Creative Studies is made possible by Dropbox Dash. Search the way you think.Dropbox Dash is your AI teammate that surfaces the content and context you need to stay focused and on track. Cut through chaos with Dropbox Dash, your AI teammate In 2008 James Surowiecki wrote the book “Here Comes Everybody.” In it, he made the case that digital connectivity has democratized organization and communication, reshaping how communities form and how collective action happens in the modern world.We’re now seeing that play out 18 years later as the book reaches a maturation state moving from merely a hypothesis to real life case studies.Shirky documented what is now showing up in every human state of affairs including politics, business and education. And we’re just at the beginning state of this tipping point.One of the biggest real life case studies happened recently that may actually dial all of this up to eleven to use a terminology from Spinal Tap.Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City as a Democratic Socialist. Many point out he did this solely using social media. But what he really did was utilize organizing without organizations. And using something usually not talked about in our heavy technocratic narratives. He got people talking with one another in real life spaces again in one of the biggest cities in the world. And they did this without any formal organization. He copy and pasted Shirky’s hypothesis into real life. Mamdani relied heavily on a decentralized group of volunteers who canvassed for him around progressive policies and a vision that is long overdue to be implemented in a city that has become the playground of billionaires.As The New York Observer review of Shirky’s book stated, “For the first time in history, the tools for cooperating on a global scale are not solely in the hands of governments or institutions. The spread of the internet and mobile phones are changing how people come together and get things done - and sparking a revolution that is changing what we do, how we do it, and even who we are.”While the internet is not new, how we are finally using it seems to be rewriting outdated playbooks and systems from a big media monocultural era. This is leading to a reform revolution right before our very eyes where how we viewed the world the past 40 years is no longer how it will function for the next 40. Mainly because the past worked like a military hierarchy. The present? Like a flat collective where everyone has equal power to contribute and be a participant more than a witness.This, along with an economic system in need of a Nu “New Deal” is making us teeter on the edge of a reset. So what is holding back the complete overhaul of outdated organizational design systems? Is it technology? Probably not, as technology is all around us. Is it the lack of vision to implement new ways of thinking? Maybe, but we’re seeing those cracks now showing as more progressive candidates get elected into office using crowdfunding techniques. Most likely it is the hoarding of power by old systems unwilling to simply give up power. It’s a classic tale of a power struggle. New vs. Old. Future vs. Past.We know through history how this all plays out. There are 8 stages of collapse. We’re in stage 7. What’s stage 8? Reform or revolution. Note that there is a possibility of reform OR revolution in stage 8. Not everything has to be violently destroyed to be rebuilt.Reform only happens when we can pay attention to what truly matters when it comes to disruption. Things that are “outside the lines” of our purview. Today we note that AI or the Intelligence Age will be the largest change on our society moving forward similar to how many believed the Space Age and the Atomic Age would make the most important impact on eras of the past. And yet if we look at the past from the present we realize quickly that it was the transistor and birth control pill that were much more revolutionary than either rockets or nuclear bombs.As Shirky notes: “They changed society precisely because no one was in control of how the technology was used, or by whom. That is happening again today.”Technology tools are not simply technology tools. Technology tools are social change agents.Mamdani showed exactly this when he went from a 1% nobody one year ago to a 50% voting mayor-elect majority ushering in the dawn of a new era on organizing without organizations.He is not the first to run an organization without organizing and most certainly won’t be the last. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Why are we so fixated to not imagine any alternatives from what exists on the left vs. right spectrum? Do the economics of the past not fit the containers of the present? Geoffrey Colon asks and answers questions about the power shift from the knowledge economy to the creative economy.Creative Studies. Creative news for the creative class. Join us.Insights, inspiration and influential commentary about business and life in the 21st Century.