Welcome to The (Im)posture

What is The (Im)posture about ?

The (Im)posture is a publication and community for creatives who want to engage critically with their practice. After spending years reading articles and listening to podcasts about the creative industry, I realized a lot of what was produced for creatives was limited to “how to” pieces and “top mistakes to avoid” podcasts. But the creative industry is about so much more than that.

While illustration is more ubiquitous than ever, rates have been stagnating for decades and contracts are always asking for more and more rights. Creatives have to compete with stock images, Fiverr, DIY illustrations platforms or even AI while remaining “authentic” and follow their passion. These tensions are at the heart of contemporary creative practice, yet we have very few opportunities to critically engage with them as a community.

So here you won’t find any tips, tricks or advice because I don’t believe in individual solutions to systemic problems. This is a space for the bigger questions, theoretical musings and radical opinions about how creative work is structured in our society. All this as far as possible from algorithms, ads and other gatekeeping practices found on other platforms.

Who’s talking ?

My name is Julien Posture, I’m an illustrator and researcher. I’ve been working since 2018 with clients such as The New York Times, The Guardian and NBC News. I’m also currently a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Cambridge (UK), my research project addresses the various ways of seeing in the creative industry, from illustrators’ to algorithms’ and the processes through which specific visual forms become imbued with economic, aesthetic, political and ethical values (for example, how does a flat colourful shape becomes associated with neoliberalism ?).

My writing has appeared in Eye On Design and Siggi : le magazine de sociologie and I’ve given talks about illustration, creativity and capitalism at universities in the UK, Germany, France and Canada.

For more on my work you can visit my website or Instagram.

What to expect ?

The core of the newsletter is a free essay once or twice a month (depending on my schedule) about a topic pertaining to visual culture. Sometimes it’s a burning, recent take on a piece of news, some other times it’s a deep dive in a long lasting aspect of our work.