Resilience in 3 Photos: The always exciting story of crisis and perseverance

The ability to cope with and overcome crises is a basic existential human characteristic. Psychologists have coined the term resilience for this characteristic. It refers to the ability to not only cope with stress, but to also react actively, flexibly, and creatively to it and to develop further when dealing with a problem. Resilience is therefore not just a topic for psychology and mental health, but also one that concerns us all. This is about the age-old story of crisis, perseverance, and reward. It’s not just the classic thread of which epics are woven; it’s the triad that accompanies our entire lives and makes them exciting. This makes resilience not only a trendy topic in uncertain times, but also an important tool in brand communication – and so also in visual language. Let’s take another look at a few successful examples.

Photo 1: Mindful, balanced, active – and ready for life!

A person’s mental resilience may also depend on factors such as socialization or character disposition. But you can also do something yourself to stay balanced when the ground moves under your feet: develop an awareness of what is really important to you; take time for breaks; check your own location and goals; do something good for yourself; sharpen your focus on the positive. More on this in our Inspire “Me Time”. This self-care is well expressed in Kniel Joseffson’s image. The red-haired woman is visibly at peace with herself and completely at ease as she balances the pinecone on her forehead. The fact that the exercise equipment is not a ball or the like, rather an object from nature, conveys another message: we must not forget our natural roots, especially as people of the hi-tech age.

Photo 2: Strong and stable thanks to mutual support

A stable and supportive social environment plays an important role in building resilience. Even the strongest person is a social being and cannot survive alone. Everyone needs reliable confidants who can give them support in difficult times. In movies and fairy tales, the shining hero may single-handedly defeat the forces of darkness, but real life doesn’t tend to work out that way. In real life, it can be a sign of strength to show weakness and seek help from others. Evgenia Sunegina’s mother–daughter image expresses this situation well. We all need people with whom we can talk about our problems and with whom we know we are safe and understood, because the strongest rocks in the sea are not made of stone, but of flesh and blood.

Photo 3: About experiences of personal growth

Resilience doesn’t just come to us as a gift from above; it can also be trained. Or to put it another way: we can grow from our problems if we face them with the right attitude. From a somewhat philosophical point of view, crises are the tasks that life sets us so that we can learn something new by overcoming them. Even if it’s hard, you should tackle difficulties in a physical way. Just as a muscle grows when it has to work against resistance, our soul also becomes stronger when we deal with challenges. Speaking of athleticism, Xavier Lorenzo has staged the hurdle race of life in this powerful image. It’s safe to assume that the young man didn’t always jump over railings so easily, but that he had to practice for a while to be able to do so. And not just the mastered, but also the knocked-over hurdles can teach us something…so let’s keep practicing undeterred.

Resilience as a tool for effective brand communication

At least since the Covid pandemic, resilience has emerged from the psychology and health corners to become a trendy topic with a broad impact. The Covid-19 crisis has plunged many people into deep uncertainty. At the same time, it also became clear in the wake of the Ukraine war how important flexible resilience and crisis response capacity are not only for individuals but also for entire societies.

Resilience is an important prerequisite for satisfying an elementary basic need in everyone: security and the ability to (out)live in an increasingly complex world. This makes resilience an effective tool of contemporary and effective brand communication for many products and services. The good old heroic epic of crisis, perseverance, and reward never gets boring, especially not when it is told in strong images that still leave a little room for interpretation despite the clear message. Then we can recognize ourselves in them and realize that each of us is part of the stuff that heroes are made of! You can find more image examples on the topic of resilience on our Pinboard.