joshuascott888@outlook.com.au
joshuascott888@outlook.com.au
joshuascott888@outlook.com.au
PRODUCT DESIGN
ART DIRECTION
ILLUSTRATION
BRANDING
PRODUCT DESIGN
ART DIRECTION
ILLUSTRATION
BRANDING
PRODUCT DESIGN
ART DIRECTION
ILLUSTRATION
BRANDING
PRODUCT DESIGN
ART DIRECTION
ILLUSTRATION
BRANDING
Reducing stigma in the mental health space.
Reducing stigma in the mental health space.
Reducing stigma in the mental health space.
Reducing stigma in the mental health space.
Centre Self Collective is a Melbourne-based startup founded by therapists and entrepreneurs Tamera Broughton and Amy Howell. They are a hub of mental health support, offering a range of services, including therapy sessions, workshops, resources, and wellness kits to help people with their wellbeing.
Centre Self Collective is a Melbourne-based startup founded by therapists and entrepreneurs Tamera Broughton and Amy Howell. They are a hub of mental health support, offering a range of services, including therapy sessions, workshops, resources, and wellness kits to help people with their wellbeing.
Centre Self Collective is a Melbourne-based startup founded by therapists and entrepreneurs Tamera Broughton and Amy Howell. They are a hub of mental health support, offering a range of services, including therapy sessions, workshops, resources, and wellness kits to help people with their wellbeing.
Centre Self Collective is a Melbourne-based startup founded by therapists and entrepreneurs Tamera Broughton and Amy Howell. They are a hub of mental health support, offering a range of services, including therapy sessions, workshops, resources, and wellness kits to help people with their wellbeing.
My involvement in this project.
I contributed to the product and visual design of Centre Self Collective in three key areas:
Research and brainstorming: Collaborating closely with the team, I gained an understanding of their business objectives, researched their target audience, analyzed competitors, and helped develop a market strategy.
Branding and visual identity: I conceived and crafted Centre Self Collective's logo and brand identity, which served as the foundation for their visual identity. Additionally, I created a suite of illustrations that were integrated into the brands visual identity.
Design: I designed the website for Centre Self Collective. This included creating a design system and style guide that informed the website's design and development.
The goals of Centre Self Collective.
The primary goal of Centre Self Collective is to make mental health services accessible to the local community. Their aim is to ensure everyone in the community has access to high-quality mental health services, regardless of their financial situation.
Additionally, the business highlighted wanting to reach a wide audience, with a focus particularly on young people who may not know about or be able to afford support.
The business goals and strategy for Centre Self Collective.
To do this, they aimed to leverage technology in helping their startup grow.
Their goal was to build a strong online presence encompassing a podcast, digital resources and online subscription service, which would be used to further promote their brand.
The problem of seeking support.
Based on client research, Centre Self Collective highlighted that one of the biggest issues people face when seeking support for their mental health was related to their anxiety.
This is due to a fear of being judged and a lack of clear and concise information available. Additionally, navigating through the multitude of companies in the same or related industries can be daunting.
This is where Centre Self Collective aimed to differentiate themselves from their competitors: by offering clear guidance on a user-friendly platform that felt friendly and inclusive.
An excerpt from Beyond Blue’s Information Paper: "People with depression and anxiety, and their family and friends, experience significant levels of stigma and discrimination.
The stigma associated with depression and anxiety is complex – the level, type and experience of stigma and discrimination may be influenced by factors such as the condition itself, the age and gender of the person, culture, and the beliefs and language used to describe and explain mental health conditions. People with depression and anxiety report that the stigma and discrimination they experience may be worse than their mental health condition(s)."
Understanding our target audience.
Overall, the target audience for Centre Self Collective include young people, couples and individuals who have experienced trauma.
According to recent statistics, mental health is a significant issue in Melbourne, Australia. In 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that almost half of all Australians (45.5%) experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life, and one in five (20%) experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months. Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental health conditions reported.
A snapshot of those living and working in Melbourne.
Photography by Kimberly Lai (Flickr).
Young people aged between 18-34 are one of the primary audiences for Centre Self Collective. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 1 in 4 young people in Australia experienced mental health challenges in the previous year. Furthermore, according to Relationships Australia Victoria, relationship distress is one of the most significant causes of psychological distress in Australia, with approximately one-third of people seeking counselling for relationship problems.
Doing a competitive analysis.
