The Microsite

How did all those elements actually come together?

The site can be broken down into a few key elements: the main page, the pop ups, and the interactions.

The Main Page

This is the bread and butter of Creative Checkup. The main playground, the sandbox– whatever elementary analogy you want to use. People first have to answer how their creative health is today– jump-starting their thoughts on themselves and the purpose of this site. Then it’s up to them to explore! No one tells you how to play when you’re a kid right? They can scroll in any direction, and click on cards to uncovering the survey data beneath. They might find a resource hidden in there. They might find hard-hitting survey questions. They might find a picture of John B. Johnson. Just kidding– we didn’t think to put that in until now.

The Pop Ups

This site is more than just a fun display of data though. The filter lets users get hyper-specific in their data viewing, sorting through demographics, types of questions, and types of creatives. People can get niche and find the intersections. The submissions allows people to contribute more of their own experiences through survey question suggestions and unique resources. We weren’t going to spend 10 weeks on this and not tell you who made it too. Find out more about Ellie on the about pop up.

The Interactions

To keep our card-game vibe going, we included a few moments of digital-analog delight with our interactions. Every card animates to show a flip upon click, and our data shuffle button does just that. The cards fly in, move around, and disperse out with your new categorized information.

We have a merch nerd on the intern team, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pull together some super sick tees. Wayyyy back in the beginning of the project, we decided having a printed element to the final product was a must– what’s a better way to alleviate screen fatigue and burnout than to touch something physical? Our Creative Checkup merch line lives on yet another popup, but the link to this one’s hidden among the cards 🤫 how many will you have to flip to find it?

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What’s Next

If you think we stopped there, you don’t know team Ellie that well. Introducing Creative WrapUp: a yearly roundup of insights into your personal creative health. Think Spotify Wrapped, but instead of judging your friends on their music taste, you’re exposing all the toxic, burnout-inducing, and inequitable things about the creative industry - all through super shareable playing card graphics. Yeah, you might get roasted on Instagram for publicly admitting you’ve canceled plans to do client work, but you’re really contributing to radical transparency and positive change in the creative world, one card at a time.

Takeaways

That’s the wrap on our Creative WrapUp. If we took a moment to look at our original mission in retrospect, we might change it to say: Empowering the next generation of creatives to reimagine the well-being our creative ecosystem.

That’s ultimately what our project aims to do and what we, as emerging creatives, hope to see.

It brings attention to the ways we as creatives treat ourselves, enter the industry, build connections, and form communities. We hope to see creatives pushing these values to the forefront of the creative ecosystem as this next generation of creatives comes in as unapologetically themselves.

Our Love Letter to the Creative Industry

If you’re a part of the creative community in any way– this is our love letter to you.

Give your creatives a sandbox and trust them to build a castle. This project only happened because we were encouraged to play and given the support to do so. Being given the space to play and explore only makes that work more fun, engaging, and unique.

Meet your creatives in the middle, and they’ll meet you there as well. Whether you’re just entering this industry or an established company, remember that authentic collaboration is how ground-breaking progress is made. Don’t be afraid to let your team push the envelope.

Embrace and build the creative community. People are what make this industry great. A lot has changed since Covid, and the migration to an even more digital world hasn’t been easy, but progress is made when we find new ways to build community and connect on a  personal level.

At the end of the day, we couldn’t have done any of this without the incredibly talented and squirrel-obsessed team at a small studio. They’re a tiny but mighty group, and they gave us the belief and support we needed to thrive. They provided a safe space to crash when we failed and guidance when we were a little lost. All of these things were equally important to our growth this summer, the development of Creative Checkup, and our hopes and dreams for the future of the creative field. This intern project has become so much more than we had ever expected, and the team helped us understand the potential it has to impact the industry for the better and the power that we as creatives hold.

To a small studio: thank you, we’ll miss you, and keep playing in that sandbox.

Much love, Eme and Ella ❤️ 🛎️