"Creators, within the diverse spectrum of writers, artists, or musicians, have the common experience of mental block keeping us from completing our work.
In order to break away from the barrier, collaboration is agreed to be the best method of a creator's progress. My app, in form of a group chat, consists of one of the members writing one sentence or simple drawing, and the rest will take turns to build up from the previous ones.
A fun exercise to increase your inspiration and creativity! Inspire together. Create together. Without further ado, I give you... UNBLOCK!"
Stated in the elevator pitch I have written above, my research is on discovering the basis of a creative block experience. Creative block is an artist's momentary inability to completing certain work, due to a lack of ideas or circumstances that refrain one from doing the job. Various causes can lead an individual to experience this block. Thus, I set up an interview for creative artists, ranging from designer, musician, writer, etc., to inquire of instances with creative block, and their methods in dealing with them.
Common answers to the causes of creative block are when projects are either vague in its deliverables or leaves little interest for the artist. Lack of inspiration or distractions are other factors that affect the passion in creative minds. Should the block prolong for longer periods of time may generate exhaustion, stress, and frustration. When it comes to overcoming the problem, the general response is assistance from a collective group proves to be helpful to the person struggling to develop ideas and finishing as soon as possible. Brainstorming numerous suggestions and giving input to what the creator should do are the many examples in executing creative flow. Most reflected on learning past issues, and improve to bettering their plans. From what I have gathered from my interviewees, is that the response is to persevere, as one's end goals may be worth all the hard work, and the accomplishment in getting over a mental obstacle will be truly fulfilling.
With the summation and responses that I acquired from my interviews, I have come to the idea to produce a system that will involve collaboration within a group to best creative block. The app I titled UNBLOCK was the choice for providing a simple, yet a significant purpose: to break the creative block and effectively succeed in completing particular tasks. The logo I came up with presents a flying quill coming down like a comet, symbolizing the power of creativity, with colours such as reddish-orange, yellow and blue to emphasize this boost of energy and enthusiasm in participating an enjoyable exercise.
When logged in to the app, there are no requirements to signing up from scratch, as the quicker alternative is to connect through email accounts like Gmail, immediately obtaining all needed profile information. The home page (clicking on profile name) would display a collection of exercises done by group mates. Each file contains two categories, also found on the top page: a group chat and work space. Chat page is where one can converse with their members freely. Work page will be where the main activity occurs: creators find other peers similar to their interests. The procedure, bearing resemblance to games like Mad Libs or Telephone, will have members organize a group and take turns in forming one sentence or drawing, gradually assembling into a whole structure of complete work. This, I feel convinced, should be a fun little activity for a creative individual, assisting in gaining newfound incentive.
In association to promoting the app, I also filmed a mock ad video to further demonstrate the usage of the UNBLOCK app. It was a novel learning process, for sure, considering I am used to presenting a still image design project. As a film enthusiast, I used many cinematic traits that I have learned from myself, and applied to this video project to the best of my abilities. Planning out a storyboard through an early Lo-fi draft, what matters most is an engaging narrative, humorous yet structural to the film's premise. Of course, the situation should begin with a visual problem (a rising action), a decisive solution, and deliver a satisfying conclusion. Playing the role of filmmaker was a refreshing interpretation on approaching a work of art or design project. Though my original vision from the Lo-fi draft did not go the way I planned due to constraining circumstances, I was determined to see this project through, even if I have to do all the filmmaking and production by myself.
While this project actually focuses more on the filmmaking aspect, I would be interested in returning to the app design itself, and see if there is anything I could do to improve or develop. For instance, I would add a page where one can start on a new project. I like to imagine having more choices in artistic genre, such as writing, drawing, and even music or songwriting. The user should know where to search for people to invite them in a group, give them a choice on whether to accept or decline the offer. While ideally, it wouldn't matter how many members can be included in one group, though it would be a good suggestion to limit to around 2–8 people. Thus, I see a setting notifying the user about the maximum amount of people. Even though the video's length of time is made to be limited to only a minute or two, I am confident enough that I was able to present a well-understood demonstration on the work and purpose of UNBLOCK.
Links to view the mock promotional videos for UNBLOCK:
Lo-fi Draft | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CnwLh8Q6eY3GeKhyngPJb9Mz2cLHRYzP/view?usp=sharing
Finalized Draft | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tlAxtbFKwuSg_YcuIs5K9oXFNR9rIR9Z/view?usp=sharing