I compartmentalised my competitive analysis to small and large organisations based in Melbourne.
Large organisations: Some of the most well-known mental health organisations in Melbourne include Beyond Blue and Headspace. Beyond Blue are the most well-known mental health service in all of Australia, offering a wide range of services to people of all ages.
Headspace offer free or low-cost mental health services to young people aged 12-25. For both of these, there appeared to be a gap where low-cost solutions weren’t offered to young people over the age of 25.Small organisations: When analysing the trends of smaller mental health services in Melbourne, I looked at a much wider assortment, taking note of each brands design, tone of voice and online presence. I was surprised to find no service offered a professional but personal approach. The really small companies had clunky websites prone with errors, while the more professional sites seemed to follow the less personalised model of the larger organisations. Furthermore, I couldn’t find any organisations as small in scale as Centre Self Collective, which despite seeming like a disadvantage may actually be beneficial in differentiating the brand as one you can actually get to know and trust.
The art direction process.
To compete with larger organisations, we decided that Centre Self Collective would focus on establishing a personalised online presence with a user-friendly and approachable website built around trust. This would also work well when competing with smaller organisations, as there also didn’t seem to be any in the space successful in this approach.
To do this, the team could focus on content marketing, specifically aimed at the youth of Melbourne. Content marketing ideas include: bite-size video content, a long-form podcast, social media posts, a blog or online articles.
Notes from the art direction meeting.
Discussing the art direction: During one of our many brainstorming sessions, we delved into the art direction and visual strategy. Our focus was on creating an down-to-earth and approachable brand, incorporating soft and warm tones like peaches and creams. To make the brand more approachable, we decided to use illustrations, which would be combined with photography to strike a balance between professionalism and relatability. Inspired by the successful use of illustrations by Headspace and Beyond Blue, we aimed to create a soft and friendly visual atmosphere with wide appeal.
The illustration process.
During the visual identity presentations, bespoke illustration was discussed to differentiate Centre Self Collective from their competition, and further establish the brand as friendly and approachable. I wanted to incorporate photographic elements into the illustration, with the option of reversing this dynamic (including photographs with illustrated components) to give the option for both aesthetics to be integrated seamlessly.
I also wanted the illustrations to go beyond aesthetics to convey some-what complex concepts in a playful way. I illustrated a few concepts which I presented to the team to get feedback and expand my ideas.
For the illustrations the team had many concepts they wanted to explore, including self-care, filling your cup, community and diversity.
For the final illustrations, I recreated my coloured sketches as vectors to allow not only myself, but future designers the ease of scalability when working with Centre Self Collective’s brand. Along the way, I tested the illustrations with high-fidelity mockups to ensure a consistent visual identity was being upheld on all aspects of the design.
The product design process.
I used Figma as my design tool to build the final screens. First, I reviewed the wireframes with the team to identify any areas still needing improvement. Then I created high-fidelity mockups with the proper typography, colours and components which I built into a design system.
I made sure the final designs were optimised for all screen sizes, including desktop, tablet and mobile. After that, I shared the designs with our developer as we worked together on the next phase.
What were the constraints?
Due to the tight budget and looming launch-date, our developer felt most comfortable using a CMS to build the site. This did require some design compromises.
Most importantly, the user journey and overarching visual identity were upheld but the final product did undergo some changes from the initial design.
Namely, some of the detailed decisions surrounding exact layout and the minutia of the design system were compromised due to time. This can be some-what difficult as a designer obsessed with pixel-perfection, but of course the most important thing is to see Centre Self Collective achieve their goals. This meant adhering to their initial launch date as the product can always be iterated and reworked when time and budget is more in our favour. I’m still happy with the end results and look forward to working with Centre Self Collective to iterate their product in future installations.
Branding and visual identity.
A visual identity moodboard to show an art direction for the brand.
Centre Self Collective's design system.
User journey and wireframes.
Next I had a virtual meeting with Tamera and Amy with the intention of better understanding the specifics of their business. To do this I used a whiteboard in Figjam and asked the team key questions. What services do Centre Self Collective offer? What do they want to emphasise? What other resources will the website contain? With this information, I worked on the user journey, the blueprint of the website, which addressed the users entire experience from beginning to end.
