trekstock 2018 campaign: evaluation

My proposal for Trekstock’s 2018 fundraising strategy aimed to develop their work around mental wellbeing in relation to improving physical health. I wanted to elaborate on their “Wellbeing” section on their website by creating a publication promoting these ideas in a friendly, accessible but also artistic and involving way. My campaign proposal was TAKE CARE, consisting of an interactive, activities based zine that would kickstart a self-care movement, increasing awareness of Trekstock’s values and building a supportive community online.

I was initially inspired by current trends around self-care, particularly in young adults in online and creative communities. Artists that I researched including Gemma Correll, Ruby Taylor and Nina Cosford create young, fun and relatable illustrations touching on mental health, emotions, life and wellbeing. I used this research, as well as baker, author and mental health activist Ruby Tandoh’s new publication, Do What You Want, to build my idea of an inexpensive but effective fundraising and awareness method.

I wanted to build on my confidence of using illustration, typography and interesting layout/editorial design in this brief, as it is something that I am most interested in working with but am often reluctant to try something that will take me out of my comfort zone. This brief made me feel more confident with my natural illustration style, as well as writing for a particular audience and making editorial decisions. It was important that the TAKE CARE zine would appeal to young adults from as young as 18, as Trekstock are particularly interested in broadening their reach to those a little younger than their 20-30 year old audience. I think I managed the design and tone of the publication well so that it would appeal to late teens as well as those who may even be in their late twenties.

I did encounter problems when attempting to prevent the zine from being too “gendered” as my initial designs looked too corporate as I tried to make it suitable for males and females, but my natural style looked distinctly feminine. Through tutorials and extra research I concluded that men and women are likely to approach the topic of self-care and mental wellbeing differently and that it would be best to propose an alternative version of the zine by a designer/illustrator whose style was less gendered, so that the zine could be marketed to all genders and customers could pick which design and content they would prefer. This also allowed me to embrace the style I wanted to work in and have fun with the project rather than trying too hard to make the publication something it couldn’t be.

I feel I worked hard to create an entire 360 strategy for this campaign, including online and interactive promotional elements to spread awareness and also involve the supporters in the campaign, for example uploading their zines and self-care activities online with a particular hashtag, downloading extra content from Trekstock, and the zine being sold in friendly, independent book stores and at an illustration fair to fit with the intended creatively-inclined audience.

Although I found it hard to believe in my ideas at first I thoroughly enjoyed this brief as it made me feel more confident in my style of working, my interests and perhaps even possible career path. I’d also wanted to create a zine around this topic as a personal project so this has now given me a starting point to work from and release as a publication in the future.