Slamina: a graphic designer takes on phobias

May 30, 2016 9:31 AM

How can design techniques encourage animal phobics in opening up to a positive perspective on the feared animal?

Does not contain pictures of animals.
Trigger warning for tone: in parts, comes across as minimizing.
posted by wonton endangerment (16 comments total)

I really hope some day someone comes up with something this fun for emetophobia!
posted by Dressed to Kill at 10:28 AM on May 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Joke's on them. I have a master's degree in publication design, so I'm fine with animals, but I get a small anxiety attack from seeing graph paper and pencils.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:40 AM on May 30, 2016 [12 favorites]

I really hope some day someone comes up with something this fun for emetophobia!

Don't worry! Gnitimov is natural and beautiful!
posted by vorpal bunny at 12:27 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Am I missing something? There's a couple of paragraphs of text and then some random blue and yellow papers being kept in a wire cage and then more pictures of what looks like someone's scrapbooking kit. I don't see any 'magazines' and the only 'graphic design' seems to be "look at these photographs of colored paper". Seriously, is there something I'm supposed to click on? This makes no sense.
posted by The otter lady at 1:04 PM on May 30, 2016 [15 favorites]

Same here, just seems like a blurb and some external shots.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:31 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I'm confused, too (and I'm a graphic designer). And sorry if this comes across as "minimizing" but are there actually people whose phobia of animals are so strong that even reading their name will cause problems? But seeing it written in reverse won't? And where does Mister Mxyzptlk fall into this?
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:35 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

My mother has dementia. Scrolling through that page has awakened my sympathy for how she must feel every day, because I literally have no idea what is going on. It's a nice-looking magazine though.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:46 PM on May 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

once you've conquered your fear of Ekans, you get to move onto Arbok
posted by threeants at 2:47 PM on May 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

That'd be nice. I've had it with these motherfucking ekans on this motherfucking enalp!
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:09 PM on May 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Looks like maybe the strategy is to introduce shapes and images that gradually start to resemble the object of the phobia as you progress, interposed with suggested activities for reducing anxiety? Which sounds like exactly the sort of thing a graphic designer would cook up after reading the Wikipedia page on exposure therapy.

So, like, I get that designers need to put their portfolios in an easily accessible place where potential clients can view them, which obviously means a web page because it's 2016. But what I don't get is why so many of these portfolio pieces end up getting shared so widely, and why the description is always "DESIGNER TAKES ON X", as opposed to "designer does a purely conceptual piece about X as a demonstration of their design skills". Well, ok, I guess the latter part makes sense by the laws of clickbait. But I'm still mystified why non-designers feel the need to spin other people's portfolio pieces into clickbait posts to begin with.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:32 PM on May 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Trigger warning for tone: in parts, comes across as minimizing.

Is there a poe's law for trigger warnings.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:29 PM on May 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

siht si tihsllub
posted by crazylegs at 6:03 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well great, now I have a phobia of star, sekans, sredips, and slamina, too.

Apologies for the potentially triggering tone of this comment.
posted by paulcole at 6:38 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am SO glad I wasn't the only one who thought this was bullshit. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(damn, this brave new world is confusing)
posted by yhbc at 8:23 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Slamina, is a great band name, though.
posted by oddman at 8:30 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Trigger warning for pantone

Nice enough design. No more, no less.
posted by quarsan at 10:29 PM on May 30, 2016