Cut to a few months before the global pandemic, Elder Younger Studios, a creative studio based in Surat, had a website that wore a vibrant outlook and hosted every detail that completed their quirky brand — brand communications, strategy, design and production, to be precise. The founders of the firm and sisters Rutvi and Vaishvi Mistry though, felt their website didn’t feel complete yet. They were yet to update their blog, but didn’t want to restrict its scope to their brand alone and wanted it to have an exclusive readership. As it did for many, the pandemic gave them a renewed sense of purpose (about the blog specifically).
A month into lockdown and two blog posts later, their content has struck a universal chord. It has gone onto explore the healing touch of art and has miraculously got people from various corners of the globe under a roof and has given them a creative avenue for expression. How did they do it? Their first blog ‘Colours of the pandemic’ saw them reach out to people from various walks of life, including cinematographers, photographers, models and other professions to come up with mood boards that reflected their idea of happiness through a broad spectrum of colours. Their distinctive expressions and images compelled a reader to understand the deeper influence of colour in their lives.
Their second blog ‘Tuning Art in Isolation’ took that idea a step further. Emmanuel Panja, a musician friend of the sisters who owns Epramusic, had created a distinct music piece, which he promised could trigger a wide range of emotions across several people in this hour. The sisters gave an additional layer to the blog this time around. They approached a bunch of graphic designers and artists across the world to listen to the piece, got them to word their feelings in the context of the pandemic and even visualise it through an artwork. The results are strikingly diverse and throw light on how we look at the world so differently. The same track has elicited ideas about the relationship between nature and humans, a judgement-free universe, the transition from childhood to adulthood and even a group of modern-day women playing traditional instruments, to just name a few.
Opportunity to reflect
“There’s an added pressure to catch up with the overflow of content on social media. We wanted this to be an experience. It’s not a conventional blog, but is instead asking everyone to be a part of it. You play the music track, feel it, create something and even get to see what others feel about it. The crisis is an opportunity to introspect, but one shouldn’t ideally bank upon it — it’s a blurry line. The blog is in the form of art that’s calming and yet not promotional,” the sisters say. Their contrasting backgrounds — one has been a screenwriting and a filmmaking professional and the other a brand communication strategist (their father is a photographer too) — contributed towards this alternative idea for a blog.
The kind of music one listens to, has a say in driving one’s thoughts. “With the second blog, we didn’t know what genre the artists would like. We just told them to listen to it and express where it transports them to. We gave them complete freedom with the format. Being illustrators and artists, they are already in a zone where they’re drawing their thoughts out during the pandemic. Freeing themselves from a format gave them creative liberty. They listened to a story deep inside their heart and expressed it through a visual.” Most artists were randomly picked through friends and their immediate circle, all of whom responded immediately.
Crisis conversations
The success story of the initiative also reminds us of the shelf life of the long-winded blog format — once considered a thing of past — and it’s comforting to think that it still has a loyal audience in an age where micro-blogging is in vogue. “There’s an old-world charm about it, which we can’t ignore. We certainly didn’t want it to be a boring blog that was an extension of a company. We wanted a takeaway element for everyone and saw it as a forum for expression. It made us realise that relating to one another’s feelings during this crisis could give many of us a closure too. We just hope it makes the readers feel better,” they add.
However, isn’t it a tad ironic that these conversations happen only when there’s a crisis? “This phase has given us time to think about what we feel clearly versus rushing through our everyday routines. It’s a break; everything’s at a pause and it puts us in a frame of mind where we can draw out our thoughts. In our regular life, we wouldn’t go beyond work or discussing Netflix shows. It’s hard for a conversation like this to exist, because our attention span is very limited otherwise. This phase and these kind of conversations will help people value time and their dear ones all the more,” hope the sister-duo.