This research brief was an exploration in to the impact design can have on a person's mental state, mood, and the transforming the environment they are in. I was particularly interested in researching how colours can affect the mood of a room and what visuals would make people of all ages in group therapy feel more inclined to open up, relax them and calm the environment.
For this brief my focus was a group therapy session called frazzled cafe held in M&S cafe's up and down the country. Through research and personal experience, counselling appointments are hard to get and mental health problems are rising in society. Having a session like this is a great way to allow those struggling to come and talk to others. I have always had a key interest in mental health and this was a way of tying graphic design with this.
For primary research I wanted to speak to a variety of professionals who work in mental health units/group therapy to get an idea of how or if design is implemented as part of the therapy. I spoke to a mental health support worker who gave me useful information on what visuals and colours irritate patients. I also emailed an art therapist who gave me useful links and advice based on his experience with using art working with people with mental health problems. I contacted Inkwell arts and Morag Myerscough (who inspired my project idea), but unfortunately they didn't get back to me as they are understandably busy!
Research was also obtained through personal experience in medical/therapy rooms, which I found a theme of abstract art, which I concluded was to not be relatable or too distracting to the patient but adding a sense of self development and expression. I wanted to have informed primary research for this project as well as visual research, to get the most effective result. Whilst speaking to a Lush employee similar themes were used within their product design, as well as bold natural shapes such as leaves and flowers. There is a universal enjoyment of natural scenery which was important to experiment with for the banners.
Pull up banners were chosen as they are transportable and the concept is they are design that can be taken in to any situation and transform the space to relax the patients/members. Sessions in places like cafe's could look distracting or not catered to a session so this is a way of having transportable interior design almost!
Using the existing Frazzled cafe branding was done as in future projects in studios, there will be a lot of designing around existing logos and brand identity so this was great practice for that. They have their successful brand identity already and this was a way of extending this to cater their sessions. I have emailed them to ask if they would like to use my designs but unfortunately did not hear back in time for submission. This has taught me as this is a research project, these contacts should have been contacted a lot earlier in the year even before starting design, to gain more input professionally. However, through visual research and feedback, as well as my interviews, the designs are well informed and hit the targets.
The aim was to create pull up banner visuals that were relaxing, soft, non distracting, adding calmness to any environment. I enjoyed experimenting with linoprint for this project, as print is more trusted than digital, but in the end the leaves added a holiday aspect to the designs so this wasn't taken further. This taught me a lot about environments impact on people. Plants are suggested for those stressed or that have mental health problems and I would suggest these are brought to sessions, but work well with the pull up banners I have designed.
It was quite hard working to the size as I found it quite limiting due to the narrowness but is informed and has the affect desired. The research was very enjoyable and can apply to future projects. If I were to do it again I would have created an adult colouring book full of plants, as this has been a popular therapeutic tool of late. This is because I wanted to the workload to reflect the weight of the research. I am considering doing this as a personal project and if Frazzled Cafe get back to me, I could suggest production for this.
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