Creative Industries In Scotland
The term Creative Industries is an umbrella name for a group of different but often interconnected industries. The Scottish government has identified 16 distinct industries within this group.
advertising
architecture
visual art
crafts
fashion and textiles
design
performing arts
music
photography
film and video
computer games
radio and TV
writing and publishing
heritage
software/electronic publishing
cultural education The following is a brief look at these sectors and an example of businesses working within them
ADVERTISING
The Cambridge dictionary defines Advertising as “the activity of making products and services known about and persuading people to buy them.”
The Leith agency is a Advertising agency in Edinburgh and London. They specialise not only in Advertising but in areas such as Branding, Digital & Social Media & Strategy. Like every other sector under the Creative industries umbrella Advertising is very interconnected with many of the other sectors under the umbrella. This interconnection between sectors cannot be overstated.
ARCHITECTURE
Dictionary.com says this of Architecture ...The profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings.
Thomas Robinson Architects are Scottish Architects based in Glasgow working in both commercial and residential projects. Conservation and sustainability have become increasingly in demand in the world of architecture. At the heart of everything they do is good design. They work closely with builders, interior and landscape designers, surveyors, civil engineers, construction managers amongst others.
VISUAL ARTS
This is quite a difficult one to define as many sites on the web include professions that are listed as a seperate sector on the gov.scot list. Drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking are examples of the visual arts often listed alongside photography and film-making. There is a huge amount of career potential with a knowledge of and expertise in the visual arts.
On the Visual Arts Scotland website it includes many disciplines, explaining
“We are committed as a society to supporting and exhibiting a diverse range of contemporary Scottish art, in a wide variety of media - including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, photography, jewellery, ceramics and sculpture.”
Again we have this cross over between sectors
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There are many career paths available with a knowledge and expertise in the visual arts.
CRAFTS
A craft is a pastime or a profession that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. Usually applied to people occupied in small-scale production of goods. Another aspect of these creatives is they use their hands and hand tools to a huge extent.
The traditional term craftsman is nowadays often replaced by artisan. Examples of Crafts are Ceramics, jewellery, pottery, furniture making, woodwork, glasswork.
https://www.highlandstoneware.com
is a small ceramics company that began with making plain tableware, but soon after started to decorate the pots and it’s the hand painted aspect of their ceramics that has brought them great success
FASHION & TEXTILES
Once more it becomes apparent of the interdependence and cross-pollination of these sectors. Textiles is very much a craft as well as being a foundation to the Fashion sector.
Most commonly, fashion is defined as the prevailing style of dress or behaviour at any given time, with the strong implication that fashion is characterised by change. Textiles on the other hand can be ancient. Harris tweed for example. The cloth is woven only in the Outer Hebrides by crofters in their own homes, using methods that are centuries old.
The story of Cashmere is a great example of how Scotland has over centuries married textiles, technology and fashion to great effect
Based in Edinburgh Judy R Clark is a fashion designer known for her hand tailored womens-wear designs. Her garments comprise of Harris Tweed, Scottish lace and antique fabrics. Judy is just one of many internationaly known Scottish fashion designers.
Bodies such as Textiles Scotland showcase the vast pool of talent in Scottish Fashion and Textiles and help to bring together artists and clients.
DESIGN
Design is the process and art of planning something to be made. Design is something truly ubiquitous and outside of nature everything we see around us that has the human touch has design at it’s core.
In this article 16 types of design is a quick overview of just how fundamental to ‘everything’ design is.
Timorous Beasties is an example of a modern successful design company established 1990 in Glasgow by two textile design graduates of Glasgow School of Art. The studio is a diverse operation and has emerged as a multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed design company.
PERFORMING ARTS
There are many sub-sects that come under the headings of Drama, Dance or Music. Within those areas there is an enormous number of different roles. Production, film and education are closely tied related fields. Again there is much crossover and some would suggest that Music is very much one of the performing arts but for the sake of the Scottish Govt. list we will keep them separate, though much the same can be said for both.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is one of the premier education establishments for the performing arts in the world. It is the only place in Europe where you can study all of the performing arts on the one campus.
