OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Minor Brief #2 - Research

Before the idea generation process, research was made into various aspects associated with stress and mental health. It was important to understand these aspects to ensure that responses made are appropriate and helpful to the people using the colouring book.



Depression & Stress

As Papyrus work to prevent stress and self-harm, research was made into the main causes of suicide.

Untreated depression is the number one cause for suicide; over 90% of people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death. As depression can be caused by a huge variety of factors, it is hard to identify a specific way to help people that are suffering. Ultimately, recovery is in the hands of the depressed person; however, they can be helped through being compassionate and listening to their problems.

As my task is to create an illustration that reduces the effects of stress, and therefore depression, the main aspect that I needed to consider was what visually makes something calming or relaxing? One
project that caught my attention is one that goes under the name of Project Soothe. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have been trying to uncover the effect of images on mental health, to improve our well-being. People have been taking in the project and have been rating different photos to find out whether certain scenes create a universal sense of calm.

Dr Stella Chan, co-founder of the project, explains that:

“A soothing image can help people on two levels – a person may have an image which is linked to a memory, so the memory associated with the images helps them feel comforted. But on another level there may be some universal elements in images which people are more likely to find reassuring.”

Whilst the process of determining an image as being relaxing or not is very subjective, common themes around natural landscapes and animals have proved to be the most popular submissions to date. No specific theories have emerged from the project yet; however, a lot of submissions have been made and collected. After watching the video above, it is clear that many people find relaxation in visually remembering past times. Beaches, quiet environments and animals are also clearly considered to be relaxing.

As these are individual people's opinions on what they think is relaxing, the scientific reasoning behind why such images are actually calming needed to be considered. As nature was one clear theme identified, research was made into its relation to relaxation. Scientists have discovered that nature helps us to recover faster from a stressful event. After showing people stressful scenes on a video, scientists showed people either a video of nature or a video of city and buildings. Those who watched the video of nature, recovered faster from the stressful event. Intuitively, we know that nature is healing, therefore find images calming and relaxing in a sense. Further research into the science behind different sceneries helped to explain why we see various nature pictures relaxing:

Greenery 

Psychologist Mathew White, Professor as the University of Exeter’s European Center for Environment and Human Health in Truro, found that city-dwellers who live near green spaces feel less mental distress than those who do not. Additionally, in 2012 researchers at the Department of Communication Science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam found that seeing images of greenery showed positive mental effects. It showed that patients in waiting rooms at a Dutch hospital who were exposed to either real plants or posters of plants felt less stress than those who saw neither. This explains why some people find pictures of plants and green environments stress-relieving.

The Open Sea

“Water is life,” is more than a health-conscious slogan - it represents the vital nature of water to all living organisms. Aside from being a necessary part of a human’s physical diet, the sound and imagery of water is actually proven to be essential in the mental health of humans as well.

Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist and author, believes that we all encompass a 'blue mind.' He describes it as 'a mildly meditative state characterised by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment.' This state of mind is triggered by images of the sea. This would explain why many people consider the sea and beaches as being very relaxing.

Natural Fractals

Natural fractals are repeating patterns that occur in nature, carrying recurring defined shapes and lines. Natural fractals can be found around the world—trunks of trees to the petals of flowers, as well as the cyclical shape of ocean waves, and snowflakes.

According to Dr. Richard Taylor, PhD, director of the Materials Science Institute at the University of Oregon, the calming effect of fractals may have to do with how our brains have evolved overtime. 'The idea is that, through evolution, our visual system has developed to efficiently process the visual patterns of fractals that are prevalent in nature. This increased efficiency results in the observer becoming relaxed.'

Man-Made Fractals

Like natural fractals, man-made fractals are comprised of repeating patterns defined by specific shapes and lines. And like naturally occurring fractals, man-made fractals have a relaxing effect on the mind by complementing areas of our brain which enjoy seeing symmetry. Humans’ attraction to these types of patterns can be seen in common image stylings like mandalas, and popular designs like a Sierpinski Triangle.

