From Joe
I built a North East creative directory because good work keeps disappearing in the feed
Why I turned a growing list of North East talent into something people can actually search, share and use.
This pretty much started with a really annoying habit of mine.
I'd see something brilliant on Instagram.
A painting, a band, a little shop doing something clever.
I'd think "I defo need to remember them".
Then obviously I wouldn't.
A week later I'd be scrolling back through stories that had already gone, typing half-remembered names into search.
Multiply that by a few hundred people and you've got the problem.
The North East has loads of talent. What it's short on is a way to find it.
It started as a list
The NAMI Creative Network began as NAMI Up North a long while ago, essentially me sharing loads of stories of cool stuff I could then go back to.
Time went by, and Covid effed it all up for in-person shows and events.
But people kept on asking me for it:
"Do you know a photographer in Durham?"
"Is there anyone who does murals?"
"Who should I speak to about a logo?"
I'd end up digging through my phone and sending three names over WhatsApp.
That's fine when it's one or two people asking.
It doesn't work when you want a whole region to find each other.
So I made it searchable
The list is now a proper public directory with over 320 creatives and independent businesses in it (at the time of writing this).
You can search by what people do and where they're based.
A venue, a council, a brand or another creative can find someone without needing to know me first.
And a profile stays put.
A post disappears down the feed in a day.
Someone can find your profile next month, next year, whenever they actually need what you do.
What I'm building around it
The directory is the bit you can see.
The rest is about giving people more ways into the work.
Features and roundups like this one.
Introductions that don't rely on me remembering everyone off the top of my head. Opportunities reaching people who'd normally miss them.
And getting people in the same room again, because that's where the good stuff happens.
Man on a mission
I'm building all this around client work, my family and the rest of real life.
Some weeks the Network gets loads of my time.
Some weeks it gets an hour on a Sunday night.
It's nowhere near finished.
But every new member makes the picture of what's being made up here a bit clearer, and that's what keeps me going.
I was recently mentioned at a Newcastle College event, in a room filled with over a hundred local businesses, for my work with NAMI and it honestly gave me an ultimate power boost.
So I'll keep building, keep supporting, and one day I'll be writing a new article saying how we now have the BIGGEST creative community this region has ever seen.
If you make things, run something independent or just love the creative side of the North East, come and join.
It's free.
Tell me what you do, and next time someone asks me "do you know anyone who...", there's a good chance it'll be you.
