Submarine Channel
Artist Profile Series
Top5's
Artist Profile Series
On the hunt for your daily dose of inspiration? Have an insatiable appetite for awesome interviews? Look no further, we’re about to satisfy all your creative hunger in 5 easy links.
The web is at treasure trove of inspiration, and we’d like to think we contribute in some way. Over the years we’ve been producing an ongoing series of short portraits about creative innovators who are breaking new ground in contemporary visual culture, spanning design, architecture, film, fashion, street art, and more. Kicking off our series back in 2007 with Pretty Cool People Interviews, we sought to capture creatives in their natural environments -be it the streets of Barcelona, the confines of a darkened special effects studio, or the lofty heights of a skate park – with an in-depth interview style that moved beyond a simple “talking heads” format, and offered a day-in-the-life type of insight into their creative process. Immensely popular, we kept the format and moved on to interviewing creators of title sequences for our title design project Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. Following in the footsteps of these successful profiles, for the last few years we’ve been commissioned to create profiles for Dutch DFA, an organization dedicated to promoting Dutch design, fashion and architecture. An on-going partnership, it gives us the chance to interview an incredible amount of talent, and keeps us on the forefront of innovation.
Though the profile series name kept evolving, the concept stayed the same, and today you can find a compilation of all the profiles we’ve produced (and continue to) in Submarine Channel Profiles. What makes profiles of creatives unique is their ability to bestow invaluable and diverse insights to the masses – ones that would otherwise be relegated to a select few, if that. And as our pick of Top 5 makes it clear, there’s now an explosion of sites offering a peek into how cutting-edge creativity happens.
Wherever your creative spirit lies, we hope you enjoy!
1. Gestalten TV
What is the line between truth and beauty? How do we create things that are beautiful and compelling? How do you make entertaining experiences?
From the good people at Gestalten, who are best known for publishing hundreds of beautifully designed books, comes the wonderful Gestalten TV. Serving international audiences since 2007, Gestlaten TV produces beautifully-shot portraits on visionaries exploring today’s visual culture. In recent years they’ve even covered some prominent design and visualization conferences. Spanning categories of architecture, art, design, illustration, photography and typography, these interviews are very much up our alley (and you’ll find a bit of overlap too). Conveniently, you can not only watch these on their site, but you can download for free on iTunes and stream on the iDevice of your choosing.
2. The Creator’s Project
We’d like to think of The Creator´s Project as a sister from another mister, and we regularly turn here for daily inspiration. As a super international network with funds to spare (this is partnership between Vice and Intel, afterall), they’ve got the globe covered where all things spanning the intersection of art and technology are concerned. In their Creators section, similar to our Profiles, you’ll find access to a whole slew of video and text interviews with creatives ranging the disciplines of music, film, art, design, gaming and fashion.
3. Prote.in
One of our favorite go-to platforms for staying up-to-date with the latest global trends, digital tools and events, Prote.in also produces their very own collection of profiles. From cutting-edge visual artists to digital entrepreneurs, these Profiles offer visitors cool video interview with the some of world’s most inspiring minds who are changing the way we think, work, and live. Think supper clubs, digital art, and rad data visualizations.
4. Cool Hunting
Dabbling in all matters across innovation in art, design , culture, technology, food, and travel, Cool Hunting delivers every time. If you visit their video section, you’ll also learn they go onsite to meet artists, designers and innovators to get an inside look at their inspiration and process – something we’re all curious about. Some recent treasures include LA’s most interesting pinball arcade, an international banana museum (!), denim masters, Bentley makers, and oh so much more. We only wish we could sort these dynamite videos with a filter or two.
5. Think-Work-Play
If there was ever a website that also doubles as a magazine dedicated ONLY to documenting the creative process, Think-Work-Play is it. At least as far as London talent is concerned, and who can say London’s not one of the creative hubs of Europe? An initiative by London-based agency Unity, these in-depth video and text interviews are a relative newcomer. Spanning the fields of art, design, architecture, fashion and music, they explore an individual’s process, ultimately showing what gets their inspiration going in the first place.
P.S.
Before bidding you adieu, we must pay tribute to Hillman Curtis, whose artist profile series was not only the first on the web, but also played a role in inspiring our very own profiles. An American new media designer, author, and filmmaker, Curtis also ran hillmancurtis.com, a digital design and film production firm in New York City. Though he only produced about 15 profiles between 2005 and 2009, they are top-notch, with a high production value. Covering mostly those in the design world, including firms, visual artists, graphic designers, these poignant videos still resonate with us today.
P.S.S.
It was a grueling search for artist profiles on the web, and we thought we´d share the all the treasures we found with you! Even though these didn’t make our cut for Top 5, we certainly applaud their work. (note: some links here curate profiles from multiple sources, while others no longer produce new content)
Originals
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