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Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Work
Offline Matters is a handbook for anybody experiencing digital overload in their lives and creative work.
"For any creative who has had to cater to corporate dimwits in order support their art, here's a terrific guide to bringing your best work into the commercial sphere without selling out or compromising your craft. This is a book about how to break free from the data-driven expectations of your client's spreadsheet, and retrieve the true novelty that makes you valuable in the first place." – Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human
"Offline Matters is a much needed take-down of the whole 'cult of creativity' from the inside. This rattle gun attack on the perniciousness of the creative digital work will leave you aghast and amused in equal measure." – Oli Mould, author of Against Creativity
When did creative work become so boring?
How did 'digital-first' come to dominate everything?
...and why is nobody talking about it?
Part insider exposé, part worker-manual, this book is for any creative seeking help on:
• Navigating the possibility of offline alternatives
• Countering overwork culture, exploitation, and dulled-down ideas
• Recovering what you loved about your creative calling
...away from the confines of our screens. We are dreaming of offline. Not as a romanticised past, a punishment, a quick detox, or a WiFi-free café. Offline is not a lifestyle. It's a space of opportunity.
By the end of Offline Matters, you'll have a new perspective on the dry digitality that defines creative work today - and a set of strategies for going beyond it.
"For any creative who has had to cater to corporate dimwits in order support their art, here's a terrific guide to bringing your best work into the commercial sphere without selling out or compromising your craft. This is a book about how to break free from the data-driven expectations of your client's spreadsheet, and retrieve the true novelty that makes you valuable in the first place." – Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human
"Offline Matters is a much needed take-down of the whole 'cult of creativity' from the inside. This rattle gun attack on the perniciousness of the creative digital work will leave you aghast and amused in equal measure." – Oli Mould, author of Against Creativity
When did creative work become so boring?
How did 'digital-first' come to dominate everything?
...and why is nobody talking about it?
Part insider exposé, part worker-manual, this book is for any creative seeking help on:
• Navigating the possibility of offline alternatives
• Countering overwork culture, exploitation, and dulled-down ideas
• Recovering what you loved about your creative calling
...away from the confines of our screens. We are dreaming of offline. Not as a romanticised past, a punishment, a quick detox, or a WiFi-free café. Offline is not a lifestyle. It's a space of opportunity.
By the end of Offline Matters, you'll have a new perspective on the dry digitality that defines creative work today - and a set of strategies for going beyond it.
160 pages, Paperback
First published March 16, 2021
19 people are currently reading
372 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 9, 2025
This was as much an affirmation of things I’ve come to recognize in my own life as an antidote to address them. This will be a book I return to often and one I’d recommend to anyone who looks out at the world and feels like there’s just something not right about how we’ve allowed technology to control so much of our existence.
November 2, 2020
This book was everything I hoped it would be, and nothing like I expected it to.
A friend recommended it to me as a kind of 'creativity book for those underwhelmed by "creative work" ', and it totally was the fuel I needed to restoke the flame of passion for my work as a designer.
It's far from your typical (exhausted) inspirational career advice guides and much closer to a radical/political take-down – disguised as a timely commentary on the digitalisation of everything. Well worth the read, cannot recommend it highly enough. Light enough to dip in and out when you want a quick jolt to think on, deep enough to really leave you moved and motivated.
A friend recommended it to me as a kind of 'creativity book for those underwhelmed by "creative work" ', and it totally was the fuel I needed to restoke the flame of passion for my work as a designer.
It's far from your typical (exhausted) inspirational career advice guides and much closer to a radical/political take-down – disguised as a timely commentary on the digitalisation of everything. Well worth the read, cannot recommend it highly enough. Light enough to dip in and out when you want a quick jolt to think on, deep enough to really leave you moved and motivated.
December 3, 2025
Upton Sinclair once said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary [and visa?] depends on his not understanding it."
I understand it, today. I'll forget it in a week, because my days become unhappy when I don't, but I will come back to this and remember.
I understand it, today. I'll forget it in a week, because my days become unhappy when I don't, but I will come back to this and remember.
