PROJECT 10: Campaign

Our tenth project on our Foundation course was to do with producing a visual campaign devised to inform and communicate a topic on a personal, community, local, national or even global level. The basic idea of a campaign is to publicise and bring attention to a problem/issue.

From the start, my mind was set on the subject of mental health for my campaign, as it has both personal connections through knowing those who suffer from mental disorders and also personal issues with the treatment those people go under and how it is too general. 

I started by researching some general symptoms and treatments for three disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder; Bi-polar Disorder and Schizophrenia. With this information, I then cross-examined it with a few personal case studies found online as well as my own self-written account of experiences I've had with people affected by mental disorders, in particular one with a long-term girlfriend.

Girlfriend of 9 months already diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder due to evidence from counselling and genetic factors then diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Reliant on medication already at 17, now given more medication and intensive counselling. After reading heavily into both disorders, I looked into the medication she had been on.There had been consistent incidents of self harm on her part before and after medication and she would always return from counselling worse off.Her own words on the effect of her treatment:"The medication was like a pill-form temporary lobotomy""The fact I was on medication made me feel even more pathetic and helpless""They seemed in a rush to diagnose me and medicate me but still told me it was just a phase"I asked if she ever though of not taking her medication and convinced her to try living without it.Our relationship began to falter as her BPD started blacking out large parts of time, in which it transpired she cheated on me with no recollection of the event. Due to my understanding of BPD at this time, although we broke up, we still met up frequently and she has told me numerous times that this helped her focus on the fact she wasn't worthless and that she did have the ability to function and could actually trust in someone.We got back together for another 2 months and I saw massive improvement.Upon seeing her counsellor for a post treatment recap, she was told she didn't have a severe enough case to require treatment but they recommend continuing with the medication.Our relationship ran its course to a natural end but we remain close friends and she has not had a single BPD/Bipolar episode in the entire year since that. - My own personal account on my experience with BPD and Bipolar


The idea of designing a piece to be used in a campaign connects very heavily with the idea of branding identity, as it has to be something recognisable. Looking into campaign posters from mental health campaigners and charities such as CAMH and Amnesty International there is not only a recognisable brand behind the poster but also almost always an image that either plays on a shock factor or a deeper visual metaphor that makes a viewer think about the message being portrayed. 

I started by sketching ideas using quotes from various people I knew that had been affected by mental health disorders in some way and tried to develop a visual representation or metaphor to go with them.

Above are two larger sketches i developed from initial sketches I had jotted down in my sketchbook. I decided to go with the one on the right because not only was it a clearer message in my opinion, but was also more aesthetically pleasing.

I started developing this into a poster, using it as the main point of focus.

Using Illustrator, I created vector shapes from the original sketch to maintain the cartoonesque aesthetic and am pleased with the outcome. As an overall piece, I feel the main image could have been reduced in size to make space for some information where the quote is as it is not as connected to my campaign as I would have liked it to be.