Score
Tasha Young on designing œvra, the app for creative flow
Tasha Young's approach to developing the app œvra emphasizes the importance of parallel brand and product development, ensuring that the identity reflects the app's core principles of clarity and restraint. This strategy highlights the need for brands to create authentic connections with their audience by embodying the values they promote, particularly in a digital context where user experience and emotional resonance are paramount.
The Brand Identity: Tasha Young spent over a decade translating complex narratives into identities for others. Then she decided her life needed to change shape. The Paris-based writer and creative director has channelled her research into the cognitive science of creativity into œvra – an app designed to help people reach the flow state, built on the premise that creativity is a trainable skill rather than an innate gift. What makes the project distinctive is how Young developed brand and product in parallel, treating the identity not as a wrapper but as an expression of the same principles the app teaches: clarity, restraint and atmospheric continuity.
In this interview, Young discusses how she brought her atmospheric vision to life, and why the pressure to be ‘good at’ creative work is one of the biggest blockers to actually doing it. TBI Hi Tasha! How are you? TY I’m well, just settling in after a hectic year and my recent move to Paris from Berlin. What comes to mind is a French emotion that resists a clean English translation: j’ai du vague à l'âme.
It’s giving Irène Jacob in a Kieslowski film (thinking particularly of The Double Life of Véronique). TBI You’ve spent over a decade working on brand and digital projects for others – what made you decide to create your own product with œvra? TY A desire for my life to change shape.
Similarly to when I was an arts and culture journalist earlier in my career, which made me realise I wanted to be an artist myself, not just write about other artists. Also, because I identified a clear problem to be solved while doing commercial creative work – between my own challenges and empathising with my burnt-out fellow creatives and colleagues, I was inspired to dive into research about how creativity works and how to get into flow state. Creativity is a skill just like memory or math. Creativity is a skill just like memory or math. TBI The app is built on research into the cognitive science of creativity.
What was the most surprising thing you learned during that deep dive? TY It turns out creativity is a skill just like memory or math that anyone can learn and improve. It’s accessible to everyone, not just those of us who identify as creative. This struck me as an important message to get out to the world, especially now, with the rapid and often thoughtless rush to outsource our knowledge work to AI. The other most surprising reframe is that creativity is an amazing mental health tool. There’s a strong overlap between creativity, mental wellness and mindfulness.
The benefits of creativity for our mental health and long-term brain health are comparable to meditation or exercise. This includes exposure to anything beautiful or artistic, as we’ve learned in recent years with the rise of neuroaesthetics and the bestseller ‘Your Brain On Art.’ TBI You developed the brand and product in parallel rather than sequentially.
Article truncated for readability. Read the full piece →
The article discusses a significant approach to brand and product development in the digital space, making it relevant and impactful for brand strategy professionals, though the concepts of clarity and emotional resonance are not entirely new.