Beneath the Mask

Project: Social Campaign Design

For this assignment, the goal was to design a campaign addressing a social issue, in multiple parts. Selecting the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba as a “client”, the task was then to design an awareness campaign with the focus on depression.

People suffering from depression do not always look depressed. In this campaign the concept was to show happy, social situations with a hint of something else going on. In each scenario, one person is suffering from depression, hiding it behind a “mask”, a literal representation of the metaphor of concealing one’s true feelings.

The challenge was to present the mask subtly, but no so much so that it escaped notice altogether. Using a combination of colour balance and saturation, the mask becomes a vibrant splash of colour, covering up the underlying bleak and washed out subject.