Redefining Mental Health Typography Experience
Stigma on mental health is an ongoing issue that we need to tackle in order to help to erase. 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year (1) and in England, 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression in any given week (2)
Stigma on mental health stops people when looking for help, sharing their experiences and just feeling comfortable in their own skin. This workshop is part of my MA research project Redefining Mental Health. This project aims to help erasing stigma on mental health while educating and raising awareness. The project researches around visual communication on mental health.
Therefore, with this workshop we aim to:
- Help erasing stigma on mental health
- Improve the wellbeing of the participants through art
- Raise awareness about this topic
- Opening a conversation about how mental heath is seeing in a positive way
- Learn basics of typography design and give you different methods to create your own type and experiment with typography
BUT WHY TYPOGRAPHY AND MENTAL HEALTH?
Easy. Typography is the art of designing visual language. Mental health is an abstract concept, we cannot really see it but it's there. Through typography we aim to tweak meanings of words, designing and creating a type that would help raising awareness about mental health and allowing people to be in someone else's shoes.
WORKSHOP PLAN
The workshop includes 6 activities exploring ways of designing type. The activities are easy, all of them require very little materials and the duration goes from 10 to 20 minutes.
First, you'll learn basics of typography design to then crack on with the activities about methods of design type . Each activity includes an explanation, duration and materials needed, video tutorial and a discussion board to share and see other people's responses.
It is key to share and learn from other as part of the workshop. The discussion boards are private, easy to use, interactive and you can submit your outcomes anonymously.
The workshop is a safe space and the aim is to get you thinking about mental health and how you define it. This could be about your own experience or someone else close to you. Feel free to share it with people around you, or to keep it for yourself if you prefer. If at any point you want to stop any activity or you don’t feel comfortable, that’s ok too.
If you have problems with your internet connection, you can download a pdf toolkit to keep it in your computer. Make sure you keep scrolling down to be part of the workshop!
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Typography is a great but very difficult discipline. To get our heads around it, here is some basic info.
You'll find quick exercises during the lesson to help you gain a better understanding of the concepts and build a mood-board asset pack that would help you during the activities.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
Typography: concerned with the structuring and arranging of visual language.
Type design: concerned with the creation of the units to be arranged, the characters which make up a typeface.
Type: physical object, a piece of metal with a raised face at one end containing the reversed image of a character.
Typeface: collection of characters, letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation (an so on), which have the same, distinct design.
Font: physical means used to create a typeface, be it computer code, lithographic film, metal or woodcut.
Lettering: implies the use of the hand and a tool such as a chisel, pen or a brush.
Legibility: ability to distinguish one letterform from another through the physical characteristics inherent in the design of a particular typeface.
Readability: properties of a type or design that affect the ability to ‘understand’ it.
Type and font are usually confusing. Think of the font as a cookie cutter, whereas the type is the cookie produced from the cutter. You should ask what typeface it is or what font the typeface is set in - not what font it uses.
TYPEFACE ANATOMY
Letters, like our body, have different body parts that can be changed and designed to make your typeface peculiar, different and to express whatever you want to express through your typography design.
When designing a typeface, there are some basics you need to know:
The ‘x height’ is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of non-ascending or lower case letters. The x height gives consistency as it works as a measure within the type design.
Here are some examples of the most common ones, but there are loads.
*Quick exercise! In a piece of paper, draw:
- V with a wavy stem
- G without spur
- g without ear
- A with serif
- A without serif
- Shoulder of an h thinking on a pleasant sound
- Spine of S thinking on a unpleasant sound
TYPOGRAPHY STYLE
Typography has a variety of ways to be used and to use visual language to enhance or alter the meaning of the words. Some examples of this style are:
*Quick exercise! write down your name in your favourite style from the examples above.
TYPOGRAPHY FAMILY STYLES
A typography family contain different family members that provides flexibility for the designer.
These are part of the Helvetica Neue family but they are just some examples, you can find even more variations, such as bold italic.
TYPOGRAPHY CLASSIFICATION
Typeface classification is based on anatomic characteristics, and they can have sub categories. Here you'll see the main classifications in bold and the typeface used
Block (Fette Fraktur typeface in the example) is based on the writing style in the Middle Age.
*Quick exercise! Draw your name letter in Block style
Roman or serif (Garamond typeface in the example) come from roman stone inscriptions. This is the most readable type.
*Quick exercise! Draw your name letter in Block style
Gothic or san serif (Futura typeface in the example) is clean and simple without decorations.
*Quick exercise! Draw your name letter in Block style
Script (Kunstler typeface in the example) imitates handwriting.
