Can you Sketch Your Way to Good Health?

Hi folks,

Before I started the company that eventually became Sketch Group, I was working as a computer programmer. It paid well, but it wasn't fulfilling and felt a bit ... soulless. It also coincided with a period when I got sick a lot. Related? Perhaps.

A huge reason why we do what we do relates to the fact that drawing is good for you. The benefits of expressing yourself visually are extensive and well documented.

Art therapy uses different forms of visual expression to help improve physical, mental and emotional well-being by reducing anxiety, bringing in positive emotions and banishing negative ones. Drawing has also been shown to improve memory and recall in patients with Alzheimer’s. And adult colouring-in books continue to fill airport bookstores due to the role they play in reducing stress, increasing mindfulness and helping the brain reach a meditative state.

And of course, it's fun. 

Even if you think "I can't draw," who hasn't laughed over a game of Pictionary when no-one can guess what has been created in thirty seconds? Was it a toilet? A throne? A pineapple?

When we're young, we draw and paint and create all the time. Visual expression comes naturally to us—it's free-form, and it flows naturally, without the worry of judgement or getting things wrong.

In a world where we're being encouraged to be innovative, to fail fast, and to take risks, we need to go back to those times when we were more experimental. Pick up a pen and just draw.

Who knows where it could lead?

Featured Video(s)

We thought we'd use our featured video section to include some recent videos that we're very proud to have made for some different organisations around the topic of health. 

We were really grateful to get the chance to work with Berry Street's T.A.R.A Program and create an important video for the vital work they do. The T.A.R.A Program is a support group for parents experiencing violence from their adolescent children, delivered in Northern and Western regions of Victoria. 

We made two videos for Brisbane North PHN explaining just What is Primary Healthcare and showcasing just Who Is Brisbane North PHN

And we're incredibly proud of the video with made with the Joseph Tighe and the Black Dog Institute about the the development of the suicide prevention iBobbly app.

Sketching + sausages at the
Royal Women's Hospital

We've sketched plenty of strategic workshops in our time, and they're often catered—but usually with standard fare: sandwiches, wraps, perhaps the odd lemon slice if you're lucky.

Last month I was called to capture a staff BBQ—complete with sausages—at the Royal Women's Hospital. This wasn't just a regular luncheon though. The hospital were celebrating having achieved an amazing patient experience score of 95%, as published by a recent independent audit.

If you've had the good fortune (or misfortune) to be a patient at The Women's recently, this extraordinary achievement may not come as a surprise. It was a great honour to capture some of the reasons why the staff thought they had performed so well on a large, colourful visual canvas.

Image credits: Royal Women's Hospital

I hope you've found something useful or inspiring in this issue. Let us know your thoughts and keep up with other Sketch Group updates on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram via @SketchGrp.

Cheers