PRODUCT STATEMENT
Most people encounter stress and anxiety at some point in their life. Depending on intensity, this may negatively affect a person’s quality of life. Our emotional, psychological, and social well-being within the brain is referred to as our mental health. These are the simple things that have a daily impact on our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This topic has become more apparent for college students who struggle with bringing awareness to their feelings. It is important for people to feel comfortable about their emotions on a level where they are confident enough to talk about it and learn how to properly care for their mental health. Psychological ideas of positive reinforcement, self remedies, and repetition are methods proven to relieve stress and anxiety.
This product prompts users with a task that will correspond to a mental or physical concept that calms the brain. By taking at least 15 minutes out of each day to focus on oneself and do something to better the mind, it will help implement this regime into a routine. Understanding how personal emotions work can teach someone how to handle themself in a time of distress. By performing these repetitive functions it will condition the mind, slowly turning them into healthy habits incorporated into one's daily life.
ABOUT:
ENHANCE: Mental Health Reset is a product for SUNY New Paltz students that prompts users with a task that corresponds to a mental or physical concept focusing on oneself. This product encourages users to try out new relaxation techniques to see which ones can benefit them the most. By performing these repetitive tasks, students can incorporate new healthy habits into their daily lives. Information about local and campus resources can be found along the bottom of the pages.
Between each task there are positive affirmations pages for users to interact with. Positive affirmations are a method for transforming subconscious negative thoughts into positive thinking. Affirmations create new neural pathways into the mind that begin weakly, but with repetition become stronger in daily thoughts. They work best when you genuinely believe in the words you are saying.
POSITIVE AFFIRMATION ZINE
FRONT & BACK COVER DESIGNS
INITIAL BRAINSTORM & SKETCHES
Mental health awareness is a topic not talked about as often as it should be. It is important for people to feel comfortable about their feelings, and get to a level where they feel confident enough to talk about how they are feeling. Then being able to find professionals out there who they can express these emotions to and get the proper help they need. Not only should people be informed about what mental health is, they should know how to handle their own self in a time of distress. Stress and anxiety are mental health conditions that can be reduced by incorporating healthier lifestyle choices in daily life. Choosing one activity that relaxes your mind a day can make a big impact.
DIGITAL SKETCHES
Early digital sketches of the layout for my project, initially based on an advent calendar. I eventually ran into some problems with this layouts functionality. I was still able to incorporated the same text on the cards using the daily task, affirmation, and resource information. Which I eventually put into a different final deliverable.
PROTOTYPE
I decided to change the layout of my project to a standing desk calendar. Having a physical product that you can look at every day and be reminded of you daily task. These early prototypes were made out of cardboard to help me try out different sizes that I could use for my final product.
CRAFTING MY FINAL PRODUCT
I made the final product myself by hand. I printed all of the pages then used the bookbinding room to cut bookboard to the proper size, put in the spiral bound, as well as use sticky transfer paper to cover the bookboard in white.
