A message from ADU…

For those of you who don’t know us yet, the ADU is a magazine and archive about design-led business and creativity, published online to encourage the formation of a new community — one that is confident and successful in business, adventurous and free-thinking, informed and generous with knowledge, and able to reflect with intelligence on the impact of its work. 

ADU is an online space positioned between thinking and action, a place of possibilities that we have created to instigate and support a type of entrepreneurship that can enable change, or the creation of broader opportunities.

We are an independent yet strongly collaborative voice within the design sector, with a network that seeks and connects creative entrepreneurs from across the country to the resources they need. ADU is also a place for dialogue and discussion. As we reveal what is going on behind the scenes of the Australian design industry so we can deliver insights, and stories on the people we think deserve a closer look. 

With the growing role of the creative entrepreneur in business, it’s interesting to note the role Australians are playing in this sector. But what exactly is a creative entrepreneur? 

In this issue we launch the first series of continuing profiles on Australian creative businesses who we feel are defining the term creative entrepreneur. We look at people who are running both large and small enterprises, that are linked by intelligent thinking and creative endeavours, that more often than not, defy the odds of the traditional corporate model.

We all know what an entrepreneur is, there’s a long history of Australian entrepreneurs, both good and bad, and although business is what they do, creativity often isn’t.  

If you check with Wikipedia, creative entrepreneurs are people working in the creative industries who invest in intellectual capital, developing a business around their own creative talent or others. Both Madonna and Richard Branson make their list.

So how does today’s creative entrepreneur translate locally, who are the creative entrepreneurs Australia is fostering and how important is their role to Australian business, to government, and to the way the we are seen to the rest of the world?

For us the creative entrepreneurs worth celebrating are the individuals and groups doing things in a non-conformist way. People linking entrepreneurial skills with creative and social innovation – with the ultimate goal to link interest, motivation and need in a system that can create outcomes.

With the growing status of the design festival as a marker of regional success, or innovation, it’s not hard to conclude that through their activation of ideas about the businesses of the future, creative entrepreneurs play an increasingly important role in developing the cultural offering that governments use as a way to build identity and goodwill.

On top of this, creative entrepreneurs are increasingly playing a role as catalysts for a change in thinking about designing and sustainability, they create platforms for ideas to be shared openly and across business and design sectors, they help countries to share knowledge, they connect with the community, and they foster new businesses that can retain skills, build possibility, or apply their ideas in the creation of improved social conditions.

Over the coming months we will continue to seek out and articulate how creativity is adding value to business, and society. We will tap into the minds of creative individuals, designers and businesses to access their opinions, their practical tools, to share their dreams and help them lead by example.

We hope you will join us.

Heidi Dokulil & Ewan McEoin

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