Brief
The main goal of this brief was to help somebody get over a phobia. I chose the phobia of loneliness which is a feeling and a fear that everyone encounters at some points of their life.
Research
According to a recent national survey, 25% of all adults experience painful loneliness at least every few weeks, and the incidence among adolescents and college students is even higher. Loneliness is neither a permanent state nor "bad" in itself. Instead it should be viewed more accurately as a signal or indicator of important needs that are going unmet.
Isolation is a new hallmark of our paradoxically “connected” society. Between texting, Tweeting, Facebooking, email and the phone, people are more connected than ever before. The problem with all these kinds of communication is that they omit the face-to-face element of socialization.
It was the poet John Donne (1572 – 1631) who wrote ‘No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent’. Human contact is essential to surviving in this world. Instead of wallowing in boredom and sadness, you need to get out as much as possible and seek contacts.
Concept
I created two books. One is about the history of loneliness, where that feeling comes from and how to avoid the common mistakes people make when feeling lonely. The second one is about embracing being alone and learning about yourself. I used a mix of papers and textures to give a bigger impact to the books as well as a fold to make it more interactive. I used the idea of layers to kind of symbolize the layers of a human being. The outside layer is a plain solid color but behind it is a much more complicated side of the book/person.
