SPACE
Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care
print design + illustration
During my work with Clinical Excellence Queensland I was approached by the Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) team to design a series of visual marketing materials. The SPACE project has taken major strides towards improving palliative and end-of-life care coordination for older people living in residential aged care facilities. This means improving access as well as providing further support and education for general practice and aged care staff so they can effectively deliver care at the end of life.
SPACE exploration
The team wanted to break free from conventional palliative care imagery, leaning into the space theme and developing imagery that was playful, warm and meaningful – representing connectedness, support and holistic care. It would be a missed opportunity not to embrace the out-of-this-world acronym, so I played with a number of visual metaphors that worked with the theme while remaining true to the spirit of the project. The relationship between specialist care and aged care had to be represented like a partnership, rather than specialists coming in to supplement the inadequacies of the facility. Representing this through galactic imagery was a challenge, as space can often represent isolation or a less-than-human futurism.
Constellations became the perfect visual metaphor to express the connectedness between residents, friends and family, residential aged care, general practitioners and specialist palliative care. We explored how this metaphor could be used to illustrate the model of care, ultimately deciding that the resident should be at the centre, orbited by their supportive care network.
Final designs
Banners, postcards and illustrative elements were created for the team to prompt excitement and awareness of the project among statewide healthcare workers. The design had to adhere to the Queensland Health style guidelines, which limited the ability to design a "logo" or stray from typographic conventions, so I explored creative ways to work with bold forms and frame the typography in a way that caught the eye. Most importantly, I wanted the designs to have heart – to feel connected rather than clinical.
