Relationships of Kindness is the culmination of an arts and health research project led by the Arts and Health Team at the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board with the goal to find out how to improve staff’s wellbeing in the Health Board’s various sites.Cooked Illustrations was contracted to support by creating content that would interest staff members to participate in the research project, as well as to collage any creative output borne from their participation. This material was then used as the basis to create a final piece of artistic output that would fulfil the project’s goals. Originally, this output would’ve been a physical creative intervention at a specific locale. However, as the project progressed, it became clear that a different approach would help increase the project’s reach and impact by directly giving people the tools to improve their wellbeing.

Cooked Illustrations helped in the design of an arts and health toolkit in the form of a printable zine. Full of wellbeing creative exercises to be shared with staff at all levels of the health board, our booklet had to be easy-to-print, shareable, and visually interesting so any user, regardless of their background and role within the organisation, was inclined to use in their own time. Something that would contrast with the usual health board corporate branding was needed.

The majority of the content for this booklet was developed by Health Coordinator Esyllt George. Though, our very own Rachel Smith came up with the idea of “bringing the outdoors inside” through the making of a terrarium. The visual representation was all Cooked Illustration, with recommendations. Like a lot of our projects, it was a team effort to create the best visual communication material for the right context.

This shows the potential of how arts and health can help with staff wellbeing in any environment, but also how creative visual communication can help create buy-in from an otherwise hard-to reach audience.