Me and my mind.
For this personal project, I created a minimalist art series that explored mental health struggles using symbolic imagery and expressive design.
What?
Mental health project
Category
Illustration
Year:
2019
The task
This was a personal project exploring mental health through expressive art. My goal was to represent the struggles of mental health in an impactful and emotive way, using symbolism and utilising minimalistic design and negative space.
What I did / Challenges
To communicate the emotional weight of mental health struggles, I used my skills in hand-illustrated designs to create a more personal touch to the designs. I decided on using negative space as I felt it would be able to convey complex ideas with minimal detail, giving a more subtle reflection on some very complex emotions. I used scratchy, aggressive typography to convey the painful themes of the project, ensuring the typeface amplified the emotional tone of the words. Symbolism and similes played a key role in portraying pain without explicit detail, leaving space for personal interpretation.
Outcome
As it was a personal project I posted these on social media on World Mental Health Day
It started a conversation about mental health with a lot of people I hadn't realised had been struggling with it in their own way. Feedback highlighted that the minimalist and black and white approach made the designs that much more haunting and reflected the struggles of mental health.
Key takeaways
This project strengthened my ability to convey emotion through design, teaching me how to effectively use negative space and symbolism to communicate ideas. It also reinforced the importance of balancing technical skill with design, helping me grow as a visual communicator.