Depression and mental illness are taboo topics in India. Often confused with ‘madness’, such medical conditions are so stigmatic that patients are uncomfortable to discuss them openly. Instead, they prefer to keep them under the wraps and fight them alone. And as a more convenient option, they resort to short-term solutions like anti-anxiety pills or stress-relief tablets. This tendency has led to a continual increase in the number of depression related cases in India. MindOpeners, a leading NGO in the field of organizational psychology, wanted to draw attention to the need for opening up and talking if one wants to take on the menace of depression correctly. We wanted to shift the focus from popping a pill to resorting to talking-therapy, the more appropriate cure for depression.

The budget was limited to only static medium. People joined these therapy sessions in large volumes.

Our client MindOpeners offer training modules in the area of organisational psychology, offering one-on-one counselling sessions. Hence, we took our campaign among the crowds in major high schools (10th and 12th grade students) and corporate offices of the town- the TG that faces deep stress and anxiety due to the nature of their job, and often ends up falling prey to depression.

Our approach was to keep the design very simple, minimalistic and descriptive in nature. We used the shape of a pill/tablet as our main design element to keep the context of the brief intact. We used it (a pill or a tablet) as a table- sitting across which two people can be seen talking and sharing their hearts out.

We used the top-angle to establish a pill as a table and put participants on the either side of the table.

The minimalism of the design puts all the focus on the two main elements- table (pill) and people.

We saw an increase in calls inviting us to organise counselling sessions in High schools for students about to appear in 12th grade's final examinations.

We also started receiving calls from various HR depts. to organise emotional-intelligence and leadership counselling programs in the major corporate offices of the town.