*Quick exercise! Draw your name letter in Block style
Graphic (Chalkduster typeface in the example) is the box to put the rest of typefaces that cannot be classified in any of the other groups.
*Quick exercise! Draw your name letter in Block style
*Quick exercise! Have a look at your name letters in all the different styles. Choose your favourite re-do it thinking about something that makes you calm - what colour would you choose? What shapes? Would you use rainbows?Do the same, this time think about something that makes you angry - what is the perfect colour? would you use spiky shapes? how is the background?
*Typography Sources (3)
WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
Now that we know the basics of typography, you will find some activities to play around with these concepts, test ways of creating type and have fun with letters and words while reflecting about mental health improving your wellbeing!
You will find all the assets for the activities in a folder for you to download later in the activity section, you can either print or copy by hand on a piece of paper.
Remember we want this to be a safe space and you can either reflect about your own experience or someone close to you. There is no right or wrong, the process and enjoying the activities is the main value here.
Make sure you share the outcome of the activities in the discussion board. Remember this is a safe, private and anonymous space and it is key to share the outcomes as part of the learning process of the workshop. If you still don't feel comfortable sharing or you have any issue with the discussion board, you can always send your outcome to deosso.design@gmail.com! Or share them on instagram tagging @redefening.mentalhealth.
This is part of my MA project and it would be amazing to get to see your art pieces!
- Paper
- Pens, pencils, drawing tools of any kind that you have at home
Optional:
- Magazines
- Scissors
- Glue
- Bubble wrap
They are 6 activities, and the duration varies from 10 to 20 minutes. I suggest how long each activity should last, but you are in control. Avoid any that you don't want to try or you don't have the materials. Spend more time in the activity you really like. Up to you!
I created this workshop to be done in a group setting, so people can share their experiences and learn from each other. If you want to do it with members of your household, great! But if you want to play by yourself that’s great too.
Group workshops online are tricky, but I assure you sharing (even anonymously) is one of the greatest parts of the workshop! After each activity you'll find a DISCUSSION button that'll take you to a discussion board where you can share your opinion, upload a picture of your letter or work in that activity and comment on other people's work!
I’d really appreciate if you could, at least, share your positive mental health definition (acitivity 6), as I’m trying to produce a Positive Mental Health Dictionary created by people experiencing mental health. You can submit it in the discussion board or send it my way to deosso.design@gmail.com
Enought talk now! Let's start with the activities!
WARM UP - MOODBOARD
Duration: 10 min
Materials: Pens, pencils, paper, magazines, any kind of material you can find around!
To start putting together our thoughts and ideas, firstly you're going to create a mood board that will support you during the activities.
We'll follow the collage technique. Grab some paper, some magazines, and any material that you might find around that could be useful. Start selecting the images that you would relate to mental health, feelings, emotions, etc. This can be a person's face expression, a colour, a landscape. Anything that would help you when visualising mental health.
Select all kind of images, the ones that brings you joy, the ones that brings your other feelings.
How would you represent the things that worry you? And the ones that motivate you?
Now, put them all in a piece of paper. Don't worry about the layout, they don't need to be pretty. This is just for you to help you when developing the activities of the workshop.
You got your mood board? Let's start with the workshop!
ACTIVITY 1: NAME LETTER
Duration: 5-10 min
Materials: Pens, pencils, paper
In the Activity 1 Assets folder you're going to find different typefaces. Choose your name letter for one of them. This letter is going to be a representation of yourself.
Print it or just copy the letter - you can trace it if you put a piece of paper over your computer screen.
Fill in the letter with elements of your personality, transform the letter to become you. Use colours, words, shapes, drawings, etc.
Check out this video tutorial for the name letter activity
How was it? Make sure you share your outcome and join the discussion! It's very important for me to see your progress, you can always send your outcome with me and it'll be kept private if you'd like so (deosso.design@gmail.com)
ACTIVITY 2: MENTAL HEALTH LETTER - NEGATIVE
Duration: 10-15 min
Materials: pens, pencils, paper
Create your own letter and outline it. Is it roman, gothic, block, script? Does it have spine or stem? What style does it have?
If you don’t feel confident enough, copy one of the letters from the folder of the ACTIVITY 1.
This time, the letter would represent any specific mental health experience or disorder, either yours or of someone close to you.
Fill in your letter representing negative aspects of it from your experience: drawings, words, shapes, colours,emotions, etc.
Check out the tutorial
This activity is linked with the following one and you can either do it with someone else or share it in the discussion board and exchange it.
