Mental health poster series for download

In August 2010 I designed a series of posters on the subject of mental health. These caused a lot of discussion and controversy, here and further afield.

Since then I have been inundated with requests for prints – sorry if I didn’t get back to you. I have decided to offer these for download (just click on the poster).

I hope that these will benefit anyone who wants to use, print or post them.

If you would like to use them in a commercial capacity, please contact me to discuss options.

Mental Health poster series by Patrick Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

My view on gender identity has been challenged

In August 2010 I created a series of posters that tried to define 7 Mental Disorders. My aim was to start a dialogue in the digitally savvy community and hopefully raise awareness by spreading the posters. As a long term goal I wanted to involve a mental health charity. I shelved the project due to time constraints.

I have since decided to remove one poster from the series. Here’s why.

As part of this series I included Gender Indentity Disorder (GID). A number of people have expressed discomfort with the definition of GID as a disorder. Here are a few of the comments:

‘I would like to throw it out there that I don’t view my gender identity as a disorder. I am not ill nor do I need to be cured. There are likely others out there who have ‘mental disorders’ who feel the same way.’

‘Gender Identity disorder is actually really offensive to trans people. When was the last time you heard of a mental disorder being cured by plastic surgery? That’s because G.I.D is not really a disorder.’

‘I’m in line with some others here though, that “Gender Identity Disorder” is along the lines of how homosexuals are often interpreted as needing spiritual counseling to “reform”.’

I would like to apologise for the inclusion of GID in this poster series and to anyone that I may have offended.

My research was based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and I didn’t challenge any of the definitions before commiting them to design. Perhaps I should have.

After reflection and more research I now consider the definition of GID as a disorder, to be incorrect. I haven’t thought about this subject at great length before, so it has been interesting to challenge my own perceptions.

I have learned something valuable in this process. I hope that you will too.

Happy Mondays

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone. And thanks for reading, looking, listening and watching this year.

My card is a design for a Christmas tree, and an homage to one of my design heroes Jaime Hayón

Looking forward to an even more creative 2011 with you all. All the best!

Cotton drawing

I honestly can’t remember the last time I did any life drawing, but on Saturday I picked up my pencil and drew this. I’m quite happy with the way it came out.

And here’s what they were looking at…

Before the weekend I posted some images of people looking at this Jaguar plane Harrier jet which is suspended from the ceiling inside the Tate Britain.

There is also a Harrier jet Jaguar plane on the floor of the adjacent hall. Both machines are amazing to look at, but their positioning within the building and juxtaposition with the architecture, made the installation by Fiona Banner something quite special.

More

Looking up

I intended to take pictures of something at a gallery last weekend, but in the end, I found these shots of people looking at ‘it’ more interesting.

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Mental disorder posters

I was doing some research about mental health and I came across a list of mental disorders. I chose a few, starting with OCD, and set myself the challenge of defining each in a minimal style.

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A question for Minimalists

Mies van der Rohe, designer of the iconic Barcelona chair, is often quoted as using the phrase “Less is more” to describe his approach towards design.

Here’s a cheeky question in response.

Goodbye Easter. Hello Sun.

Friday is Radio Day

I want to post about more music – so I’ve decided that Friday is Radio Day! Each Friday I’ll flood your ears with audio goodness to drench your afternoon with sonic pleasure.

Rocking my transistor this week.

Marble House – The Knife. Not exactly a new song, but I’m loving this version recorded live in Sweden.

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No Diggity – The Klaxons. I always loved this track and now it’s been covered in a Nu version (sorry).

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Venice – Beirut

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Spammy Christmas

I wanted to save on paper (and money) by sending out a digital Christmas card this year, but then I started to think that there must be an environmental cost somewhere.

So I did some research in to the carbon footprint of emails. Or more precisely, spam.

Hopefully I did the greener thing, but it’s so complicated that there’s no way to be sure. Ordering T-Shirts from the U.S. probably didn’t help either.

Happy Christmas everyone.