Visualising Mental Health Exhibition 2020

So 2020 has been a strange year, let’s be honest. 

For the VMH project, the strangeness manifested as having to deliver a communication design topic (that relies on heavy collaboration and interaction), mostly via Zoom and digital chat. That was a tiring and difficult process for everyone, staff and students alike. 

Despite this, the student groups did amazing jobs bringing their ideas to life and I am very happy to announce that the Visualising Mental Health Exhibition is now up and running!

Running at the Kerry Packer Gallery, North Terrace, Adelaide, from the 6th to the 28th October, the exhibition showcases all of the student groups’ efforts at bringing the 2020 mental health topics to life. A big thanks to Tegan, the Matchstudio team and the Hawke Centre peeps for their tireless efforts in getting the exhibition up this year in challenging circumstances.  

At the exhibition you’ll find each project represented in poster format with mixed text and visuals to help you get a good sense of the mechanics and aesthetics of their idea. Projects included apps, books, installations, clothing lines, food trucks, games, teaching materials and more!

Two big-screen TV’s play the ‘pitches’ that each student group made in relation to their project so you can hear from the students as they describe their projects. 

In keeping with social distancing requirements, we had a very low-key launch this year, involving Professor Sharon Lawn (one of three SA Mental Health Commissioners) and representatives of Wellbeing SA

A group of us (including me) deliberated on each of the projects and awarded two prizes on the night. I’ll talk about these in some future posts. 

Here is a quick lo-fi video of me walking through the exhibition space. 

I’ll also start loading all the projects up onto the website soon. 

Until then, if you are in the city, please consider dropping by the Kerry Packer Gallery and having a look. Your support of the project, simply by visiting the exhibition, helps us continue to do this work at the intersection of psychology and design.