Are You Creative?

Alternative wedding dress fashion designer. Born and bred on the wrong side of the tracks in Chelmsford, Essex. Not everyone likes to wear white at their wedding, so Lucy Can’t Dance make more individual items. Dip dye is a big thing for them, Dresses that look great and still allow y ou to eat, drink, dance and not have ten people have to help you to the toilet. Ease of going to the toilet in a w...

Artist, educator, curator, and rebel. A portfolio worker - someone that has lots of different artistic things going on. Creative variety keeps life interesting. Elaine created Birdland on a roundabout in Chelmsford, it is a birdhouse city - commissioned by a housing developer - and created in collaboration with local kids. More on the housing crisis and the return of peregrines to Chelmsford. Bron...

Grub is a young graffiti artist from Southend. At just 11 years old he’s taken part in Southend City Jam and painted around the country. He is mostly interested in classic graffiti styles, rather than street art. Sangita looks through Grub’s black book (graf sketch book) and can’t believe he can draw so well. Grub is from a creative family, and his Dad is an excellent artist who has taught him to...

Radio presenter and audio documentary maker. Kaelyn created a documentary about the Chelmsford skateboarding scene, around Central Park between 2020 and 2023. Kaelyn is a skateboarder, so the subject was personal for her. Skate scenes are always in flux, and this was a busy time for the scene in Essex. Why do creative people gravitate to skateboarding? Or does skateboarding make people creative? B...

Chaz is from art duo The London Police - originally from Chelmsford. His partner Bob got attacked by a seagull on Chelmsford Tindal Street while they were painting at Concrete Canvas. The danger of painting very high murals - territorial gulls. At school he was into drawing, and then moved into photography, especially for bands. Chaz ended up on the music scene and sold t-shirts for 90s indie supe...

Jeordie is the Programmes Lead at the charity Tonic Music providing mental health support to the music industry and music fans. School and Jeordie didn’t get on - except for Mr. Harris the sociology teacher who encouraged his path into sociology. His psychology and sociology dissertation at uni was inspired by the death of Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots - why do these entertainers that giv...

Neil is in a band with his 77 year old grandad Ken - Ken and Neil McDonnell. Playing 50s and 60s rock and roll. They’ve already made three albums in their first two years. Ken is a tough creative lead and has a clear vision of how he wants audio, image etc. for the band. He is motivated to be productive while he ‘still has his faculties’. Ken gave Neil his first guitar when he was 10, and ever sin...

What does an art director do? They make things look nice! Having visual ideas, organising photoshoots, video, social media, layouts, typography, Ben even designed the HEAT Magazine logo…. Ooooo! Telling the story visually is essential. The features editor will assign a celebrity and a small time frame to shoot images for the magazine. The art director has to have ideas, and arrange the photography...

Furniture maker. Cabinet maker. Just don’t call him a carpenter! What does it all mean? Jim started out making cabinets next to Liam Howlett from The Prodigy’s house… that’s like Essex’s answer to Buckingham Palace surely! Jim started his creative journey polishing furniture, and then learned more about how to make it. When do you know you are ready to set up on your own and become self-employed?...

MEFF ARMY! Singer and guitarist in the punk rock band The Meffs. Born and raised in Colchester. Going from playing Hot Box to 100 people to Alexandra Palace to 10000 people in just a few years - WHAT A LIFE! What is the optimal strategy for a pre-stage wee? Recording at Frank Turner’s studio on Mersea Island. How not to do gang vocals! WHAT!? What’s it like supporting Alice Cooper? And Primal Scre...

Co-founder of Essex Witch Museum. Researcher, historian, marketing genius, and part of the creative force behind the project to bring Essex’s witch history to life. Everything Emma has ever done in her career is coming in useful on the journey to create a new museum. Adelle invents Witchipedia - let this be a permanent record. What is a ‘familiar’? It’s a demon in the form of an animal which will...

Writer, spoken word artist, journalist, DJ, historian, researcher, poet, slam poet, life-long student. Peter deGraft-Johnson is The Repeat Beat Poet, aka PJ, and Mr. Loose Egusi (his afrobeat DJ name). Talking about flâneurs, Argentinian funk, plumbing, and other random things. Slam poetry is a fake-competitive parlour game of poetry, where two poets go head to head in front of a very vocal and in...

This is the way! Cosplay is when you dress as a popular character from film, TV, games. Cosplayers usually start by buying costumes, and then realise it’s cheaper and more fun to make your own and customise it. Emily is involved with Chelmsford Takeover with Essex Cosplayers and Chelmsford For You. The whole town centre gets taken over by characters and vehicles, with chances to learn about craft...

