AnalogFolk publishes satirical “manual” to highlight barriers in the creative industry

Making It In The Creative Industry: A Practical Guide, a new book from AnalogFolk and illustrator Toby Leigh (Tobatron), spotlights several statistics. Among them is that the proportion of working class people in the creative industry has more than halved since the 1970s, from 16.4 per cent to just 7.9 per cent; that children of people who work in film and TV are 12 times more likely to work in those fields; and that 43 per cent of all UK creative organisations are in London and the South East. Insights like these feature across almost each page of the new book, which UK charity Creative Mentor Network (CMN) has published to help draw attention to the closed nature of the industry.

The publication is structured like a manual, with AnalogFolk offering a range of “tips” and diagrams on how to get into the industry, arranged under chapters like Getting Started and Office Life. Though the point of Making It In The Creative Industry is to highlight the impossible situations those from low socio-economic backgrounds face through equally absurd advice. For example, when explaining how to build two years of experience for an entry level job, AnalogFolk offers time travel as a solution.

Through the book, CMN hopes to encourage working creatives and agencies to help create a more accessible industry. One way it does this is by pointing paid professionals to CMN’s mentoring programmes. So far, the charity has distributed 250 limited edition copies of the book to key figures across the creative industry to encourage them to become mentors. The text ends by directing any creatives who recognise their workplace within the guide to the Creative Mentor Network site, where it offers more information on its work in this space. You can read the full book here.

Katie Thomson-Greene, managing director at Creative Mentor Network, says: “From unpaid internships, network-driven recruitment and even awareness of the jobs that exist, there are too many invisible barriers that many people don’t think about but are making it even harder for the young creatives in our community. Our hope is that this book will shed light on these barriers and inspire individuals and businesses to act towards creating a more diverse and inclusive industry.”