UNLOCK MENTAL BLOCK
DIGITAL CAMPAIGN THROUGH TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
INTRODUCTION
Unlock Mental Block is a transmedia story told using a variety of digital media and platforms. It uses a range of storytelling methods and channels to create an engaging and informative story that is beneficial for the audience. It will explain the symptoms, effects and causes of mental illness as well as best practises which one can adopt to overcome it.
Mental Wellbeing mind map
RESEARCH
There are various topics in mental health but only limited time scope in the Semester’s, I am mainly focussing on some of the most common symptoms of mental illness -
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Toxic masculinity
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Toxic masculinity
My plan was to spread awareness regarding this important issue which has increased over the past year. I started with posting question related post on Instagram and Twitter which followed up answers. I wanted to create a organic platform through which people can share their opinions, thoughts, feelings about their mental health and engage in honest conversations.
MENTAL HEALTH UNDER COVID
With COVID 19 having its impact worldwide and being almost a year old, masses have been stuck at home, unable to interact/socialise has led to an increase in stress, anxiety and has made a significant role in everyone’s social life. With the government’s continuing lockdown, the situation has worsened with many suffering from mental health issues. Moreover, a declining economy, job losses and a considerable amount of time left before things get back to normal have led to many losing hope.
Research shows that the amount of people reporting moderate to severe depressive symptoms increased to 19.2% in June 2020 (Vizard, 2020).
IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTERS IN STORYTELLING
Character is in many ways more important than the story itself. Because no matter how distinctive and compelling the story is, your reader simply won’t care if they’re not on board with your protagonist (Rowe, 2020). I decided to add characters to majority of my posts including Sam as the main one. The social media talks about Sam's mental health and how one cannot judge mental illness just by looking at a happy face, its way more than that.
Henry A. Montero (2018) talks about why men often prefer to keep depression hidden from their friends and family members. He suggested that we need to change how we see depression in men ; being gender neutral. No man or woman chooses to live with depression.
I showed 'Sam' as my main character having some mental health issues and tried to narrate the information through him and also through other general characters.
PARAMETERS & SCOPE
I have divided the project into 2 stages in order to complete this across 2 modules.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Through my research I found that age 20-30 years is the most critical phase of humans getting effected by mental health and hence, becomes my target audience.
Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (Kessler, 2005)
Onset and progression of psychosis in relation to the developmental processes affected by the disorder (Milan,2016)
In this, 18-29 age group people are the most active users on Instagram and Twitter which makes my choice of social media platforms perfect to engage users (sproutsocial, 2020).
I conducted a short survey including a blend of demographic and psychographic questions to help me define my target audience and observe their reactions, which gave me an insight into my target audience’s personalities, their mental health, and their opinion how social media pages can help in improving mental health. I also had a conversation with some of my friends on phone regarding these questions. This is a short summary of some of the key results acquired from 20 participants as well as the recording I received on whatsapp about their opinion on digital platforms helping in mental health.
Recording questions -
Does mental health effect their career goals? Social life?
Does social media platforms initiatives of mental health help them in any way?
With current circumstances of living in lockdown worldwide, does information through social media platforms of mental help them become more aware of mental health?
Noor Haiqa, a Bachelor's student in University of Winchester on how social media platform has helped her survive lockdown in UK.
Vikrant who works as Digital Designer in India explaining how mental health can affect someone professionally and socially.
Vikrant on how social media platforms can help someone to improve their mental health
UNLOCK MENTAL BLOCK LOGO & BRANDING
Development started with logo sketches that were developed further until two variations of the final logo were designed. A branding style guide was created and details the final logos, font and colour palette.
Purple enhances creativity and spirituality. Generally it is reserved and relaxed (Platt college, 2020)
Monochromatic colour themes of blue, orange and cream. Cream and purple being the primary ones used in social media posts and campaign video. These are also complimentary colours which will make the scene look good.
Initial sketch
Designed in After Effects
Final Logo
Logo Animation
VISUAL LOGO
I wanted to use something positive for the logo and none better than the sun
Added some clouds
Stumbled onto my phone weather app showing different layers of sun
Drew water in waves in Illustrator with sun layers
Added colour layers to sun
Added blue colour which blends into yellow making it a complimentary colour combination. Blue create calming influence while yellow colour stimulates appetite.
WIREFRAME & PROTOTYPE
These were created in Adobe Xd.
Homepage
About
Mental Health
COVID 19
Get Involved
Home page
About
Mental Health
Covid 19
Get Involved
You can see the full responsive prototype by clicking below button.
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS SKETCHES
Instagram posts
Mindfulness post initial sketch
Instagram posts
VISUAL REFERENCES
Here are some of the key references for visuals and information on my social media pages.
Mental Health Foundation Instagram page
The brain coach Instagram page
Sadguru Instagram page
YoungMinds Twitter page
WORK IN ILLUSTRATOR
SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE
Instagram profile page
Twitter profile page
YouTube
POSTS
Here are some of the social media posts. Please see all the posts in the link below.
SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE LINK
MERCHANDISE
Some of the merchandise such as badges, t-shirts and phone will be sent out to followers on social media to promote the page.
CAMPAIGN VIDEO
REFERENCES
Rowe, B. (2020) Why Character is So Important in Your Storytelling. Available at: https://medium.com/read-watch-write-repeat/why-character-is-so-important-in-your-storytelling-f6870c406ef7. [Accessed 08 May 2021]
Millan MJ, Andrieux A, Bartzokis G, Cadenhead K, Dazzan P, Fusar-Poli P, et al. (2016) Altering the course of schizophrenia: progress and perspectives. Nat Rev Drug Discov 15(7):485–515.
Kessler, RC. (2005) Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry (2005) 62(6):593–602.
Vizard, T. (2020) Coronavirus and depression in adults, Great Britain: June 2020. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/coronavirusanddepressioninadultsgreatbritain/june2020. [Accessed 01 May 2021]
