This modern dream of a home on Bowen Island made me gasp for air. Designed by omb.
A Walk In The Woods
“Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again.”
— Carl Jung
Wine Windows
Wine Windows, or buchette del vino, are little hatches which were originally used to sell surplus wine direct to Florence’s working class. These wine windows are unique to Florence and Tuscany, and were once a normal part of everyday life here. Now, several wine windows have re-opened for the first time in generations, and are being used to serve food and drinks in a socially distanced way. This makes me happy.
Denzel Washington’s Life Advice
“Don’t just aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference”. — Denzel Washington
♥ / Float
A big thank you to Float for sponsoring my blog this week.
The world’s top creative teams, including BuzzFeed and MetaLab, use Float to plan and track their team’s time.
Get a bird’s-eye view of your team’s availability and resource capacity to plan projects and schedule tasks confidently. Set custom work hours, add public holidays and time off, and schedule a status to let your team know where you’re working fromーthe home office (dining table), or the lake house!
Assigning tasks to resources is a breeze with an easy drag-and-drop interface, a variety of editing shortcuts, and a single, visual calendar that updates in real time.
Float integrates directly with your favorite tools, including Teamwork, Asana, Jira, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack. Try it free for 30 days.
It Takes Courage and Strength To Be and Empathetic Leader
I love Jacinda Ardern. So much.
OAD Face Mask
Now that I am going into the office a bit more often, I had to find a mask that I don’t mind wearing all day. I tried a few different ones and have really come to like the feel of the OAD Face Mask. It fits snug and feels soft. Do you have a mask you love?
Update: A reader just reached out to me saying that these masks (poly/spandex blends) are apparently one of the least effective fabrics to protect you and others. Nooo.
How To Revive your Belief in Democracy
Civic evangelist Eric Liu shares a powerful way to rekindle the spirit of citizenship and the belief that democracy still works. Eric is the founder of Citizen University, an organization trying to foster a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country.
Link Pack
Thank you Pete Souza: “The Way I See It”. My heart hurts.
– Wow, this is powerful: COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool
– Support people in need affected by the horrible explosion. My friend Youmna is running a fundraiser and has networks in Beirut that will make sure that the money goes where it’s most needed. Donate here. (Youmna is one of the most impressive humans I know. She is all love and started Live Love Beirut. Hear her Story.)
– Watch Popcorn Popping in Super Slow Motion (100,000 fps)
– Sobering: How the Pandemic Defeated America
– We need to learn from cats: A cat is content to be a cat.
– This is a breathtaking commercial.
– This Brooklyn home! Gah! Look at the skylights!
– Thinking is something you have to do by yourself. (I appreciate this blog so much.)
– These patterns and colors. WOW!
– A Love Letter to All the Overwhelmed White People Who Are Trying
– Radiooooo.com lets you customize a music stream based on decade, country, and slow, fast or weird music. (via KK)
– Hire talented black illustrators for your next project.
– A beautiful read: No Artist is Pleased, by Paul Jun
– “What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.” — Claude Monet
– I love Otter. Transcribe meetings or read a quote out of a book and have it transcribed magically. (My favorite is the little Otter illustration at the bottom of this page saying “you got this!”
– These flourishes by Lara Maju are making me swoon.
– Did you know that you can attend CreativeMornings events around the world? As well our new offering, community led FieldTrips? Want your faith in humanity restored, attend some of these. Goodness and generosity is pouring out of these events.
– Are your kids bored and missing their friends? Young designers can learn and make new friends online at the Museum of Design Atlanta’s live-instruction camps and after-school classes. Thank you for sponsoring my feed this week, Museum of Design Atlanta.
They Love NYC
The converted candy factory in Brooklyn is home to artists from all over the world who, thanks to landlord Ann Ballentine. They have cultivated their own sense of community in New York for more than 40 years. Thank you InStyle Magazine for this beautiful feature. Read the full article.
(My office landlords Frank and Mario, owners of The Invisible Dog Artist Building, deserve the same kind of tribute!)
Summer 2020 by Tatsuya Tanaka
This sums up summer 2020. Thank you Tatsuya Tanaka.
♥ / Online Summer Design Camps created by MODA
Are your kids bored and missing their friends? Young designers can learn and make new friends online at the Museum of Design Atlanta’s live-instruction camps and after-school classes.
From Minecraft to skateboarding, video games to sustainability, and Animal Crossings to architecture, MODA’s got lots of ways to keep kids having fun while improving their STEM and design skills.
