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‘FIRST YEAR AND FEELING LOST’
MENTAL HEALTH WELLBEING KIT DESIGN.



... IDEATION
... PUBLICATION
... ILLUSTRATION
... PRINTING




In this self-initiated brief, my deliverable was to be an outcome made to give students permission to smile if they struggle with staying optimistic during their first year at university.

This project aimed to help students who may need guidance in keeping in touch with their positive emotions so I produced a kit which enabled students to reflect positively on their experiences. The kit was named: ‘First Year and Feeling a Bit Lost?’. It contained: a reflective journal; a box of cards containing advice from students and educators; a selection of light-hearted comedic stickers; and a playlist of student submitted ‘good mood’ songs.




 


PRIMARY RESEARCH TASKS
I set up a hand made postbox with letter templates in a final year university student studio for them to post in their responses to the questions on the page.  This concept was designed for the students to be writing advice to their first year selves, which I could then form into a creative solution to give to first years. I also interview tutors and collected short mantra style advice sentences to be used later.





BUILDING A CONCEPT
I brainstormed multiple ideas out of the informatIon I had gathered from tutors and students, then realising these multiple things could be combined into one cohesive kit.




MAKING PROCESS: BOOK AND BOX MAKING
The Journal Publication


My journal was sectioned with weekly reflective activities between CSM building photography spreads.  

The binding was french stitched with a letter from each student sewn into each section.

The book block was glued and bound using cloth and decorative book tags.

The hard cover was made with grey board and slightly shiny royal blue book cloth.

The title was screenprinted on with gold metallic ink, dried between layers for a shinier effect.




I made the structure of the box with the same materials as the journal for cohesion.

Covering the outside with the exact same book cloth.

So the bottom of the box wouldn’t get stuck inside the top half, I built an internal structure.

I set up my screenprinting to ensure I knew exactly where the title was positioned before printing.

The title for my box and book used the same metallic ink across both.





Finals



‘CHOOSE TO BE OPTIMISTIC’ JOURNAL

The journal was hard back and covered with royal blue book cloth. It was made to have a spread per academic week with playful illustrated activities.

The publication was sectioned with a photography spread in the middle of each one, featuring a sewn in letter insert taken from final year students, giving advice to their first year selves.









THE BOOKMARK AND STICKER COLLECTIONThe bookmark itself contained a Qr code to a shared student Spotify playlist which aims to share songs that help each other feel motivated.

The stickers were made to continue to bring the fun to a topic which can be quite a serious discussion topic in regards to mental health.







‘ADVICE IS GOLDEN’ CARD SET AND HOLDING BOX
My set of cards were named: ‘Advice is Golden’, to hopefully enable students to be confident in searching for guidance. The illustrated advice was sourced from Central Saint Martins students and Tutors. The card backs were gold foiled with the ‘Advice is Golden’ phrase, and the handmade box also hade gold accents.




All card designs to explore