Creative Unions One Year On
It’s hard to believe that this time last year Alex and I were just starting to discuss the state of design and campaigns in unions around the world. It was near on impossible to find good examples of union design or campaigns online (it still is). At the time we thought that this was either because unions don’t show off their good work or because there was no good work being done. Both options needed to be addressed so we started Creative Unions.
The basic concept behind Creative Unions is that it’s a place that shows what unions are doing and capable of. With the added aim of raising the professional standard of design and campaigns by showing what was possible. The vast majority of campaigns that we have featured on Creative Unions have been made with minimal or no budget. The biggest thing I’ve learnt is that a small budget is no excuse for poor design or a poorly run/planned campaign.
Both Alex and I have spent uncounted hours scouring the internet looking for campaigns and designs to share. Without Google translator we would have given up long ago! Thankfully we’ve also had quite a few campaigns shared with us on the facebook page, through twitter and old fashioned email.
From the start we’ve been quite open that our ambitious plan for Creative Unions was to start a cultural change in unions, to get high quality designs and campaigns valued and to see unions leading the way in graphic design and innovative campaigns. We wrote our Manifesto and posted it to 100 union leaders and communications officials and hand delivered copies to another 50. The next stage for us is to run a series of awards judged by design, film, marketing and media professionals. We want to show that union campaigns and design can be world class and to show young designers and campaigners that there is a place for them in unions.
So what do we have planned for the next year of creative unions? We will run our awards and we are in the process of getting them organised. As for the site we are planning some interviews, videos, experiments, more how tos and hopefully better and better work to show case from around the world.
In the meantime if you’ve enjoyed seeing some great work made by unions around the world you should come to Creative Unions birthday party. We’ve run Creative Unions for a year on a fully volunteer basis and have funded it ourselves. We’d love to have a drink and a chat to celebrate both Creative Unions and creatives in unions. Register and let us know you are coming. It’s at Fad Gallery, 14 Corrs Lane, Melbourne on Thurs 27 May, and it’s free!
[...] our views of the year check out Mortartown (my blog) or Alex’s [...]