Project Report

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Final Presentation Boards

Final Products

Self-esteem self help book

Fortune Teller:

Here is it in some context, on a pin board at a student union!

 Some students interacting with it:

 Poster:

Poster in reality!

Final Booklet and final Fortune teller

Booklet

I printed it onto two different types of paper, to see which is more successful. I think that the cream stock sits more harmoniously with the blue and suits the aesthetic and nature of the lines.The stock is actually quite thick, so if I were to have the tome to further test and develop it I might try it on some thinner stock, just for the sake of considering it's context. I.e. is this a flyer type leaflet given out more freely? Or more of a booklet, which would then justify the heavier stock. I think that I would prefer for it to be the former, as I wan't as a many people as possible to benefit from it. 

Overall I'm pretty disappointed with the quality. I totally underestimated the scale of it, and hence made the images quite large on the page when really this wasn't necessary. The quality of the line work also looks quite shoddy and blurry in places which is a real shame, but not that surprising, considering the struggle I had trying to clean it up on photoshop. 

The production of the booklet is really shoddy as well, which is such a shame, but serves me right for leaving it to the last minute. 

Overall though it's reasonably functional, the content is simple and accessible to all, and at the end of the day I wanted to produce this so that it could be read by others, and be helpful to them, so it's content was always so much more important than the aesthetic, and I did have to spend a lot of time researching and ensuring that everything I wrote in there was correct and from a decent source. 

Fortune Teller

I am much more please with the production of this. The quality of the lines and the print could still be better, but overall I think the effect is good. It could do with either a dashed line to indicate that the square needs to but cut off however, or a graphic design friend suggested to me that I use a perforating paper tool, to make it easily tear off. So I propose that that is what shall happen to these fortune teller nets!

The aim of this one, rather than to inform like was the point with the booklet, it is is to raise awareness and create something that aims to work at breaking down the stigma associated with depression.

Fortune Teller

Information on Depression:

I want to aim some of what I am creating at students, as they are particularly susceptible to mental health illnesses, and it can be a lonely struggle, when even you are not sure what is happening to you.

My original idea for this was, that most student flats get tonnes of ephemera posted under their flat doors. Most of it is promotion, but it got me thinking that this is a direct way to reach students, so what if I made the ephemera interactive, so that they might pick it up, play with it and acknowledge it. Even if it was a paper aeroplane that could be tossed about and lauged about. It will still be read and some of it would go on board, and hopefully get people thinking, and perhaps even be of help. (I'm making them sound like small kids, unintentional! But sometimes they are a bit child like with their 'banter'.)

To get my head around how I was going to go about adapting this to a mental health campaign, I had a go at making a fortune teller. It wasn't so hard, it took a bit of thought of where to draw big lines on a flat piece of paper for others to fold. I made some tests which helped a lot.

After doing some more research online to get a better sense of how to create instructions for making one, I discovered this. A mental health campaign that is using a fortune teller! (I genuinely did think of it before I saw this!) But it proved useful for how to go about applying my information to it whilst it was flat.

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/sites/default/files/Conversation%20starter_0.pdf

I later opted to add more colour to make it more interesting and impactful. So it stands out more and is more interesting.

here is how my net is looking at the moment. I had a bit of  struggle creating the line work, as most paper and pen combinations smudged badly. The faithful pencil remained sturdy though, and also gave me these lovely textures which I think overall really succeeds at the type of aesthetic I am approaching this whole project with, more friendly and handmade feel, whilst still being a bit bold, and cleanly(ish) organised.

The instructions are at the bottom. I am worried it might all be too small to be legible, I suppose I will have to wait for a test print to be sure. I could scale all of this up to A3, but that is not a convenient hand holdable size, and would defeat the point of this item being a fun and easily distributed item that aims to raise a bit more awareness and get everyone thinking about mental health more. 

The folding of it and creation went much better than I expected, wut.

Originally when I proposed this idea, I imagined having drawings in each under flap, however due to its small size, there simply isn't space. I do feel a bit funny about creating something that really only contains very minimal illustrations on it, however the overall thing is very hand crafted by me, and I think that does show through quite successfully, so I suppose the thing as a whole can just be considered as illustration (it is an illustrated product) and it is a piece of design that is communicating, which is basically 'communication through drawing'.

