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#BeThe1To Design Kit Submission
Introduction.
Bethe1to is the National Suicide Prevention Line (now known as 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline)'s message for National Suicide Prevention Month. This program brings together talented designers from all over the country to create thought-provoking designs that raise awareness about suicide prevention and awareness. The purpose of this submission is to use the power of art and design to educate the public about the signs of suicide and how to get help for themselves or their loved ones.
Challenge.
I discovered this program the first week of Suicide Awareness Month 2022 while curating a different Suicide Awareness series. I wanted to complete the designs with a quick turn around so I'd have time to request approval and submit the series to #BeThe1To's team. It wouldn't be efficient to devote too much time to this knowing I had other projects and deadlines to meet. Mental Health Awareness in general is an area that I have always been passionate about so I decided to put it off until the weekend as a personal project for the company.
Research and Exploration.
We'd be shown on their "Join Us" page along with all the other healthcare companies and universities who have also submitted graphics kits. They will also link your submission directly to your company's main website. (yay for free traffic!) As a healthcare company, I think it'd be awesome to see our company on their page in support of their message.
Their message can be found here: The 5 Steps
The page with the submitted graphics kits can be found here: Join Us (The University of Alabama's submission is my personal favorite. Take a look!)
The "Aha" Moment.
Given the time constraints, I figured it would be smart to keep the provided copy from the BeThe1To team. So how would I stand out in a flood of designs that say the same exact thing?
A little history about me: Poetry and play writing were one of the first mediums I'd use to express my art. In my poems and some of my plays, I love to use double entendres. I love when viewing something for the first time, you get one meaning, and then when you revisit it having seen the piece in its entirety, you get another. Personally, I eat it up every single time! Have you ever watched A Streetcar Named Desire and paid close attention to the lighting on Blanche? I had a conversation with my theatre director about this and the meaning behind Blanche's role beyond her just being seen a "crazy." She's not crazy, she's an aging women in a time where a woman *was* her beauty.
This sparked the idea to use color to create a different meaning within the same phrase. If you can't catch onto it within the pictures themselves, I've written them out in the results section.
Results.
This was my proposed 5-Step Custom Graphics Kit submission to the Bethe1To team. I decided to do a play on words in this series. Each image is BeThe1To’s 5-Step mission statement, along with their proposed copy explaining each step. I decided to highlight specific words within each explanation to create a new #BeThe1To sentence for each step. Yay for double-meanings! Bethe1To does a great job simplifying it down into 5 actionable steps everyone can take to help prevent suicide.
This proposed submission was never approved or denied, so I didn't submit it to the BeThe1To team to be featured. My colleagues were in support of me when I showed them the designs to get their feedback. I decided to post this on LinkedIn to share with my personal community. Click the link to view the comments. (:
Not only should you #BeThe1To Ask, but you should also #BeThe1To ask them directly.
Not only should you #BeThe1To Be There, but you should also #BeThe1To listen to their reasons with compassion and empathy.
Not only should you #BeThe1To Keep Them Safe, but you should also #BeThe1To separate them from anything they could use to hurt themselves.
Not only should you #BeThe1To Help Them Connect, but you should also #BeThe1To help your friend reach out for help.
Not only should you #BeThe1To Follow Up, but you should also #BeThe1To check in on a regular basis and ✨make a difference.✨