Make sure you share your outcome and join the discussion! It's very important for me to see your progress, you can always send your outcome with me and it'll be kept private if you'd like so (deosso.design@gmail.com)
Duration: 10-15 min
Materials: Activity 2 letter, pens, pencils, etc.
If you’re doing this activity with other friends or family members, exchange your letter from Activity 2 with them. If you're doing it solo, use one from the Discussion Panel of Activity 2.
Now with their letter, transform the negative aspects into positive. This can be drawings or adding comments as tips to tweak the meanings and find the light in the darkness.
Exchanging tips and points of view is very helpful.
Here is a video on how to:
Share your outcome and join the discussion! It's very helpful to see other people's letter. If you prefer, you can send yours to deosso.design@gmail.com and it'd be kept private and/or anonymous.
ACTIVITY 4: MONSTER TYPEFACE
Duration: 20 min
Materials: pen, pencils, paper, glue, scissors, magazines, newspapers...
If you don't have magazines or newspapers, you can always copy drawings or trace them and use those images.
This time we´ll use the collage technique to create a typeface. Grab any kind of materials, paper, magazines, newspaper... .
Choose your mental health letter and outline it. Maybe choose a different design from activity 2.
Go through your materials and select images, colours, words, shapes, etc. that relates to how you feel with that mental health experience or condition.
Fill in the letter with the images and cut-outs, or maybe use different styles of the letter and cut different parts of it to create your own.
Not sure how to do this? Check the video showing you the process for collage!
Did you enjoy this technique? Collages are always a fun and easy way to create and design.
Make sure you share your outcome and join the discussion following the button below. Remember you can always send your letter to deosso.design@gmail.com and it'd be kept private and/or anonymous.
ACTIVITY 5: BUBBLE WRAP TYPEFACE
Duration: 20 min
Materials: pens, bubble wrap. If you don't have bubble wrap you can use a grid notebook or a piece of paper and draw the grids on it.
Using the modular technique for creating type, choose a positive message or word related to mental health and create a modular type for it.
For this, we’ll use bubble wrap. The bubbles in the bubble wrap work as a grid. Bubble wrap is a material used for fragile objects, being a metaphor of how society sees mental health.
Write down on a piece of paper the letters of your word or sentence. The shorter the sentence the easier.
Make sure the letters are separated from each other, it’ll be easier to fill in the modules.
Each bubble is a unit that will create the letter. ie: like pixels compose an image.
Colour each bubble to create your letter, you can try using squares
Check the video tutorial here!
How was it? Make sure you share your outcome and join the discussion! It's very important for me to see your progress, please send your outcome with me to deosso.design@gmail.com.
ACTIVITY 6: POSITIVE DEFINITION
Duration: 15-20 min
Materials: pens, pencils, paper
Now that you have tried different techniques and styles, choose your favourite and use it to create your own typeface. Using your typeface, write down the mental health experience or condition you’ve been doing the activities about
Once you have it, create a positive definition for that mental health experience. Think about it as if you’re describing it to someone else that has no idea what it is, what it feels like. But do it from a positive, natural position.
ie: Anxiety - nervous that once controlled are an alarm of needing to stop and breath.
Have a look at the tutorial
And that's it! This was the last activity of the workshop, and the most important! I'm working on creating a Positive Mental Health Dictionary and it'd be great to add your definition. All definition are anonymous and they will help to fight stigma on mental health.
Please share your outcome and join the discussion! Add your activity there or send it to deosso.design@gmail.com. Thanks!
Thanks for joining the workshop! I hope you learnt some techniques on typography design while reflecting on mental health!
The last thing I'm asking you is to quickly fill in a feedback form to help me improve this typography experience!
Have you participated in the Mental Health Visual Communication survey?
Share the workshop and tag us! #RedefiningMentalHealth
- Instagram - @redefining.mentalhealth
- Tiktok - @redefining.metalhealth
- Twitter - @redefmentalh
- Facebook - Redefining Mental Health
THANKS!
SOURCES
(1) McManus, S., Meltzer, H., Brugha, T. S., Bebbington, P. E., & Jenkins, R. (2009). Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007: results of a household survey. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care)
(2) McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha T. (eds.) (2016). Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult psychiatric morbidity survey 2014. Leeds: NHS digital.
TYPOGRAPHY SOURCES (3)
- Felici, J. (2003). The complete manual of typography. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press
- Baines, P. & Haslam, A. 2005, Type and typography, 2nd edn, Laurence King, London
- Ambrose, G. & Harris, P. 2016, Typography, Second edn, Fairchild Books, London;New York
Credits:
deosso.design