Creative Networks is a networking group for professionals in the creative industries which meets at Leeds College of Art on the last Thursday of every month. In the three years that I have been coming to its meetings I have heard talks by Jimmy Choo, David Parrish and many others in the arts and creative industries establishment.
This month it was the turn of Lizzie Mary Cullen. Cullen is an illustrator and designer who has done a great deal in a very short time. Still only 25 she has worked for such household names as Zizzi restaurants, MTV and Harvey Nichols.
Totally charming and unassuming she won her audience over from the start by telling a really terrible joke but in a way that was really funny. She followed up with a brief auto-biography and then three short videos of some of her recent work. She finished her short presentation with another joke - this one even worse than the first and yet even funnier.
The films that she showed us are on her website at http://www.lizziemarycullen.com. There is also a gallery of her work on that site which I really like. You can also follow her on twitter.
Creative Networks was until recently funded by Business Link Yorkshire. The loss of the regional Business Link cannot have been easy for Creative Networks and it is good to see that the network is still here. But it needs support and, if possible, money. Before the talk Bridget March asked for ideas for raising money that do not imperil its independence. If you can help or just want information about the network and its events you can email Bridget on bridgetm@leeds-art.ac.uk.