“How will you make buses free?”Well, how do we make any public service free?Libraries, the last I checked have been free for some time.And not many people complain about those.The internet has reshaped behavior. Not always in a good way. But now it wants to disrupt how we govern. And this could actually be a good thing. Why? People are just asking that their power as a collective in the form of taxes be directed to the things we want more of. Not what some representative thinks we want more of. In a world where the internet isn’t new, what scares those in power is that what they think we want, maybe we don’t really want at all.This leads us to the current situation of efficiency over progress. Because big tech has a huge monopoly and stranglehold on the world economy, how we do business, how we communicate, how we police, how we work, how we live; we are seeing moves for them to become bigger, more powerful, to have more oversight where they have an ultimate stranglehold on power. They are becoming nation states unto themselves. Some in the creative class see this and are calling it out. Now this ripple effect is reaching politics. And this is causing many to finally wake up and question old institutions and outdated systems. If you’re an old fashioned politician on either side of the aisle peddling a bunch of propaganda and spouting canned talking points, good luck. Authenticity which wins on social media has now seeped into the political water. And it seems to be winning.We aren’t asking a cult of personality anymore. We don’t want cult leaders. We see what is happening with the current digital Jonestown in place. We want leaders who remove obstacles so that the collective can rise. We are tired of assuming someone will represent us when we feel like we can represent ourselves better as a unified force. We don’t assume everyone who can’t feed themselves is lazy or incompetent. We are starting to realize more and more that society and the sum of the parts is greater than a few wealthy individuals who use corporate welfare to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else.This is a huge shift over the past 40 years where we were told communal thinking was bad, individualism was the only way. Where we were told government was bad, that privatization and the logic of the markets was the only way. Where we were told anybody could be anything they wanted to be, even if the system isn’t really designed to help them be that. We seem to be complacent with the fact we reward people who move pixels around on a screen then people who move physical bodies from a bed to a chair. That one is worth $1500 an hour and the other only worth $15 an hour. We seem to be quick to label ourselves as if that is enough for us to get into the pearly gates of an unproven afterlife while ignoring the plights of our fellow humans in the here and now.When people say things are not possible, that we’ve tried that and it doesn’t work, that things are going to go to s**t, then we’re giving up on the one skill that has carried us through as humans forever. That allows us to expand our minds in ways not deemed possible.Imagination.We’re no longer in the knowledge or information economy. But the powers that used big data to enrich themselves don’t want you to get this memo. They don’t want you to imagine an alternative to what has existed for thousands of years. They want you to stay on the straight and narrow path. Because doing anything different prevents their growth. And these powers want us to simply choose from two very narrow options. Both not that very different from each other. Both dressed up in two colors. Do you want red or do you want blue? Those with imagination are questioning where are the green, yellow, purple, pink, black, white, grey, turquoise, orange options?We are fully in the imagination era now. If we would actually exercise it. But someone keeps telling you to believe anything the intelligent assistant tells you. This is why big corporations are trying to dig in their heels, laying people off to enrich what shareholders remain holding the stock and seeing the end of the world before seeing the end of a financial system that seems to have run its course.What if this layoff collapse going on around us is actually an opening? Is it a signal of the emergence of smaller indie creator DIY systems as the next infrastructure of work and a shift from managers to makers? What if we have a barter economy take the place of the financialized one that dominates now? In the design world, we have always focused on human needs. I sense many are finally catching up to this after a hard lesson that big systems will care about you for life (they won’t) and now realizing there’s nobody coming to save us. Only we can help save each other. Only we can use our imagination to imagine what we want the world to look like next.Subscribe to us at CreativeStudies.NewsCheck out our merch at CreativeStudies.StoreHire me as a creator at CreativeStudies.AgencyWatch and listen to our videos on YouTube or SpotifyAre we now in a world of peak hypernormalization? Watch and decide... To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Creative Studies. Creative news for the creative class. Subscribe, read, watch and listen now at CreativeStudies.NewsIt feels like the 1980s all over again. Just not the 1980s you’re thinking of.Geoffrey Colon explains how indie podcasts are leading the way on IRL community building by remixing something established 40 years ago by DIY hardcore punk culture and the book Our Band Could Be Your Life.Read this now by subscribing to CreativeStudies.NewsSubscribe to the Creative Studies podcast on Spotify or YouTubeCheck out merch at CreativeStudies.StoreHire our creative collective to shape your content and storytelling at CreativeStudies.Agency To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
