Celebrating community, creativity and collaboration online
As we’ve all gone from IRL to URL, at the HudsonBec Group we have been exploring ways to create meaningful human touches in the way we work digitally and finding ways to celebrate community, creativity and collaboration online.
During Covid-19 it’s fair to say that technology and digital experiences have played a much bigger role in our daily lives. We’ve spent more time than ever on Google Meets and Zoom, attending online events, and of course competitively participated in a quiz or two. For now, this digital standard of living feels like the new normal.
As we all pivot from IRL to URL, and with Covid-19 continuing to impact the way we interact for the foreseeable, companies like ourselves have been looking to bring a more meaningful human touch to the way we work digitally. Since March we’ve already learned a huge amount by adapting our platforms and projects with clients and collaborators in the digital space, and we thought we’d share some of our learnings with you. Although never quite the same as an in person catch-up, coffee or pitch, for now we’re exploring how technology can be harnessed to champion community, celebrate creativity and still help us connect with one another.
Championing community
Although we can’t be together in real life at the moment, it’s been great to see our companies pivot to host and join online events, which reach and celebrate an even bigger community of creatives around the world.
It’s Nice That’s own event Nicer Tuesdays is normally hosted in East London, but for the moment broadcasts from the living room of our Editor-In-Chief Matt Alagiah. A monthly event inviting speakers and creatives to come together online every last Tuesday of the month, it’s previous attendees hailed from across London’s zones but now sees audience members join us from Wales to New York, Cape Town and Peru. Producing this as a digital event has allowed us to also reach out to speakers from around the world, swinging the door wide open to this international audience. To further evoke the feeling of attending an event at home, It’s Nice That have added touches such as bespoke chat function and speaker curated Spotify playlists, dispelling distance and adding a cosiness for speaker and audience. The chat function has also contributed to a real sense of community, creating a dialogue between the audience and the speaker as well as audience members themselves — something which would never have happened before.
Lecture in Progress also recently introduced a new online event under the name of Pep Talk. Hosted as an in-conversation style event, young creatives around the world are invited to hear from inspiring professionals and learn about their creative journeys. The result was a much needed bump of confidence during a daunting time, teaching this young audience that no one way is the right way, and that everyone’s journey is different. Whilst Lecture in Progress’ other recent event, Portfolios in Progress in collaboration with G.F. Smith, invited recent graduates specialising in design, advertising, illustration and photography to meet and share their portfolios with industry creatives online. Hosted on Zoom in breakout rooms of three, the online format helped to mimic a feedback session, and give graduates a sense of normality as well as community. These events also enabled our clients and industry collaborators to help at a time when they wanted to make a difference more than ever, and we’re pleased to see that both sides of the encounter felt empowered and inspired.
It’s been a huge learning curve for us to translate these IRL experiences to URL, capturing all of their nuances online. But we’re excited by the opportunities online events present, their ability to reach an even wider reaching creative audience, and the chance to provide access to the industry for everyone wherever they are in the world and whatever their background. This is a positive we’re keen to take forward too and when we eventually do return to normality we’ll be making sure to continue to broadcast our live events, embracing our network whether they may be.
Celebrating creativity
In our studio we’d be huddled together around whiteboards, drawing up our big ideas and hosting workshops and brainstorming sessions. Although this physical way of working is currently paused, it’s been important to us to maintain and translate these practices online.
As a creative agency this has been particularly important for the team at Anyways. Across many projects this year they’ve done an absolutely stellar job at celebrating creativity amongst themselves, but also with clients and collaborators. From responding to a quick series of briefs on a Monday morning to kick start their creative thinking, to working off Miro boards and testing ideas on Figma, these meetings and tools have facilitated the way that we all work both creatively and collaboratively.
Right at the beginning of lockdown, Anyways was approached by Harry’s to help them rethink their plans for Pride 2020. Originally planning to display a series of profiles and illustrations of LGBTQ+ creators illustrated by Spanish artist José Roda at an exhibition in New York, the team battled restrictions by creating an online Design With Pride gallery. It was a lovely project for us to also think about how we can create interactive experiences in an online setting, and still achieve a sense of community through a shared moment. One of the first projects that we delivered remotely, the team and client were not only pleased with the results but also the ease of working with each other remotely, thanks to the tools and processes we had in place. We’re now working on even bigger projects including the concept and production of a digital event, direction and management of a remote photoshoot as well as various creative web-builds!
It’s a tricky thing to not be able to gauge your audience’s responses and reactions in real life, to meet with clients and collaborators in person, and deliver projects remotely. But we’re learning more and more about how we can inject personal moments into our creative process and projects whilst working from home. A new challenge to our creativity, we’re excited to see where it takes us.
Connecting and collaborating
Finally, one of the most exciting elements of working in our current digital space is the potential to collaborate with creatives living further afield. It’s Nice That, Lecture in Progress, Anyways Creative and If You Could Jobs have been dialling in and connecting with talent from vast corners of the world. From interviews, to speaking opportunities and project collaborations, we’re now able to work with a much wider range of talent. As a company, we’ve learned so much from collaborating with these creatives, as they bring their diverse backgrounds and experiences, ideas and creative processes to our team and we’re thrilled to be in a position to work with them.
Enabling Creativity to Thrive
Whilst we have adapted our projects, platforms and processes, one thing has remained the same: our purpose to enable creativity to thrive. Working remotely has been a fantastic opportunity for us to reassess how we can continue to drive impact and meaning for communities, creatives and brands. We’re still collectively supporting a platform for amazing talent to be discovered, providing commercial opportunities to brilliant practitioners, and helping young talent navigate the world of work. At a time when it could be said that the creative industry is in need, it’s our obligation to champion creativity and give a much needed boost of positivity to communities and individuals around the world.
I’d love to hear how you’ve adapted your own platforms and projects? What’s been working well for you? And what are some of your key learnings? As always any questions, comments and feedback are welcome — jessica@thehudsonbecgroup.com
