Creative Economy?!

The so called "Creative economy" is an evolving concept based on the potential of "creative assets" to generate socio-economic growth and development, in a globalized world increasingly dominated by images, sounds, texts and symbols.

At the heart of the creative economy lie the creative industries. Loosely defined, the creative industries are at the crossroads of arts, culture, business and technology and use intellectual capital as their primary input. Today´s creative industries range from folk art, festivals, music, books, newspapers, paintings, sculptures and performing arts to more technology-intensive subsectors such as the film industry, TV and radio broadcasting, digital animation and video games, and more service-oriented fields such as architectural and advertising services.

The phrase creative industries (or sometimes creative economy) refers [according to Wikipedia] to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being a growing part of the global economy. The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products; such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as advertising, public relations and direct marketing.

The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has produced a widely-quoted definition of the creative industries as:

“those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” (DCMS 2001, p. 04) - (for a definition see also Cultural Institutions Studies).

The current DCMS definition recognises eleven creative sectors:

*Advertising
*Architecture
*Arts and antique markets (see also Restoration)
*Crafts
*Design (see also communication design)
*Designer Fashion
*Film, video and photography
*Software, computer games and electronic publishing
*Music and the visual and performing arts
*Publishing
*Television and radio

According to Creative Clusters Ltd., the Value of Creative Products consists of two aspects. Physically, they are usually simple: a reel of film, a CD, a computer disk, a sheet of printed paper. But their value lies in their content, in their meaning, or what they represent. The content could be a film, a story, a photograph, a game or a pop song, and it might be entertaining or persuasive or informative or attractive. It is this information that has value, not the physical object that carries it. Even with a designer T-shirt or a piece of jewellery, it’s the style, the design that counts, not the cloth or the metal.

Raw information, data, is plentiful in the information economy. What is valuable, and what it takes great skill to make, is knowledge: meaning, content, style, ideas, plans, stories, concepts, designs, fashions - chunks of meaning that people can understand, use, value or love. These 'chunks of meaning' are what the creative industries make. In a very literal sense, the creative industries, and the artist-entrepreneurs at the heart of them, are the manufacturers of the information economy.

To find out more about the Creative Economy, please refer to The Creative Economy Report 2008.

The Creative Economy Report 2008 - The challenge of assessing the creative economy towards informed policy-making is the first comprehensive study to present the United Nations perspective on this emerging topic. This policy-oriented analysis is intended to facilitate a better understanding of the key issues underlying the emerging creative economy at national and international levels. It brings together contributions from five United Nations organizations, namely UNCTAD, UNDP UNESCO, WIPO and the International Trade Centre (ITC), in a joint endeavour to enhance policy coherence and international action in this area.

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Taking into consideration all the excitement due to a growing number of opportunities in the sphere of Creative Economy, the aim of this blog is to provide a summary of the current trends, achievements and challenges, as well as present the driving force (projects, ideas, people) of the industry.

If you would like to comment or share your perspective, please do. I am looking forward to have interactive discussions that broaden the horizon and build a better understanding of the Industry and its value.

Creatively yours,

E.