Pixelsmith Studios has always been about connecting, promoting and celebrating South African creatives. This brainchild of Ruan Smit, Matt Davison and Neal Strydom has become a design-oriented hub for over 800 creatives. Used by Animators, illustrators, VFX artists, game developers and more, the online environment encourages sharing, learning and expertise development amongst local creatives. Since its inception in 2010, the site has become a popular place to find reliable tech reviews, networking connections, local and international artist interviews and more.

2021 has seen the site be redesigned, optimised and given a whole new purpose. More recently, The Marketing Mill made a strategic investment in the site. This was done to enable creatives to make money online through services on the site and help to create an income for digital creators in South Africa. Now if you head to http://pixelsmithstudios.com, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of proudly South African digital products for your creative projects.

While we’re initially opening our doors to Illustrators and Graphic Designers in South Africa for free, we’re also setting the foundations so that we can expand to assist Animators, Game Developers, 2D and 3D Modellers and VFX artists, encouraging them to open stores on our platform. Signing up is completely free for a year, and artists will take 90% of the proceeds for the sale.

While not the first digital marketplace in South Africa, Pixelsmith Studios aims to be the best for both sellers and customers. Ruan Smit explains that “there’s not currently a beneficial place where South African creatives can promote and sell their work. We wanted to create a site where we could empower designers in SA to sell designs and services to an international audience.”. The goal of the site is to build a network and digital marketplace not just in South Africa but one that has international opportunities. Pixelsmith Studios was started to help creatives gain more exposure and essentially help build their career. The team behind Pixelsmith Studios has always had a passion for helping people and looking after fellow creatives. This has become increasingly important over the last year during this difficult time. Covid-19 hasn’t made things easy and creatives need a way to sell their products online and that’s what we have adapted our site for.

But this doesn’t mean that the original purpose of the site has been abandoned. Creatives will still be able to promote themselves, network, find jobs and help each other out on the subdomain, creatives.pixelsmithstudios.com or hop on our Discord server. Here you can find a like-minded community of over 100 creatives who are passionate about what they do. If you need feedback on your creations, advice or are looking for work, our Discord is the place to go.