The creative economy of any country has the ability to bring about a socio-economic transformation. If we look at the countries that have a budding creative democracy and then those who don’t, the difference is pretty obvious. It’s not something one individual can do, it has to be a collective effort by different communities and then the whole nation.
When we talk about the creative community of Pakistan, it’s basically divided into these three sectors:
The Tech Savvy
This is a group of people, mostly living in the urban areas who have access to the advance technology and know their way around global trends. They understand the process of how to sell their services and products to the high-end market in Pakistan and the global market that is way more competitive. You will see their portfolios on Behance and Dribbble where they have the opportunity to showcase their skills and their social media is up to date with the latest marketing requirements. They are a very important part of our economy but unfortunately are less than 15% of the whole creative community.
The Grassroots creative
This is a group of more than 150,000 people in Pakistan who support their families with a mere Rs. 2,500 a month. They constitute of the artisans, low scale designers, craftsmen and artists from the backward areas. These people don’t even have enough exposure to know the value of their own crafts and techniques. Most of the local organizations use them as the backend that produces the traditional products in mass. These products are then sold at high-end prices in the big cities and at even higher prices to the global audience. Unfortunately, lack of literacy might not be the root cause in this case. Most of the young people in these areas have the basic education but the lack of exposure and equal opportunities is what brings them down.
The Mediators
Mediators are those people who have had the privilege of working in both of the above sectors. Although that’s a rare opportunity that not most of us get to avail, but it’s extremely valuable and should be valued as such. They have the capability to bridge the gap between the above mentioned sectors. This can only happen with sustainable business models that allow the grass root creatives to build their own micro enterprises and sustain their income in the long run.
World of Creatives is one example of such a model that provides an equal opportunity to the creative community of Pakistan to showcase their work, sell it and market it to the right audience. The founders have a portfolio that includes a lot of work with the artisans and designers from the backward areas and at the same time, they have had the privilege of working with the latest available technology and trends.
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Hi there, just wanted to say, I loved this blog post.
It was practical. Keep on posting!