As one of my final project for my Graphic Design degree, we were asked to create some form of publication. Because I had done many publications before, I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to take inspiration from ASPEN magazine and to create my own multimedia box.  

Having suffered from anxiety myself, I knew I wanted to create a new way of coping with it that didn’t involve medicines. I, therefore, researched various therapy-like solutions amongst which I came across mindfulness and meditation. When entering the meditation stages, they usually recommend to concentrate on the sounds surrounding you and to locate and identify them. By doing so, your mind is concentrating on the present and not on negative thoughts. After further research, I also found out that, by listening daily to triggering sounds, your mind is less affected and is less likely to cause anxiety. I, therefore, decided to record both triggering and relaxing sounds and to create a therapy “session” out of them. 
 

The box, therefore, contained a USB with the sounds and a QR code linked to the Soundcloud account of the box. Once downloaded the sounds or on the site, the user is asked to pick up the given cards, which are visual representations of the sounds recorded. In order to make the experience as subjective as possible, the cards are free of interpretation, which means that the user doesn’t know which cards are related to which sound. They are in fact asked to listen to the sounds and flip through the cards, trying to combine sounds with a visual. By doing so the mind will be concentrating on something present and the anxiety will slowly fade away.  In addition to those elements, I also designed a guidebook with each step explained, as well as the list of each visual with the corresponding sound in case someone really wanted to know. As an additional element, I added a sachet of lavender as it is known to have a calming scent. Overall it was a very experimental idea but I ended up with a product that I found to be more efficient than I had expected.