As a small nation Scotland surely punches above it’s weight in its Performing Arts output and influence on the world stage.
MUSIC
Glasgow has been a UNESCO city of music since 2008. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network strives to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The Scottish Music Industry Association ,with financial assistance from Creative Scotland, is an organisation tasked with representing and developing Scotland’s music industry. The SMIA delivers a wide range of services, projects and events. The association is the driving force behind such innovations as the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award. Since its inauguration in 2012 the award has grown to become Scotland’s most popular and prestigious music prize.
Glasgow has a legendary music scene that stretches across the whole spectrum from contemporary and classical, to Celtic and Country. As with the performing arts Glasgow is provided a world class music education from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Glasgow also boasts a plethora of venues from small bars to vast arenas with everything in-between.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographers create visual images for a vast range of creative, technical and documentary purposes. Usually a photographer will specailise in one area. There are many areas to choose from, advertising, corporate, editorial, fashion, fine-art, documentary to mention a few.
Photography Scotland is a consortium bringing together many of the different galleries, cultural and educational establishments in Scotland involved with developing awareness and promotion of Scottish Photography throughout Scotland and beyond.
FILM & VIDEO
With a growing Film and TV sector in Scotland, there are many new companies joining the more established players in the sector. Companies like Film Bang and Screen Scotland have been producing Scottish talent and developing funding and infrastructure for the Scottish Film and TV industry for many years. These companies and organisations work to increase the workforce and skills job opportunities, develop the sectors infrastructure and advertise Scotland as a great destination for international film and tv production companies to come and work
COMPUTER GAMES
Annually, Scottish games development companies are estimated to invest £88 million in salaries and overheads, contribute £80 million in tax revenues to HM Treasury, and make contribution of £194 million to the UK’s Gross Domestic Product.
Dundee is the epicentre of games development in Scotland with several Internationally successful developers and infrastructure . Glasgow and Edinburgh both have big players in the industry too. Most of the different companies involved in the sector are covered by The Scottish Games Network, an umbrella organisation which brings together everything relevant to the interactive entertainment sector in Scotland. Independent, the network aims to support and promote all of the cultural, creative, academic, governmental and other organisations in the video games sector in Scotland.
RADIO & TV
The Scottish Tv industry has recently been given a real boost with a collaboration between the BBC and Screen Scotland. Screen Scotland is the Film and TV wing of Creative Scotland and oversees the development of the screen industries in Scotland.This partnership promises a minimum of three drama series from Scotland, three comedy titles and three high-impact factual series each year. This comes at the same time as the launching of the new BBC Scotland channel. STV is the other big presence in Scottish TV and has been in operation since 31 August 1957
Radio, being a relatively cheaper media has an abundance of local radio stations..In Glasgow there's the local Radio Clyde station which began broadcasting as a commercial radio station in Scotland on Monday 31 December 1973. Since then many other local radio stations have appeared but, as with TV, the BBC is still the major player in Scottish radio with BBC Radio Scotland and for Gaelic listeners BBC Radio nan Gaidheal.
WRITING & PUBLISHING
Publishing Scotland is the network, trade and development body for the book publishing sector in Scotland. The charity acts as the voice and network for publishing, to develop and promote the work of companies, organisations and individuals in the industry, and to co-ordinate joint initiatives and partnership.
Canongate books is a publisher based in Edinburgh. Formed in 1973 they had their first big success with Lanark by Alasdair Gray but it wasn’t till their 2002 publication of Yann Martel’s novel The Life of Pi, that the publisher really hit the big leagues. The book became the biggest-selling Booker prize winner ever, and Canongate won Publisher of the Year.
HERITAGE
Historic Environment Scotland is Scotlands leading public body not only for the preservation of more than 300 of Scotland’s historic sites (among them many of the most famous buildings and sites in Scotland) but also for providing information to anyone wanting/needing the knowledge, skills and materials necessary to conserve, repair and maintain the built heritage.
