Only a few days after writing my other newsletter Mellowing Blend, inspired by a conversation about Pantone colours – albeit of a more Autumnal flavour – they release their Colour Of The Year 2024 – Peach Fuzz 13-1023.
Intuition, or coincidence?
My friend Arnold just posted a series of three drawings.
Each of them a face.
All amazing.
This is one.
see the rest here.
Inspiration is everywhere, weaving its way around the world. Floating in the ether.
For anyone and everyone to reach out and catch.
And it’s interesting to see where similar sources of inspiration eventually re-appears, and on what.
How inspirations can begin in a similar place and go on such different journeys.
Through the minds of different people, and appear on different materials, on different products, with different brands and in different markets.
For a recent project, I designed a tropical inspired print to brighten up the days of those who work in healthcare, and their patients.
A print that would embellish the Toffeln clog’s that nurses love so much.
After all, images of nature’s beauty can inspire health benefits, no matter how slight.
My trip to Hawaii in 2001 came to mind.
Tropical flowers felt right.
The clogs launched a few weeks ago.
While Oscar de la Renta’s gorgeous new dresses (atop) might not be suitable for the ward,
Toffeln’s tropical clogs certainly are.
They’re Clogs with a cause – check out their charitable side.
And on the weekend, you could wear both!
Comfort, elegance, and charity.
While watching the Loewe Women’s SS24,
this detail and craftsmanship,
the elegant choice of colour,
stunning.
The music was delicious too.
See the show
Alex Kilbee, AKA The Photographic Eye, recently shared some fascinating insights in to the work of photographer William Klein.
In the last few days I listened to a wonderful conversation between Malcolm Gladwell and David Epstein at the 92Y – talking about his book RANGE – which is about how generalists succeed in a specialised world. And how, if we experiment in lots of things earlier in our lives, we have a greater breadth of experience to bring to our specialism later on.
So it was interesting to see the parallels across mediums of creativity – how Klein explored the breadth of his range – initially interested in abstract painting and sculpture, to a career behind the camera; from photojournalism to fashion photography, from documentary to feature film making.
If there’s one person’s blog I consistently recommend to people, it’s Seth’s blog. Ever since it started arriving into my inbox (with my permission!) over ten years ago – I must have read almost every one – and he writes one every single day! As I’ve opened the aSTOKA studio a little wider (ie. this website) I thought I’d start a fun project – designing shoes inspired by books. Not just any books, but books that I’ve either been recommended or have recommended myself. Two days ago I had a trial run with a sketch of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Today begins a daily Practice … which is what The Practice is about. Doing something daily, however sketchy or otherwise it might be, however imperfect it might be. The practice of shipping creative work. Thank you Seth, for everything you do!
I bought Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ a few years ago, and only got round to reading it in the last few weeks. It’s about the instinctive vs effortful decisions we make. Instinctive being Fast, effortful being Slow.
He begins chapter two : “In the unlikely event of this book being made into a film, System 2 would be a supporting character who believes herself to be the hero…” – which left me wondering, what if it were made in to a shoe ?
I’ve only finished chapter two, so it’s probably the case that this sketch, relatively quick and an instinctive one, would be the System 1 thinking Kahneman writes about. Once I’ve finished the book, I’ll design a shoe that reflects more of the content of the book. Well, let’s see …
The stunning photography by Rafael Pavarotti – of Dries Van Noten’s SS22 womenswear collection.
Well worth checking out the whole series … here
