Coloring The Soul
Cleveland Behavioral Clinic
CONCEPT
Coloring the soul wants to bring healing and wellness through color theory in a fun, cheerful, and vibrant atmosphere to the Cleveland Behavioral Clinic.
The concept was deeply inspired by the children’s Carnival balls with lots of confetti, serpentine, glitter, and fun costumes. Carnival is a plural and democratic festival that manifests itself in many different shapes and forms - a festival where everyone feels welcome and accepted.
Typically celebrated at the end of February or the beginning of March, Carnival welcomes spring with its colors and light and leaves the grayness of the winter behind! Coloring the soul wants to deliver a space where the magic of Carnival reminds people to feel hopeful, a time of the year where they are allowed to dream, to dare, and connect themselves with the ludic.
The concept brings the confetti as the central representation of the Carnival and wants to recreate that feeling when we are throwing all the
confetti, serpentine, and glitter up to the sky. When the music is on, the sun is out, life is easy, fluid, and light!
Coloring the soul and its circular shapes wants to move away from the typical squared, sharp edges spaces and the feeling of being inside a box.
The organic curved walls designed symmetrically help with spatial orientation, facilitating the navigation of the space, and the flooring confetti shapes serve as wayfinding with its color-coded frames. The confetti is depicted in various scales, such as the acoustic lightning ceiling system, the playful wallpapers, and the acoustic pink wall displayed in the research consult room. Natural light was also one of the most significant efforts when creating the plan, in a way that the presence of glass walls, the striped white wall panels, and the light gray concrete floor help with the light reflectance.
The hues were carefully studied and tested for this project to portray contrast, fun, boldness, calmness, and healing simultaneously. The colors have a grayish vibe to match the concrete flooring, cooling the environment down a bit but still making it happy and young-spirited.
Coloring the Soul wants to create an experimental opportunity of magical and healing moments in every corner of the space. It hopes that people feel touched by the spirit of Carnival, always remembering that even during the hardest and darkest times, one can always connect to their inner children, put a costume on, and dance the physical-emotional exhaustion, the sadness, the anxiety and the bad vibes away!
One picture that brings a lot of happy memories! For someone who doesn't have children, designing for this demographic was a challenge and for that reason I realized that I needed to connect with my inner child and remember what used to make me happy. I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My soul and culture are Brazilian, and although Brazil is a lot more than samba, soccer and carnaval, I must admit that yes, Carnaval is maybe the most delightful, fun cliché of all!
Poster portraying OFS Carolina furniture used for this project.
The confetti are at multiple heights ranging from 9’ 5’’ to 8’ 5’’ to give the users the fun sensation when someone throws confetti up in the air and that light, flowy and airy colored little thing falls upon one making one laugh. They are also a mix of painted gypsum and felt covering for acoustics. The large colored ones have a LED ring around it and the small white ones have a standard recessed can in the middle of it.
One picture that brings a lot of happy memories! For someone who doesn't have children, designing for this demographic was a challenge and for that reason I realized that I needed to connect with my inner child and remember what used to make me happy. I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My soul and culture are Brazilian, and although Brazil is a lot more than samba, soccer and carnaval, I must admit that yes, Carnaval is maybe the most delightful, fun cliché of all!