Looking to Hire Creatives? Go Browse The Creative Finder

The story at portfolio service The Creative Finder started with an email from a photographer to the folks at DesignTAXI:

Hi, I’d like to have my portfolio on your website, but I’m a photographer and your website is called “DesignTAXI”. [Unfortunately,] I’m not a designer...

Coupled with more requests from designers, photographers, and illustrators asking if they could showcase their portfolios on its website, the DesignTAXI team saw the compelling need to create a new platform, The Creative Finder, to connect creative talents to opportunities. The Creative Finder, as the name suggests, is a global search engine for creatives and portfolios. In contrast to other portfolio websites which feature only the most recent works, The Creative Finder adopts a search approach. The team is helping creative professionals rethink their creative expressions, and the way I see it, the less popular ones would eventually be drowned out. Art expression is pretty much subjective though , but the real-time feedback does help them to improve and produce even better works, which is awesome.

The website just launched a revamp ten days back, introducing new and improved features, such as better search functions. Users can now toggle their search based on “images” or “profiles preferences,” and the results can be filtered according to its time, popularity, and the number of 'likes.' Members can then 'like' or comment on the artworks, as well as follow or message other members. Other features also include real-time updates which allows users to identify what is trending, instant messaging which allows easier collaboration, quick image upload and tagging, and new social sharing features where it has added Evernote and Pinterest buttons to share your own or your favourite artists’ portfolio. With the increasing number of users using Pinterest, it is a sensible move for the team to add in Pinterest to increase the eyeballs on the creative works. It's also great that there's a Sina Weibo sharing button too. The website looks pretty sleek and clean, but it places much emphasis on the images and it neglects the text organization on the website. Maybe I’m just a little OCD, but when you visit someone’s portfolio, you get the visual porn at first but as you scroll down, it kinda turns you off if the brief description, clientele, resume, and awards area is messy, say, if the user doesn’t bother with proper paragraphs for example. The Singapore-based company was started by Alex Goh, who is also founder at DesignTAXI and Singapore’s official representative for New York Festivals. It also has Dan Brody, Google China’s first employee and Spotify’s Asia Pacific general manager on board with them. The Creative Finder currently has a library of 145,000 creatives and clients who have hired through their platform, including Aquent, Activision, and Mattel.