My first priority as the designer for Centre Self Collective began with the creation of their logo and brand identity. The first step was developing a moodboard that explored the visual identity of those in the mental health and wellbeing spaces. This exploration was all-encompassing, including traditional therapy clinics, as well as health offices, yoga studios and nutrition brands. I wanted to look at designs which appealed to young people, so conducted a lot of my research using Pinterest, Instagram and Dribbble.
After presenting my ideas to the team, Tamera and Amy expressed an interest in Centre Self Collective having a modern and chic identity, similar to that of a yoga studio. I then explored several concepts with hand-drawn sketches which I presented to the team.
From there I created wireframes, further expanding on this blueprint with visual elements, such as the header, buttons and navigation menu. I discussed this journey with the team, gathering feedback and ideas on how to make things as seamless as possible.
The final logo device in its outline, reversed and full format.
They were immediately drawn to the concept of ‘rocks of wellbeing’ as they felt it strongly conveyed their message while resonating with their intended audience.
Next I created the logo design in Illustrator, opting for a minimalist approach with clean lines. I then began expanding their visual identity by establishing a typographic system and colour palette based on calm, earthy tones of warm peaches and creams. Lastly, to make sure we were on the right track, we showcased a mockup of this aesthetic to a selection of Centre Self Collective’s current clients, receiving overall positive feedback.
What I would do differently.
When reflecting on this project, there are several things I would now do differently. First, I would push for a longer time-frame. Despite feeling like our launch-date was tight, I didn’t realise how tight it was until we were deep into the project. With a longer timeframe, I would also push for more formalised user testing beyond our initial feedback-gathering session.
Lastly, I would aim to better understand our development constraints earlier into the process, and set clearer milestones with our developer so we could work more effectively in the delivery of the final products design.
joshuascott888@outlook.com.au
This website was designed and
developed by Clay Pixels.
Let's work
together.
MY INVOLVEMENT
My involvement in Centre Self Collective.
MY INVOLVEMENT
My involvement in Centre Self Collective.
I contributed to the product and visual design of Centre Self Collective in three key areas:
Research and brainstorming: Collaborating closely with the team, I gained an understanding of their business objectives, researched their target audience, analyzed competitors, and helped develop a market strategy.
Branding and visual identity: I conceived and crafted Centre Self Collective's logo and brand identity, which served as the foundation for their visual identity. Additionally, I created a suite of illustrations that were integrated into the brands visual identity.
Design: I designed the website for Centre Self Collective. This included creating a design system and style guide that informed the website's design and development.
TAREGET AUDIENCE
Understanding our target audience.
The primary goal of Centre Self Collective is to make mental health services accessible to the local community. Their aim is to ensure everyone in the community has access to high-quality mental health services, regardless of their financial situation.
Additionally, the business highlighted wanting to reach a wide audience, with a focus particularly on young people who may not know about or be able to afford support.
To do this, they aimed to leverage technology in helping their startup grow.
Their goal was to build a strong online presence encompassing a podcast, digital resources and online subscription service, which would be used to further promote their brand.
The business goals and strategy for Centre Self Collective.
Overall, the target audience for Centre Self Collective include young people, couples and individuals who have experienced trauma.
According to recent statistics, mental health is a significant issue in Melbourne, Australia. In 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that almost half of all Australians (45.5%) experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life, and one in five (20%) experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months. Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental health conditions reported.
Young people aged between 18-34 are one of the primary audiences for Centre Self Collective. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 1 in 4 young people in Australia experienced mental health challenges in the previous year. Furthermore, according to Relationships Australia Victoria, relationship distress is one of the most significant causes of psychological distress in Australia, with approximately one-third of people seeking counselling for relationship problems.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Problems when seeking support.
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS
The goals of Centre Self Collective.
MY INVOLVEMENT
My involvement in Centre Self Collective.
I compartmentalised my competitive analysis to small and large organisations based in Melbourne.
Large organisations: Some of the most well-known mental health organisations in Melbourne include Beyond Blue and Headspace. Beyond Blue are the most well-known mental health service in all of Australia, offering a wide range of services to people of all ages.
Headspace offer free or low-cost mental health services to young people aged 12-25. For both of these, there appeared to be a gap where low-cost solutions weren’t offered to young people over the age of 25.
Small organisations: When analysing the trends of smaller mental health services in Melbourne, I looked at a much wider assortment, taking note of each brands design, tone of voice and online presence. I was surprised to find no service offered a professional but personal approach. The really small companies had clunky websites prone with errors, while the more professional sites seemed to follow the less personalised model of the larger organisations. Furthermore, I couldn’t find any organisations as small in scale as Centre Self Collective, which despite seeming like a disadvantage may actually be beneficial in differentiating the brand as one you can actually get to know and trust.
