During the conceptual phase of the booklet the park discussed mental health with experts like Anna Mueller and Jennifer Daniels, who leads Suicide Prevention Mesa County provided great insight on the existing mental health curriculum for students in District 51 and how to appeal to a middle school audience when discussing mental health and wellness. The park and I then reached out to all the school counselors and therapists in District 51 and invited them to a video call to discuss what they would like included in the workbook.
From there, I wrote the activities based on our conceptual conversations, which went through several drafts and revisions. I designed three different possible visual identities for the booklet and drew three characters to see which would be most appealing. Results from a poll sent to students showed that they preferred the early 90s design and Character 2, which gave a direction for design and illustration. Each illustration started with an image of the page layout which I digitally sketched on, then lined and digitally painted. The colors of the characters, text, and graphic elements are all cool, analgous colors—blue, green, and purple, to contrast the warm reds, oranges, and tans of the monument landscape throughout the booklet.