PART 3 of 3
This post is the finale of my three-part series showing how my background as a graphic facilitator and visual modeler with the MG Taylor network helped inspire The Black Music Project. MG Taylor's Creative Process Model assists in organizing my thinking and coordination of the project. The Creative Process Model outlines seven different activities of creativity that go into generating ideas from conception to action. The seven steps of the process are 1) Identity, 2) Vision, 3) Intent, 4) Insight, 5) Engineering, 6) Building, and 7) Using. Please read the previous posts to learn how the Creative Process Model helped guide us through steps one through four.
Click here for part 1: Identity
Click here for part 2: Vision, Intent, Insight
Moving from subjectivity to objectivity
The first three activities of MG Taylor's Creative Process Model, Identity, Vision, and Intent, reside thoroughly in the subjective hemisphere of the model. That is because most of the work through those stages was individual and conceptual. The Black Music Project was no different since it began simply as a way for me to share a drawing I did that connected Black genres of music over time. But once I added other collaborators and new perspectives, this triumvirate of me, Callum, and Marc gave the project the engine to grow the idea and solidify our new mission. Developing that mission (thanks in part to a slight but meaningful editing assist from my old MG Taylor friend and mentor, Bryan Coffman) was when we reached the Creative Process stage known as Insight, when the model moves from the subjective to the objective hemisphere. We have iterated the mission some since those early debates, and we now define it as:
The mission of the Black Music Project is to use the power of graphics and storytelling to recognize, promote and preserve the idea that the history of Black music is the story of America. — The Black Music Project Mission
A video I created soon after we crafted our mission that highlights 400 years of African-American created genres in one minute. The hardest thing about making it was deciding on which three second song clips to use.
Engineering — What's the Plan and the Detailed Design?
With the mission defined, our new challenge was making it real. And that is when the project transitioned from subjective creativity to objective creativity. We were in the Engineering phase, where ideas developed into plans and concrete strategies. After we reached a joint level of insightful understanding of why we existed and what we wanted to be, we focused on how we wanted to achieve our goals. During this activity, Callum's genius really stood out as he guided the shape of the user experience based on our conversations. One of the great lessons I have learned from listening to speakers recount stories of successful companies over my career as a graphic recorder is that the most innovative and prosperous companies are the ones that recognize the best ideas win, not who is more senior in the organization or has the loftiest title. Callum may be young, but he is wise beyond his years. I gave him an overwhelming list of ingredients in 29 music genres, seven distinct eras, and over 100 artist illustrations. In addition to all of that, I designed individual logos for both the eras and music genres that included a color palette consisting of over twenty colors (some of which differ only slightly in hue), and I also put on his already plate the task of not only making everything look harmonious but leading the way on designing a seamless user experience.
MG Taylor says the Engineering phase is a time to ask "detailed-level questions" so that you can put "the numbers" to your solution to give you a plan and schedule from which to build.
And time after time, meeting after meeting, he floored me with his design ideas. Good designers and engineers always consider the big picture and ask many questions. In our weekly design meetings, Callum continually asked us to think intensely about how potential users would navigate our site. Those questions helped lead to breakthroughs and things we had yet to consider, such as adding a US map of important dates and events, which aligns with the Black Music Project's mission of using the power of visuals to tell this story. Engineering is about asking questions that lead to new questions that then lead to sound solutions. MG Taylor says the Engineering phase is a time to ask "detailed-level questions" so that you can put "the numbers" to your solution to give you a plan and schedule from which to build.
Building — How Do We Create the New and Discard the Old?
The Building activity is the phase of production, marketing, and entrepreneurship. According to MG Taylor's Creative Process Model, the Build activity should be smooth sailing if you've asked all the right questions. Unfortunately, we asked "some" of the right questions, but not all. And that became apparent as we transitioned from the Building cycle to the Using phase.
We hit a major snag — Feedback, the critical component of the Creative Process.
As I noted in the first installment, the Creative Process Model is iterative and requires feedback from unbiased sources to be effective. About five months before our upcoming public release date of February 2022, we did a beta test among a select group of friends and colleagues to gather feedback about the site. All of the comments were favorable. I appreciated the positive reviews, but I knew I had to go to another source to give me the straight dope regarding our site. I had to seek the advice of someone intelligent, accomplished, and brutally honest — someone who once beat me up in public for catching me wearing their iron-on t-shirt without permission circa 1976. I had to go to my older sister, Gail Fuller.
My sister Gail is three years older than me. She has a distinguished career in communications and PR, is well-regarded and highly sought after in her industry, and runs a successful business. For these reasons, she is an obvious choice to go to for valuable feedback. But she's also my older sister by three years, and like all siblings (and Geminis), we don't always see eye-to-eye. (And there was still the unresolved drama regarding the What's Happening t-shirt. Or was it the Sweat Hogs? Either way, back to the story.)
The Creative Process Model is iterative and requires feedback from unbiased sources to be effective.
Ensuring we hit our target date of February 2022 was a huge milestone, coinciding with Black History Month in America. In late fall 2021, I gave my sister a password-protected view of the site so she could take a few days to peruse it and give us her opinion on a joint Zoom call with the team. Thankfully, her feedback was not as brutal as the t-shirt incident, and she started up front with the positives — which were numerous. And after Marc and I let her know that she could speak frankly in front of Callum, she then let us know where the site needed improvements — which, like her compliments, were also numerous.
