Graduation Things Pt. 2, Week 11: Interview

And so I've been interviewing the 2 candidates for the external brief project, and I would say the interview went really well, both of them were very informative and helped me a lot to get an idea for the poster.

Alya Emily

Alya and Emily were my secondary school friends, which is how I know them. And not long ago, Alya mentioned her mental health status on her social media. She wanted to raise awareness on MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), which is her diagnostic on her mental health. She explained all sorts of information on mental health especially depression, which to me is very brave of her to share and teach the people around her about it. Emily on the order hand has been by her side since their secondary school days, which makes them real close, and Emily was one of the first people to know about her diagnosis (the other was Alya's ex-boyfriend), which drew them even closer.

These are the questions I asked:

Questions for Alya:

1. Could you introduce yourself

2. How long have you been in therapy?

3. What made you seek help?

4. How did your parents react to your illness?

5. How did your friends react to your illness?

6. Have you attempted anything to end your life?

7. What stopped you from making it happen?

8. You’ve mentioned self-harm and suicide attempts in some of your videos and you pointed it out very clearly, and it seems that you have an understanding of these 2 topics, is it because you relate to them?

9. Have you experienced any urges, especially in dangerous public places like high places, train tracks, like one step further and all is done for?

10. What do you usually tell yourself to do when you feel down?

11. Do you think of anyone when you have felt suicidal?

12. Does going for therapy take a toll on you financially?

13. How do you sustain your psychiatric sessions?

14. What do you about your illness and how does it affects you as a person?

15. What’s your opinion on comforting somebody that is facing a hard time?

Questions for Emily:

1. Could you introduce yourself?

2. How long have you been friends with Afra?

3. At the beginning of your friendship do you notice her mental illness?

4. How did you come across mental illness?

5. Did she share her illness with you when she got her diagnosis?

6. What was your reaction to the news?

7. Were you ever afraid for her safety?

8. In unprotected dangerous areas, like high buildings, bridges, train tracks, do you have the need to protect her from going near those places?

9. How do you support her emotionally and physically?

10. What do you say when you comfort a friend in need to end their life at the moment?

11. Having a friend with such an illness, does it give you a different perspective of suicide?

12. What is the advice you would give to someone comforting a friend going through a hard

After interviewing them, something that they pointed out that really stood out was during the question on how would they support a friend in their lowest is to tell them to move. Like, leave the place that they are in at the moment, cause they think of it as if you are in a dark and negative place, and to feel better is to remove yourself from there, in a way it's like a distraction. The answer that they gave, gives me another new idea for my poster, which is to make the poster interactive.

Lenticular Effect

It came to mind that I wanted the viewers to interact with the poster by moving from one point to another, that way it's like telling them when in times of doubt, try looking for a different perspective. And so I thought of the lenticular effect that I see mostly in cards.

But knowing that it can be expensive and time is almost up, I thought of another way to make it lenticular.

Even though it's not as flat as the type I showed before, but I think only that it's big and bulky, only it will attract the people that are in the area.