Kitley defelice

Anyone Can Draw Zentangles

Research Question
How can anyone of any age who is not an artist but still wants to be creative and artistic engage in and create art in an accessible and non-intimidating way?

Project Overview
This book and the accompanying getting started kit and social media campaign are all designed with the intention of showing people of any age who are not artists that they can in fact draw—specifically, that they can draw zentangles. Because art can be whatever you want it to be, it doesn’t have to be drawing representationally like what one traditionally thinks of when they think of drawing. Anyone can draw. Anyone can make a line—it doesn’t have to be a straight line—therefore, anyone can draw; anyone can draw zentangles.

Book Design / Branding / Design for Mental Health Wellbeing

Quick Links:

Portfolio

kitley.defelice@gmail.com

Audience/Users

The audience and users for this book and the accompanying getting started kit and social media campaign are people of any age who are not artists, but who still want to be creative and artistic. People and children who like and enjoy creative expressions such as drawing, but who feel like they couldn’t do it themselves. Adults especially, because they’re more likely to feel like they couldn’t do this.

Process Overview

I started by creating some test pages of activities I had in mind to give to someone to try them out for me. The results of this “experiment” or “test” are at the beginning of the Research section in the Appendix of the book.
I also did some research, looking for peer-reviewed scientific academic articles, about the mental health benefits of drawing zentangles. I included these findings in the Research section of the Appendix as well.
I thought about and developed the branding and visual style of the book and accompanying materials. I picked a couple of display typefaces, and a font for the body text. The visual style is based on my own varied zentangle drawings.
I created a draft of the book, including all of the activities I wanted to be in the book. I also included some guidelines and examples for how to draw zentangles and what to do.
I also developed an accompanying getting started kit of everything you’d need to get started with drawing zentangles. This included designing a branded box to hold all of these items, including the book.
The draft of the book was continually updated and improved based on feedback from my peers, instructors, and mentor.

Solution components

I designed the following components as part of my solution:

Interactive Book - Anyone Can Draw Zentangles
Getting Started Kit, all in a branded box
Brand Board - including fonts used and overall visual style
Research - the mental health benefits of drawing zentangles
Social Media Campaign - have a hashtag, #anyonecandrawzentangles, and encourage users to post their drawings and engage with each other in the community

Success Criteria
and My Solution

After my design process, for my solution to be a success, I know it needs to:

Show that anyone can draw zentangles.
Make the audience feel empowered.
The audience should feel all of the creative juices flowing, inspired and ready to try their own zentangle drawings.
Utilize a creative yet not too complicated or intimidating visual style to help the audience feel comfortable about trying out drawing zentangles.
Introduce a more accessible way to create art and be artistic.
Educate readers about the mental health benefits of drawing zentangles.

DESIGN CRITERIA 1

Show that anyone can draw zentangles.

The book, getting started kit, and social media campaign all show how the user can, in fact, draw zentangles by following along and completing the activities in the interactive book, utilizing the tools provided in the getting started kit, and engaging in the community via the social media campaign.

DESIGN CRITERIA 2

Make the audience feel empowered.

Following along and completing the activities in the interactive book, utilizing the tools provided in the getting started kit, and engaging in the community via the social media campaign all contributes to empowering and granting confidence to the audience so that they enjoy drawing zentangles, which further empowers the users.

DESIGN CRITERIA 3

The audience should feel all of the creative juices flowing, inspired and ready to try their own zentangle drawings.

Following along and completing the activities in the interactive book, utilizing the tools provided in the getting started kit, and engaging in the community via the social media campaign all contributes to fueling the users’ creativity, while granting them confidence to be able to draw zentangles as well.

DESIGN CRITERIA 4

Utilize a creative yet not too complicated or intimidating visual style to help the audience feel comfortable about trying out drawing zentangles.

The visual style of the interactive book itself is simple and not too intimidating, but still fun to encourage users to be creative and try out drawing zentangles.

DESIGN CRITERIA 5

Introduce a more accessible way to create art and be artistic.

The interactive book and accompanying kit introduces drawing zentangles, an accessible way to create art and be artistic by providing basic, easy-to-follow exercises and activities and providing the necessary tools to do so.

DESIGN CRITERIA 6

Educate readers about the mental health benefits of drawing zentangles.

Research has been conducted, reading peer-reviewed scientific academic articles—referenced in the interactive book—showing how drawing zentangles benefits users’ mental health.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse