Ruaridh McLean
BDes (Hons) Graphic Design
Proactive Patients
Proactive Patients is a bold, community-led graphic design project based in Edinburgh, aiming to improve public awareness and understanding of proactive healthcare.
Through creative Community Workshops, Proactive Patient Packs, and public placard-making, the project empowers people to speak up, learn, and engage with health information in a way that’s clear, memorable, and genuinely accessible. Taking inspiration from the immediacy of activist wheatpasting poster design, the project brings public health into public space — loud, visible, and participatory.
Rooted in design research — including statistics, peer-reviewed studies, and insights from healthcare professionals and patients — Proactive Patients explores how graphic design can bridge the gap between healthcare information and public engagement. Design probes, interviews, and collaborative workshops have helped identify key barriers and spark new approaches to patient education.
Currently running Proactive Patients Community Workshops across Edinburgh, the project is focused on deepening engagement with diverse communities and expanding its real-world impact. Through experiential events like the Say It, Sign It stall — a mobile initiative that brings proactive healthcare knowledge to the streets — the project aims to make health education more inclusive, empowering, and engaging.
Proactive Patient Packs: free tools with tips, prompts, and QR codes linking to digital animations — all to boost understanding of proactive healthcare.
Community members using their voices to make a difference through our creative workshops — sharing, shaping, and supporting proactive healthcare.
Community voices in action — people making their own placards to share what proactive healthcare means to them. Personal, powerful, and participatory.
Proactive Patients connects with younger audiences too — offering the choice to read or watch engaging, accessible videos on proactive healthcare.
What does the older generation think? Insights from our second creative Community Workshop, spreading awareness across generations.
Say It, Sign It: a design stall where people voice their thoughts on proactive healthcare by creating bold, personal placards. Empower, express, educate.
Raising awareness through placards and stats — showing why patient education is vital, urgent, and a pressing issue that needs tackling today.
Proactive Patients exhibition — a space to explore proactive healthcare in a fresh, unique, and more informed way that sparks learning and conversation.
Community members engaging with Proactive Patient Packs — learning how to identify, prepare for, take part in, and reflect on healthcare appointments.