in 2014, the zeitgeist needed a new creative outlet aside from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & Tumblr. Paul Budnitz of Kidrobot felt there was a thirst unquenched, so with the collaborative powers of design team Berger & Föhr, they built ELLO, The Creators Network.
Artists flocked to the invite only site in 2014 to find refuge from data hungry powerhouses(Facebook/Instagram/Twitter). ELLO was truly the first of its kind to place Artists as its focal point in the emergence of big tech & social media. ELLO was ad-free, uncensored, didn’t sell your data, & opened the door for creatives who wanted the attention to rest strictly on their art. over the years ELLO evolved into a brilliant community driven social network.
“Advertising next to art is an act of poor taste & devalues art” – Todd Berger of B&F.
a quote that echos permanently in my mind. this created a standard that helped define the bar of how art should be appreciated. publishing your most brilliant works to be smothered by random advertisements doesn’t leave a great taste for the creator.
imagine walking through a gallery exhibition & between each piece there’s a sponsored installation from a casino or local restaurant.
i’d imagine the Artist would be appalled to see their work on display like that.
(to the left, Deus Ex Maniac by Wyatt Bunce @wyattbunce)
ELLO created a social network that felt like an interactive & ongoing art gallery.
discovering art should be joyous, inviting, thought provoking, & create a sense of fulfillment as you uncover something to cherish. after all art enriches the human experience.
sometime in 2018 the global Artists agency TalentHouse acquired ELLO.
one of the goals was to provide opportunity to Artists through a variety of Giveaways, Creative Briefs, & activations. the founders at ELLO felt this was an appropriate change of hands. TalentHouse offered pathways for Artist briefs with world leading brands like Netflix, Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, Snapchat, etc.
things were fine for a while as creators continued publishing their works & accomplishments to the site.
sometime around late July & August 2023, ELLO went offline..
there’s a lot to process from this marathon..
the need to discover new artwork is always going to be here, thankfully in 2021 COHART began its beta app successfully filling the void.
“Discover Your New Art World” COHART meets the needs of how you can digest new art.
COHART makes discovering & collecting art a refreshing experience as it’s one of the first hybrid social network art marketplaces to exist. you get to create a delightful profile & share your favorite moods with your community. they cater the COHART experience to adept art collectors & your everyday modest art enthusiast.
“If you have artwork hanging in your house, you should consider yourself a collector of art”
— Kendall Warson, COHART Co-Founder
on August 2nd, 2023 COHART was featured in Tech Crunch highlighting their epic seed rounds(raising 4m), & creating extra dimension to discovering art
art is a natural response to the stimuli of existence. enjoying art with your friends is an additional treat to the list of delightful things to experience while being alive. why not center a gaze around discovering new art again. no fluff.
COHART holds the window open for creators who want to share their latest artworks or behind-the-scenes in an ecosystem centered around arts culture.
they open an additional step for items to be listed & collected either traditionally or through the blockchain.
we hope you enjoy this thoughtful post about the latest of art + social media culture. we’re addicted to internet culture.
all artworks featured in this post were discovered on COHART.
more tea 🍵:
sources point to Talenthouse drowning in debt, taking ELLO with it 🙁
The Guardian — Creative tech firm Talenthouse is close to failure as debts mount
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/09/creative-tech-firm-talenthouse-is-close-to-failure-as-debts-mount
The Guardian — ‘I’ve given up getting paid’: global tech platform accused of exploiting artists
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/04/ive-given-up-getting-paid-design-agency-accused-of-exploiting-artists
also:
https://www.webpronews.com/talenthouse-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse/
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