London 2012 blog

I am passionate about supporting young creative talent. One of the greatest opportunities we have culturally is how we work with the creative industries. London's creativity is driven from small, independent artists and creatives. They range from magazines that celebrate different facets of the fashion industry to collective design studios that conceive of "Tofu" as cartoon characters; basements where digital grime is being sonically mastered, and mobile 3D rendered games and type fonts created. These practices support and encourage new talent and they are a lynch pin in the UK’s creative successes. I am working at the way the creative industries engage both with London 2012 and as part of the UK-wide Cultural Olympiad.

Within London 2012 this gives me an opportunity to work with many new departments. Luckily, I have a "peach" from the Cultural Leadership placement, Gabre, helping shape and create this work with me. We are starting with a Design Audit of creative opportunities throughout London 2012, to identify areas where creative approaches can be incorporated into our work.

The other aspect of my work questions whether the Cultural Olympiad could engage with and provide an offer to the creative industries? Certainly the vibrant music scene across the UK is so intimately linked with creativity it is hard to ignore. Product and object design could link in with the Olympic Carnival for example, as could urban design, street design and street art with many of the other Cultural Olympiad projects.

Lastly, but by no means least, the creative industries have so much to contribute directly to sport. For example the development of 'puma legs', as worn by Oscar Pistorious and Aimee Mullins, function as both a sporting aid and a technological feat created between scientists and creatives.



These activities involve ways of working which are unique to the creative industries helping us to engage with far wider audiences than culture alone. It can help our athletes.