Hasta La Ideas

Frustrated by the weekly onslaught of mailers from photographers and illustrators, a group of US ad creatives have set up an online alternative

“Our creative department gets about 60 lbs (28Kg) of paper promos a month from illustrators and photographers, most of which ends up in the trash,” says Lance Vining, an associate creative director/art director at an agency in San Francisco. They made this video to illustrate the problem:

To discourage the use of paper promos, Vining and a group of friends launched First-Stop.org as a side project to showcase the work of illustrators and photographers in the hope that they would use the site instead of sending out printed materials. “The only thing we ask of the artists whose work we display is that they agree to significantly reduce the amount of paper promos they send to ad agencies,” Vining says. “If they’re already ahead of the curve and not sending out any paper promos, brilliant, we are also happy to show their work! It’s also absolutely free.”

And before any of you eager readers point out the fact that CR has carried a fair few printed inserts in the past, we do carry far less of that kind of thing these days, in part because of the opportunities afforded by this here website (especially Feed) and our Creative Handbook site.

RELATED CONTENT

Our April 2007 issue looked at a lot of the issues regarding sustainability and the creative industries.

Anna Gerber also wrote a series of features for us on Design & Sustainability, available online to subscribers here and here

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