Welcome to Front Row; the subscriber community of Futureative. I’m Steve, and I started Futureative because I’ve spent the last twenty odd years trying to find answers to this questions: “how will creative people build careers in the future?”
It’s only recently that it occurred to me that this may be a lifelong question. So we’re building a brand, community & initiatives that can help answer this, for my own stubborn curiosity, but also for my fellow creatives.
Futureative is made by, for and with independent creatives, to help find pathways fit for the next decade. We want to uncover new ways of creating work, launching projects that allow more creative people to build a creative career on their terms. Of course whilst navigating the trends of tomorrow’s ever-changing world.
How will we do this? We’re getting started by producing online events that can bring together creatives, practitioners, educators & generally just awesome human beings together, in one place, at one time, to talk about topics critical to creative careers and explore best-practice for building and growing said careers.
And then from those insights we’ll be producing things like reports and guides and articles, maybe even more live events, that we can publish here and start creating a new resources full of the best real-world insights available now.
And the name Front Row? Hopefully that speaks for itself; we want this to feel like the best seats in the house.
If you’re an independent creative person trying to work out what comes next, you’re in the right place.
So, what to read first? Why not start with this…
📚 The Future of Creative Careers (three-part series)
Our first essay-style series is a 3-parter, can we call it a Triptych? Maybe, maybe not, but it took long enough to write! If you want to get a sense of why Futureative exists and what we’re on a mission to try to change in the creative industry, this is the place to start. It’s somewhat of a call to arms for creative people to put what matters most (their creativity) first
Part 1: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to. — Slowly but surely creative careers have been getting harder and harder; the ecosystems that used to support creatives are disappearing. This piece explores the start of what we can do about it.
Part 2: Creativity is valued. Creatives are not. — A $122 billion industry in Australia and a 2-3 trillion dollar economy globally. Yet it is still so incredibly difficult for creative people to be respected, valued and earn the most simple thing; a living. Here’s where our work starts.
Part 3: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next. — The biggest opportunity for creatives has to be independent creatives coming together more often; the final piece explores the importance of creatives learning and connecting from each other in real-time and poses a call-to-action to put your creativity first.
Help us support independent creatives everywhere
We’re on a mission to keep as much of what we produce as freely accessible as possible. To help we’re on a mission to build a funding model that combines revenue from our products and events, as well as sponsorship and grants. But a critical part of our independence is going to be from people like you. Reading this.
If you want to support us, consider jumping on board for a paid membership and help us to produce our events and create experiences that help independent creatives everywhere.
We’ll be slowly adding more value to our memberships and aim to make them a massive win for anyone that back us early. If you have the means to support us, a big thank you in advance from this indie creative team ❤️
Still keen to know more about who we are? Check out our About page.
Thanks for being here and for reading. If you have any ideas on how I can make Front Row (or Futureative) even better, or if you’ve got an idea for how to contribute, reach out anytime.
With gratitude,
Steve
Front Row is your backstage pass to everything we’re publishing on creative work, launching projects, and the trends shaping creative careers.
Built by, for and with independent creatives.
We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads