About
In a recent collaboration with Michigan Medicine, I designed a series of six posters about mental health. This project allowed me to exercise my creative muscles while also learning how to effectively communicate and collaborate with a real-world client. I had the freedom to explore different design concepts, and through a series of iterative revisions, we arrived at a set of posters that effectively conveyed the intended message.
Audience: Anyone and everyone
What: A series of informative and inviting posters that contribute to the well-being of our community by raising awareness on critical mental health topics
Why: To foster a supportive environment and open conversations.
Research
Upon starting the research stage, several Michigan Medicine employees gave a presentation of their personal experiences with mental health as well as the do’s and don’t’s of the posters. I took some notes to guide myself and look back on.
After some brainstorming, I had a direction I wanted to pursue. The topics I chose weren’t set in stone yet at this point, but I had an ideal of how I wanted things to look.
Inspiration Board
After deciding to move forward with a floral theme, I looked around for some compositions, illustration styles, color schemes, and formats that I could take inspiration from.
Experimenting
Another reason why I favored going along with a flower theme is because of its historical background in medicinal practices. This first draft had me experimenting with the way I wanted to present the flowers, the background, and what textual content was included. I knew I wanted to use original illustration and put minimal text.
After this try, I knew I wanted pursue a more symbolic and representative direction, and less of a medicinal or factual way. I also wanted to include more detailed illustrations.
I explored using blank and realistic backgrounds, focusing on the readability of the text on the page.
Execution
After some feedback, I went forward and mapped out the composition before drawing.
I also made sure to come up with a slogan of some sort and a call to action. My intention with the tone of voice was to be warm, friendly, and welcoming so that viewers would not be hesitant when scanning the QR code.
I ended up choosing these topics: childhood trauma, depression, paranoia, and anxiety, loneliness.
Mockups
After completing all six posters, I included some mockups for the Michigan Medicine clients to see.