The idea is that it is a fun object to play with and create, and also aims to get people to reconsider depression, to take it more seriously and recognise that it is something that probably already does affect someone they know or perhaps even themselves, as one in four people will at some point in their lives experience it.

The blue footed boobies inside are in keeping with the bird theme that I have gone with and written about already, their aim is to keep this away from being cliche in its summarising and categorisation of depression. 

My photo shopping is definitely improving, I'm feeling much more capable making this one. A course mate showed me a much better technique for cleaning up an image, which involves going 'select' and 'colour mode', then deleting the white space. This is much less messy and much faster when successful! Also I am getting the hang of colour control a little more, hence the white numbers on the outside. I think it looks better and a bit more fresh with white text. 

I am not very happy with the text that I have written under each flap, but it was hard in such tiny space. So overall I am quite happy with this as a piece of design overall, its a reasonably good concept, and aesthetically I've just about managed to pull it off! Just the content could definitely be improved, so concept strong, content needs more work. 

Self branding as illustrator of 'human issues'

The nature of the work that I am producing for this project is quite human, and to do with human emotions, endeavours and problems. It was suggested that I might consider making a bit of a niche of this, and brand myself as something like 'an illustrator of the people'. or 'communicator of human troubles'. Those titles are not very nice, and don't give off the right sense at all!

So I had a bit of a brainstorm and looked somethings up in a dictionary and thesaurus, and came up with a few different possibilities,

• communicating human things
• communicating human endeavours
• communicating through illustrating
• reporter?
• individual? (this lack assurance of all acclaimed information behind it)
• predicament
• quandary
• human quandaries
• illustrator of human quandaries (this sounds like I am drawing about the problems, not trying to help them)
• Illustrations to help human quandaries.

I quite like the last one, quandary is a nice sounding and feeling word. 

Here is my website:

http://humanquandaries.tumblr.com/


Some development of creating it:

I had a play around with colours and layouts. I love serif fonts, but I decided to make my header a Futura, which is a sans serif font, as this feels a bit more relevant and accessible to all, which is basically the point of this blog/way of branding myself!

  

Colouring in

I've taken one of my little illustrations and had a go at adding colour to it. 

I thought I would try adding some texture, but this did make the piece 

I tidied up the edges, it makes it that bit more interesting (or perhaps edgy haha)

I lost my nice sketchbook texture when I tidied up the levels, so I added another one of my own. 

One day I'll be an illustrator that creates finished pieces.

Posters

Posters on Mental Heath Finalisation:

I origionaly aimed to produce six posters on mental health, but I will concentrate on making at least three to the standarad that I wouuld like, and see whtat time I have for alongside everything else, so the other three might not be at quite the same standard, or they may just be proposed.

The posters will be on:

• Low Self-esteem.
• Postnatal Depression.
• Agrophobia.
• Dperession.
• Anxiety.
• Bipolar Dissorder.

Here is some information form official websites such as Mind and NHS that I would like to include:

Low Self-esteem

I wanted to create a poster on this, as i think it is a really important thing for people to consider about themselves and others. It is not somehting that is widely enough respected and considred as something that can be genuinly quite damaging to our health, yet it is something that touches so very many of us. I think that a poster on this therefore holds a pretty big potential for  for targeting people, especialy students who are at a young and potentially vulnerable stage in their lives 

If you have healthy self-esteem, your beliefs about yourself will generally be positive. You may experience difficult times in your life, but you will generally be able to deal with these without them having too much of a long-term negative impact on you.

If you have low self-esteem, your beliefs about yourself will often be negative. You will tend to focus on your weaknesses or mistakes that you have made, and may find it hard to recognise the positive parts of your personality. You may also blame yourself for any difficulties or failures that you have.

• If you find certain situations difficult because of low self-esteem, you may start to avoid them and become increasingly socially isolated. This can cause feelings of anxiety and depression that can develop into mental health problems over time. (See loneliness.)

• Low self-esteem can cause people to develop unhelpful behaviours as a way of coping, such as forming damaging relationships, taking drugs or drinking too much. This often causes problems in the long-term and makes life more difficult, which can then lead to mental health problems.

What can I do to build my self-esteem?

In order to increase your self-esteem, you need to challenge and change the negative beliefs you have about yourself. This might feel like an impossible task, but there are a lot of different techniques you can try to help you.

