1. NEED FINDING FOR CREATORS Alex Lee Jeremy Marcelo Melinda Wang
Sarina Wu

2. Our Team
Alex Lee
Jeremy Marcelo
Melinda Wang
Sarina Wu

3. Visual Artist Dancer Creators Writer Photographer
Within the realm of arts and culture We decided to focus on designing for creators. As this is quite a broad group, we utilized this round of interviews to clarify whether we wanted to design for creators as a whole or for a specific type. To do this, we interviewed one relative expert within the fields of Visual Art, Dance, Writing, and Photography.
Writer
Photographer

4. Interviewees Jessica Yang Kevin Breis Mashbayar Tugsbayar Sarah Ohta
This takes us to our interviewees.
Jessica: recruited through direct connection, illustrator at California college of the arts
Kevin: went to OnOne studios and asked to interview, Has been dancing for 14 years, Owner of the studio, director of a competition dance team called chocolate factory
Mashbayar: Stanford graduate, hobbyist writer and TA of a creative capstone class
Sarah: Stanford student, got into photography 2 years ago and is mainly self taught
Jessica
Yang
Kevin
Breis
Mashbayar Tugsbayar
Sarah
Ohta

5. Questions
Process:
Can you take me through your creation process for the last piece you made?
Tell me about the last time you choreographed during your lunch break?
What’s the process you go through when you are trying to tell a story?
How do you start a photo shoot from start to finish all the way to the editing
Motivation:
What motivates you to create an art piece?
What keeps you dancing to this day?
What drives you to create great photos?
Improving:
How do you find inspiration?
What do you do to improve?
What makes for good feedback or critique?
Community:
What is the relationship between the dance studio and the dance community?
What annoys you about the photography community?
Exhibition:
What do you do with your finished art pieces?
How do you like to share your works?

6. Visual Art Motivation: Inspired by others and environment Process:
Ephemeral to solid
Largely affected by medium
Painpoints:
Finding good references
Buying materials
Unique concepts
Getting helpful feedback
Surprises:
Process > physical piece
Motivation: go online, get shown pieces by network, takes classes outside her field to gain broader knowledge
Process: An assignment or inspiration > checks her time constraints > starts doing sketches and thumbnails > gets feedback from peers on which ideas make sense > get supplies > transfer to final medium,
Done when you keep working and it doesn’t improve, or if there’s a deadline
Painpoints:
“sometime your on deadline and you can’t afford to look around”
Mismatch when buying sets, lots of less used or unused items
“nothing is original, even if you’ve created it there might be some copying in the subconscious”
Want feedback from people you respect, things you can change, and specific/actionable over a general feeling
Surprise:
She is ok with throwing away pieces after documentation, experience of creation matters more
By Jessica Yang

7. Dance Motivation: Fun and Community Process: Random inspiration
Practice
Painpoints:
Ideas at work
Not enough time
Switching modes
Surprises:
Secret life
Motivation: started as a child because it was fun, is pushed to be better by the community
Process: “constipated with ideas”, works a 9-5 so sometimes he is deep in work when inspiration strikes
Pain:
Gets ideas at work
Choreographs during lunch breaks
Switching modes from work to creation, so different
Surprise: feels like secret life when he’s at work

8. Writing Motivation: Inspired by outside sources Process:
Switch between critical and non-critical brain
Painpoints:
Unhelpful critiques
Setting deadlines
Surprises:
Dislikes autobiography
Motivation:
Outside sources, remix to become her own
More representation of minorities in the writing community
Process:
“My creation process is kind of erratic and depends on the medium”
Characters present themselves to her, only when I am compelled by the characters do I create plots and stories, then turns on critical brain to add logic and motifs, never done only have deadlines, learned to set artificial deadlines for herself “‘I’m never done. I just have deadlines.”
painpoints: “I’m a performative writer, but I am paralyzed by large audiences.” like www, because of the unhelpful critiques, feels she needs to change herself
Really enjoyed when people rewrite story in their understanding so you see where you are unclear, specific critiques that are recognized as opinion not fact
Surprises: she disliked writing her capstone project because the character was too close to herself

