Creative culture has taken on new meanings as it has evolved over time. Many projects, events, and collaborations wouldn’t have been possible without a creative on someone’s team. Creatives After Dark, a nine-year-old creative agency, is one of the many local collectives aimed at cultivating young creatives and elevating the community around them. 

In 2015, Jacques Taylor founded Young Dreamers/Creatives After Dark as an opportunity to build up his friends’ passions. While attending Carver Early College before graduating in 2012, he met Demario Gay and mentored him to guide him into figuring out his next steps in life. 

“We’re adults now,” says Taylor. “We don’t want to run the streets or anything like that, so we started a clothing line.”

What started out as a fashion brand and a small debut pop-up shop on Peter Street quickly led to connecting with others in the art, music, and film industries. Artists would personally contact Taylor to perform at fashion shows and have pop-up shops. It was then that Taylor decided to expand Creatives After Dark into a collective for young artists to have a platform. 

While outlining the direction of the collective, Taylor and Gay reconnected to spark the conversation of managing brands and artists. Gay finished high school on a marketing track and wanted to expand his skills and talents. From there, they both started looking for venues to host and collaborate as their projects, clientele, and events continued to grow. Their search started off rough but then they came across 1677 Dorsey Avenue in East Point, also known as Blue Room Studios. 

“The reason why it wasn’t hard for us to be convinced was because we knew what we were looking for,” says Gay. “And the video that was sent to us convinced us because it had that industrial look.”

Blue Room Studios is an independent, Black-owned…