DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: As a psychotherapist I often have to deal with the stigmata that come with certain diagnoses. While these may have a strong impact on the patients, in technical terminology they are simple labels such as f60, f20 or f31. The idea to ironically relativize the impact of the diagnoses in choosing the “popart banana” motive with the f-diagnostics labels pinned onto the banana as a symbol of the substitutability of human needs and personality culminates with the overwhelming presence of mental illness in society.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: This project arose out of the desire to critically and ironically address the common concepts of mental health as stated in the international classification of diseases. It plays with the banana motive as a defamatory image when describing people’s deviant or unconventional behavior.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: I decided to pursuit an inspiration.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: I do not have any plans yet to sell or lease the production rights. As of right now I intend to produce the work by myself.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: The Poster may be used as an art work in a private surrounding as well as poster for organizations that target mental health issues. This project was developed for print products. The advantage of the digital production is the versatile applicability in different print areas. As the selection of mockups shows, the project is suitable for outdoor use, as an indoor poster, but also for publication in magazines, or as a book cover. This goal is a far-reaching visibility of the illustration in different media spaces.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: I work as an artist, illustrator and psychotherapist. In this image my diverse backgrounds merge into an approach to dealing with social stigmata that come with certain diagnoses.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: ICD-10 is the International Classification of Diseases. And I chose the banana motive as a defamatory image when describing people’s deviant or unconventional behavior.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: This Poster was entirely created digitally with Procreate on iPad Pro.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: The main obstacle in creating this image was whether the image would be able to convey the deeper meaning of the concept without appearing discriminatory, tasteless or too simplistic. At the same time the intention was to narrow the message down to the absolutely irritating basis of the ambivalent self-perception of society in using a well-known and recognizable image as simply as possible.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: Several years ago, I made a series of drawings titled "In-Sanity" for my current therapy website. These should sketch ironically and close to everyday life, the normality of mental illness. However, as I received feedback from colleagues that some of these people might find these illustrations inappropriate, therefore I rejected the idea. Years later, now psychotherapist myself, I wanted to pick up on this topic again, this time more provocative and present, satirical. Now it is easier for me to argue that mental illness is not just a taboo, but is actually a normal, everyday, weird, painful, heterogeneous, creative, and most of all, human part of our existence.
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
: The iconic sales labels on the products refer to the common promotion practices of selling concepts and ideas of one’s self-representation in society. The labels refer to the widespread tactics of big companies and nations to market products in large quantities at low prices. The motto being buy more, pay less. In direct proportion, one can understand the allocation of psychiatric diagnoses corresponding to the zeitgeist. The society’s capitalistic imprint on the human’s self-perception seems to be self-pathologizing and at the same time normalizing. A well-known example of these habits are the diagnoses ADHD, Borderline, Bipolar Disorder, Narcissistic personality disorder, and others.