Psychological liminal spaces are the result of how the human mind works. The mind is set to automatically divide and understand the world into well defined groups and set boundaries.
Mental health issues are considered to be a liminal space in ones mind as it is an emotional shift of thoughts, a transition of time where one can feel unsettled and feel as though they are living in an unknown space between two ways of thinking. This psychological liminal space exists in ones mind when one can no longer live with their old self narrative and the new - self narrative has yet to emerge.
Therefore, this design in the form of a cognitive behavioural notebook will focus on the psychological liminal/ transitional space of thoughts, feelings and mindsets with regards to having a mental health disorder and in - particular, having and living with the mental health disorder: depression. The design is a response to the problem of the lack of awareness and understanding there is around transitional mindsets and in particular the transition that one goes through when attending cognitive behavioural therapy. This Cognitive Behavioural Notebook aims to bring awareness to the fact that there is hope to transition out of this psychological liminal space.
This Cognitive Behavioural Notebook is based on a case study done by a therapist who was helping a patient transition her mind from her depress-ed way of thinking. It follows and narrates each therapy session that the patient attends from a therapists point of view.
The sense of transition is reflected through the unconventional design decisions within the - Notebook. Such as: the embossed therapy session numbers to reflect a sense of progress and change from session to session, the design of the conversations between the therapist and patient which are designed and printed on different GSM tracing papers. The thinnest GSM tracing paper used in the beginning sessions, reflect the patients fragile mindset and ending with a the thickest GSM to reflect how stable she has become.
Binding Method
The binding method chosen was wire spiral binding. This binding method was chosen due to it providing a simple aesthetic and aligning to the traditional notebook binding method.
Colour Palette
A monochrome colour palette was chosen for this notebook design to reflect the dark and serious subject that it is about. Moreover, therapy notes are not written in different colours.
Typeface
Chosen primary typeface: Frutiger
Frutiger was chosen as it is a humanist sans-serif typeface, intended to be clear and highly legible at a distance or at small text sizes.
Chosen secondary typeface: Reene Beanie
This typeface was chosen due to it resembling hand writing which is used for note taking. This typeface adds a relatable and personal-like feeling to the composition and further enhances the narrative.
