Living with

Anxiety & Depression

Creative Direction

Creating a course covering anxiety and depression is a tough needle to thread. We rejected the typical clinical approach and instead designed a vibrant, playful experience that made difficult topics approachable while respecting their sensitivity. The results were promising: over 25,000 enrollments and exceptional engagement.

The Idea

Looking at existing anxiety, depression, and mental health content, we saw a pattern: either cliché imagery and an overly clinical tone or overly positive and surface-level coverage of topics. We wanted something genuinely different for our course on anxiety and depression that felt refreshing, calming, and approachable without diminishing the seriousness of the subject.

Key Responsibilities: Creative Direction, Art Direction, Production Design, Directing

Project Online Well-being Course

Scope 5 Lessons, 42 Activities, 13 Videos

Client mPulse Mobile (self-produced)

Creative Direction Paul Conigliaro

Instructional Design, Writing Nate Matson

Design, Illustration Jeff Yang

Motion Design, Illustration Allison Howle

Production Rikshaw Films

Nope

Clichés, clinical explainations, and unrealistically happy imagery didn’t belong in our course.

Maybe…

Softer colors, playful and abstrat illustrations, and a bright calming set felt right.

Yep!

Style frame exploration lead us to a breight palette anchored in teal, a tone-on-tone set, and color treated photography to produce a fresh direction.

The Work

After a lot of research and experimentation, we decided a vibrant environment featuring a calming tone-on-tone teal set punctuated by yellow and green accents for video production. This visual foundation was complemented by loose, playful illustrations that simplified complex concepts while maintaining emotional depth. Color-toned photography rounded out the approach.

Our talent and expert Elisha Goldstein was terrific to work with and brought a great energy to the course. The environment allowed his natural warmth and playfulness to shine, yet still provided the room to dive into serious topics.

“It looks Excellent! Loving my memories from being with you all.”

-Elisha

View some examples from the course below…

The Results

The creative direction took what could have been just another piece of mental health content into an engaging experience that resonated with users:

Over 25,000 course enrollments
Average video retention rate exceeding 60%

By thoughtfully challenging typical approaches, we created a learning environment where the audience felt invited rather than instructed… proving that mental health education doesn't have to choose between being serious or engaging.