WDYDFY?
James Pancaldi
Diploma 2023/24
Website: www.jamespancaldi.com
LinkedIn: James_Pancaldi
| What do you do for you? |
| Many solutions to physical and mental health issues are often driven by crisis or celebrity endorsement. Jamie Oliver got rid of turkey twizzlers and the Headspace app commercialised meditation. You might ask ‘what’s next?’ and you would be forgiven for wondering if there is room for a more holistic, personalised approach to public health. Such a solution comes in the form of ‘Social Prescribing’; which links individuals to community-based, non-medical support. Few are aware of this method of ‘treatment’, but there is growing evidence of its positive impact on mental health and the added benefit of reducing the need for medication and the subsequent strain on the NHS. WDYDFY? (What Do You Do For You?) looks to Social Prescribing – specifically the notion of creative health and engagement with the arts – as the next step to improve public health at scale. It explores how brand and product design can be used to positively impact the mental health and wellbeing of local communities. Appropriating the seemingly outdated term ‘hobby’, which peaked during the 1940s, WDYDFY? leans into a post-industrial and post-capitalist philosophy which aims to re-centre our value system by reconnecting with our selves, our community, and our environment. Put simply, we might ask one another, ‘What do you do for you?’, rather than what you do for your employer. Take DIJONSS, PureSport run club, Deliciously Ella, and The Great Pottery Throw Down as examples of a movement focused on creative expression and community. Hobby, as a brand concept, seeks to increase access to such a movement and challenge social media’s armchair hobbyists by connecting individuals with local clubs, classes and workshops that are centred around creativity. The project’s outcomes comprise of a series of pocket-sized flyers, a promotional poster and a website concept alongside brand guidelines for future application. |
| WDYDFY? – Full poster |
| Pottery workshop hobby* cards |
| Collection of hobby* cards |
| hobby* OOH poster |