CBT Booklet

This booklet features recommended techniques to help with OCD and anxiety disorders, as well as useful information about OCD and perfectionism in particular.

As someone who has undergone Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) myself, I know how challenging it can be to find the right resources and support.

Slightly overwhelmed by the amount of resources I was given, and the amount of information that didn’t always feel that relevant, I wanted to create a practical and accessible guide to the CBT techniques I was taught, which have all been shown to be effective in managing these conditions.

One thing that immediately stood out in the original assets shared with me was that everything felt dated. Clipart and other visuals that clearly hadn’t been designed for that specific purpose.

I wanted something consistent, modern, clean, and fully fit for purpose. This meant I had to define some guidelines for the project:

Using a simple palette of dark grey and orange felt like a natural choice. Grey because it’s a neutral colour that doesn’t add any stress or anxiety to the user. And an orange that complements the grey well while adding a splash of warmth and positivity.

The organic, simple shapes are soft, giving a friendly and welcoming approach.

Another issue with the assets originally shared with me was that they were text heavy; as though they had been taken straight out of a text book.

As this booklet is mostly intended to aid people in situation when they’re already stressed, anxious or otherwise overwhelmed, I wanted the content to be to-the-point. So I cut out all the jargon, rewrote things to a simple and straight-forward manner, and added personal examples.

Even though design and visuals are the core passion of Healthy Pixels, I truly enjoy working on copy as well – an interest I have pursued one way or the other most of my life.

With content in place, I started the design process. As content is a fundamental part of such a project, I never define layouts or structure before the content is completed – much like building a house, where you need the floorplan before you can start building.

For this project, a horizontal A4 format felt like a good choice. A common format, making it easy to print the final booklet, as well as a good size for the content itself – allowing a nice balance between visuals, content and white space.

Putting content into a layout makes it easy to see what visuals, their format, and how many, are needed – so the process of creating visuals and defining layout normally intertwines. This project was not an exception, and I created a range of visuals including icons and illustrations.