I contributed to the product and visual design of Centre Self Collective in three key areas:
Research and brainstorming: Collaborating closely with the team, I gained an understanding of their business objectives, researched their target audience, analyzed competitors, and helped develop a market strategy.
Branding and visual identity: I conceived and crafted Centre Self Collective's logo and brand identity, which served as the foundation for their visual identity. Additionally, I created a suite of illustrations that were integrated into the brands visual identity.
Design: I designed the website for Centre Self Collective. This included creating a design system and style guide that informed the website's design and development.
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS
The goals of Centre Self Collective.
ART DIRECTION
The art direction process.
Notes from the art direction meeting.
Brainstorming the overall brand: To compete with larger organisations, we decided that Centre Self Collective would focus on establishing a personalised online presence with a user-friendly and approachable website built around trust. This would also work well when competing with smaller organisations, as there also didn’t seem to be any in the space successful in this approach.
To do this, the team could focus on content marketing, specifically aimed at the youth of Melbourne. Content marketing ideas include: bite-size video content, a long-form podcast, social media posts, a blog or online articles.
Discussing the art direction: During one of our many brainstorming sessions, we delved into the art direction and visual strategy. Our focus was on creating an down-to-earth and approachable brand, incorporating soft and warm tones like peaches and creams. To make the brand more approachable, we decided to use illustrations, which would be combined with photography to strike a balance between professionalism and relatability. Inspired by the successful use of illustrations by Headspace and Beyond Blue, we aimed to create a soft and friendly visual atmosphere with wide appeal.
The primary goal of Centre Self Collective is to make mental health services accessible to the local community. Their aim is to ensure everyone in the community has access to high-quality mental health services, regardless of their financial situation.
Additionally, the business highlighted wanting to reach a wide audience, with a focus particularly on young people who may not know about or be able to afford support.
To do this, they aimed to leverage technology in helping their startup grow.
Their goal was to build a strong online presence encompassing a podcast, digital resources and online subscription service, which would be used to further promote their brand.
The primary goal of Centre Self Collective is to make mental health services accessible to the local community. Their aim is to ensure everyone in the community has access to high-quality mental health services, regardless of their financial situation.
Additionally, the business highlighted wanting to reach a wide audience, with a focus particularly on young people who may not know about or be able to afford support.
To do this, they aimed to leverage technology in helping their startup grow.
Their goal was to build a strong online presence encompassing a podcast, digital resources and online subscription service, which would be used to further promote their brand.
The business goals and strategy for Centre Self Collective.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Problems when seeking support.
Based on client research, Centre Self Collective highlighted that one of the biggest issues people face when seeking support for their mental health was related to their anxiety.
This is due to a fear of being judged and a lack of clear and concise information available. Additionally, navigating through the multitude of companies in the same or related industries can be daunting.
This is where Centre Self Collective aimed to differentiate themselves from their competitors: by offering clear guidance on a user-friendly platform that felt friendly and inclusive.
An excerpt from Beyond Blue’s Information Paper: "People with depression and anxiety, and their family and friends, experience significant levels of stigma and discrimination. The stigma associated with depression and anxiety is complex – the level, type and experience of stigma and discrimination may be influenced by factors such as the condition itself, the age and gender of the person, culture, and the beliefs and language used to describe and explain mental health conditions. People with depression and anxiety report that the stigma and discrimination they experience may be worse than their mental health condition(s)."
PROBLEM STATEMENT
USER JOURNEY
Problems when seeking support.
User journey and wireframes.
Based on client research, Centre Self Collective highlighted that one of the biggest issues people face when seeking support for their mental health was related to their anxiety.
This is due to a fear of being judged and a lack of clear and concise information available. Additionally, navigating through the multitude of companies in the same or related industries can be daunting.
This is where Centre Self Collective aimed to differentiate themselves from their competitors: by offering clear guidance on a user-friendly platform that felt friendly and inclusive.
An excerpt from Beyond Blue’s Information Paper: "People with depression and anxiety, and their family and friends, experience significant levels of stigma and discrimination. The stigma associated with depression and anxiety is complex – the level, type and experience of stigma and discrimination may be influenced by factors such as the condition itself, the age and gender of the person, culture, and the beliefs and language used to describe and explain mental health conditions. People with depression and anxiety report that the stigma and discrimination they experience may be worse than their mental health condition(s)."