• Be assertive
• Do something you enjoy (work/hobbies)
• Try to build positive realtionships
• Learn to be assertive
• Look after your physical health (Physical activity, sleep, diet)
• Set yourself a challenge
• Learn to identify and challenge negative beliefs.

Postnatal Depression:

You may go through a brief period of feeling emotional and tearful – known as the 'baby blues'. It usually starts 3-10 days after giving birth and affects around 85 per cent of new mothers. It is so common that it is considered normal. New fathers may also feel it. And, although having the baby blues may be distressing, it's important to be aware that it doesn't last long – usually only a few days – and is generally quite manageable. 

However, around 10-15 per cent of new mothers develop a much deeper and longer-term depression known as postnatal depression (PND). It usually develops within six weeks of giving birth and can come on gradually or all of a sudden. It can range from being relatively mild to very severe.

"My postnatal depression snuck up on me as a dark shadow, every morning waking up and noticing a heaviness and blackness to my mood. The only 'comforts' were private fantasies about ending it all, running away, escaping my responsibilities, tearing myself to shreds to try and grasp why I felt so bleak."

There is no known cause for postnatal depression, and sometimes it can start for no obvious reason. However, some researchers have suggested a number of possibilities.

Some think it is likely to be biological; for example, changes in your body, including hormonal changes. However, although some studies show that changes in the level of hormones during pregnancy and after birth can trigger changes in mood, only some women go on to develop PND – so hormones are unlikely to be the single cause.

Others think the cause is linked to past experiences or social circumstances. Many suggest that a combination of different issues cause PND.

Some situations are considered to put you at particular risk of developing PND:

• previous mental health problems
• lack of support
• experience of abuse
• low self-esteem
• poverty and poor living conditions
• major life events.

"I thought I was a bad mother, until I told my health visitor how I was feeling. When she named ‘it’ postnatal depression and got me the right support, it felt like someone had opened the door and let a glimmer of sunlight in"

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, or help wouldn't be available if things go wrong.

Many people assume that agoraphobia is simply a fear of open spaces but it's more complex than this. A person with agoraphobia may be scared of:

• travelling on public transport
• visiting a shopping centre
• leaving home

If someone with agoraphobia finds themselves in a stressful situation they'll usually experience symptoms of a panic attack such as:

• rapid heartbeat
• rapid breathing (hyperventilating)
• feeling hot and sweaty
• feeling sick

They will avoid situations that cause anxiety and may only leave the house with a friend or partner. They will order groceries online rather than go to the supermarket. This change in behaviour is known as "avoidance".

“I got to a point where my stomach dropped as soon as I woke up,” she says. “It’s like a feeling of grief and despair. You’re shaking, tired and you don’t really feel there. It feels as though you’re watching yourself.

“I tried to get through it, but I reached a stage when even the thought of going into my own garden made me panic. It was like coming up against an invisible wall.

“Everywhere it happened, I avoided that place. Instead of thinking it was me, I associated the panic attack with the place where it happened. I was such an outgoing person, that the idea it was all in my head never occurred to me.”

Depression

Development of Leaftlet

• I made some tests of different formats, I think that I wan't it to be quite small and hand held, but i dont't quite know what the best format will be.

In the end after a discussion with my tutor I opted for making a square A5 one, as any smaller and the text would be so hard to read, and square is a nice and friendly format which is what I am aiming for. 

Notes on specific audience:

 For this book I will be targeting it at the more specific audience of students, and students that have been or know one effected by low mood, self-esteem and depression. I might even aim it at students of Leeds, as this is the student population that I am most familiar with, and can also target specific places of help at.

Here are some early sketches and a rough idea of content:

It's still pretty rubbish at the moment, but feedback suggests that there is good potential for it.

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MAking of Leaflet!

I was having quite a few difficulties getting my drawings from paper to indesign file. As they were all drawn on cartridge paper the scans have picked up a lot of information from the textured paper which is proving really tricky to get rid of when cleaning up my images on photoshop! I asked my course mates if they had any better ideas than using as to how to go about this, one suggestd using the colour channels which was good, but picked up too much of the texture. The other said to try going select, colour range, and then deleting. This one worked really well thank goodness!

I tried to introduce some colour and texture into my drawings, but they all looked too messy, and the book began to lose its cohesive, simple charm feel, so I stuck with just the line work. 