Check out the camps and after-school programs here.
Singing Stones
I am in love with Pinuccio Sciola‘s singing stones.
Ask Yourself Honestly
“Ask yourself honestly: are you looking for a steady, predictable life? Is this what you want? If so, you must realize that the world cannot offer you this. Everything in the world is in the process of change. Nothing is steady. Nothing is predictable. Nothing will give you anything other than temporary security. Toughts come and go. Relationships begin and end. Bodies are born and pass away. This is all the world can offer you: impermanence, growth, change.”
— Paul Ferrini
From the book Love Without Conditions
Summer 2020 in NYC
You can now rent a “backyard” on the waterfront at Pier 17. The Seaport District rooftop has set up 28 mini lawns with cabana-style lounge chairs, umbrellas, Yeti Coolers, USB ports and more that you can reserve this summer. ⠀
This pretty much sums up the insane weird that is summer 2020 in NYC. I want to cry!
⠀
A 1,000 km walk along the Nakasendō
Kissa by Kissa: How to Walk Japan (Book One) is a book about walking 1,000+km of the countryside of Japan along the ancient Nakasendō highway, the culture of toast (toast!), and mid-twentieth century Japanese cafés called kissaten.
Not sure what I should congratulate Craig Mod more on: His new book or the fact that he built a Kickstarter like engine in Shopify and open sourced it.
Don’t Hesitate
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
– Mary Oliver
Selfportrait (Quarantine)
What a stunning self-portrait by Ingrid Emaga. (You can buy it as a print!)
New York Is My Kind of Town
Downtown 81 is a rare snapshot of an ultra-hip subculture of post-punk era Manhattan, starring Basquiat.
(via Julie)
Link Pack
My love for Keith Jarrett runs deep.
– In April, I almost had to shut the doors on my labor of love Tattly. I am a bit emotional as today we launched our famous annual 50% birthday sale. We made it, we actually turned 9! It didn’t look good there for a moment. Watching your orders come in has me in tears. All of the gratitude from remaining team Tattly.
– This website allows you to write a letter to your future self.
– Collins launched ideas. Stories on creativity and collaboration. Impressive.
– Wow! What does YouTube look like for a Liberal, a Conservative, a Climate Denier… etc
– How to feel better when you don’t know what’s wrong. (via)
– By The Books is an online literary festival to support rising voices.
– Video Call Bingo brings delight to your next online video meeting. (via)
– Whena.re puts your colleagues on a 24-hour dial to help you visualise where (or rather when) in the day they currently are. (via)
– Rep. John Lewis wrote this for us as he was dying. What a beautiful soul. What a remarkable man.
– The 100 best books of the 21st century
– Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
– The photos! Wow! When We Were Bread Heads
– Wow, the bedside-table shelf in the first photo caught my eye.
– Keep your inbox protected with burner email addresses. Hide your personal email address, control who can send you emails, and generate new burners with one click. (via)
– WOW! Reconstructing Journalistic Scenes in 3D
– How to read more books (via)
– I used to watch this as a kid. So many memories.
– Who doesn’t want to braid colorful pompoms into their hair?
– Hire talented black illustrators for your next project: Illustrator Hub
– Pick a year from your past (1951-2015) and The Nostalgia Machine will warp you back musically and link you to videos of the top Billboard Hits of that time. (via)
– Michelle Obama interviewing Barack Obama. Be still my heart!
– Today we hosted our 4th Digital CreativeMornings/NYC with Baratunde Thurston as our guest. It was wonderful. See for yourself.
Degree of Presence
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity, and start experiencing them by degree of presence.”
— Alan Watts
Tattly’s Yearly Birthday Sale
A few minutes ago, we launched our yearly, crazy big birthday sale over at Tattly. I am feeling quite emotional about it as I honestly wasn’t sure earlier this year if we would make it to 9. We persisted and now I am hoping we will make it to 10. I love this little mighty company so much. I bootstrapped Tattly with my amazing team and have paid out of 1.4 million in artist royalties to our artists. I am proud of that! Thank you to all of you who have supported us over the years, who have helped spread good art and joy. I appreciate you! And if you feel so inclined, go stock up on some wearable fun. It’s easy to ship to friends!
ps: If this pandemic has taught me one thing: SHOP SMALL! Your direct orders makes a huge difference (hello there, bigger margins!). Found something on Amazon you want? Make an effort, look up the brand’s website and order directly. If we don’t, only Amazon and highly funded startups will be left.