Youth Resiliency Project

Polymode was commissioned to build the you and brand, identity, and app using design research that was provided by therapists, social workers, and visual prototypes. The Youth Resiliency Project developed you and empowers kids K–12th grade through a series of interactive lessons that teach them resilience, mindfulness, problem-solving, and self-care in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic. The app brings together all these modes for students to create their own world during the challenging times of the pandemic.

Lead Partner – Silas Munro
Supporting Partner – Brian Johnson
Designer – Randa Hadi

Poetic Research

Practicing Emotional Resilience

What could an app look like that truly cares about you? Amid a global pandemic, Polymode was approached by the Behavioral Health Intervention & Support Services (BHIS) of Orange County, California, to help deploy support services for over 150,000 at-risk students within Orange County. With the help of a substantial grant from FEMA, BHIS, Phoenix House California, and UC Irvine, in collaboration with Polymode, developed an entire suite of deliverables to assist youth (K-12) in understanding, mitigating, and processing the Covid-19 pandemic. Harnessing scientific research, data, and user focus groups, the brand identity came about in the realm of cell division and a notion of processing the simple to the complex. Color is also anchored firmly to scientific study and representation, which translates into the different levels. These levels appear in the app and website through 6 videos covering a range of topics. The digital materials pair with a printed workbook distributed by the school system and connect to the community with a social media strategy and an out-of-home campaign across Orange county.

    The use and selection of colors for the Youth Resilience Project (you and) played a huge role, especially due to the psychological color associations. Here we are comparing marketing analysis to scientific color studies.
    Each color reflects a specific emotion and feeling relevant to practicing resilience. The transition colors are used as secondary colors in the app.
    Sacred geometries play a big role in you and’s logo, representing the evolution of an individual circle that multiplies and expands through each lesson. The you and logo morphs into different shapes as the students progress across levels. The progression between one logo to the next is seamless, evolving, expanding, and adapting alongside the students.
    The prototype of the app shows the complexity of the content but gives a simple informational interaction. There was a lot of care and user research that went into creating seamless interactions for the students.