<aside> 💡 “Creating is never a waste of time.” - Interviewee
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In February 2023, my best friend and I launched Chill Mag, a print-only literary and art magazine, to reclaim our creative fulfillment. Tired of conforming to market pressures and social media norms, we aimed to celebrate authenticity and presence. Since then, we've released one zine and two full-length magazines, featuring contributions from over 100 like-minded artists and writers worldwide.
Inspired by Chill Mag's ethos, I developed chillr. for my MUXD Capstone. Named after our magazine's readers - also known as "chillers" - chillr. provides a digital space for artists to connect, share their work, and network without the influence of social media's content economy. It mirrors the energy of our print publication, fostering genuine connections and creative fulfillment.
I started by doing desk research. I looked into several psychological studies and statistics of how social media has affected mental health as well as the art market. I also put out a survey via Instagram to gather more real-world insights from artists using social media for creative purposes. From there I created a competitive analysis of direct and indirect competitors. Concurrently, I conducted in-depth interviews with potential chillr. users that I then used to make an affinity map to guide my design process.
Meta’s Instagram is the most popular social media platform for artists online. While not tailored specifically for art, its low threshold of entry is attractive to artists looking to grow their reach. When designing chillr., I took a lot of inspiration from how Instagram manages user interactions and visual layouts for images and text.
Behance is the leading professional portfolio hosting platform for artists and designers, developed by Adobe. It has many high-level portfolio display features as well as employment boards and downloads, but its complex nature intimidates more casual creatives.
VSCO is the most systemically similar platform to chillr. VSCO pioneered removing likes and follows from social media and gained popularity because of it, but has since experienced usage decline due to competition from Instagram and TikTok. chillr. was heavily inspired by the democratic approach to content sharing on VSCO.
The initial group of user interviews consisted of two user types, the up-and-comer and the art mentor. The questions touched on use cases, creative confidence, online vs. in-person interaction, participants’ goals for fulfillment, personal social roadblocks, and how these participants interact with engagement metrics. From these user interviews, I was able to distill some key insights and findings that would propel chillr. forward.