In this conversation, Geoffrey Colon, founder of Creative Studies, and Marty Swant, freelance ad tech journalist, discuss the evolving landscape of advertising in the context of AI and technology. They explore the implications of generative AI on creative processes, the potential displacement of agencies, and the challenges marketers face amidst rapid disruption. The discussion also touches on future predictions regarding the role of advertising, the rise of user-generated content (UGC), and the impact of agentic browsing on consumer behavior and privacy.* The generative AI boom has sparked interest in technology's capabilities.* Advertising agencies are grappling with the potential displacement by AI.* Brands are experimenting with AI in creative campaigns, facing mixed reactions.* Concerns exist about agencies losing control over the creative process to platforms.* Data privacy and trust issues are significant in the ad tech landscape.* The workflow of creative processes is changing due to AI integration.* Marketers are uncertain about the future amidst multiple disruptions.* UGC is becoming increasingly prevalent in media buys.* The creator economy is generating more revenue than traditional media.* Agentic browsing could create new challenges for advertisers and consumers.Chapters00:00 The Intersection of AI and Advertising05:31 The Future of Marketing in a Disrupted Landscape10:14 Predictions for the Future of AdvertisingRead + Watch + Listen to this episode and more on the podcast for the creative class. Creative Studies.Creative Studies. Masters of the Fine Arts. Join us. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Microsoft and LinkedIn just announced layoffs as I’m writing this. 3% of the company or over 6,000 people. This seems to now be the norm in what kicked off in February of 2023 where nothing is stable. I even underwent my own layoff like many in my own big tech job in what feels like forever ago in April 2024. Over that time period I had 50 conversations with people close in my network and have applied to over 300 roles.I won’t say nothing has happened. Do I have one, stable W2 paying job?No.Am I employed with work?Yes.Will I ever have another W2 paying job ever again?Not likely.And this is what many are missing as they seek to find work in this new normal of the 21st Century. Finding work is broken along with the fact the economy as a whole is also busted.Most of this originates back to 2008 but this piece isn’t about the Great Recession. It’s about where job hunting will go next as the job market evolves.For as long as I can recall over the past three decades as a member of Generation X, we’ve been told that the future of work would be like producing a film. You have a skill, you bring it to the team, you do the job, you depart, you look for your next line of work.There’s just one issue with this. It’s unstable.Add in this factor with the fact job board sites like LinkedIn are more like Facebook Lite and a job hunting, referral and networking revolution is long overdue.Enter Posted.Careers.When I was laid off last year I noticed that many people wanted to help but the systems and architecture we rely on are all old and antiquated. Spend $20 to apply to an Upwork job with no transparency. Spend $90 for a monthly LinkedIn Premium account to apply with thousands of others.There’s no differentiating advantage. Zero community.The new solutions provide all the NEW job posts delivered fresh daily to your inbox so you can apply in a timely manner. And the entire service is donation only of $1, $3, $5 or an amount you want to offer on a monthly or one-time basis.It’s the de-corporatization or un-privatization of job hunting and it’s long overdue.Watch or listen to the podcast with co-founders Chuck Heckman, George Nguyen and myself, Geoffrey Colon, on why we built Posted.Careers as a rallying cry for the creative class to find work and create a DIY collective job hunting movement. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Have you ever watched the movie They Live?You should.The 1988 film by John Carpenter is the story of Nada. Nada is played by the late great WWE icon Rowdy Roddy Piper. Nada is a homeless drifter who shows up in Los Angeles looking for work but ends up awakened for more than he bargains. He becomes "woke" on class consciousness at a time when not many people spoke about class warfare.In this science fiction which is more like a documentary if you watch it in 2025, Nada finds a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see reality.ObeyConsumeConformBuy More StuffWatch more TVGive up on your dreamsThe film has become a cult classic. Influenced a street artist named Shepard Fairey. Launched a streetwear brand around the whole concept of OBEY. Made the typeface Twentieth Century Bold really popular on sticker slaps.If we look at They Live and compare it to the creative class most of us right now are Nada. We're roaming around trying to find our place again in a sea of layoffs, a hard shift to freelance job structures, AI everywhere and being drowned out in a sea of noise