Competitive story writer, namer, brander, and editor/designer of Menticulture magazine. Overall creative legend, and nicest bloke in Essex. Originally from the glorious hill of Danbury. Ben trained as a graphic designer as a mature student. Now he runs his own naming and brand agency The Identity Bureau. Naming is finding what a company is going to call themselves. A name that’s memorable and desc...

One of the hosts of the Eerie Essex podcast (with Ailsa Clarke), all about paranormal happenings and traditional stories of mysteries and the unexplained in Essex. Is the Loch Ness Monster a ghost dinosaur? Old Roughy the poltergeist in Great Waltham. Ghost cats in pubs. How do Bethan and Ailsa research their podcast? Start with the paranormal database, books, British newspaper archive. Weird Norf...

Observational poet with luxuriant hair from Witham. Leon started poetry in 2016, and became Leon The Poet in 2022. He was a songwriter first, and got inspired by spoken word like Kae Tempest. His first book was published in 2024 - ‘Sometimes I’m The Bull, Sometimes I’m The China Shop’ - with a brilliant cover by Essex artist Jackson Bollocks. The book looks more like a music album than a poetry bo...

This one’s a bit sweary! Joe writes, directs and edits sketches and shorts that screen globally. He also has a background in commercials and branded content. He’s had viral successes with his films. How do big American productions end up being edited in Joe’s house in Romford? Because he’s awesome! Can you learn to be funny? Or are you born funny? Joe worked a lot of corporate video jobs before re...

Nick Collier AKA Ella Vaday is The Drag Beast from Dagenham East. Is Dagenham Essex or London? It’s Essex innit! Ella appeared on Season 3 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK in 2021, and has since shot to drag stardom. Nick trained in musical theatre and dance when he was 16. And after graduating performed in Wicked, Book of Mormon, Cats, Fame among other West End smashes. Ella has now been performing in P...

Film-maker, Marley lives on a three acre farm, designs permaculture, and specialises in community supported agriculture (CSA). Marley also co-runs a community cooperative cafe in Colchester. He’s been commissioned by Culture Essex to make a film for Extraordinary Essex with the working title ‘Don’t Fight The Land That Feeds You’ about the people of Essex and the land that nourishes them. Marley is...

Jon manages Hot Box in Chelmsford. An independent community venue for music, poetry, chess, comedy, drag, retro gaming and other things. At a small venue everyone has to muck in and do all the jobs. Venue is 110 capacity, but has seen huge acts like Fat Boy Slim, Frank Turner, High Fade, The Meffs, Beans on Toast, Native James. Norman Cook has come back to DJ many times, and once to help raise fun...

Figurative drawing. With special guest co-host Adam Whitaker. Nat’s collection of art ‘An Untamed Line’ is currently exhibited on Chelmsford Museum’s Gallery Wall. She makes a rough shape on paper with water and then inks in the figure. How does life drawing online differ from drawing from a photo? And how short time limits lead to the best art? Sixty second drawings have a lot of energy. Ink neve...

Owner of Lionbeat, a company that advocates for bass culture and black music. Jean-Claude was born and raised in Brentwood. Bass culture happened when the sound systems from the Caribbean travelled to Europe and eventually African diasporic culture. Bringing people together with a uniform love for bass. People immigrated to Britain and brought over sound system culture - Bass and dance was a ritua...

Creative director for advertising and entertainment. Elliot is 1000% creative! Why do younger people not like advertising as a creative career? People are paying to avoid adverts, and using ad blockers. People are watching telly in a different way now - no longer are people sitting at the same time to watch the same scheduled show. Elliot loved the Benetton adverts when he was younger, and how it...

Professional opera singer. Donna’s origins story, she was spotted as a talented singer by a teacher who took her to a French chateau to perform Mozart arias - this was of course acceptable in the late 1980s. Opera has music, drama, costume, and the power of an orchestra - opera is massive! In opera the singers also act, there’s a lot to be good at. Donna’s first professional opera gig was at the R...

Creator of the independent comic series System Error. How to start creating a comic. Why does the System Error robot have such a big head? Creating a recognisable silhouette is essential for character design. Phil started drawing with biro, then pen, dip brush pens, and then creating digitally. Note: Phil has very clean hands, no ink! Digital is faster, cleaner and easier to adjust. Phil uses Proc...