Interactive & Visual
Some individuals who experience mental health problems hide how they feel out of fear of judgment and alienation. HumourMe aims to create an optimistic conversation about anxiety by exploring humour, metaphors and creating a mascot. HumourMe features unique images to attract the attention of emerging adults at university, and show the normality of someone’s feelings with anxiety.
There is currently a large mental health stigma that surrounds university students and this topic is significant because of it. The stigma surrounding mental health needs to be softened to allow people to feel comfortable enough to open themselves up to talk and feel supported. This project aimed to minimise the feelings of isolation someone might feel, helping them realise the normality surrounding their situation with anxiety. This was done by adding captions to humorously explain what anxiety is and what it causes mentally and physically. HumourMe uses metaphors and humour to remove any darkness or fear around the topic. The creation of the Knot character was designed to become a mascot for anxiety, representing the tightness and feelings that are associated with anxiety. This concept makes the designs more approachable and relatable to someone looking from the outside in as well as someone with anxiety.
HumourMe is designed to increase knowledge with metaphors and humour, and this will be done through high-fidelity visual elements that will be printed and presented to the public. These deliverables include three posters, two notebooks, four t-shirts, a calendar, and two mugs. These designs aim to make the Knot characters a memorable mascot that represents anxiety. These items and designs aim to help people realise there is no such thing as perfect mental health and that everyone has experiences with their own Knot character at times.
As a designer, Emily aims to increase positivity with simplicity and humour, aiming to create positive change in a community or society. Her designs are motivated to create, inspire, and to raise the question of "what is really normal?" to the audience.