What is The Blue Algorithm?

The Blue Algorithm is a creative studio and publishing platform founded by Melissa Geurts. It explores emotional UX, poetic technology, and system-level design through interactive tools, digital rituals, and sensory storytelling.

Who founded The Blue Algorithm?

The Blue Algorithm was founded by Melissa Geurts, a creative executive, emotional systems designer, and award-winning leader in emotional UX and AI-powered storytelling.

What does The Blue Algorithm create?

Projects from The Blue Algorithm include The Feelings Library – an emotional operating system using rituals and somatic design – and System Crash – a glitch-pop album created using AI and memory loops. The studio also publishes research on design, emotion, and creativity.

What is poetic technology?

Poetic technology is the fusion of emotional depth, systems thinking, and emerging creative tools. The Blue Algorithm uses this approach to build emotionally resonant experiences that help people connect with their feelings, bodies, and memories.

What is emotional UX?

Emotional UX is a design philosophy that prioritizes the user's inner experience, supporting emotional expression and regulation. The Blue Algorithm uses this in all its tools to create emotionally intelligent, somatically grounded interfaces.

Can I collaborate with The Blue Algorithm?

Yes. The Blue Algorithm works with collaborators across design, tech, and wellness. You can reach out via hello@thebluealgorithm.com to propose a partnership, residency, or creative commission.

What makes The Blue Algorithm different from other design studios?

The Blue Algorithm combines AI tools, emotional design, creative strategy, and somatic research to build tools that are deeply human. It's not just a studio — it's a creative operating system for the future of feeling.

Where can I learn more about The Blue Algorithm's research?

You can explore ongoing essays and thought experiments on The Blue Algorithm's Substack at thebluealgorithm.substack.com — a space for decoding emotion, design systems, and creative technology in real time.

About Melissa Geurts | Creative Director, Storytelling & Visual Strategy

Hi, I’m Melissa Geurts.

I'm the founder of The Blue Algorithm — a creative studio working across storytelling, sound, software, and emotional technology.

By day, I'm Group Executive Creative Director at Good Housekeeping, where I've spent 11+ years leading creative strategy across print, digital, video, and social. Before that, Chatelaine and Style at Home. 17 years total in magazine publishing, 200+ covers, countless photoshoots.

I've worked on 200+ covers. I've directed photoshoots, managed creative teams, and figured out how to make stories land — whether it's a Susan Sarandon cover or a 15-second Instagram reel.

Now I'm teaching what I know.

My Approach

Outside of that, I make electronic music under my own name (@melissageurts) — glitch-pop, ambient, emotional soundscapes. 550,000+ Spotify streams, 39 songs released in the past year, music placed for sync licensing.

The Blue Algorithm is where all of it lives. It's a home for feeling-driven work — courses that teach visual storytelling and creative direction, tools like the Emotional Integrity Index and Stillware, the Audio Spells podcast, and whatever else I'm building next.

I've spoken at the AWS Media & Entertainment Summit alongside NBCUniversal, Warner Bros Discovery, and AMC. I write about emotional technology, the gap between knowing and doing, and what it means to make things that actually feel like something.

What I believe:

Good work comes from people who feel something. The best stories respect the reader. Words and images should be partners, not roommates. And most technology would be better if it cared about how people actually feel.