Talking Mental Health

Created in collaboration with the World Health Organization for the FIFA world cup, this project revolved around the use of animated visual metaphors to get across the reality of living with mental health conditions. A runner struggling with extreme anxiety finds herself physically constricted by vines to the point of finding it difficult to breath. A boxer with ADHD describes his mind flickering restlessly between different worries and memories. A paralympian describes the feeling of a troubling energy trapped inside him as he deals with depression.

Below: Initial concept development, sketched styleframes in collaboration with athletes in creating visual metaphors for mental health conditions.

We wanted the animation to be true to the stories of the athletes we were working with, so discussing visual metaphors for the mental health conditions that our athletes have battled was key in developing the visual style.

We developed a pencil-sketch animation style that we felt gave the stories a sense of grounded authenticity, using a combination of photoshop sketch loops, and cel animation, to almost feel like these were thoughts spilling out of someone’s diary.

The piece involved a lot of research and discussions with a range of athletes before we landed on our four main choices. We felt that the video ended up as being a powerful and intimate piece, and hopefully has helped illuminate the reality of mental health struggles