Central Saint Martins worked with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust in London on a graduate consultancy project to create a more welcoming and stimulating healthcare environment in one of the psychiatric wards in St Pancras Hospital. Two MA Graphic Communication Design graduates devised three distinct concepts with the aim of providing talking points and opportunities for reflection for service users, healthcare staff and visitors.

The selected design, entitled The Journey, is a series of handpainted pictures mounted on wooden ‘window’ frames depicting a traveller at different stages of a journey. Ward staff felt this concept provided a parallel to how service users are encouraged to think about their time in the hospital as a journey.

The landscape illustrations with the traveller were developed partly in response to images created during a workshop held on Laffan Ward with staff and service users, during which participants reflected on meaningful places in their lives, and shared personal stories of the challenges they had to overcome to get there. The designers produced the final artwork using natural materials and painted all the scenes by hand to convey a feeling of warmth and care.

Design: Central Saint Martins
Creative Director: Luise Vormittag
Design, Illustration and Production: Javiera Godoy, Peggy Wang
Painting Assistants: Anda Cîrstean, Flavio Mancini
Wood Workshop Technicians: Andy Baker, Savvas Papasavva, Rachel Mandsley
Project Manager: Phoebe Allen