Description:

Art & Creativity + Youth + Mental Health = With Wonder

Art therapy boxes that promote mental wellbeing through a self-directed therapeutic experience, and are grounded in the real-world practice of art therapists and psychotherapists.

Our client Breathing Space, a registered NZ charity, came to us with an early-stage concept. Founded in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2016, Breathing Space provides free, trauma-informed therapy and group programs to young people, with a focus on those facing systemic barriers to wellbeing.

Alongside the founder, Asha Munn — the only registered art psychotherapist in Aotearoa, EMDR therapist, and a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts — this project was born as a result of lockdown. When the Breathing Space team could no longer meet the growing demand for services, they adapted by preparing makeshift care packages with art materials — the ‘art box’ quickly became a vehicle for offering support to youth in times of need.

We helped bring With Wonder to life as a product system; using art as a medium for improved mental wellness.

With Wonder is the belief that art and creativity can have a transformative effect on the mental health of at-risk youth in Aotearoa.

Each With Wonder box is designed in collaboration with a different NZ artist — with the likes of Lissy and Rudi, Jade Townsend, and Te Ara Minhinnik featured in the first releases.

Wonder Display is a hand-drawn typeface—developed for the With Wonder collateral—influenced by graffiti and street art.

The organic, exaggerated shapes reflect the spontaneous, emotional, and often unpredictable nature of creativity. They channel the unfiltered way young people make art when given the freedom to explore.

A set of expressive emojis that feature a range of open-ended feelings are an extension of the hand-drawn typeface. Built into the glyph set for easy-use by our client, each blob-like character combines loose, expressive shapes with minimal facial cues, reflecting a spectrum of moods without labelling them.

We dream of a world where healthcare practitioners and medical professionals prescribe art and creativity, in different forms, to care for our mental health; a world where self expression and healing through art & creativity can happen everyday, across Aotearoa.