Create Louisville Launches

By Michelle on March 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4) | Community Involvement , Online

A new project called Create Louisville has just launched to discuss what's going on in the Louisville advertising and creative communities.

Everyone's a critic, right? That's especially true for creatives. How many times have you wished you could grab the person that designed an ad or billboard and say, "Hey, there are other fonts besides Myriad Pro!" or "FYI, white glows around objects died in 1987." or better yet, "Nice layout! Keep up the great work!"

Now you can.

CreateLouisville.com is a forum for constructive criticism and stimulating conversation. We want to get better at our craft, and help raise the bar on work that comes out of our city. We've found that the only way to do that is to first admit that there is always more to learn, no matter how long you've been in the industry.

I think this project is a great concept and I'm not saying that just because the project organizers hired me to do a little behind the scenes work on the site (HTML, CSS, Movable Type). I love the idea of the advertising community being able to openly discuss, praise and criticize the work that's coming out of Louisville, in a constructive manner instead of the "that sucks" you frequently hear when someone is criticizing creative work online.

The site has already looked at some work that I like a great deal like the Bill Green poster from the Five0Two project and a Ben Sollee show poster designed by Circle One Design. I can't wait to see what they talk about next.

4 Comments

Jason Clark

Who's involved in this site? The site credits do not say who owns the site and what their mission might be. Otherwise the site looks good and definitely fulfills a need in our city.

March 12, 2008 10:02 AM

Michelle

The creators of the site have set out to be anonymous and I respect that decision. I asked them if they had a response to your comment though and this is what they said:

"The creators of the site want it to be an open, honest forum where people are judged on their work, and not who they are or who they work for. For that reason, each user is anonymous, as well as the staff. Please feel free to sign up and contribute. We’d love to hear what you have to say!"

March 12, 2008 10:16 AM

Jason Clark

I'm kind of on the fence about supporting this venture if the creators are to stay anonymous. My inclination is that the entire editorial process is undermined if we do not know who is in charge of featuring content. Also not knowing if this is to be a for-profit venture. There are two other organizations in town that could benefit from a site like this, LGDA and the Advertising Federation, that would be much more democratic and transparent. Again, it's a brilliant and necessary concept and the site looks quite nice. I'd like to participate, but again, I'd like to know the creators' long term intentions and identity.

March 14, 2008 11:57 AM

Michelle

While I'd like to think that we're enough beyond agency and personal politics that everyone could use their own name and be completely honest about their opinions I fear that's not the case. I can see scenarios where creative directors are not pleased with their employees either complimenting or criticizing the work of other agencies, I can see scenarios where people want to criticize the work of their own agencies but are afraid to do so openly. I can see scenarios where relationships are impacted by honest criticisms.

That speaks to the users being anonymous, but you say your issue is with the creators being anonymous. Well, one of the creators has "outed himself" so to speak in the Bill Green poster comments. Beyond that I can give you my word that the people behind the site are nice and have really good intentions. They want to get the word out about good working being done in Louisville and they want to help the work in Louisville get even better. I hope that's enough for you to consider being active in the discussions on the site. I think your voice would be a welcome addition.

March 14, 2008 3:16 PM

You might consider reading the Consuming Louisville comment policy