telling us to obey all of these "rules" people have foisted on us the past few years. For creatives, 2025 needs to be the year many of us break free and put on the sunglasses to move beyond the handcuffs of best practices and the limits of corporate employment. Much of these limits came about as a result of the "systematization" of the social web, following "trends" and sticking with the "sure thing."Circa 2008, the social web started to swallow creativity. At one time there were much broader ideas on how creative strategists approached the world. Nowadays, too much creative strategy mimics this job posting I recently read on Upwork:"The ideal candidate will combine creativity and data-driven decision-making to develop impactful ad scripts, perform competitor analysis, and conduct in-depth brand research. You will work closely with our marketing and creative teams to optimize advertising campaigns and ensure they resonate with target audiences."Effective? Possibly.Boring? Faster than you can say “efficiency.”Now, I can hear you saying, "Geoff, this is just the way of the world and people want more certainty when it comes to marketing. They want more certainty when it comes to everything. They want DOGE! Oh, and they really connect with people who are authentic.”“Just be authentic.”Instead of Obey, now we get doublespeak like this. It is a tired quote uttered by the least creative business bureaucrats and shiny bright object influencers running around with ring lights. The social web, once a highlight of life, is now simply a shallow distraction. The place we go to doomscroll. A place void of inspiration. No different than what Nada endured before finding and putting on the sunglasses.I need to just lay it out for all of you reading this. The current world we live with its oligarchs and kleptocrats and plutocrats in power who will continue to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense needs to be called out. Especially by the creative class. Every year there are less unique ideas. Every year the creative world becomes more and more like They Live. We’re all working to collect fees or up sell. Nowhere is this sentiment captured more than this other quote:“AI will not replace you, but the person using AI will.”And then the other FOMO techno babble feudal phrase,“Stop building your digital presence on rented land!”As if individual people can own the web.Actually we can if we approach it from a decentralized open source model. But that’s for another discussion.All of this hype talk is to stir up fear in an uncertain world. It’s to get you to believe if you don’t get on the train, you’re done. You’ll be poor. You will lose at the Hunger Games. Nowhere has this paranoia set in than with the creative class. People who support themselves with knowledge or imagination jobs. Creators, creative directors, art directors, designers, musicians, artisans of any and all types. You are supposed to just “hustle” and make content that is good because the system is democratized to individually reward everyone who makes “good content.”Whatever. Gold shovel salesmen and grifters who adore the digital feudalism we’re living in will continue this diatribe at peak volume the next 4 to 5 years. Until it eats them alive. The better approach moving forward? Consolidating and unifying creative power. The solopreneurs? Tell them to unify with a few more solopreneurs instead of trying to sell that “Here’s what makes me successful” class for $599. If you were successful, you wouldn’t be selling classes like that. You’d be giving them away. We need to inspire people to bowl more together.Why?We’ve somehow walked backwards into the 1950s. Or possibly the 1850s. The assumption is that in order to be successful in this current phase of the 21st Century one must follow every trend, not critically think and to convert into a breathing organism in a world without mind.Obey.Creatives can use all of the power they gained from the years of trying to influence others to buy things we didn’t need, and prepare the world for what we need to build next. How? By going up against the huge axe being swung at the Bill of Rights and international coalitions by the tech bros who get hot thinking about Ayn Rand in a mini dress.When it comes to where the world is we need creatives now more than ever. To build new institutions of power. To defend old institutions that provide safety nets. Outside the regular lines of “business as usual.” Creatives are less susceptible to conformity for conformity’s sake and we love collaboration, collectivism and other people’s points of view. We have a lot to share with others. We invite people to the table. We don’t build walls. We’re dangerous to authoritarian voices. Which is why we’ll be the first to be jailed if things hit “start the panic” levels. But sadly, our voices have been drowned out by the technocratic hype machine. Not necessarily AI in and of itself. The hype of it. The narrative of it. The belief it will be accepted by all of us like a mark on your forehead. Might be time for more creative introverts to pick up our swords. The pen and the spray paint.Why is it important for the creative class to start showing alternative leadership to the finance tech conglomerate hoarding share of voice power? Well, because…* Curiosity is a clear foundation for a more creative life. A creative life is a better life.