Based on client research, Centre Self Collective highlighted that one of the biggest issues people face when seeking support for their mental health was related to their anxiety.
This is due to a fear of being judged and a lack of clear and concise information available. Additionally, navigating through the multitude of companies in the same or related industries can be daunting.
This is where Centre Self Collective aimed to differentiate themselves from their competitors: by offering clear guidance on a user-friendly platform that felt friendly and inclusive.
An excerpt from Beyond Blue’s Information Paper: "People with depression and anxiety, and their family and friends, experience significant levels of stigma and discrimination. The stigma associated with depression and anxiety is complex – the level, type and experience of stigma and discrimination may be influenced by factors such as the condition itself, the age and gender of the person, culture, and the beliefs and language used to describe and explain mental health conditions. People with depression and anxiety report that the stigma and discrimination they experience may be worse than their mental health condition(s)."
During the visual identity presentations, bespoke illustration was discussed to differentiate Centre Self Collective from their competition, and further establish the brand as friendly and approachable. I wanted to incorporate photographic elements into the illustration, with the option of reversing this dynamic (including photographs with illustrated components) to give the option for both aesthetics to be integrated seamlessly.
I also wanted the illustrations to go beyond aesthetics to convey some-what complex concepts in a playful way. I illustrated a few concepts which I presented to the team to get feedback and expand my ideas.
For the illustrations the team had many concepts they wanted to explore, including self-care, filling your cup, community and diversity.
For the final illustrations, I recreated my coloured sketches as vectors to allow not only myself, but future designers the ease of scalability when working with Centre Self Collective’s brand. Along the way, I tested the illustrations with high-fidelity mockups to ensure a consistent visual identity was being upheld on all aspects of the design.
ILLUSTRATION
The illustration process.
Next I had a virtual meeting with Tamera and Amy with the intention of better understanding the specifics of their business. To do this I used a whiteboard in Figjam and asked the team key questions. What services do Centre Self Collective offer? What do they want to emphasise? What other resources will the website contain? With this information, I worked on the user journey, the blueprint of the website, which addressed the users entire experience from beginning to end.
From there I created wireframes, further expanding on this blueprint with visual elements, such as the header, buttons and navigation menu. I discussed this journey with the team, gathering feedback and ideas on how to make things as seamless as possible.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Understanding our target audience.
Overall, the target audience for Centre Self Collective include young people, couples and individuals who have experienced trauma.
According to recent statistics, mental health is a significant issue in Melbourne, Australia. In 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that almost half of all Australians (45.5%) experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life, and one in five (20%) experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months. Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental health conditions reported.
Young people aged between 18-34 are one of the primary audiences for Centre Self Collective. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 1 in 4 young people in Australia experienced mental health challenges in the previous year. Furthermore, according to Relationships Australia Victoria, relationship distress is one of the most significant causes of psychological distress in Australia, with approximately one-third of people seeking counselling for relationship problems.
A snapshot of those living and working in Melbourne.
Photography by Kimberly Lai (Flickr).
BRANDING
Branding and visual identity.
My first priority as the designer for Centre Self Collective began with the creation of their logo and brand identity. The first step was developing a moodboard that explored the visual identity of those in the mental health and wellbeing spaces. This exploration was all-encompassing, including traditional therapy clinics, as well as health offices, yoga studios and nutrition brands. I wanted to look at designs which appealed to young people, so conducted a lot of my research using Pinterest, Instagram and Dribbble.
After presenting my ideas to the team, Tamera and Amy expressed an interest in Centre Self Collective having a modern and chic identity, similar to that of a yoga studio. I then explored several concepts with hand-drawn sketches which I presented to the team.
They were immediately drawn to the concept of ‘rocks of wellbeing’ as they felt it strongly conveyed their message while resonating with their intended audience.
Next I created the logo design in Illustrator, opting for a minimalist approach with clean lines. I then began expanding their visual identity by establishing a typographic system and colour palette based on calm, earthy tones of warm peaches and creams. Lastly, to make sure we were on the right track, we showcased a mockup of this aesthetic to a selection of Centre Self Collective’s current clients, receiving overall positive feedback.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Doing a competitive analysis.
