🐎 Opportunity knocks #43
A short list of cool things to apply to this weekend… and this summer.
🔦 Welcome to your weekly creative inspiration!
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👋 Dear creative! How are you doing today?
Be convinced before you click submit…
A few years ago, I remember starting to share a small list of opportunities in my newsletter as a section. I wanted to share the opportunities I stumbled upon and that I thought could benefit fellow creatives. Slowly but surely, it has grown into its own series of posts, and I am convinced they reach who they need to reach.
Many opportunities I have dared to apply to, taking my shot and doing the work to enter, were shared with me, whether by luck or by design. They reached me just in time, and I have never looked back.
Having a call, getting an interview, being considered, being shortlisted- all these milestones are great. But I keep repeating this simple idea: you cannot win if you do not enter. And I would add: you cannot win if you are not convinced.
Whatever you pick and apply to, be convinced that you deserve to be in the room and that your work has value in itself, whatever the outcome of your pitch. Share your best work, and you never know what will happen next.
✦ Did you miss the last post? Learn how I turn illustrations into starting stories…
☕ Grab some tea or coffee, and let’s go!
🐎 Opportunity knocks
Here are the latest opportunities I stumbled upon. There are many cool grants, funding, competitions, and more to enter to experience progress. I hope this week’s list will help you move one step closer to your goal.
🖼️ Put your past work in service for good (Fine Acts is launching an open call for existing digital illustrations exploring the intersection of women’s rights and climate change in Europe. This is an open call for existing work – you do not need to create a new illustration unless you decide to do so. They are looking for 20 illustrations, and every selected artist will receive a €200 licensing fee. Note that you keep the ownership and rights to your work. There are 3 subtopics: Safety & Violence, Care & labour and Women leading climate action. ⟶ Deadline: July 31. Apply through the form.)
👁 Artists based in Guatemala (Fine Acts has a lot to offer to creatives; they are looking for artists based in Guatemala to become part of the first edition of ART/ICLE – a new collaborative format that brings together journalism and artistic practice to tell urgent stories in ways that inform, move, and inspire action. ⟶ Deadline: August 3. Apply through the form.)
💥 Apply to the Adobe Max 2026 Creativity Award (Whatever you think of their products, business model, and true loyalty to creatives, this award is an opportunity to get your recent work in front of industry leaders, if that’s what you are looking for. Submit your project for consideration by a panel of Adobe judges. Honorees will receive a MAX pass, airfare, and hotel accommodations, and more.
There are intentional questions in the application, so prepare to explain why this specific project of yours stands out and disrupts the current language of the industry.⟶ Deadline: August 24. Apply through the form.)
🇫🇷📝 What if you had the hit book of summer 2027? A group of leading French publishers is looking for a new voice and the next summer sensation: an original French-language novel with captivating writing, memorable characters, and a story that resonates with today’s world and is impossible to put down. Your manuscript must be between 200,000 and 500,000 characters, including spaces. Fantasy, romantasy, sci-fi, erotic fiction, short-story collections, and multi-volume works are not eligible. ⟶ Send your manuscript through the form. ⟶ Send your manuscript through the form.)
🌏 Senior Digital Designer for Climate Science (Join Project Drawdown’s marketing and communications team. They are looking for a strategic creative who has deep experience translating scientific information into informative, engaging, actionable digital content. This is a full-time, salaried position with benefits based on a 40-hour work week. 100% remote in the US. ⟶ Deadline: August 16.)
🤩 Creative awe
🤖 Which stupid are you? (Take this intellectual and well-crafted test by The Protein Agency. The Stupid Report is an unscientific study of human intelligence and explores why stupidity might actually be a superpower. Great design, great thesis, and curiosity-fuelled results.)
👩🏽🎨 Are you an Art person? (A thought-provoking and hopeful piece by E. E. Anglin that made me revisit my art school days and the amount of openness they provided, while also narrowing the scope of our pilgrim art heroes and heroines. Hopefully, as we get out of school, we build our own living museums with artists we discover and rediscover with time and age. I love his reminder and analogy: “Saying you aren’t an art person is like saying you aren’t a fan of water: art is water; water is life; art is life.” One of the paintings he shared was particularly striking, with a little Benedict Cumberbatch inspiration…)
🎟️ You are kind of doing something right… (Matt Damon shares some signals to look out for on your journey to owning your voice, breaking through the system, and more. This short snippet from Danai Gurira is a nice reminder of the surprising power of the arts to bring about change in society.)
Creativity is in every little curious experimentation.
Congrats, you made it to the end! I hope this list will do its good work.
I leave you with my latest musical crush, 80s revival and a fresh voice.
Until next time,
Keva.