9. Photography Motivation: Relaxing and enjoyable Social Process:
Lots of preparation
Painpoints:
Negotiating contracts
Locations
Homogoneity
Surprises:
Never felt a creative rut
Motivation:
Started just with iphone photos then upgraded cameras, realized she really liked editing photos to create color schemes and moods “I think it’s really cool how I can completely change the colors in order to manipulate the mood”
Used to draw but thought it was too isolated, photography forced her to meet and work with new people
Process:
Lay down rates > ideal style > inspiration and reference photos > location and outfit > photoshoot > edits
Painpoints:
Nightmare getting paid and getting credit for photos I felt extremely disrespected when my clients refused to pay the rest of the money and I realized how important communication and a contract would be”
Lack of photo spots nearby
All photos within a certain style are the same, especially on Instagram, feels like more exploration shots aren’t appreciated
Never a creative rut, her problem is time, has lots of ideas for shoots
Taken by Sarah Ohta

10. Say Think Do Feel Side needs: Material purchasing for visual art
“I already know all the places at Stanford that are good to photograph”
“I felt extremely disrespected when my clients refused to pay the rest of the money”
“I think it’s really cool how I can completely change the colors in order to manipulate the mood”
“It’s a symbiotic relationship with the community”
‘Constipated with ideas”
“‘I’m never done. I just have deadlines.”
“I like structured environments, where I am invited or asked to share”
“Sometimes you’re on a deadline and you can’t afford to look around for reference”
“Nothing is original. Even if you’ve created it there might be some subconscious copying or reference”
“I don’t like it when people say this doesn’t look good, like I need to know why”
“Tech is getting better. It’s scarily good at replicating physical drawing. A good thing about tactile art is you can feel the different textures”
Inspiration can strike at the most random times; can be completely unrelated to his field
Not enough time
Wants better communication with clients
Popular Instagram accounts in same category have same style; not much variety
Not enough time to travel to good places
More people need representation in writing
Cares about the characters more than the worlds that hold them
Trying to cater to other people’s tastes
“It’s like listening to your teacher vs. your classmate. You want them to have street cred”
“Ephemeral to solid” in the process, largely affected by medium Do
Feel
Lets ideas stew and incubate to be ready when have time to create
Gets feedback from models
Sets own deadlines (artificial deadlines)
Starts creating characters then builds worlds from them
Don’t take care of pieces after documentation, creation more important than the physical piece
Reach out to teachers and friends for critique
Start with quick sketches and thumbnails
Buying supplies
Go online for inspiration
Grow your references and the canon of people you like and follow
Put yourself in other fields to learn more
Dancing is fun
Stressed/tired but worth it, overinvolved
Liked the editing process
Used to like drawing, but felt too isolated and individualistic
Frustration: Redid pictures for client, still not paid, still not credited (was posted)
Paralyzed by potentially misleading feedback from mass audiences
Passionate about having more diversity of writers in literature
Inspired by other people
Self-doubt: comes with looking at inspiration “why am I even trying this”
Never truly satisfied with what you make
Feels proud when putting so much into a piece and creating something no one’s done
Side needs:
Material purchasing for visual art
Setting artificial deadlines
Trying to create unique art
But 3 most interesting and all encompassing

11. A simple way to find inspiration
Need
A simple way to find inspiration
Photography Locations
Visual Reference Photos
Dance Music and Moves
Inspiring Passages
Time crunch and community

12. A quick way to capture ideas on the go
Need
A quick way to capture ideas
on the go
Thumbnail sketches
Choreography
Locations or outfits
Characters

13. Need
An effective
way to get
specific and
respected
feedback

14. Summary
Capturing Ideas
Capturing Feedback

15. Thanks!