Doing a competitive analysis.
I compartmentalised my competitive analysis to small and large organisations based in Melbourne.
Large organisations: Some of the most well-known mental health organisations in Melbourne include Beyond Blue and Headspace. Beyond Blue are the most well-known mental health service in all of Australia, offering a wide range of services to people of all ages.
Headspace offer free or low-cost mental health services to young people aged 12-25. For both of these, there appeared to be a gap where low-cost solutions weren’t offered to young people over the age of 25.
Small organisations: When analysing the trends of smaller mental health services in Melbourne, I looked at a much wider assortment, taking note of each brands design, tone of voice and online presence. I was surprised to find no service offered a professional but personal approach. The really small companies had clunky websites prone with errors, while the more professional sites seemed to follow the less personalised model of the larger organisations. Furthermore, I couldn’t find any organisations as small in scale as Centre Self Collective, which despite seeming like a disadvantage may actually be beneficial in differentiating the brand as one you can actually get to know and trust.
ART DIRECTION
The art direction process.
ART DIRECTION
The art direction process.
Notes from the art direction meeting.
Brainstorming the overall brand: To compete with larger organisations, we decided that Centre Self Collective would focus on establishing a personalised online presence with a user-friendly and approachable website built around trust. This would also work well when competing with smaller organisations, as there also didn’t seem to be any in the space successful in this approach.
To do this, the team could focus on content marketing, specifically aimed at the youth of Melbourne. Content marketing ideas include: bite-size video content, a long-form podcast, social media posts, a blog or online articles.
Discussing the art direction: During one of our many brainstorming sessions, we delved into the art direction and visual strategy. Our focus was on creating an down-to-earth and approachable brand, incorporating soft and warm tones like peaches and creams. To make the brand more approachable, we decided to use illustrations, which would be combined with photography to strike a balance between professionalism and relatability. Inspired by the successful use of illustrations by Headspace and Beyond Blue, we aimed to create a soft and friendly visual atmosphere with wide appeal.
During the visual identity presentations, bespoke illustration was discussed to differentiate Centre Self Collective from their competition, and further establish the brand as friendly and approachable. I wanted to incorporate photographic elements into the illustration, with the option of reversing this dynamic (including photographs with illustrated components) to give the option for both aesthetics to be integrated seamlessly.
I also wanted the illustrations to go beyond aesthetics to convey some-what complex concepts in a playful way. I illustrated a few concepts which I presented to the team to get feedback and expand my ideas.
For the illustrations the team had many concepts they wanted to explore, including self-care, filling your cup, community and diversity.
For the final illustrations, I recreated my coloured sketches as vectors to allow not only myself, but future designers the ease of scalability when working with Centre Self Collective’s brand. Along the way, I tested the illustrations with high-fidelity mockups to ensure a consistent visual identity was being upheld on all aspects of the design.
ILLUSTRATION
The illustration process.
During the visual identity presentations, bespoke illustration was discussed to differentiate Centre Self Collective from their competition, and further establish the brand as friendly and approachable. I wanted to incorporate photographic elements into the illustration, with the option of reversing this dynamic (including photographs with illustrated components) to give the option for both aesthetics to be integrated seamlessly.
I also wanted the illustrations to go beyond aesthetics to convey some-what complex concepts in a playful way. I illustrated a few concepts which I presented to the team to get feedback and expand my ideas.
Brainstorming the overall brand: To compete with larger organisations, we decided that Centre Self Collective would focus on establishing a personalised online presence with a user-friendly and approachable website built around trust. This would also work well when competing with smaller organisations, as there also didn’t seem to be any in the space successful in this approach.
To do this, the team could focus on content marketing, specifically aimed at the youth of Melbourne. Content marketing ideas include: bite-size video content, a long-form podcast, social media posts, a blog or online articles.
For the illustrations the team had many concepts they wanted to explore, including self-care, filling your cup, community and diversity.
For the final illustrations, I recreated my coloured sketches as vectors to allow not only myself, but future designers the ease of scalability when working with Centre Self Collective’s brand. Along the way, I tested the illustrations with high-fidelity mockups to ensure a consistent visual identity was being upheld on all aspects of the design.
Discussing the art direction: During one of our many brainstorming sessions, we delved into the art direction and visual strategy. Our focus was on creating an down-to-earth and approachable brand, incorporating soft and warm tones like peaches and creams. To make the brand more approachable, we decided to use illustrations, which would be combined with photography to strike a balance between professionalism and relatability. Inspired by the successful use of illustrations by Headspace and Beyond Blue, we aimed to create a soft and friendly visual atmosphere with wide appeal.
