Behance

illustration by hero design (view article here)

illustrations by Mar Hernandez (view article here)

glass jewellery by Jane D'Arensbourg - photo by Paul Sunday (view article here)

Behance is a website and an online network for creative professionals, dedicated to the goal of 'making ideas happen'. Their philosophy is based on their belief that 'great ideas are conceived and subsequently lost in the hands of creative geniuses, everyday. Frustration, rationalization, and despondence loom as creative people jump from idea, to idea, to idea... and fall short of actually making ideas happen. ' Essentially, the website promotes what they call 'productive creativity' - a framework creatives can use to break down tasks into 'action steps' in order to boost productivity and just get that great idea happening! I realise this is all sounding a little bit 'Dr Phil' but bear with me.

The BEST bit about Behance are the articles and interviews with creative professionals about what inspires them and motivates them to put their ideas into action. They interview creatives from all over the world, and from a wide range of creative industries - advertising, photography, fine arts, fashion, film, architeture, graphic design etc. A lot of the articles focus on entrepreneurs and start-up creative companies, and they're truly inspiring. This recent one about Hero Design Studio (a small design studio initially set up by a husband and wife team) is a great example (image above).

Initially when I stumbled across Behance sometime last year, I was in two minds about it. I wasn't sure exactly what it was - a website? an online community? an online shop? Also I think the name didn't help... it's a kind of strange made-up word... and the pronounciation isn't completely clear (I'm assuming it is something like 'beyonce'? - which is weird in itself)..

ANYWAY since then Behance has well and truly won me over... I think it's the self-help junkie in me that secretly loves all that motivational jargon - ie 'action steps', and being 'accountable' for your creative productivity etc. One article that I found really useful was this one - 'restricting the creative perfectionist'. How many times have you been unable to even start on a great idea because you're paralysed by the idea that it needs to be 'perfect'?

Behance doesn't really come up with any new solutions, but it's reassuring and helpful to read about how the same challenges are tackled by creative people all over the world.