“The inspiration behind starting Creative Fabrica came from recognising the need to bridge the gap between talented graphic designers and incredible creatives,” says Roemie Hillenaar, co-founder and CEO of Creative Fabrica.
You would be forgiven if you haven’t heard about Creative Fabrica before but in our creator-led economy, you cannot not know about this Dutch startup.
A 2019 poll found that children would rather be YouTubers than engineers or astronauts.
With the global influencer market estimated to be worth $13.8B in 2021 and growing at a CAGR of 35.12 per cent to reach $109.37 by 2028, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that young people want to make a living by creating social media content.
Founded in 2016 by Anca Stefan and Hillenaar, Creative Fabrica helps creators who might not possess the expert skills of a graphic designer.
A platform for creators
In simple terms, Creative Fabrica is a platform for creators from various disciplines, who do not possess design skills themselves, to collaborate and grow together.
“Our intention was to support and empower these talented individuals by providing them with the resources and exposure needed to excel,” says Hillenaar.
He further explains that one of the common challenges faced by designers and content creators is gaining exposure to a wide-ranging audience.
While the US, the UK, and Europe are major markets, Creative Fabrica also hosts talented individuals from across the globe including countries like Bangladesh, Ukraine, Indonesia, to name a few.
As a platform, Creative Fabrica is helping these individuals gain access to a customer base that “can truly appreciate and utilise their skills.”
While being a creator is often portrayed as one with independence and flexibility, it also comes associated with a grind not well documented.
For me, Creative Fabrica is doing the job of adding creative freedom and removing the grind that some creators go through.
It does this by not just bringing creatives together on its platform but also eliminating barriers such as language barriers or limited proficiency in English.
Tackle income irregularity
Like many modern marketplace platforms, Creative Fabrica is also available to its users on a subscription model.
For its customers, the process is essentially to pay a monthly or annual subscription and get access to all the digital assets available on the platform.
Designers, on the other hand, are vetted to meet certain quality standards and then allowed to open a store on Creative Fabrica.
This simple yet user-friendly design of the platform is the USP of Creative Fabrica and one that Hillenaar says comes “with minimal barriers to entry.”
He adds that this model also allows to tackle the income irregularity common in many marketplaces.
“This [subscription] approach ensures that designers benefit from recurring revenue streams, as opposed to constantly having to compete for sales on a month-to-month basis,” he explains.
To further support designers, the platform also has a team of dedicated curators that assist with setting up stores, reviews, and constructive feedback.
“For designers who may face language barriers, we go the extra mile,” says Hillenaar, adding “by helping them write product listings to ensure their work is presented in the best possible light.”
With approximately 3 million monthly users, Creative Fabrica has already succeeded on its mission to help creative professionals from around the world collaborate on a cloud-based digital platform.
However, the road to this juncture hasn’t been easy and Hillenaar says the biggest challenge has been convincing designers to transition from selling individual items at a higher price to offering their entire catalogue at a fixed, lower subscription fee.
“At the beginning, we lacked the economies of scale necessary to immediately demonstrate the benefits of our platform,” Hillenaar says reflecting on the challenge.
Today, Creative Fabrica serves as a platform where users either come to download content or sample its freebies or simply to use it as a source for inspiration.
Generative AI done responsibly
Creators are among the first to take advantage of generative AI and Creative AI wants to help them leverage the tech in the creative marketplace.
“I believe generative AI presents both immense opportunities and potential challenges for designers, depending on their ability to adapt to the evolving landscape,” says Hillenaar.
As part of its generative AI integration, the Amsterdam-based startup has introduced a collection of AI-powered tools known as CF Spark.
Anca Stefan, co-founder and CTO of Creative Fabrica, explains that these tools are developed using custom models and pipelines to offer “tailored solutions for various design needs.”
With CF Spark Crystalline, users are able to generate transparent clip art using a fine-tuned model based on proprietary data.
CF Spark Patterns, on the other hand, creates versatile, repeatable patterns for a wide range of projects.
The startup is also working on CF Spark Flow as a unique tool combining multiple fine-tuned models to enable iterative design with AI.
While Midjourney has dominated the generative AI space for image generation, the new suite of AI tools from Creative Fabrica go where even Midjourney has not ventured yet.
For generations, Adobe has dominated the design and creators space with its powerful suite of applications but with generative AI, the power is shifting and Creative Fabrica wants to seize on that opportunity.
“It allows users to build upon previous prompts, using the output of one prompt as the input for the next,” Stefan explains.
She adds, “This approach represents a significant step towards truly designing with AI, rather than simply generating content based on a single prompt.”
The tool has had a transformative impact on both designers and customers of Creative Fabrica.
With CF Spark, a designer can create a single design and run it through CF Spark ImageMix to generate 12 different variations of the original concept.
“For designers, CF Spark has become an invaluable tool that significantly accelerates their workflows,” Stefan says.
The most interesting aspect of Creative Fabrica’s generative AI integration is the responsible way in which they are doing it.
AI is here to stay but Creative Fabrica is not rushing with its technology. It is instead built as a copilot for its users.
Hillenaar says, “We believe it is essential for our designers to learn how to leverage AI tools as early as possible.”
To make sure its AI works responsibly, they have trained their custom model using proprietary content created by their own in-house designers over the years.
This helps against copyright infringement and the startup continues to track the latest regulations in the field of AI and copyright.
“This approach ensures a clean model that generates better, original results,” explains Stefan.
AWS to power the creators platform
Creative Fabrica uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power its core infrastructure as well as its generative AI tools.
“We chose AWS as our partner because of their ability to scale rapidly and provide cutting-edge services,” says Hillenaar.
He adds that the ability to quickly set and shut down infrastructure has been crucial to initiating new projects and testing multiple concepts.
With AWS, Hillenaar says Creative Fabrica’s engineers are able to iterate and test rapidly, streamlining their development process.
He also says auto-scaling has been invaluable when launching new products in dynamic markets allowing to manage traffic spikes and dips.
“Since running AI can be costly, we prioritise cost control, and AWS ensures that we don’t operate too many instances when they aren’t necessary,” he adds.
Lastly, Hillenaar reckons the proactive support offered by AWS helps them stay innovative and successful.
Want to know more about Creative Fabrica experience with GenAI? Come visit their presentation at the Startup Loft Theatre during AWS Summit Amsterdam
New ways of creation
In January, Creative Fabrica raised $61M in a fresh round of funding to further develop its generative AI tools.
In its current form, the startup has largely achieved its goal of bringing creators together on a collaborative digital platform.
However, as generative AI becomes dominant, Creative Fabrica is preparing to deliver new ways of creation to its customers.
In order to get there, the startup is actively hiring across various roles with primary focus on AI talent.
“Since the field of generative AI is relatively new, there aren’t many engineers with extensive experience in this area,” says Hillenaar.
The startup is hiring engineers with expertise in related fields and strong understanding of potential applications and future of generative AI.
“Our main goal is to continue to increase adoption of these tools,” Hillenaar says when speaking about its Spark AI tools.
With its upcoming CF Spark Flow, the startup will show how its own engineers see generative AI being used in the future.
With 3 million monthly users, the startup could truly outgrow its image as a marketplace for creators.
AWS Summit Amsterdam 2023
Want to learn more about the benefits of the cloud, or talk to one of their experts? Visit AWS Summit at the RAI in Amsterdam on June 1 to learn about the platform capabilities, get free 1:1 support from AWS experts, and discover more resources. Also, don’t forget to join AWS for pre-summit drinks at the Rooftop on May 31.
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