COVID-19 left a significant impact on the mental health of many, including those within the creative industry. We initiated the formation of a community to provide support through creativity, collaboration and conversation.

Less of a brief, and more of a sense of duty to the industry we’re proud to be part of, we set ourselves the challenge of creating a platform that could host conversations between creatives, and the artworks that would result from their collaboration. The idea of pairing people up was driven by the desire to foster connections between people in isolation during COVID-19 restrictions.

Once we had started to see creatives from all over the world paired up and designing a collaborative response using Google Sheets as their platform, we built a website featuring interviews with the creatives and their work. The artworks and interviews were then subsequently featured on Instagram. To create further impact, we partnered with mental health charity CALM.

It was wonderful to connect with a like-minded designer and create something meaningful. Individual social / political voices often take the backseat to client work and we need more projects like this to remind us that as designers, we can play greater roles in shaping the world around us.

Mike Giesser
Director at M.Giesser