Undeniably, we have lost our way. And now we are in danger of losing our belief in the power and positivity of what we can do for the world. To solve this, I believe we need a new creative renaissance to reset our course.

The Renaissance, which began in Europe in the 14th Century, set in motion one of the most accelerated and optimistic periods in human history. It came as a response to the Dark and Middle Ages, which were a period of relative stagnation and decline. Society had forgotten many of the scientific learnings and discoveries of the ancient Greek and Roman past, had become stuck with rigid ideas, slowed down by unchallenged religious and cultural orthodoxies.

The radicalism of the Renaissance changed the future of humanity and placed it onto a new course for the betterment of society. And who led this revolution? Not those political and religious leaders at the top. It was us. The creatives. Those with the power to imagine beyond the status quo and the boundaries set by society.

We now stand on the verge of a new renaissance. A renaissance set to catapult us away from our convenience addiction and transform us once again. As the visionary architect and theorist, Buckminster Fuller, said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” These words have never been so relevant.

Today, creatives are tasked with bringing this new model to life, with imagining it and then telling its story in a way that ignites desire, aspiration and a sense of longing - emotions we’ve been sparking for so long. At Made Thought, we see first-hand the incredible value our ability to paint a picture we can bring to clients like Xeros, who have created revolutionary micro-plastic filtration technology for industrial appliances. By using the power of design and storytelling to make their work and products both easy to understand and truly desirable—translating science into the everyday—so we can help transform our collective awareness of micro-plastic pollution in our water systems through breakthrough solutions, communicated simply.

We see these same energies at play with our work with Natural Fiber Welding, who use the power of biological decay and rebirth to create truly circular materials, which nourish rather than damage the earth as they return to it. These extraordinary innovations can only scale through investment and demand, which in turn is ignited by the storytelling of the creatives.

This is our challenge. After decades of ‘making things look pretty to sell more’, our creative skillset is now needed for an entirely different and elevated purpose. Massive shifts in how we make and distribute, revolutionary materials, a push to eradicate single-use systems—these are the new outcomes we creatives must drive towards, bringing our clients with us on a fast track to the future. Without these changes, and the leadership of the creative industry, many of our clients simply won’t exist. Irrelevant, out of touch, unsustainable in every way; businesses that do not adapt to the new essential future, will wither extraordinarily fast.

To take on this new challenge, this new imperative, we need new tools to guide us. The launch of PlasticFree, the world's first materials and systems solutions platform, built by creatives for creatives, is set to be one of our essential tools, empowering creatives worldwide to rethink everything from the beginning. To design without our age-old boundaries. This trusted resource will give us the confidence to pushback against last century's creative briefs, and emerge from the misinformation minefield unscathed.

But, just as the revolutionists before us, we must not go slowly. Incrementalism has never driven change. What we need is a large-scale call to action because design has a new purpose – to be brave enough to envision a world unfathomably different to today. To change the everyday behaviour of the population, enabling social and environmental advancements. To make this new world appealing and accessible to all.

It is time. Time for the not-so-quiet design revolutionary. Time for the creative uprising.