They also look after a vast collection of photographs and other artefacts. Documenting and researching the ever-growing collection in their care. Alongside this is their research into climate change and how methods of preservation will have to adapt to meet the new weather challenges of the 21st century.
SOFTWARE/ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
As with the Writing & Publishing above, while researching this sector the overwhelming majority of search results turn up Publishing Scotland. The pages in question are about a now-defunct fund that supported Scottish-based book publishers in bringing their books to a new digital audience. Also a huge amount of adverts for desktop Publishing.
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Following the election of the first Blair government in 1997 and using as a starting point the findings of the study entitled ‘Creative Nation’ produced by the Australian Government in 1994, the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) produced a document that attempted to define and measure the Creative Industries in the UK. Creative Industries was at this time only beginning to be something with a name.
The DCMS regarded the creative industries as: ‘those activities 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’
In this document they identified 13 sectors. Though slightly amended over time in the UK (this ‘Creative Industries’ model has been imported to many parts of the globe since and evolved to suit national cultural circumstances, eg. sectors such as gastronomy) the original 13 sectors have changed very little.
Advertising, Architecture, Arts, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Software & Computer Services & (Games), Music, Publishing, Film & Video, TV & Radio, Performing Arts
in 2002 London’s then mayor, Ken Livingstone, established a Commission on the creative industries, to assess their value and potential contribution to the city’s economy. DCMS continued their research into the creative industries and in 2008 published the report Creative Britain and Digital Britain the following year. These reports brought to light evidence of the extent to which the digital and creative sectors were merging due to technological change.
The last figures available for the value of the Creative Industries to the UK economy are for 2017. For the first time the Creative Industries contributed over £100 Billion to the economy at £ 101.5 billion and since 2010 have been growing at twice the rate of the economy as a whole. In part this growth is due to the success of the computer gaming industry which contributed more than £5 billion alone.
The identifying of the Creative Industries in 1998 and subsequent development of strategy for providing investment and nurturing growth has been an evolving economic and cultural success story in the Uk. The advances in digital technologies married with the Creative Industries have had a direct impact in the vitality and growth of many locations throughout Scotland and the wider region.
Dundee is a great example of the regenerative potential of the Creative Industries and digital technologies not only in the economic life of a town or city but also culturally and socially. With world class education infrastructure in games development and a large number of successful games companies, from fledgling start-ups to big international players, the city has come a tempting destination for many in the gaming industry, both home-grown talent and those from further afield. Along with that financial success and wealth of creativity comes a cultural boost. In the case of Dundee the most visible development to the city’s Cultural voice was seen and heard with the opening of Scotland’s first design museum, the V&A Dundee. This success in turn provides resources for more jobs, training and infrastructure not just directly in the Creative industries but in the wider economy.
Examples of this can be seen all over the UK. In London the district of Shoreditch was the early shining example of the power of regeneration thru directing creatives to set up shop in an area, rather neglected but with plenty of cheap warehousing. The transformation, over time was quite astonishing and for a great many there were handsome rewards for their success. Along with the many stories of job and wealth creation there are however the victims of this success. Life long residents slowly (or not so slowly) priced out of their area. Whole neighbourhoods evicted by the success of gentrification without, it seems, too much thought given to the lives, traditions and ‘culture’ of these locals.
Refinement of the Creative Industries concept has continued and now is more often referred to as the Creative Economy. It was found that there were more than 50% of creative jobs in the ‘Non-Creative’ industries than in the ‘Creative’
As for myself and the direction I wish to follow I have no definitive answer. As the course unfolds and I discover the full range of potential employment and experience the realities in the workplace I expect I will begin to focus on a particular area. At this point in time I know what interests me most and what I would like, in general, to be doing. I’m attracted to portraiture and people, to storytelling and to travel. Over the next years of study and experience it will be seeing how these interests come together.