A story of kindness during the 2020 Coronavirus crisis

Associate GMD Lecturer, Luca Damiani has created a charming visual audiobook in collaboration with musician Riz Maslen and Elizabeth Lucy Well, NHS Arts & Health Lead. It strikes a positive and comforting note and is well worth sharing with any children you are currently in touch with.

Making use of Illustration, Graphic Design, Music, Sound and Story-telling, Luca created a piece that connects with concepts of Social Design and Arts & Mental Health during this difficult and strange time we are all living in. For the illustrations, he collaborated with his young nephew and intern, Nicola.

There is also an open-access link to 4 language versions of the story (in English, Italian, Spanish and French): https://issuu.com/lucamdamiani

Luca found creating the piece was a good way to react to personal worries about family members in Italy and to share with a wider community such as the EMDR and CBT psychotherapist network in the UK as well as with various schools. The Issuu version reached over 7,000 reads in the first 4 days of release, with 4-5 minutes as average time for each read, which is fantastic.

The intention is to keep everything open-access, but Luca is currently discussing the project with a UK publisher in Health and Mental Health for publication as a paperback as well.