AIGA Mental Health Pride Poster
This poster was created for the AIGA Triad NC 2022 Poster Exhibition. This year's theme was "making the world not so sad" with the goals of brightening the viewer’s day and bringing awareness to mental health education/ practice. I focused on mental health in the LGBTQ+ community. While belonging to this community can be a source of strength, it also brings unique challenges. For those who identify as LGBTQ+, it’s important to recognize how your experience of sexual orientation and gender identity relates to your mental health. I wanted to create a piece that brought joy or “pride” to the journey of LGBTQ+ mental health education and practice, but still, have a design style that was fun and could easily be hung on a wall as decoration.
Iteration
I first started by breaking down the goals of the poster and created association lists from each word. From there, I brainstormed what the main messages of the poster would be to help push the message of bringing awareness and joy around mental health. I then sketched out multiple layouts incorporating my message until I landed on my final design.
After sketching out the pride flag, I mocked up multiple renditions of the flag in illustrator. After closeting with others though, we found the less realistic and flatter version worked better form a readability standpoint. I added a light watercolor textured to the background to help add just a little texture to the final piece. The typeface kewl script was used for the piece (with in the flag and the rest of the page) due to its free-hand, flow feels which I felt mimicked the tone of the flag and watercolor background.