December 20, 2022
More of a manifest about the digital culture, burnout, being an artist and the (digital) world we live in. Quite agree with most of it and I have always had a kind of aversion towards social media and the fakeness of it and being online 24/7 even though I am literally addicted to my phone 😅. I hate it. Thanks society.
Compelling arguments about the digital infrastructure; how it isn’t really gonna last, how we can’t really see into the future and have all these trend forecasts and we need to put more thought and feeling into the things we create be creative and bold. Not just for the likes (playing it safe), making things perfect or for the aesthetics (spice things up). Go out to your target group, be specific about that and gear everything towards them. Your consumer. Do something unpredictable, be creative and don’t think about getting the likes or anything. Just create.
Treat yourself like a human being, be gentle with yourself and don’t undersell yourself.
Sometimes it was a little bit too much of a propoganda against everything social media and digital, but for the purpose of this book it was okay.
Inbetween there were some tips and tricks to apply to your own life/work and those are appreciated. Some basics, but being reminded can’t hurt.
Compelling arguments about the digital infrastructure; how it isn’t really gonna last, how we can’t really see into the future and have all these trend forecasts and we need to put more thought and feeling into the things we create be creative and bold. Not just for the likes (playing it safe), making things perfect or for the aesthetics (spice things up). Go out to your target group, be specific about that and gear everything towards them. Your consumer. Do something unpredictable, be creative and don’t think about getting the likes or anything. Just create.
Treat yourself like a human being, be gentle with yourself and don’t undersell yourself.
Sometimes it was a little bit too much of a propoganda against everything social media and digital, but for the purpose of this book it was okay.
Inbetween there were some tips and tricks to apply to your own life/work and those are appreciated. Some basics, but being reminded can’t hurt.
March 4, 2023
The title says it all. It's a good wake-up call for people in the creative industry to zoom out and think about what a campaign or projects needs. Instead of going all-in on digital without questioning why you're doing that.
December 6, 2020
Really loved this. A book that stays with you well after you read it.
April 2, 2021
got me scrawling in my notebook like crazy. 💯
July 29, 2022
A lot of very well known modern world issues showcased once again. But unfortunately, I found myself wanting to skip through the book way too many times. Too much of idealogically fueled projections and lack of authors own reflections. I unfortunately, couldn’t feel her own stream of thoughts in this book. Mainly vast generalisations, complaints and quick solutions that come towards the end of the book. “Oppressor versus the oppressed” and “evil capitalism” has been used in way too many situations. I have to admit that the read was quite depressive. I was expecting to discover some real world solutions/projects that actually work. Maybe some success stories.
September 27, 2023
It’s sad that after reading this book, I’m writing a review about it online. It kinda defies the point. But I guess I’m doing it to remind myself how much of this book aligned with my way of thinking, and how shocked I am that it crossed my path. It was kinda refreshing to read a new point of view on the creative industry. In a weird way it was comforting, but I haven’t really figured out what to do with it just yet.
As a creative who kind of questions how much of our life is spend online sometimes, can recommend!
As a creative who kind of questions how much of our life is spend online sometimes, can recommend!
October 7, 2020
Vermakelijk. Een soort van manifest, maar toch ook weer niet. Een anti-social media, anti-zelfhulp, anti-productiviteitsboek en een welkom pleidooi voor kunst en voor actie zonder berekening. Had wel meer ingezeten.
September 3, 2023
C'est vraiment plus un manifeste avec des opinions/points de vue, et je m'attendais plus à un essai avec des résumés de recherches. Un peu déçue de ce point de vue, mais quand même une lecture intéressante.
February 5, 2022
DNF @ 9%
December 30, 2022
Die Tatsache das Guide vorne drauf steht ist einfach falsch. Es ist Gesellschaftskritik und meiner Meinung nach keine gute.
Ein sehr egozentrisches Weltbild.
Ein sehr egozentrisches Weltbild.
December 20, 2025
When they say the King James Bible this is what they mean
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews