Gina's Endometriosis Project
This project was chosen as one of my two final projects for my design degree. I wanted to promote endometriosis to the wider public to increase visibility and improve awareness. After much discussion with my lecturers it was decided that I would write an article intended to feature in Elle magazine (hypothetically) and would design the layouts and illustration to go with it. I also produced a poster and a postcard using the image on the left to add to the potential campaign.
My main aim was to illustrate the experience of suffering from endometriosis. I knew my personal feelings of anger and frustration at the medical profession, desperation and hopelessness when my pain was bad were similar to what many women felt, but I wanted to make sure, and to find out about other women's experiences to back up what I expected would be quite intense imagery.
Numerous women responded to my request for interviewees and the resulting tales were sometimes shocking, often emotive and all were inspirational. You can access the unedited interviews on this site.
Once the project was complete, I wanted to make it available to all the women who were a part of its making. So here it is. I've split things up to make them more accessable on-line. You can access the images seperately to the text. This keeps the file sizes down while still giving a good impression of what the final outcome was.
Since completing the project I have been approached by another endo sufferer who asked if she could use one of my images for a poster campaign. We joined forces and combined her words with my image to create three campaign posters. These are also available on this site and can be downloaded for free by anyone who wishes to use them. My only request is that you e-mail me to let me know you're using them and what responses you get so I can keep a track of how successful they are.
My aim with this web site is nothing more than to make the contents of this project available to all. I am including a short links section to sites that are much more informative about endometriosis itself and/or contain links to endo support groups, current medical information etc.
So a huge big thank you to all the women who helped me with my project. I was awarded a first for it and I couldn't have acheived that without the wonderful support I received from every one. Thank you!
Gina.