Tutorial 3

Where I am so far:

• Always consider what symbols, shapes and composition means and how it communicates to the audience.
• What exactly am I trying to say to my audience?
• Who am I saying it to?
• Does this style work with my audience?
• Is it effective?
• Make a logical journey.
• Consider the content.
• Figure out the touchpoints - where can I catch my audience?

Target Audience:

• My target audience is in the age group of 18-24 year olds, primarily University Students.
• I have chosen this age group as they are overlooked generally within this topic.
• Children and Adults receive different treatment for depression, however people aged between 18-24 are technically classed as neither, making the treatment difficult to judge. This is a gap in the market.

Methods of Delivery:

• The initial point of contact will be screen based - the vast majority of people in this age group have access to a screen of sorts.
• Another reason to back this, depressed people lock themselves away - a subtle way to get the message out as they too have access to screen based communication.

Intention:

• I am producing adverts and a campaign for informational, educational and awareness reasons.
• I will explain the avenues and possible directions to take in order to prevent depression.

Information is out there, however in order to become aware of this issue, you need to go looking for the details. This project is making the link between the person/people and the help.

It is not about making or persuading, it is about informing the options available.

An Animation

According to my survey results, the vast majority of people feel that a TV advert of some description would be the best way to communicate the topic of depression.

As it can be a very sore subject to talk about and approach, I think a friendly, simple way of displaying relevant information would have the best effect. The TV adverts I make are going to be animations, the characters are presented above. The reason behind the animations, are to make the topic more approachable to talk about, and make them differ from the common adverts using real people today. 

Depression is a very personal illness as it varies from person to person, and can effect each and every one of us for any reason at any time. It is for this reason in particular that I am against using real people trying to act a feeling/emotion which could completely mis-interpret and mis-communicate the problem. By using simple animations, the style will stand out in the hope that people will take interest. From here the message can be slowly introduced - but also gives the audience an option whether to take notice or not. The animations will tell a story, but only enough to introduce the problem. 

The animation will then direct the audience to a website where they can find relevant information about what to do and how. This website will direct to a page with links to sites such as NHS. 

My characters and symbols shown previously will form the basis of my project in order to communicate this issue appropriately.

Building on my Symbol Designs

© Megan Corkhill
Following on from my symbols regarding the types of depression, I have built up a table to explore how I can simplify the whole topic. The pink box containing a filled triangle is my symbol for 'Depression', I have specifically chosen a triangle because of the down feelings involved in this illness (hence the reason that the triangle is pointing downwards). The orange boxes represent the different causes of depression, blue shows the types (also shown earlier in this blog), green representing the physical symptoms, yellow for the psychological and purple showing the different treatments.
This symbol system will form the basis of my project in order to communicate my chosen topic to my target audience.

Project Boost

A much needed tutorial later and a decision different from my outcome of the tutorial - I am going to stick with my topic of depression. I've been researching and digging for six weeks, it'd be a shame to let it all go to waste. I just need to focus and work on visuals to push it along in order to see light at the end of the tunnel. During the chat I had come up with another idea, completely different - which I now hope to try and complete on the side. Words of wisdom got me thinking on my way home that I need to stick with what I've already worked so hard to achieve and maybe not worry so much about what other people think - what is it my target audience NEEDS?

Back and Forth: "Find a Nugget and Explore"

So all day I have been contemplating my ideas and going back and forth between past ideas and possible future ones.
So far my mind thought has gone like this:

1. DEPRESSION: This was my first starting point and a HUGE topic with so many different possibilities, causes, symptoms, signs and types. The subject could easily become complicated to deal with in regards of ethics and the sheer mass of knowledge that would need to be consumed in order to understand the illness as a whole.

2. TEENAGE DEPRESSION: This topic wasn't narrowed down, however the target group was. Teenagers. This is an age group I feel is neglected in terms of this illness as most people pass it off as a black mood, time of the month, tiff, typical teenager. Most of the time they could be asking for help, so I believed this target group needed to be aware of recognising symptoms and know what to do to help themselves initially before gaining the confidence to open up and talk about their issues. This is also the time of their lives where big changes happen and life changing events take place.

3. STUDENT DEPRESSION: As depression in a large age group such as teenagers was also still too large, I moved on to focusing on a particular event in someone's life which was significant to possible feelings of depression. Focusing on moving to Uni and away from home for the first time seemed a sensible option.


4. DEPRESSION WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE: After much research and discussions with various students and tutors, I found that although the initial move is daunting, depression can strike at any time during the time you spend at Uni. Depression amongst students is on the rise due to the lifestyles they lead. These lifestyles are typical amongst all students, but can have a severe affect on the individuals. Awareness needs to be raised and people need to be encouraged to talk to someone in order to help themselves before sinking in to deep.

5. ASKING FOR HELP: The more research I have been engaging in, the more my project seems to change. Still focusing on University students, I think the problem is that not enough people ask for help when they really need it. Continuing from students being encouraged to talk about their problems, can also lead to asking for help with Uni work, help about where to go and who to see about health problems/money problems etc. It is a different spin on my previous idea as I'd be encouraging people to ask for help and talk it out in order to boost confidence, which in turn will subtly move them away from the risks of stress, anxiety and depression.

As I am STILL not 100% sure on my solid focus, I'm currently juggling these ideas around in order to see where I can take this. Survey 3 has been completed and I am awaiting my results.

Confusion Sets In

I have now struck a brick wall and unsure as to what my next steps for my project will be.
So far I have understood depression, the symptoms and signs around it and what can help this situation. My focus is now at the three or four years you will spend at University during student life.
I want to produce an encouragement/awareness campaign in order to spark interest and deliver information to all students and make them aware that it is common and they need to speak to someone as soon as they notice the symptoms.

During tutorials we have been asked to produce various experiments and visuals regarding our project which I am finding very difficult to come up with. The only way round this that I can think of at the moment are visualising my survey results.
Balancing my workload is proving difficult and I need to tackle this in order to maintain a strong project. I'm worrying too much about my end product and not enough about my current situation, so by Friday I need to present my final decision and tackle it head on as of next week.

I have started to visualise how depression and happiness feels to someone. I think I really need to define exactly what my message and problem is before I can think of a solution. I'm one step ahead of myself without the relevant information!

It looks like survey 3 might me on its way...