Calling Creative Independents

Creatives often work in semi-isolation, even in the era of the Internet. The Creative Independent aims to provide an eclectic resource for artists and other creative people. Resources include interviews, practical advice for running a business, how to turn a creative idea into a career, avoid creative blockage etc. All clearly and unpretentiously written.

“The Creative Independent is a growing resource of emotional and practical guidance for creative people. Our goal is to educate, inspire, and grow the community of people who create or dream of creating. The Creative Independent is ad-free and published by Kickstarter, PBC.”

— Creative Independent

Back to Paper

It never crashes, it's flexible, requires no power and is stable over several centuries ... yes, it's that old communications stalwart, paper! Most designers still break out a sketchpad on a regular basis, and according to this BBC article, there's a movement afoot amongst even the most digitally literate to keep their pads, pens and pencils in regular use. However, at the same time, PC designers are making it easier than ever to sketch intuitively on screen.

Global Street Art

If street art is to your taste, Google is making a special effort to make viewing it exceptionally easy. The tromp l'oeil tricks used by some of the artists are genuinely remarkable. And given that street art in most places is likely to be rather ephemeral, cataloguing its diverse nature and global reach seems a worthwhile project. Unfortunately, google also has a history of offering short-lived services, so view it while you can...

Great Art by the Virtual Truckload

Via the fine folks at Open Culture, a definitive list of the best collections of digitised artworks. 

• Google Art Project (250,000 images)
• L.A. County Museum (20,000)
• New York Public Library-Historic Maps (20,000)
• Norway National Museum (30,000)
• SFMoMA Rauschenberg Collection
• Stanford University’s Cantor Art Center (45,000)
• Stanford University’s French Revolution Collection (14,000)
• The British Library (100,000)
• The British Museum (4,200)
• The Getty (100,000)
• The Guggenheim (1,600)
• The Met (400,000)
• The Morgan Library Rembrandt Sketches (300)
• The Museum of Modern Art/MoMA  (65,000)
• The Museum of New Zealand (30,000)
• The National Gallery (35,000)
• The New York Public Library: Photos, Maps, Letters (180,000)
• The Rijksmuseum (210,00)
• The Smithsonian (40,000)
• The Tate (70,000)
• The Whitney (21,000)
• The Van Gogh Museum (3500)
• Yale’s Great Depression Photo Collection (170,000)
• Vermeer (36)

Many of the artworks are scanned at very high resolution. In the case of institutions such as the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, re-use and alteration of the artworks is encouraged and celebrated. Considerable debate has erupted as to whether the wide availability of such material is somehow corrupting the ability of the general public to appreciate the actual rather than virtual artworks.

For those institutions that allow use and remixing of the digitised artwork, authors and designers have at their disposal a vast and powerful visual resource.

This is Colossal

This is Colossal is a rolling survey of new art and design. Curating the site must be a huge labour. The works featured are consistently striking and often involve great feats of imagination and manual skill. Well worth a look, particularly for creatives needing inspiration.