When researching into these man-made fractals, I came across some interior design information which highlights that architectural symmetry is visually calming and psychologically soothing. Symmetry is known to make people feel easier and more comfortable; therefore, my illustrations could focus on a mirrored image.

Calming Colours

Whilst the illustration that I produce will be a purely black and white drawing, for the user to colour in, colour psychology is one aspect that should be considered before thinking about what the drawing is of. Whilst I can not predict the exact colours that the user will use to fill in the drawing, I can base my drawings on environments with calming colours (for example, if blue is a calming colour, the illustration could be focused on the sea or sky). To find out about the effect of different colours, research was made into colours that scientifically reduce stress. The

Unsuitable Colours:

Red - Not the colour to use for stress management. It is associated with aggression, blood and strain, and can activate the "fight or flight" instinct.

Orange - Similar to red, this colour is stimulating and intense - certainly not calming. Its known negatives are deprivation and frustration.

Suitable Colours

Pink - Soft and tranquil. Its peacefulness promotes a better balance of energy.

Yellow - Sunny and cheerful but softer than red or orange. It’s known to lift spirits and combat stress.

Green - Restful and quiet. It’s a soothing colour that invites harmonious feelings that diffuse anxiety.

Blue - Tranquil and peaceful. It has a tremendous stress management quality that encourages calmness. It affects us mentally, rather than the physical reaction we have to red. Strong blues will stimulate clear thought and lighter, soft blues will calm the mind and aid concentration

Violet - Represents strength, peace and wisdom. It can encourage feelings of inner peace when worn. Decorating with violet can give your space a peaceful feeling that relieves stress.

Existing Work

To see what style of illustrations are already on the market, research was made into a variety of existing colouring books that focus on combatting stress. The illustrations in the books tend to focus on three main areas - nature, animals and pattern. A few of the illustrations found can be seen below.

One aspect that was very evident when analysing the illustrations is that some are much more simplistic than others; the fish example includes quite a lot of white space, whilst the busy machinery illustration has quite a small amount of white space. Personally, I would find the machinery illustration to be over-cluttered and a bit daunting to take on in a colouring book. After researching into the importance of white space in design, it was found that physical clutter overloads your senses, making you feel stressed, and impairs your ability to think creatively. For this reason, I wanted to make my illustrations as simplistic as possible, with a lot of white space to prevent people from feeling stressed when using colouring book.

What Makes Me Relaxed

Lie-ins

Dogs

Listening to Music

Candles


















Sandy Beaches and the Sea

Landscapes

Sunny days

Curved vs Straight

One final aspect was researched into - the science behind curved lines, and straight lines. As a black and white line illustration must be made, the effect that different line transitions has on people needed to be considered, before picking an aesthetic style.

Moshe Bar & Maital Neta highlight the following point in Humans Prefer Curved Visual Objects: 

'People constantly make snap judgments about objects encountered in the environment. Such rapid judgments must be based on the physical properties of the targets, but the nature of these properties is yet unknown. We hypothesized that sharp transitions in contour might convey a sense of threat, and therefore trigger a negative bias. Our results were consistent with this hypothesis. The type of contour a visual object possesses—whether the contour is sharp angled or curved—has a critical influence on people's attitude toward that object'. 

This difference between curved and straight lines is present, not only in drawing, but other areas, such as architecture and product design. Recently, neuroscientists have shown that this affection for curves isn't just a matter of personal taste; it's hard-wired into the brain. A research team led by psychologist Oshin Vartanian of the University of Toronto at Scarborough compiled 200 images of interior architecture. Some of the rooms had a round style like this:

Vartanian and collaborators slid people into a brain imaging machine, showed them these pictures, and asked them to label each room as 'beautiful' or 'not beautiful'. In a study published earlier this year, they reported that test participants were far more likely to consider a room beautiful when it was flush with curves rather than full of straight lines. Oblong couches, oval rugs, looping floor patterns—these features got our aesthetic engines going.

It was therefore really clear that the style of lines in my illustration really needed to be considered. As sharp transitions in contour can convey a sense of threat, it was much more appropriate to avoid this by using curved lines, and subtle transitions, to ensure that those colouring in feel more relaxed.