* Being high in openness is associated with higher levels of creativity and increased creative achievement.* Open people love new ideas and ways of approaching things and have a lower tolerance for routine and convention.Right now the world is basically on a linear trajectory to nowhere. You have gazillionaires trying to exploit the resources of this world before they launch a rocket to the off world colonies. While people lick their boots and do anything that will ensure the meme coins hit a certain number before the rug pull.We aren’t indexing toward happiness. We aren’t imagining alternatives.The command by business culture of now is to build something, anything, that simply goes up and to the right with zero context of how to involve everyone.It’s basically a society of “every man and woman for themselves” right now. A bunch of posturing.There’s a lot less opportunity for many of us now that tech has cannibalized creativity. And it will only get worse unless we offer alternative scenarios.Is this the way the world will end, not with a bang but a whimper? Can we redesign it?If you ever have read the book Humankind by Rutger Bregman, you will actually have hope for people and the world. Even if everything right now feels awful. Bregman makes the case that how we shape our view of the world is how people will behave within it.Bregman argues that our view of humanity creates a feedback loop. In other words, we get what we expect from people. By changing our mindsets, we can create a positive feedback loop that leads to a friendlier and more peaceful world.So that leads to the discussion on how come things still keep leading to enshitification even if we have a positive outlook?Simple, since the media is the message, how we control or ignore the echo chambers will dictate how we will feel in the world. It’s not enough to just do this ourselves. We need society as a whole to join the ride.This is where technologists fail. They see a problem and think in lines of code.Creatives see a problem and design around people.This is why the powers that be are all trying to divide and conquer through idiocracy, algos and control. Social media empires feel more like we live in a “Dear Leader” world. Creatives can best resist by playing the game of irony. Calling out hypocrisy.What is needed now is more real in person community, more in person communication, more humor, more laughing together, more local support of small business. More alternatives. Especially becasue one side thinks the only way to live is within a digital city. They seem to have forgotten about the physical ones.Ultimately Nada won at the end of They Live because he didn’t sellout. He thought of the larger needs of others. He was looking at how to help the greater future. Not just himself.“We all sellout everyday. Might as well be on the winning team.”Sure, they may try to buy you, but some of us just aren’t for sale.Creatives should encourage more alternative paths. Not independent in the sense of working solo. Independent in the sense of being outside traditional systems of corporate power that are now too big to maintain integrity or humanity.When you make the big trip over their own feet on the way to try to enrich themselves because $359 billion isn’t enough, they will get caught with their hand in the air where you don’t even have to do any creative photo-shopping to unravel their true intent. The creative class is best suited to help others see the hypocrisy and speed up the timeline for humanity t
Content design. Helping to design content that people want to interact with sounds way easier than it really is. Because it's a job centered on engineering, user experience, architecture, psychology, business and the humanities. And whenever you get into a role that requires a mashup of skills, well, things get difficult.But here's what I'm seeing out there that you might want to consider as you head into the end of the calendar year and begin thinking about what content design trends you should consider in your field of work.Creative Studies is produced by Geoffrey Colon. All thoughts are his own and do not represent the views of his employer, clients or colleagues.Learn more at http://creativestudies.agency#contentdesign #creativestudies To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Is the crash of economics leading us to a creative age or just more of the same normalcy that led us here?Geoffrey Colon ponders this question on this month's episode of Creative Studies. The podcast meets newsletter meets subcultural boutique agency at the forefront of the human condition.Subscribe, rate and review this show. And follow the newsletter now on LinkedIn!https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6914262272617984000/#creativity To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
