Depression leaflets

As always the leaflet contains someone holding their head since that is the go to motif for depression. The leaflet was overall just really worded and very little pictures. What pictures there were, were depressing to look at (irony much)

Look at all that writing. If your feeling depressed its quite unlikely you'll want to sift through that big block of text. This isn't even all of it, just the maximum i could zoom out.

All the leaflets are just very dry and plain and are normally have red in them. Which is weird for medical things because they tend to stick to non- alarming colours.
I will not be using red in the book. saying that right here right now
No brainer decision
Their designer/typographer  should be fired


and of course another photo of someone looking sad.

Now a sad man so everyone is represented.



These leaflets are just very boring and take an extremely dry and medical approach to the subject. I know they are medical texts so a certain degree of wordiness must be used. But they could have put some effort into not making it the most depressing thing to read ever.





Things to learn from for my book:
No red
Not too many words
Just the basics that are needed
No photos of sad faces
No head in hands
Use colour, make it look good

Brief reset

Brief Title Blue Poetree (name subject to change)

Brief 
To create a 16 page poetry book around the theme of depression and mental health awareness. The book is to be interspersed with informational text sourced from NHS websites and other secure sources. The aim of the book is to give a sense of community to diagnosed patients. The book is to offer empathetic views from an informed stand point. The book is to be hand bound to push the personal feel of the product. Create appropriate promotional material around the book including an A3 poster. The final product should be packaged and photographed in a professional manner.

Product
A 16-32 page book
An A3 poster
Any additional promotional material

Tone of voice
Laid back
Relatable
Accessible
Empathetic

Audience
Mental health patients old and new

Context
A pamphlet for mental health
A source of community
Promoting mental health awareness
To be submitted to publishers

Additional info/considerations
Make presentation boards as though pitching to a publisher
Book is on square format that will fit on A3 sheet with bleed to be printed
Medium weight stock matt
Keep brand consistency across project
Put contact numbers in back of suicide prevention, samaritans etc
Have quotes from celebrities

Mandatory Requirements
Blog
Investigate contextual reference
Promotional material
16-32 page book
Any additional promotional material

Deliverables
Promotional material
Packaged 16-32 page book
Presentation boards
Professional photos

Poetry! I choose you!

So i was really losing all interest in my big kahuna and I was thinking about what i want to have in the final show, and i'm pretty sure i and one of my big poems up for the show because they are my most successful forms of work. So i realised i was wasting my time and energy working on a childrens book when my passion doesn't lye in children's illustration. So this brief is now my big kahuna so i felt it needed a bit more content.
I want to include quotes from celebrities who also suffer with depression, beause i think it helps with the purpose of my book which is to create a sense of belonging and show that sufferers are not alone. And also to break down a bit of astigmatism around mental health. I have a particular poem which is calling out health leaflets and their insistence on showing people with their head in their hands as the best representation of mental health, which is rankly insulting.

I've really been enjoying writing the poetry as it is just expressing problems and general fears that come with depression and I think it makes it relatable. I think a big part of this book is showing that these fears and problems are common and normal, so that even though our brain chemistry is off, at least within the umbrella of depression we're relatively normal.

Poems

Introductory poem
This poetry book probably won't help
It's not a self help thing
It's just nice to know that someone out there
Share your suffering

Bed
There's a certain comfort when in bed
The world does not exist
No deadlines, fears or interactions
Bed presents no risk

Tablets
Little round powder bombs
You control how i feel
But if my emotions are synthetic
How do I know what's real?

Blue
Feeling blue?
Are you?
Me too
But what to do?

If I grew
Would my view
Be anew
Could i brew
A positive skew

There's a few
Damned with the hue
How on earth do we get through?

Lean on who
Believes in you
There may not be an end in view
But just be strong let you be you
May be blue but lighter hues
One day look back and say i grew
But just relax while we work it through
I am the walrus, coo coo cachoo

In and out
It's that little step that stands within
Going out and staying in
In gives comfort
Out is unknown
But in presents the problem
Of being alone

Sleep
The head hits the pillow
But the lights remain lit
This attempt at sleep
Is blatant counterfeit

The minutes lap the hour
Birds greet the sun
The old day hasn't ended
Yet another has begun

Sleep, sweet unconsciousness
Has become a chore
Turn off all the lights
Windows matching door

Leaflet
This expression put in  a question
Is coming from your health profession

Feeling aggression? suffer supression?
Hold your head! You may have depression

This publication lacks communication,
These images are assaulting
Head in hands near decapitation
This depiction is insulting

Stop standing on eggshells
Stop being 'metaphorical'
Communicate to a person
Don't make it categorical

How are you
How are you
Just popping out for a few
No, really, how ARE you
I'm cool..
I'm not trying to be rude
I'm fine... Dude
But are you sure?
Do you want me to be blue or...
No no no
Ok i'm gonna go
And you are ok?
What do you want me to say?
Just that you're fine
MYYYYY
not a miserable sod
GOOODDDD

Care
Try to muster up some care
But mother Hubbard's cupboards bare
These balloons are deflated
These flowers lackluster
Maybe my brain is turning to custard

Poetry Plans

I planned out my poetry book to be 16 pages. I have now written all the poetry so it is just down to illustrating them all. I decided I want the boo to have square pages so I am going to be redesigning the poems I have already illustrated so that they work on a square format. I had considered using a circle format because i thought that would be an interesting format to work in but it is not realistic for me to be able to make and hand bind a circular book. So i went with the more realistic option.