I won't go into all the suggestions, but I will sum it up by saying the advice she gave us was honest and terrific medicine. From a user's perspective, she made sure we broadened our concept of accessibility to ensure the site delivered an inclusive experience. This advice meant we had to do significant work on our mobile ability and also much of the written material we had produced. After the call, the reality hit us (like a punch to the gut after getting caught wearing a t-shirt that didn't belong to us — OK, I'm letting it go). We came to the distressing realization that we were not going to make our deadline of February 2022, the beginning of Black History Month. This was an incredible letdown for a site calling itself, The Black Music Project. At first, I was disappointed, but today I am thankful to my sister because it was great advice. We all reluctantly decided to go back to formula and rebuild the site from the ground up. We set a new target just over six months away in June 2022 (if you did not know, June is Black Music Month in America—President Jimmy Carter first designated it in 1979.) This time, we made sure we hit our target!
The site you experience today is primarily the result of that rebuild. The most significant takeaway I can give you all regarding feedback is that no one learns from compliments.
No one learns from compliments.
Using — How Do We Live Using the Dream?
The final stage is Using. The Using phase is when your idea is finally out there in the world, and consumers interact with the end product of your entire process. It is at this point that you can gauge whether all your efforts were successful or not. You gather that information in two forms: quantifiable and qualitative. Quantifiably, this is seen in usage, sales, ROI, etc. Qualitatively this means feedback from your users through reviews, surveys, direct messages, online chatter, and written materials from professionals and trade publications. So far, the Black Music Project has been a great success, especially when measured in qualitative terms. Since officially launching in June 2022, The Black Music Project has won Best UX, UI, and Innovation from CSS Design Awards. The BMP has had positive write-ups in online publications such as Billboard, Houston Style Magazine, and Communication Arts Magazine, the most prominent trade journal of its kind. We have also given well-received presentations on Black music history and its importance to America's cultural identity to companies and organizations such as Ameris Bank Corporation, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Coeuraj. And in addition to these accolades and awards, we continue to see ongoing engagement and growth in our website data numbers.
Since officially launching in June 2022, The Black Music Project has won Best UX, UI, and Innovation from CSS Design Awards. The BMP has had positive write-ups in online publications such as Billboard, Houston Style Magazine, and Communication Arts Magazine, the most prominent trade journal of its kind. We have also given well-received presentations on Black music history and its importance to America's cultural identity to companies and organizations such as Ameris Bank Corporation, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Coeuraj. And in addition to these accolades and awards, we continue to see ongoing engagement and growth in our website data numbers.
The Black Music Project will continue to grow and evolve. And as it does, I will continue to incorporate my knowledge of MG Taylor's Creative Process Model to help guide its journey. Because once you complete an entire cycle of the model, you discover all the ways you can improve upon your project and new questions to use in the next iteration of creative problem-solving. And let me tell you, we have plenty of fuel for our next iteration!
Final Thoughts
As the chief founder of the Black Music Project, I feel that now, more than ever, we must fulfill our mission. Why? Because the world has become increasingly divisive, and America is facing another crisis of identity. Segments of the country threatened by the teaching of African-American history have pushed back by banning books and outlawing curriculums at all levels of education. This yearning to hide the truth because it makes certain people "uncomfortable" will only hurt all Americans in the long run, regardless of race, because it endangers our democracy, free speech, and civil rights. But a famous book once said, the truth shall set you free. And a famous "funkateer" once sang, free your mind, and your a** will follow. Those were both wise words America should adhere to.
As the chief founder of the Black Music Project, I feel that now, more than ever, we must fulfill our mission. Why? Because the world has become increasingly divisive, and America is facing another crisis of identity. Segments of the country threatened by the teaching of African-American history have pushed back by banning books and outlawing curriculums at all levels of education... But a famous book once said, the truth shall set you free. And a famous "funkateer" once sang, free your mind, and your a** will follow. Those were both wise words America should adhere to.
I created the Black Music Project because I believe that sharing the unsung stories of America's Black musical contributions can teach and uplift all people by showing how so much creativity, innovation, and beauty came from pain. African-American music is admired, emulated, and co-opted all over the world. It is a story that should be celebrated, commemorated, and built upon positively.
Black artists are some of the finest exemplars of using the iterative and collaborative nature of creativity because Black music is constantly creating, innovating, evolving, and pushing forward in a dialogue with society (if those words didn't convince you, look at the map that started it all). And one of the central themes of America and its people is that we are a nation of innovators and creators. It's time the country fully appreciated the contributions of Black Americans in shaping our cultural identity. It's time the world realized that the history of Black music is the story of America.
Black artists are some of the finest exemplars of using the iterative and collaborative nature of creativity because Black music is constantly creating, innovating, evolving, and pushing forward in a dialogue with society... And one of the central themes of America and its people is that we are a nation of innovators and creators. It's time the country fully appreciated the contributions of Black Americans in shaping our cultural identity. It's time the world realized that the history of Black music is the story of America.
I hope you all continue to follow us on this growing journey. Please like and subscribe to Black Music Project on your socials, and be sure to share this story with others.
Follow Griot's Eye on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Spoutible for more information, inspiration, and examples utilizing the power of graphic reporting, graphic facilitation, and visual storytelling techniques.
And be sure to follow The Black Music Project on Spoutible (we're most active there nowadays), Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube (this is our new YouTube address), and Twitter to learn more about how we show that the history of Black music is the story of America.
If you like The Black Music Project and support its mission, please consider donating. The Black Music Project is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of The Black Music Project must be made payable to "Fractured Atlas" only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. You can also make one-time or recurring donations on our fundraising page.
If you like The Black Music Project and support its mission, please consider donating.
Are you interested in learning more about MG Taylor, its DesignShop Process, visual modeling philosophy, or other collaborative strategies and tools to apply to your business or organization? Then I highly recommend the Collaboration Code book series by my friend, mentor, colleague, and Hall of Fame Facilitator, Rob Evans— co-founder of Imaginal Labs.
Thank you,
Christopher Fuller
CEO of Griot's Eye and Creator of The Black Music Project
