leader shouldn’t be vulnerable.

But I’m human. I’m a human born to the world with a mind that takes things too literally, a human who gets too excitable at times and too closed off at others. I’m a human, a person first and foremost, one who sometimes wishes that he were maybe a little more normal, and a little more understood.

I never really wanted to be a leader. I’ve always kind of liked being more of a loner. Being a leader means people, and people means that I have to pay close attention to their tones, and expressions, and the hidden meanings behind their words, and ultimately the consequences when I inevitably misread them, and inevitably the consequences when I speak too literally, and they interpret meanings behind my words that never existed.

And I study, hard, and can explain in what I’m told is a disturbingly logical way, how, and why, and where words, and actions, and tones, and expressions, and body language, and social and cultural cues are presented, and most of the time, I’m fast enough and practiced enough to process those lessons and use them in real time.

But I’ve felt the pain of what happens when I don’t use them right. I’ve felt the fear when I see that split second of hesitation when I didn’t follow the social script correctly. And that terrifying sensation of walking on eggshells, of making sure you’re always doing the right thing, follows me for every person I encounter.

And that anxiety nibbles at me, always, thinking if I did too much, or said too little, or not the right way. And that pervasive, ever-present fatigue drilled so deep into my bones, laid in a thick sludge on my mind that’s a struggle to break through to the surface each and every time.

I’ve had these concepts of these ramen for a while now. Years. It just... Never felt like the right time to release them. Never felt like it was good enough to do, to be able to give it the attention it deserved. That it needed to be perfect, expressed in a way that encapsulated everything and anything I wanted to say in these perfect little pouches that would wow and shock the world.

Ironic, since one of the mental health ramen is called “Crippling Perfectionism”.

Add in a dash of anxiety, a pinch of depression, and a heaping spoonful of executive dysfunction too, I suppose, and mix it all up with the all purpose flour.

Find this, and the rest of everything below here: https://viteramen.com/crusher

This collaboration with Crusher, then, was a once in a lifetime chance, when they reached out about working together for the 10th anniversary of the popular song “ECHO”.

10/10, World Mental Health Day

110 Million Views

10th Anniversary

I’ve had a long personal history with the song. It’s a beautifully expressed piece of music that spoke to people, showed them they weren’t alone in what they felt, and put into words and song what they might’ve struggled to express themselves. I discovered the song a long time ago too, and it’s been a staple of my playlist for... well, a decade, now.

We knew that the collaboration had to be something special. We both cared deeply about mental health issues, after all-- Vite has always had mental health time, and supported mental health initiatives, and I’ve been very open about my personal struggles with mental health.

Sure, I had my ramen concepts, but how would that work for Crusher?

Simple. It wouldn’t.

I committed to designing things from the ground up, starting with talking to Crusher about why she wrote the song, and her personal feelings behind it. I didn’t have intentions specifically at the start to do an interview, but her story was powerful and highlighted greatly misunderstood aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder, and I thought her story deserved to be seen.

You can find the interview with the edits and animations I did here: https://youtu.be/Ohjc56p4y-o

The last thing I wanted was for the 10th anniversary collection to feel like a cash grab, a lazy, uninspired effort of just slapping some characters on premade merch and calling it a day. We agreed that everything should be carefully designed, and mean something, while also supporting mental health initiatives.

This is what we created together:

4-in-1 Spinning Carousel Standee



4 Standees. 4 alters as part of a system.

Height: 6 inches

Diameter: 5 inches

This unique carousel standee spins, with 4 separate standees in one as an interpretation of the DID(Dissociative Identity Disorder) experience.

Each part of this standee is thoughtfully designed after lyrics, created specifically to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the expressive, and popular song "ECHO" by Crusher.

The standee was designed as a spinning carousel to convey the beginning of the famous chorus:

What the hell's going on

Can someone tell me please

Why I'm switching faster than the channels on TV

I'm black, then I'm white

No, something isn't right

A clock adorns the top of the carousel with the 6 hands of Primadonna pointing every which way so that one never quite knows what time it is-- even moreso when the carousel spins:

The clock stopped ticking, forever ago

How long have I been up? I don't know

None of the standees are connected to the top, and no poles exist in this carousel to hold onto; the absence of an object in the design, rather than an addition. The standees have to hold on to nothing for dear life as it spins:

I can't get a grip, but I can't let go

There wasn't anything to hold onto though

The monochromatic color scheme demonstrates the line:

Why cant I see the colors that you see

And yet, the process of recovery and self-love is displayed with two that have color and hearts, and showing the progression towards:

Please can I be colorful and free

Both the inner bottom surface and top surface are reflective, creating an infinite mirror "echo" when you look at it, representing the line:

The echo in the mirror

The standees themselves will be packaged in a smoky black, semi-transparent packaging:

 I'm gonna burn my house down into an ugly black

----

Find all of this here: https://viteramen.com/crusher

We’ve also created a series of Mental Health ramen, where you can experience a small part of what disorders like depression or general anxiety can make people feel. Simply attempt to add the ramen to your cart, and you’ll face a small representation of the challenges that some people face every day. You may discover yourself with a newfound appreciation of your friends who struggle.

I’m not sure of what else to say at the moment. I’m sure there’s more I want to say, or hope to say, but the words won’t come to mind. For now, I hope that this, and the things that we’ve done, help bring some kind of awareness, and some kind of understanding to mental health.

Remember to be kind, and savor life’s little victories.

-Tim, CEO/Founder Vite