DESIGN STORY: “NO PLACE LIKE HOME”

While deployed in Iraq, Chris Stephenson and his convoy were hit by IEDs. His comrades were killed instantly while he was thrown from the vehicle, suffering from severe internal and external injuries.

The symbols within the design represent this life-changing moment: the jagged lines symbolize the splitting of this humvee and the triangles symbolize how he was launched into the air from the vehicle, ultimately saving his life, while the dotted lines are his unconnected memories, the flowers are the daisy chain of IEDs that his vehicle hit, and the swirls are the whirlwind recovery process. His first memory was when he woke up in a hospital in his home state of Kansas, where the famous line “There’s no place like home,” had a much deeper meaning to Chris and his family.