In Motion, We Find the Rhythm of Life
A redesigned book cover, stinky cheese, little tequilas, and an updated look for Herman Miller
It’s been slow going ramping up projects but I put together a link-tastic newsletter for you this week. It’s funny how it feels like the world is still waking up after the holidays, though I’m not mad about it. My projects for this week are to finish my goal setting, update my portfolios, plan some trips for the year, and start emailing people to meetup with here in Barcelona, Spain, and other cities we may be visiting in the future.
I hope your week is peaceful, fruitful, and relaxing 💙
💀 — I spent time last week getting back into the groove of designing. I feel like it’s been a while since I last focused on a fun design project for myself, a lil’ passion project, if you will. I decided a book cover was a great way to rekindle that feeling, and the result was my take on Cormac McCarthy’s American classic, Blood Meridian. If you head over to the site I wrote a full walkthrough of my process, and you can see the two other versions I created. Which one is your personal favorite?
🏄♂️ — Really enjoyed this interview with actor Jeffrey Wright by Sam Schube for GQ, he seems like the coolest, most level-headed guy. Plus, as the article points out, the man is prolific — “He’s been in three Bonds, three Hunger Games, and one Batman. He’s made two films with Wes Anderson and starred on two different HBO series. He’s played Jean-Michel Basquiat, Colin Powell, Muddy Waters, Martin Luther King Jr., and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.”
🏊 — Mentally, I’m here. This is Les Bords du Lac, a vacation home in Hossegor, France, on the Atlantic side, just north of the Basque Country. The house was built in the 30’s by French architect Louis Lagrange, has a stunning pool area, is close to both a lake and the ocean, and looks like the perfect getaway. Only €17000 for a week, who wants to chip in?
🐢 — I really resonated with Rebecca Solnit’s piece Slow Change Can Be Radical Change in which she writes about the slow and steady gains and advancements that have been and are being made toward climate change. Equally, I think it can be applied to us as people. As someone who feels like they are in a very in-between time, it’s a reminder to take each day as it comes and enjoy the small wins.
🧾 — Getting paid is great, and Tola has made it super easy to make your invoices look good with minimal effort. Their customizable invoice system allows you to fill in all the info and then send it as a link or a PDF.
🪑 — Brooklyn-based design office Order has partnered with iconic furniture makers Herman Miller to revisit and refine their brand in celebration of Herman Miller’s 100 year anniversary. It’s Nice That has a look at the updated brand system, which now incorporates guidelines for things like, you know, computers and mobile devices.
💨 — I recently learned that Elsa Schiaparelli created a scent for men called Snuff, which was shaped like a pipe and reportedly has a very citrus-y, woodsy scent to it. The scent was supposedly inspired by René Magritte’s infamous The Treachery of Images. She really loved her surrealist artists. Now that I’ve discovered this I’m hoping current Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry brings this back into production.
🧀 — Scottish cheesemakers claim they’ve made the stinkiest cheese on earth, but is it true? Honestly, that’s kind of the fun of this, as it’s not really something you can prove, but the marketing stunt has proved increidbly successful for the local business.
🍹 — Crafted by Melly Barajas and her staff of women at her small distillery in Valle De Guadalupe, Jalisco, La Gritona is a reposado tequila that is distilled reused American whiskey barrels (Jack Daniels and Balcones) for 8 months before bottling. And it’s this little bottle above that I fell in love with, the 50ml variety, that seems like it would be the cutest little thing to bring to the beach. What also makes them so great is that the bottles are hand blown with recycled Mexican glass in Zapopan, an hour away from the distillery.
🐰 — The Rabbit R1 is a portable device that acts like a standalone Siri, finding information, playing music, camera identification, and other AI-related tasks. The form factor is beautiful thanks to the design heads at Teenage Engineering, but sadly, I don’t see a day-to-day use case for a device like this to replace my phone. Interesting concept though!
🎧 — Finally, I’m going to leave you with a mix to get your week started. It’s a tribute mix by Silent Wanderer to cv313, the Detroit/Chicago-based electronic music producer Stephen Hitchell. I had this on repeat over the weekend, I think you’ll really love it.