I’ve been away from the “pen” for a while now, and I thought I wanted to explain why in this post.

In the latest year and a half I have been working on some amazing projects that took away a lot of my time but also have given me back great personal fulfillment: I curated the Art Direction of a game for the very first time, The Little Crumb which is now available as a demo on steam and started… A company. 

Yes. A company. I still can’t believe it entirely. The name is Afterflow and our first product is called HueGig.

A product for, you probably guessed right,the creative industry.

So, what prompted us to start working on HueGig?

It seems like such a complex question to answer, but probably, it is not.

I am 45 today, and when my journey into the creative industry began, I was just 19 years old. It’s been so long, if I think about it.

I always loved to paint, draw, and engage in all sorts of creative activities, but I never really thought of becoming a creative myself for a living.

I was scared it wasn’t a sustainable job. At least in Rome. At least at the time.

As it happens, I changed my mind in the last year of high school, after spending my entire youth convinced I would become a veterinarian.

I enrolled in an Illustration and Visual Communication Academy for a three-year course and learned about traditional techniques, anatomy, the editorial and publishing world in general, storyboarding… plus some first steps into the world of computer software.

Yep, at the time I still used a mouse to draw on Photoshop… It’s so funny to think about today.

Anyway, from that day far away in the past, a lot happened:

• I started my adventure selling my art at conventions and online.
• I took my first steps in this career as a children’s book illustrator and worked as a freelancer for over 10 years.
• Until the feeling of being incomplete in my knowledge and skillset piled up and, one day, I enrolled again in a Master’s in Concept Art.
• I immediately fell head over heels for it and redirected my efforts towards animation and gaming.
• I landed some different jobs as a contractor, some longer, some short, and then, finally, started to work in full-time permanent positions, which, once I got past 35 years old, was my final goal.

Since then, I’ve had the honour and opportunity to mentor countless junior artists and to direct my very first game and art team.

Why go through all these points?

Because, throughout space and time, there is one constant that never changes, for me, my colleagues, my students and everyone I met and worked with:

Creatives have very special needs when it comes to expressing themselves professionally.

And the advice is always so varied, sometimes contradictory, very confusing, and not always a guarantee of success.

At the same time, people who need creatives working on their projects, 8 times out of 10, don’t know how to guide the right people onto their team. They don’t know what to expect from them once they hire them. They don’t have any idea how to give timely and constructive feedback.

In time, all things take their own rightful place.

But what if we could cut some of the pain points from each side of the fence?

What if we could guide, match, and spark connections that can offer job opportunities one may never have suspected, and perfect collaborations one might be tempted to overlook because of old biases?

Because it is absolutely possible.

It is, when the process is guided by creative people who have the lived experience of both worlds and can create an informed process, custom-made for the creative industry, rather than yet another agglomerate of “open positions”.

Not every job is the same.

Not every skillset needs the same approach.

In a world where creativity is the very core around which people grow and make decisions, you need a tailored approach.

And this is our mission.

This is why HueGig.com exists.