ABOUT
Why Curiosity Studio?
Photo by Hannah Voxland
The best place to start to answer this question is first, who the heck am I? My name is Ashley Mary. I’m an artist, designer, and illustrator based out of Minneapolis, MN. I freelance full-time out of my studio in NE Art District where I focus my energy on creating abstract colorful paintings that ooze a bit of play. This is a passion project for me, a little idea I’ve tucked away that I’m taking out to play with now.
In my day to day, I meet a lot of people who crave creativity but always ask me “How do I get started?” and “How do you stay inspired?” There seems to be a play-epidemic and even a misunderstanding of its (crucial) role in our lives and work. We are creatures of routine for the most part and prioritize other parts of our well-being into a daily practice (brushing teeth, drinking water, exercise) but we stop-short when out comes to creating daily-patterns around creative play. When I use the word play, at its core I am referring to the part of us that is curious and carefree. The bit of our spirit that’s willing to try something new with no agenda. To revel in the process, the connection, the tools, the environment and the mess.
Curiosity Studios is my goofy attempt at trying to create a space where folks can be reminded and educated around the importance of play for our body, minds, and souls but more so to have a safe and colorful space to try some things out. To be curious. To explore, experimement, and make all the messes. Say YES. Try again and again. Find new inspiration in familiar tools. My hope is people can walk away with a few new ways to help them create play rhythms in their daily lives and creative practices.
Curiosity Studios will not be entirely run by myself at the end of the day because that would be an automatic fail. These classes will rely on having the best people in the room to instruct the individual lesson plans, bring their own unique set of gifts, voice, and experience to the table and to bring a diverse viewpoint into the topics. I will teach a few of the classes I feel most qualified for and gather a team of unicorns around to help facilitate the rest.
I got the Capstone Crazies
For my final capstone project as a part of the Master’s of Web and Graphic Design at MCAD, I wanted to fuse a few things that mean a lot to me together: teaching/learning, my business, making by hands, connecting with people, and the spirit of play. Creating a class-curriculum has given me space to not only invest back into my own business in a group-setting (making extroverted Ashley very happy) but to explore the world of teaching which I have always had love around. The research alone has left me entirely inspired and convinced at the magic and necessity of play to our well-being and our ability to be a kinder, more creative, and healthier individuals. I believe that when we function from a space of healthy play on a regular basis, we can leave the world a little lighter.
Process
Deliverables
Brand identity
Business cards
Promotional mailer
Info mailer
Course booklet
Course syllabus
Sample lesson plan
Social content
Website
Motion graphic
Problem Statement
The majority of adults in today’s age don’t incorporate playfulness and creativity into their daily rhythms. As a result, they’re often left uninspired, tired, unmotivated, overworked, stressed out, and blocked creatively which contribute towards personal and relational discontent, dissatisfaction, and overall mental and emotional unhealth.
Research
Research for this project has happened in two main buckets: formal research using the sources cited below and personal experience as a freelance artist with experience teaching creative courses. In my line of work, I interact daily with my own audience (primarily through platforms like Instagram, open studios, as well as any event/speaking engagement I might be a part of). In the last 4 years as a creative business owner, I hear the same themes over and over from folks who crave a more regular interaction with their own creative nature. This has been probably my most valuable research and the most organic. There is something missing in our daily rhythms, actually a few things if we’re being honest. But I’m going to tackle “play” in this setting.
I also interviewed some key people I wanted to involve in this project, you have unique skillsets and backgrounds in art therapy, theatre, healthcare, life coaching, and fine arts.
Feedback
For more formal feedback, I reached out to a number of folks who are teachers, instructors, artist, creatives, and designers and whom I think have some great “play practices” in their own lives. I received the most consistent feedback from Zach Keenan, whom I invited to be an advisor of sorts on this project. Zach was my instructor in my post-bach program. Zach is currently;y an Associate Creative Director at Haberman in Minneapolis and has a background as instructor, advisor, and director of Design Works at MCAD.
Interviews
I interviewed four people, experts in the fields of design, education, art therapy, theatre, communication, coaching to contribute to the overall concept of this program and the courses. Some people from this group will also become instructors when classes launch and help create the program overall.
Survey
A survey was sent to seven folks with diverse creative and communication backgrounds. Questions were around type of classes and mediums they would want to explore, what to not do in the program, creative blocks, and asking about their personal relationship with play.
Weekly Progress
I documented my process of creating everything for Curiosity Studio on Dribble. You can poke around HERE.
Brand Identity
Looks + Feels
The words to the left are the core of Curiosity Studio. So I wanted the logo mark to feel inviting, modern, and playful. I also wanted it to have a pinch of nostalgia. Something that evoked memories of being a kid, when trying new things was easier and came naturally and egos weren’t yet at play (puns always intended here). And of course, it needed all the colors. If I’ve learned anything as a painter, it’s that colors create energy and that energy can be powerful if used correctly. CS needed to be high-energy, buzzy, light, and free.
