About Beyond the Stigma (BtS)
On February 27, 2022, I had a vision to create a podcast to educate young adults on topics that we were taught by our parents to stay away from. We were always told not to drink, smoke, and get tattoos. In many cultures, talking about mental health is also heavily stigmatized. Growing up, I had a sense of shame for some of the things that I did, and I didn't know why. I thought it was okay because it was not harming anyone, and it was not hurting myself either. I was responsible, yet my family still got mad at me when I confessed "my sins." With this podcast, I strive to educate other young adults on topics that were deemed to be "taboo," or "stigmatized" by society, to free them from their guilt by understanding where the stigma originates from and how to overcome the feelings of guilt and shame through the self-empowering freedom to gain from the knowledge and experiences that my friends and I discuss on our judgement-free podcast.
Table of Contents
Brand Logo & Graphic Design
Overall Brand
I had a clear vision that I wanted this podcast to look modernly sophisticated, yet soft and approachable. I wanted the feel of the brand to seem educated yet digestible for young adults to take in. I chose a very muted, neutral color palette to contrast with the energetic, vibrant feel of the lightning symbol-- which I would carefully decide where to use the secondary color palette that features neon colors to bring special attention to some content on the site.
About the Logo
I also instantly pictured a lighting bolt to be a central icon for the podcast as the information I'd be putting on the podcast would be "striking" enough to encourage people to share their experiences dealing with their senses of shame and stigma. The lightning bolt that replaces the letter "I" in "Stigma" also originates from the "outer-space" theme that matches the Saturn-shaped "O" in "Beyond." While the "Saturn" interpretation of this special "O" is valid, it is intended to be a minimalistic design of a star orbiting a star, or planet. The entire outer-space theme is supposed to represent the idea that knowledge is infinite, and while venturing into outer space is scary for most of us, it is because we fear the unknown. That is why we must learn about what we don't know so that we have a better idea on how to tackle the problem, which
Graphic Design
I had a clear vision that I wanted this podcast to look modernly sophisticated, yet soft and approachable. I wanted the feel of the brand to seem educated yet digestible for young adults to take in. I chose a very muted, neutral color palette to contrast with the energetic, vibrant feel of the lightning symbol-- which I would carefully decide where to use the secondary color palette that features neon colors to bring special attention to some content on the site.
Fonts & Typefaces
A general rule of thumb when it comes to choosing typefaces is to use a maximum of two typefaces for one project. Another is to consider the font pairing and how well each complements each other. Lastly, I needed to make sure that the chosen typefaces exuded the appropriate, precise vibe for the content that I wanted to share. The font pair that I chose were Moon-- which I downloaded for free on Dafont-- and Century Old Style Std-- which is available on Adobe Fonts.
Initial Design Sketches
This design plan is the basis of my inspiration. As soon as I had this, I went right to Adobe Illustrator to create a mockup of the rest of the site.
Landing Homepage
This is the home page that I designed. The entire homepage will feature the mission statement, and it will have two other pages to scroll to.
Listen to the Latest on the Homepage
The second page of the homepage would allow visitors to listen to the latest episode of the podcast. It would also have buttons that can redirect the viewer to either look at the list of all the other podcast episodes, or read the blog.
About & Join on the Homepage
On the bottom of the page, you could infinitely scroll through and click on any team member's profile to learn more about them. Even while scrolling through the list of profiles, the menu buttons to join, collaborate, or help out the collective, stay statically on the side.
Content Creation
Podcast Episodes
Unscripted and from the heart, the podcast episodes are the main, heartwarming feature to have on the site. I prerecorded my content to decide how much to put onto the site. Podcasts will also include a complete transcript to be considerate to people who are deaf, partially deaf, or to anyone who would rather read the details of the podcast than listen. I am excited to learn how to code the play button of the podcast.
Blog Articles
Though I currently don't have any articles written, I plan on having a blog to supplement the podcast with guides, discussions, and advice columns.
Events
Currently, there aren't any events that will happen anytime soon, but I hope that this podcast will take off in the public eye to have speaking events and participate in other campaigns nationwide to bring more positive social change.
The Future of Beyond the Stigma
After designing and creating the first set of content for the initial launch of the collective and website, I will code the website on my own by using HTML 5 and CSS on Atom.io. I will also learn JavaScript to add more fluidity in navigating the website. After building the website by implementing my knowledge of HTML, and having a substantial number of podcasts ready for the audience to listen to, I have plans to make the presence of BtS stronger on social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I want to also reach out to other existing foundations that need help/funding/collaborations, and I want to open up the podcast to other people who want to contribute to my collective.