TAFE SA student Laura Sivewright is using her eye for design to generate conversations about good mental health and wellbeing.

Laura’s artwork has been chosen to represent the Adelaide Advertising and Design Club’s (AADC) annual AdMental challenge, a competition where the industry’s emerging talents create online videos with a mental health and wellbeing message.

Presented by the AADC, SA Health’s Office of Public Health, the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia and the Don Dunstan Foundation, AdMental will be held at Bonython Hall on October 20.

Laura’s vibrant design, featuring a human eye framed by two hands, is being used for the event poster and social channels.

As part of their course work, Laura and her classmates - graphic design students at AC Arts - were given two weeks to develop potential campaigns to promote AdMental and present their ideas to the selection committee.

Inspired by the ‘director’s hands’ gesture that filmmakers sometimes use to frame their shots, Laura says her design is a nod to the advertising and film industry as well as a message about mental health awareness.

“I like how this idea shows the perspective of reframing from both a mental health and advertising perspective,” she says.

“The selection committee felt that it transitioned the AdMental visual of previous campaigns, from a human head to the hands and eye, and provided a fresh and modern look.”

Laura says it was “really cool” to have her work chosen out of a group of talented design students and she appreciated the opportunity, gaining valuable experience from having to communicate with a real client and respond to feedback.

Mostly, she’s thrilled to have her creative vision realised and know that it’s helping to raise awareness of AdMental.

“A lot of our work has been for hypothetical clients to this point, so I’m elated to see my work in the context of an actual event,” she says.