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ICall is a psychosocial helpline that offers free counselling via phone, chat and email by trained counsellors, started by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. ICall Colours of Light is a casebook that explores interventions by mental health practitioners for the benefit of adolescents and young adults who are placed in the rural context of Rajasthan.
What is the project about?
We were commissioned by iCall, for whom we had previously crafted a brand identity and image bank, to create the casebook and illustrations in a simple, easy-to-assimilate manner. Broadly the illustrations used are from the initial image bank itself. Images are simple, welcoming, and understandable to a broad range of people. The casebook goes out to government officials and many others. Given the topic: mental health, it was best not to overwhelm people with the heavy subject matter, so we matched visuals to the easy to read, hopeful tone of the text. We kept the visuals light, the book colourful, balancing it with a somewhat formal, mature feel so it felt approachable, yet serious.
We divided the existing text of each case into:
Presenting Concern (blue)
Intervention (red)
Positive outcome (yellow)
Research statistic
These were then colour coded and used to punctuate breaks for when the story moves between these phases.
The design creates multiple touchpoints in the text, a fair amount of white areas as breathing space, making it easy to read and even skim, is highly navigable and the page structure deliberately creates a feeling of calm. The book contains some triggering and is difficult to read the content. Hence we used simple colourful visuals and a clean layout, so as not to increase distress for readers.
iCall Colours of Light is a casebook that explores interventions by mental health practitioners for the benefit of adolescents and young adults who are placed in the rural context of Rajasthan. The interactions take place at multiple Ujala (Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics) clinics across Rajasthan, as part of RKSK (Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram)’s mission to help people in the age group of 10-19 years who are navigating the complex processes of growing up and attaining adulthood.
Project Funded by
UNFPA
Stakeholders Involved
UNFPA, ICall, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, TISS, State Government of Rajasthan, Samvaad E-learning platform.
What is the impact?
The text is an outcome of the experiences, stories, challenges, personal reflections across workshops conducted with 24 RKSK counsellors, which generated 25 cases further classified into Substance Use, Violence, Non-Communicable Diseases, Mental Health and Sexual + Reproductive Health. The RKSK counsellors had been further trained by iCall.
To save on budget, yet maximise the visual effect, we crafted counsellor “dolls”, a base set of shapes that define a portrait illustration, which can be customised with accessories, clothes, hairstyles and such, from which multiple illustrations of counsellors can be generated and these form the bulk of the illustrations, normalising the idea of counselling, and counsellors language- a style that isn’t friendly, flippant, authoritative or overbearing, but gentle and offering exploration and guidance
Gallery:
Images by Studio Kohl | © all rights reserved
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About Studio Kohl:
We build visual languages that define brands, and craft meaningful images informed by an involved and thorough understanding of content. A small team of graphic designers, we enjoy working closely with musicians, trendsetters, activists, NGOs and game-changing lifestyle brands which speak to niche audiences. Inspired by Indian art history & folk arts to alternative subcultures, we use image-making, in unconventional and challenging ways.