What's up everybody. I'm Geoffrey Colon, creator of Creative Studies. Podcast + Newsletter + Creator Subcultural Agency + Streetwear Brand. We do it all. Check out my new monthly podcast and newsletter now. What is it? A stream of consciousness meets gonzo journalist style business show where I focus on the coming creative age and how we use our imagination to prepare for it.Listen now on Spotify!#creativeage #creativestudies #creators To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Somewhere on this platform there is another thought piece being penned about why Encanto is this huge boon for creativity.They're not wrong. But they're possibly missing the point of how the "Wisdom of Crowds" and "Community" got "We Don't Talk About Bruno" to the top of the music charts. A feat that wasn't possible 20 years ago in the early stages of Web 2.0.Subscribe to the Creative Studies podcast here on Spotify. Or watch/listen to the latest episode on YouTube Let's rewind for a second here while also not taking away from the talent who wrote all the music for this film. That talent is a big reason for why the movie has done so well. But talent alone isn't the reason why a non-traditional song topped the charts. Radio has been a huge promotional vehicle for music. We know this and even with the likes of TikTok, YouTube and Spotify it is still a necessity for songs and artists to push mainstream. Just ask any big artist even in the past five years how they truly tipped. It wasn't solely the usage of social media. It was a combination of factors and it relied on the big machinery that we know of as traditional or terrestrial radio.If it were 2002, the label that released Encanto (in this case, Walt Disney Records) would have sent promo reps into specific radio stations that program Contemporary Hit Radio or CHR to push the song to be added to the playlist. This usually required a ton of data and information exchange. Here's where the song is trending. Here is where it is big. Here is where it was added. Here is the reason you should add it. It was pure barter economy. Maybe the program director would take the risk and add it into late nights for a few spins to see how it would do. Maybe they would program it on a voter listener time slot. When they play the song against another and if it gets enough "phones" it would then be added to the official playlist.It was a long slog. It would take sometimes a year for a song like "We Don't Talk About Bruno" to maybe ever hit the charts. But now things have changed what tips radio programming. It's called the community sharing effect.Now we know this isn't news. Lots of things tip because of social media. Lots of things go viral. But there is a combination of "killer data," as I like to call it, stats that program directors and other curators or gatekeepers cannot deny. "We Don't Talk About Bruno" got used in millions of TikToks and tens of millions of views on YouTube and streams on Spotify. It made an undeniable case that if program directors didn't add it into rotation they were denying reality. They're opinion mattered little. The voice of the people is what matters here. And how the crowdswell really helped push this to more people and forcing the hand of gatekeepers who have relied on "data" forever. People wanted the song programmed and they weren't going to take no for an answer. And when it was added and ended up being regularly programmed on big stations like New York's Z100 and Los Angeles' KIIS-FM?The song just got even bigger.How? Because it reached even more people who may have not watched the movie. They now heard it and wanted to hear it more.Radio is now a jukebox taking requests from us via social media. Program directors still think they have power but some artists and songs on the fringe are going to go mainstream whether they want it to or not. As a result it's giving us more interesting, not less interesting artists.This is why the era we live in is more, not less creative than ever before. Yes, we hear tons of essential reporting about how technology is terrible and used to kill democracy and make big tech even bigger. But then there are stories like Bruno. A little song that in the past would have just been another track on a movie soundtrack. Now it's a Number 1 chart topping hit.We should be talking about Bruno. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Creative Studies. Office hours for the Imagination Age. Studying is different in the 21st Century.Trending Topics:1. 7 Phrases That Kill Trust2. F You Pay Me3. We Don't Talk About BrunoPlus we have killer stats in a segment called "Source Material" that goes deep on a particular subject area. In this episode: How many artists are making any money on Spotify?Hosted by Geoffrey Colon. Recorded live on LinkedIn.#creativity #creators #creativestudies To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
Welcome to Creative Audit. The newsletter meets audio review that dives deep into how brands add up when it comes to an audit of their creative strategy following the copy/transform/combine or remix methodology. I’m Geoffrey Colon, Head of the Brand Studio for Microsoft Advertising, host of the podcast at the intersection of marketing, tech, media and popular culture called Disruptive FM, author of the book Disruptive Marketing and executive producer of the web video series, The Download. I feel like we spend so much time, especially the past decade, talking about tech that we don’t talk about what drives the world, a mashup of creative ideas and how they follow a copy + transform + combine formula. It’s one you should be thinking about when it comes to your creative review and the audit of your brand. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com