To those unaware of who we are, Tom was born in Cambridge, studied here and has worked for several local companies. Laura is a fine art graduate from an Ivy League university who has painted for a living in Manhattan. Our collective history gives us a an informed viewpoint we wanted to share.

There is a big difference between working as a professional artist or designer and the mostly hobbyist uprising Cambridge has seen recently. We encourage creatives of any level to pursue their passions and make that breakthrough to professionalism. We also encourage the general attitude of Collins’ hopefulness. The creatives in Cambridge need to more actively add to the quality of art and design in the city instead of believing that participating is enough.

In the limelight of the city centre, Kings Parade is the scene of the biggest crime. The bourgeois, ‘artsy’ storefronts that push stale ideas of what art is to tourists cements Cambridge’s reputation as an anachronism.

Cambridge has a problem with public and national attention, often pieces like Collins’ are merely gestures. Deeper investigation would reveal a plethora of talent that is often overlooked in favour of the usual suspects such as Kettles Yard. The Frontroom is the best creative outlet in Cambridge. They continually provide fresh, immersive, dynamic shows and experiences that push boundaries and expectations. They should be encouraged financially to continue their good work.

The Cambridge School of Art continues to produce some very promising creatives, some of which we’ve tried to promote on this blog: Tim Parker, Anna Betts, Dom McKenzie, Mark Jones, Emily Barrell to name a few. There is no excuse for the abandonment of local creatives, the talent is there and is continuously overlooked. Unfortunately we don’t see why they should persist with a city that has no faith in them. We would love to see them pioneer a creative scene in Cambridge but expect their abilities will soon be added to the gravitas of London, Bristol, Brighton…

More broadly Cambridge is a city divided by it’s suffocating university. Affordable housing is painfully sparse, try finding a one bedroom flat in the city without being a Cambridge student! It was more economical for us to live in Manhattan or London than our flat in Chesterton. This combined with the luxury apartment mentality the city has prevents creatives from coming to or staying in Cambridge.

The argument that local scientific companies don’t care about art and design is clouding the larger problem that Cambridge as a whole has little interest in moving art forward. It’s a myth that Cambridge has suffered from the recession. Local creative companies have thrived in the last few years and it is their responsibility to risk investment in local creatives if they want to change the perception of their city. These outfits lie between the startups and the multinationals. Startups don’t tend to have the funding and larger organisations lack the agility or awareness. The middle ground companies have the funding and potential necessary to make an impactful statement that Cambridge invests in local, creative young talent.

The leading names in the design industry appear on Dribble frequently showing their output. Everyone from Tim Van Damme, Morgan Allan Knutson, Jason Santa Maria to Dana Tanamachi can be found regularly posting Shots. This gives Dribbble great depth in the experience of it’s users. A Prospect who gets an invite can immediately have their work seen by some of the most established designers in the world.

However, the frenzy to gain followers and kudos from peers makes it tempting to skip the most important part of the recipe: creativity. Piggybacking on popular themes wins players attention, followers and praise but in doing so suffocates talented designers who provide alternative talents and who deserve recognition for their work.

We want to breathe new life into Dribbble and after recently being given an invite to share we didn’t want to add to the homogeny. Some very talented people asked for the invite but we felt Dasha Tolstikova would add something much needed to Dribbble. Dasha is the second Player we’ve recruited, after Elizabeth Graeber, who also offers something we don’t often see on the most popular pages.

Dasha’s work is packed with personality and humour. Her work consists of everyday sketches that go from silly to pathos, revealing a first-person perspective through her work which forms an accessible narrative. We admire designers and artists that show bravery in their work and we believe players like Dasha deserve more of a voice on Dribbble.

]]> http://jollybureau.com/vanguard/why-we-drafted-dasha-tolstikova-to-dribbble/feed/ 0 http://jollybureau.com/vanguard/why-we-drafted-dasha-tolstikova-to-dribbble/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JollyBureau/~3/AlDEmcslAk4/ http://jollybureau.com/vanguard/wordpress-is-your-friend/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:47:36 +0000 Jolly Bureau http://jollybureau.com/?p=4596 Read the rest.]]>

WordPress gets a bad rap. It’s generally known as a blogging site; commonly the default, free Content Management System; occasionally it’s misunderstood as a liability and a pain. This is an appeal to those of you who believe the latter.

WordPress is fantastic. For the best part of a decade it has grown to become a free, open-source headstart for anyone—from people blogging about their cats, to Fortune 500 organisations¹—to publish content via their own channel.

What are the alternatives?

• Create all your content without a CMS (terrible idea!). You will waste valuable time and money.
• A paid-for Content Management System that is hopefully blueprinted to best fit your purpose or at least generally useful to most businesses—pages and posts. Spending money on a CMS when it doesn’t completely fit your purposes is a half-baked idea. Instead, spend money on making your job easier and your users experience simpler.
• Another free CMS (such as Drupal or Joomla). The advantages with WordPress are the out-of-the-box features. Drupal is a fine alternative if you want something more complex than what WordPress was designed for.
• Developing your own CMS.

Developing Your Own CMS

This is by far the worst of the alternatives in all but the rarest of cases. In the words of Tyler Durden:

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

What is it about your business that’s drastically different or innovative over your competitors? In most cases not a lot. What’s different about your business is your brand: what you stand for and the extras that your competition can’t match. Users want simpler things quicker and the confidence of your business is not centred around a more complicated CMS.

Developing your own CMS is almost never necessary. Even when it is it requires a level of intelligence, talent and commitment you’ll find only in the 1% of companies with those resources available at their disposal. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to afford to hire those companies that’s great. If not, do the sensible thing and do not develop your own CMS.

WordPress is Not Perfect

WordPress now accounts for around 17% of all websites on the internet². That’s 55% of all CMS’s. It’s taken this stronghold because it’s simple, free and powerful. It’s the clean start you need for your venture which allows easy piggybacking to extend it’s functionality to best fit your needs. It’s not right for some but for the vast majority it’s more than good enough and with minimal tweaking it can be the perfect fit for your business. Hopefully we’ve done something to convince those of you who had excluded it as an option.

² Fortune 500 Companies Using WordPress

² Usage of content management systems for websites

Last week, we explored the surface of Ellicott City; the architecture, store fronts, and foliage. This week we go into one of our favourite shops whose expertise of vintage clothing has been used in the iconic HBO show Boardwalk Empire; it is Retropolitan.

Gorgeous 1930′s heels.

A collection of table cloths, each one has it’s own personality.

Retropolitan has an extensive collection of authentic vintage fashions of clothing, apparel, and accessories, but we were also drawn to the home decor that filled the store.

This amazing 1960′s mod chandelier commanded our attention. It is a show stopper.

This is their fully restored, working authentic early 1900′s register.

It’s the most American holiday, to eat and drink all day with friends and family while feeling grateful for everything you’ve got. Not much better than that. This is our invite to celebrate the big day.

Jared Schorr got to show off his talent at Gallery Nucleus with an amazingly adorable salute to Adventure Time. Jared was kind enough to document his step by step creative process, from sketches to installation.

Supplies Ready.

Process!

The finished product!

Front

Back

One of the main parking lots to the Main Street is located next to a bubbling creek and some small waterfalls. Most of Main Street is surrounded by woodlands.

There are so many cool signs and details walking through town.

The Maryland flag.

Goodbye Ellicott City!