The Other Side
Anna Yamoto
The goal of On the Other Side is to create opportunities for people to learn about depression while challenging current misconceptions about mental illness. By teaching people what depression means to the individuals facing the illness, the project aims to create more awareness and understanding towards a widely misunderstood situation. The stigma that is carried due to misconceptions towards depression is one of the main factors that prevents people with it to seek help that would ultimately aid their own recovery. In this project, one is led through a first-person perspective of a depressive gradually becoming inflicted, all the while posing questions that juxtapose the mental dilemmas with physical injuries. “Would people care if it was brain cancer? Would they think I was crazy if I had lung failure?” These questions prod current views on whether there is a difference in how a person should be treated socially based on their type of ailment. This contrasting of situations will be applied as a advertising campaign of posters and takeaways that are connected to a website that provides information on depression and how to deal with it as an individual and as a person trying to help. illustrations provide an inviting guide into a difficult topic, and help better portray the situations quicker than through just text. The project hopes that it can create more awareness towards depression and also provide an easy source of knowledge for those seeking help, as well as breaking the ice and lessening the unease felt towards heavy topics of mental illness.