Next I had a virtual meeting with Tamera and Amy with the intention of better understanding the specifics of their business. To do this I used a whiteboard in Figjam and asked the team key questions. What services do Centre Self Collective offer? What do they want to emphasise? What other resources will the website contain? With this information, I worked on the user journey, the blueprint of the website, which addressed the users entire experience from beginning to end.
From there I created wireframes, further expanding on this blueprint with visual elements, such as the header, buttons and navigation menu. I discussed this journey with the team, gathering feedback and ideas on how to make things as seamless as possible.
BRANDING
Branding and visual identity.
A visual identity moodboard to show an art direction for the brand.
My first priority as the designer for Centre Self Collective began with the creation of their logo and brand identity. The first step was developing a moodboard that explored the visual identity of those in the mental health and wellbeing spaces. This exploration was all-encompassing, including traditional therapy clinics, as well as health offices, yoga studios and nutrition brands. I wanted to look at designs which appealed to young people, so conducted a lot of my research using Pinterest, Instagram and Dribbble.
After presenting my ideas to the team, Tamera and Amy expressed an interest in Centre Self Collective having a modern and chic identity, similar to that of a yoga studio. I then explored several concepts with hand-drawn sketches which I presented to the team.
They were immediately drawn to the concept of ‘rocks of wellbeing’ as they felt it strongly conveyed their message while resonating with their intended audience.
Next I created the logo design in Illustrator, opting for a minimalist approach with clean lines. I then began expanding their visual identity by establishing a typographic system and colour palette based on calm, earthy tones of warm peaches and creams. Lastly, to make sure we were on the right track, we showcased a mockup of this aesthetic to a selection of Centre Self Collective’s current clients, receiving overall positive feedback.
The final logo device in its outline, reversed and full format.
Centre Self Collective's design system.
USER JOURNEY
User journey and wireframes.
USER JOURNEY
User journey and wireframes.
Close-ups of the user journey for Centre Self Collective's website.
Next I had a virtual meeting with Tamera and Amy with the intention of better understanding the specifics of their business. To do this I used a whiteboard in Figjam and asked the team key questions. What services do Centre Self Collective offer? What do they want to emphasise? What other resources will the website contain? With this information, I worked on the user journey, the blueprint of the website, which addressed the users entire experience from beginning to end.
From there I created wireframes, further expanding on this blueprint with visual elements, such as the header, buttons and navigation menu. I discussed this journey with the team, gathering feedback and ideas on how to make things as seamless as possible.
A macro view of the user journey for Centre Self Collective's website.
PRODUCT DESIGN
The product design process.
PRODUCT DESIGN
The product design process.
I used Figma as my design tool to build the final screens. First, I reviewed the wireframes with the team to identify any areas still needing improvement. Then I created high-fidelity mockups with the proper typography, colours and components which I built into a design system.
I made sure the final designs were optimised for all screen sizes, including desktop, tablet and mobile. After that, I shared the designs with our developer as we worked together on the next phase.
What were the constraints?
Due to the tight budget and looming launch-date, our developer felt most comfortable using a CMS to build the site. This did require some design compromises.
Most importantly, the user journey and overarching visual identity were upheld but the final product did undergo some changes from the initial design.
Namely, some of the detailed decisions surrounding exact layout and the minutia of the design system were compromised due to time. This can be some-what difficult as a designer obsessed with pixel-perfection, but of course the most important thing is to see Centre Self Collective achieve their goals. This meant adhering to their initial launch date as the product can always be iterated and reworked when time and budget is more in our favour. I’m still happy with the end results and look forward to working with Centre Self Collective to iterate their product in future installations.
REFLECTIONS
Reflecting on what I would do differently.
REFLECTIONS
Reflecting on what I would do differently.
When reflecting on this project, there are several things I would now do differently. First, I would push for a longer time-frame. Despite feeling like our launch-date was tight, I didn’t realise how tight it was until we were deep into the project. With a longer timeframe, I would also push for more formalised user testing beyond our initial feedback-gathering session.
Lastly, I would aim to better understand our development constraints earlier into the process, and set clearer milestones with our developer so we could work more effectively in the delivery of the final products design.