Jaws Unhinged
Medical Education Design
Design Type | Art Direction, Packaging Design, Layout Design, Branding
Tools Used | Adobe Creative Suite, Cricut, Paint
Jaws Unhinged, is a jaw surgery recovery kit. It was created to make something scary, significant, and life-changing, like jaw surgery, a little easier to go through and recover from. Since Katie has gone through it twice, she has learned tips and tricks to make the recovery process more manageable. Through the workbook, updated pamphlets, recipe book, and other material, in hopes that others going through jaw surgery will have an easier time during recovery.
Jaws Unhinged explained through video
Brief |
After going through jaw surgery twice, I had gotten the same information twice, the pamphlets were long and exhaustive, the hand outs were pieces of printer paper stapled together, and in order to eat after surgery, all of the food has to be blended smooth to “eat” through a syringe and tubing.
The Story |
Jaws Unhinged was inspired by a screen printing project that I call X-Ray, where I created a half-toned illustration of an X-Ray of mine after I fixed and cleaned up the x-ray. I thought it would be fun to try something different and something that was super personal to me. For that project, I wanted to make something more for a dental office’s decor, and some shirts with the x-ray on them.
Research |
When researching for my thesis paper, I was interested in patient education and how to make this education more accessible for those who don’t work in the health care industry and don’t know medical jargon. So trying to find easy materials to understand can be hard. The current education is also not visually appealing and when that is the case, pamphlets are not read and then the patients don’t know what is happening. So creating visually appealing and accessible education for those going through a taxing procedure was something that was important to me.
Brainstorm |
As someone who has gone through two jaw surgeries, I already had an idea of what I wanted to include in this project. I wanted to make my assets colorful with high contrast and something that hasn’t been seen much in the medical community. These collages represent two ways I could have gone with, bright colors and more playful or a darker and higher contrast. After talking with my peers and getting feedback, I decided to go the bright color and playful direction.
Research | Part 2
After brainstorming, I started researching more into what those going through surgery might need and what people like with health education and what doesn’t help. I put out a survey about patient education with jaw surgery and I found that patients wish that they had more recipes to blend to have a variety instead of “eating” the same things over and over again. There also isn’t any good information about how to get back to your life after the strict first two weeks and after the main first 8 weeks of recovery.
Development |
When making an audit of the current market of medical education (pamphlets, books, posters, etc.), most of the materials are outdated colors and photos, some have no photos, some are photocopied, and just overall not inviting.
When starting to make a mood-board, I wanted to make sure that everything is cohesive and would match the design of my thesis paper. I wanted a simple design that wouldn’t overwhelm patients before or after surgery. The cooler blues are more medical but I would say it isn’t sterile like what is used currently.
Final Assets |
The items I ended up creating were things that I ultimately decided would be the best items for recovery from jaw surgery. Those items were:
a box where all of the items can sit and be stored until needed
a planner workbook combination where one can keep all notes about recovery and notes from doctors during appointments
a recipe book for blendable foods
a pamphlet that explains everything in the box
and a poster that briefly explains jaw surgery