So to give the book an aesthetical boost, I decided to try adding a background colour and texture. I'm not overly sure about the blue, I like it in every way apart from that it is blue, and that is a colour that can have connotations with sadness, and that is what I am trying to step away from, and promote healthy self-esteem. I spoke to my sister about it, and she said that actually blue and especially blue light are actually proven to have calming effects, and there was a study in a place of high crime in America, where they changed all of the street lamps to blue light, and the crime rates actually fell. So light blue is basically the same as blue light right?

Contextual research

Below is an extract from Mind's website that shows all the different types of help guides and leaflets that they produce. The ones that are 50 ways to improve you're..., are quite like the little drawing out of facts that I have been doing, such as with my low self esteem booklet.

Information for my Mental Health Booklet/Campaign

I went to visit the collages student support department, to see what help/information they had to offer on mental health. I wondered if they might have a bit of copy/text that I could use to illustrate around. Or perhaps have a more specific to my audience of students take on mental health information. Here is what they gave me. They gave me on piece of informaion about how to help and combat unhelpful thinking, which is something that I have already been exploring, so this reinforces that it is a good area to explore and work on in realtion to students specifically! 

They also gave me a list of local places that they advise students concered about or suffering from mental health relate problems, which is useful for targeting local Leeds students.

In the end I decided that I prefere the NHS website information on mental health, they use much more freindly and confortable terminology. 

I have been listening to these audio clips in 'Moodzone', which I have found particularly inforative and helpful:

http://www.nhs.uk/Video/Pages/low-mood-and-depression-podcast.aspx

Here are some of the notes that I take whils listening to it:

Some of the notes I wrote directly onto post it notes, which then helped me to sort out what information I wanted to put page by page in my information booklet.

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Stephen Fry - Mental Health Research

I think he has a really excellent and origional ways of describing depression and bipolar dissorder. It gets accross something of the enmormous and terrifying nature of it.

There is one particular moment where he is caught mid filiming a documentary on his mental health, he is trapped infront of the cameras, and with the project, he has to force out how he feels, and you can see the physical struggle he is going through. It is very raw and personal. This way of hering about mental illness is probably the most effective at getting accross to those who do not have a cause to understand it. I think I would like to be able to capture a little something of this raw snesitivity in my illustrations that I hope to produce for it. 

"Its f*cking irritating and I hate myself for it". "Ususally when I feel like this I hide away, but I can't do that this time"

Here are some sketches drawn along to it:

Poster Development

Here is some of my poster development. The format is pretty uninspiring, but for some of them I think that it helps to keep the focus on the artwork, as the artwork is quieter in an attempt to be more sensitive, so it perhaps does run the risk of being drowned out.

I had a chat with my Graphic design housemate about what I should do about my naff poster layouts. He said that he actually quite liked them, and maybe just make a few alterations so that the text has enough surrounding space and balance, so I did that. He also suggested that if I wanted to keep trying out lots of different possibilities, then I should open it up in several photoshop documents, so that if I don't like a drastic change I have made I can change it back, and I can compare them side by side.

Research into Low mood and depresspression from NHS

I began to write down my notes in a more pictorial way, thinking of ways of making the information clearer/make sense through images: I found after doing this for a bit that some of the characters/drawings were quite interesting and communicative. This was a bit of a turing point in my research, I think I might go on to try and illustrate text this literally a bit more.

Media use

My sister studies medicine, she was explaining some of the muscles in the back to me and so I drew this little diagram to make sense of it. I quite like the mix of red ink on top of the black back washes. The whole thing has quite a nice feel.

poster layout decisions and planning

Owl Development

plan development !

some landscapes:

Ink sketches and practices of owls:

Different Ideas for Potraying metnal Illness

This was one idea that I have had, it is trying to describe mental illness as some other ubcontrollable force which picks, pulls and plucks at your mind, and controls and effects you like stringss of a puppet. It's a more conceptual way of describing mental health. This is the idea in very unresloved early stages however, and at the moment I am not sure how well I can pull it off with my aesthetic/drawing abilities. Oh that sounds really silly now I have writen it, basically I'm not very good at drawing faces, and I'm not sure if this image ties in with everthing else that I am creating. 

Agrophobia

This composition has scope to be better, as it shows the expansive behind the owl in its home, and perhaps heightened the notion of trappedness of the condition. 

This use of media and drawing has more scope to work with the sensitive aesthetic I am trying to stay working with, but it doesn't perhaps get accorss the sense of being trapped in ones home.