I started the identity process by collecting images that inspired what I felt was the spirit of CS. Above is my overall brand inspiration. Below is my moodboard for the logo mark specifically, with a focus on typography inspiration.
Logo Moodboard
Curriculum
The meat and potatoes! To write the curriculum for CS, I followed a templateI created that included components I felt were helpful to structure the class time but not to dictate how each minute would be spent. At the core of CS needs to be a sense of agenda-less-ness (made up that word) so to have too much structure takes away the opportunity for surprise. But to have any sort of schedule doesn’t honor the time and resources of anyone involved. Each lesson plans includes:
A objective statement
A loose time-line of eventsa
Tools and resources
Follow-up activities (homework if we must use the “h” word).
Below is a sample lesson plan written by Mindy Bolton, one of my guest instructors who specializes dementia communication and community art.
Mock-Ups
A big component of designing the collateral system for Curiosity Studio was mocking up and testing all the printed materials. My objective with each print piece was that it would be: interactive, inspire curiosity/play, have a social component that would serve as marketing and community interaction, be cost-effective to print in mass and that it would visually live nicely together. Since the logo is so colorful, I had a fine line to walk to keep each element also colorful without wanted overpowering the logo mark. I hate when printed things are wasteful so my hope for these pieces is that they become a tool for a greater activity. One that doesn’t require you to be a part of Curiosity Studio but focuses on the directed activity.
Resources
FINAL
Business Cards
Play is serious business (said no one ever) and I wanted to the business cards to prove it. Inspired by designer/food stylist Aimee Gautherie’s work with food, I wanted to give users an opportunity to play with some google-eyes to give some thing a face lift. The card themselves are stickers on the logo-side and the google eyes can be taken off and stuck on surfaces. Users are invited to share their goofy faces with hashtag.
#CSsees you.
Collateral
Every piece made for Curiosity Studio needed to meet the following requirements:
Interactive: a tool or toy that requires the user to move, make, do, play
Simple, user-friendly
Colorful + winky
Social: The experience ties to a social campaign or creates opportunity for a visual to be shared online.
Image courtesy of Aimee Gautherie
Promo Mailer
Mailers are often discarded for good reason: bad design, uninspiring, and useless. I wanted to create a promo for Curiosity Studio that slapped all of these words in the face. Inspired by maps with “You are here” red dots, I wanted to give user’s a place to literally start their creative play journey. Using the red dot mailer, folks will be instructed to find a space or place that inspires them to play. If they’re stuck on ideas, they can simply spin the mailer to pair up a verb with a noun to get a snazzy instructive for their time like “doodle a rainbow” or “photograph a pattern”.
Info Mailer
The informational mailer is for users to learn the meat and potatos behind Curiosity Studios with details like schedule, location, content, and cost. Inspired by some vintage hair ribbon packaging and old toys, I also wanted this mailer to be interactive, informative, simple, and cost-effective. I used the back of the mailer to create a print of verbs, words that are about do-ing, make-ing, and lots of other “ings”.
Inside this mailer is some string to play with. I want each piece of collateral within Curiosity Studio to be interactive, social, simple, and colorful.
Course Binder
When I first set out to create course materials for Curiosity Studios, I pictured a jam-packed zine full of inspirations, playful patterns, color chaos, and bold graphics. The more I started to build it out, the more it felt too specific to what I find visually inspiring, not leaving a lot of room for others to express themselves and that’s the entire point of Curiosity Studio. It sounded more like a zine (imagine that!) and less like a useful resource. I dialed it back and landed on a modern day scrap book. A spot for students to scribble notes, shove ephemera, tape inspiration, and keep their resources for reference. A tiny toolkit comes with the binder to assist in all these very important tasks. I opted for a simple small binder, easy to carry and made to hold treasure (also affordable because I want this class to be accessible for people).
Social Content
Curiosity Studio is a very visual experience and I want it to be a platform for people to boldly share their discoveries and also to find inspiration. I think social media can also serve as a space for sharing personal projects. I art-directed and styled a shoot with local photographer and stylist Judith Kostroski to create a series of images for use on web and social to bring some play to a digital platform. I wanted the series to have a strong color story tying back to the brand, utilize familiar tools for making/playing/art, and I wanted the shoot itself to feel inventive and loose in format. We ended up creating a series around patterns, tones, and structure all in the name of play. I also show some general promotional images with stylist/photograoher Grace Beck.
Behind the scenes
Final Images
Motion Graphic
Curiosity Studio is about trying things, getting out of your head, and actively doing something so naturally I was drawn to all the verbs. Using the same concept from the info mailer poster, I created a short GIF of verbs to be used on social and on-line.
