Here For You JH
A community campaign to raise awareness of mental health resources using public art displays, distribution of illustrated products, and multi-media storytelling.
The work
Creative Director, Community Organizer, Product Designer, Fundraising & Marketing
Problems to Solve
In Jackson Hole, there are people suffering from mental health issues who hide their experiences, don’t seek help, or are unaware of local mental health resources.
Outcomes
$5500
Raised and donated to be used for mental health services for locals in need
10,000+
Video views on Facebook and Vimeo
7,000
Coffee sleeves, coasters, and stickers distributed
100+
Individuals and businesses providing funding or asset support
65
Faces painted and wheat-pasted on business windows and large murals
Context
The Mountain West region of the United States consistently reports the highest rates of suicide in the country (Pepper, 2017). Suicide rates are one of the key indicators of untreated depression. Mental health carries a stigma that prevents people from discussing mental health issues and seeking help.
Solution
Here For You Jackson Hole is a mental health campaign that uses public art, marketing products, and conversations to direct people to mental health resources in the community. This campaign aimed to normalize mental health experiences by fostering an open dialogue about mental health in our community.
What I Did
High-level Process
1
Discovery Research
Connecting a group with professionals to understand critical issues and develop a frame for ideas
Ideating & Prototyping
Taking design concepts into real tests, learning, and iterating until they are ready for prime-time
Clarifying the goals
Drafting a vision document to show people a map of potential targets
4
Campaign Delivery
Organizing community members to execute the public art campaign, delivering printed and video products, and distributing funds
Discovery Research
Exploring the Problem
Our group met with an advocate and practitioner of mental health support in our community. With the group’s permission, I did what’s called a graphic capture, which is a process of drawing ideas on a large sheet of paper for everyone to see during the meeting. I drew images, arrows, boxes, and wrote keywords to capture the essence of our developing ideas. Capturing a group conversation this way makes sure everyone’s ideas are validated, it is easier to follow an evolving trajectory, and feels creative yet organized.
Clarifying the goals
Visioning the Possibilities
I drew out ideas to create a brochure and pitch deck to show the mission of our project, the products, events of our campaign, and estimated costs. After revisions and narrowing down to what we wanted to, we settled on:
Stickers, a public art installation, coasters, coffee sleeves, large posters, radio spots, videos, window painting, and newspaper ads.
Our campaign was going to use illustrated faces to display mental health as a human experience we all relate to. These would be realistic in style, but not be so realistic like photos that may cast a stigma on actual community members.
Organizing our project into a slick document helped us move from, “what are we doing?” to “we can see what this is, and here are steps to make it happen.”
Ideation Exercises, Wireframes, and Hi-Fidelity Prototyping
For the window painting, we were going to paint around 45 downtown windows with faces so the entire town would see them. I tested windows and paint and how to remove the paint from the windows without scratching them. I also tested windows to make sure that heat from the sun wouldn’t crack or blow out the windows if they got too hot.
For the wheatpasting, which is a way to put up posters using a mixture of flour, sugar, and water, I tested large posters. My brother came out for a visit and we created a giant, 39’ x 9’ poster with faces, that was going to be glued up on a large trailer.
Print & Video Products
Delivering marketing products to reach more audiences
I created printed products featuring my illustrations, information about our campaign, and contact information to local mental health resources. We also produced three videos that were posted on social media, along with static posts, to engage more audience members in our campaign.
Conclusion
This was a deeply meaningful service design project where leadership capabilities honed in AmeriCorps and Peace Corps were elegantly combined with design abilities. It was an affirmation that not all things need to be designed into an app and that projects can be more impactful when they are tangible, created by people, and for people.