I have one double spread illustration at the centre fold so that there is no issue with the pagination and the line up of art work. I am also including a pattern inlay because i like them in books and i think that in an illustrated book a pattern inlay gives a little snippet of the visuals inside. I think it is a key selling point in my book.

Poems in the poetry book:

Introductory poem

Bed

Tablets

Blue

In and Out

Sleep

Leaflet

How are you

Care

Pause in the works

So i started this project giving myself 5 days to complete it and i have worked for one.  I didn't think about the other work i had to do for ppp so i'm going to have to pause this project to be done after the deadline for ppp. I will give myself 4 days when i start back so that i still use the same amount of time.

Finishing up

So i suddenly just kind of lost all track of this brief, but my aim was to have enough to compile into a zine or book and i have reached that point. So to make it so i can concentrate more on my other briefs, i have picked my favourite 12 images from this brief and I will resize/adjust them so that they can all be bound into one book. Which can also go in my portfolio.
The final 12 are:
(i tried to issuu this but it just kept crashing)

Colouring!

I tried changing the line colours of this one to try and add a more ghostly feel to it so that it would fully communicate which song it is.

This is some weird stuff that happened when i was trying to select certain parts of the image. They were completely accidental but i just thought id include them here because they look pretty swish 

I also coloured part of the line work in the smells of teen spirit, i did this because i wanted it to be on a dark gloomy background most associated with teenagers and teen music. 

I wasn't so keen on this dark blue, for one it was outside of my 3 colour primary colour scheme. But the black made it look to stark ad kind of awful. It looks like these are ones that are up for re design.

Mr blue sky was great the only down side to this one was that the background was very flat initially but i added a red drop shadow to give the image depth and to balance out the colour use a bit more.

The star man was another that seemed to require a dark background but none of the dark tones really work. I think the yellow improved the clouds because it made them more bright and playful., which fits in better with the rest of the images. But in general this might be another one i redesign.

The final 6. Basically only Mr Blue Sky and 'Help' are ones i lil sand think work so i'm going to go in a try to redesign the others. this time i already know my colour scheme so that should help with the design.

Drawn out!

Mr Blue sky is still my favourite piece on here. I've noticed that when i'm rushed like in these deadline driven briefs i tend to opt for the 'blank' character. I like using them because they can span across all the images without dictating how they must look. They are very malleable characters. 

The one for 'who wants to live forever' I think went better than the thumbnail idea, instead of the lines just being more and more faded I have it so there are three different line qualities, a thick solid one, a swirly one made of many lines and then the final one is just dots. I think this conveys the leaving of life, although I'm not entirely sure. Also the layout isn't great on that one, so it may have to be changed.

I have drawn the covers here to 9x9cm 

But i think i want them to intact be slightly small, maybe just 7x7cm, just to push the dinginess of the box as that will be a useful selling point 

*note to self: when advertising to sell make sure there is something in the image to create the contrast and show that it is a miniature. Maybe a del LP…although i only have singles which are quite small anyway. Maybe just some cute things like thimbles and thread. Something that would create a twee image with lots of charm.

Thumbnails

Help:

At first i was going to have the flag signals for help across and block colour capitals behind them, i thought this worked because it is reminiscent of the proper cover and it'd be bright and cheerful.

But then all my other ones started being character orientated so i swapped this one out for the idea of the prop guy who did the photo shoot for the original cover, i've shown him carrying all the flag props and tripping, yelling out 'Help'. I'm kind of enjoying making the covers like really lame puns because it adds a sense of humour to this project.

Starman: I have a little character perched in clouds with the piggy stardust lightening bolt on his face, i thought this was kind of nice because Bowie is dead now and HE is the star man in the sky. Not sure if it doesn't fit in with the 'puny' nature of these covers.

Smells like teen spirit: I just went with the obvious, a teenager with a weird whisky cloud around them…because teenagers do smell. that is my only humour there.

Who want to live forever: This one was hard as there isn't really any puns that fit in with this and its a bit more sad and serious than others. I have three figures moving from solid to nothingness as they drift away. This was meant to like represent death.

Go your own way: I honestly just went for the most obvious this here, a little sign saying your own way. but i think i might need o add more to that image as its very simple. 

Mr Blue Sky: This is my favourite because its just a man but his face is sky. Sometimes i think the simplest most stupid jokes work the best and this one is my favourite.

The songs

I have chosen the songs. I think these are a good variety of popular classic pop/rock songs.
I've made this selection with the idea that theres something for everyone in there (hopefully).

Deadline Driven: Brief Numero Tres

So i wanted a product i could make and sell because i feel like  lot of my work is just prints or comics and I thought i'd like to have a 3d product under my belt. Also I think having a product to sell will boost me into creating an easy account to add to my professional presence.
Since i enjoyed doing secret seven i decided to have my product span off of that idea. So i will choose 6 records and illustrate them. I think i'm going to go for classic tracks like Queen and Bowie so that it is more appealing to a wider audience. I also want to have it packaged in a little box that looks like a record played because i think that completes the package. Also then its a min record player and things that are mini versions of other things have endless charm. So i'm hoping the miniature angle makes this work.

Brief: To illustrate 6 records and create a matching box to hold them

Product: A miniature record player box holding 6 mini record covers

Tone of voice: Playful, fun, puns with song titles is a possibility

Audience: As wide as possible (hence the classic selection) adults around 20-60

Context: To be sold as a product on etsy and advertised on social media

Mandatory requirements: 6 illustrated LP covers and one box packaging, blogging, Advertising

Deliverables: One box holding 6 LP covers

Deadline: Friday 8th April   (5 Days)