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How Many Hats’ Black creatives directory will change the industry
Many Hats describes itself as a resource hub for community and content for multi-hyphenate hustlers.
More specifically, its Black Creatives Directory caters to the Black community including artists, freelancers, and vendors. The directory will serve as a community-sourced list with the goal of elevating Black talent in the media, creative, and event industries.
Talk about many hats.
The Black Creative Directory
The founder, Katerina Simonova noticed gaps between the opportunities for Black and white people, which inspired the idea.
Simonova recalls being conscious of diversity every time she produced a shoot or a project in general. Katerina’s experience comes from the PR, marketing, and events sectors.
She has worked with LVMH, Playboy, and Yves Saint Laurent. She ultimately ended up in the creative direction and production realm.
The mad hatter also noticed a pattern amidst the resurfacing of the Black Lives Matter protests: company statements. Simonova noticed the pressure put on brands to take action in light of BLM, but the pressure only resulted in statements.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO SPECIFICALLY HIGHLIGHT BLACK CREATIVES, FREELANCERS, CONSULTANTS, AND VENDORS RIGHT NOW AS PEOPLE DO START TO HIRE AGAIN AND OPEN THINGS UP AGAIN. AND TO HOLD BRANDS ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT THEY SAID THEY WERE GOING TO DO. NO EXCUSES.
The submission process
While still in progress, the Black Creative Directory will accept submissions via Squarespace. If you’re a creative, this will be the first step in acquiring the resources you need.
The form will ask questions about what projects, clients, or collaborations you’re seeking, along with your field of expertise and beyond.
All submissions will be added to the soon-to-launch directory and organized by location, role, and more for easy searching.
Support from BIPOC
As a non-Black ally, Katerina understands the sensitivity surrounding Black endeavors. In turn, the support of Black partners in this project, like makeup artist and creative director, Joy Fennell has helped her better navigate the Black creative space.
This resulted in social media attention via sharing, commenting, and tagging. That was when Simonova noticed that creating this space began to resonate with people.
“I wouldn’t have had that immediate of a reaction without [Joy] spreading the word.”
The great resource that will come out of the Black Creatives Directory only costs Katerina time and attention. She prioritizes inclusion and representation in all spaces and plans to achieve that with this new project.
Some partners of the directory include All Black Everything Summit, Brink Talent, Moonage Event Production, and Palm Micro influencer Network.
The next steps for Many Hats’ new venture include building an advisory board, doing some pro-bono work from Katerina’s end, and offering consulting services to Black creatives so they can have mentorship.
The Black Creative Directory is launching by the end of next week. The system will be updated frequently once it’s published.