Name It to Claim It
Kristin came to Chicago for our annual intention setting and we were reminded, yet again, of the life-affirming, soul-stirring magic of sharing a little IRL time and space. Also we’ve been busy doing real cool stuff.
I left Chicago 18 months ago, after living there for 18 years. The mountains were calling. I had to go. But I can’t seem to quit coming back.
I travelled again to Chicago at the beginning of February for a thousand good reasons. None were the weather, but it wasn’t so bad. The sun came out a day or two. I went to celebrate the opening of Typeforce 13. I went to celebrate our 4th birthday as a studio and to celebrate our wins from 2024. I went to learn our lessons and I went so Nermin and I could lay eyes on each other and speak out loud our intentions for the year ahead.
As the trip came together, we also threw in a kickoff workshop for a new project. Why not? Why not try to make things work? Especially when we keep finding out that anytime we try pretty much anything, something cool happens.
Which is also how we’ve learned we have to be discerning about what we say we want to do. You can’t just run around setting any old intention. ¿En esta economía? You have to be thoughtful with your words and your energy.
Looking Back to Look Forward
To imagine the year ahead, we began by looking back at the year behind us. We did our 4Ls—What did we love? What did we learn? What did we long for? What are we ready to let go of?
We loved our community connections, our passion projects and collaborations with clients and comrades. We loved Watermelon everything, giving talks and facilitating workshops. We learned rest is not a luxury. If you invite them early, they’re a collaborator, if you invite them late, they’re a judge. We’re learning to stop playing small.
We longed for help and healthy boundaries. We longed for time, always time, to take a breath. To publish more case studies. To share our work and ideas loudly, proudly, frequently. We did what we could. We’ll keep trying.
And we’ll keep learning to let go of some fear, some doubt. Maybe it’s okay to call out scope creep, to trust our gut, to focus less on perfecting the process and more on finding the next best step. Maybe. We’ll report back.
As always, our 4Ls were clarifying. They primed us to think about what to try next as a studio, what to call in. With strong hearts and open minds, eyes fixed firmly on one another and a future we’ve agreed to share, we spoke them out loud—our intentions for 2025:
We will make beautiful,
fun, useful things.
We will write more, share more, we’ll have a website we love that we love to update, namely because updating it will be easier.
We will continuously design and refine our practice to serve our whole selves, and ritualize what serves our creative, mental, and spiritual health.
We will work smarter, not just harder, especially in business development and operations.
We willl work in ways we love, with people we learn from, on projects that melt our butter and pull us toward our edges and ask us to grow, try, and radiate.
We will keep figuring it out as we go along.
2025: So Far, So Good
There are days and weeks and hours it’s hard to find our focus and get to work, the world being as it is. We remind ourselves what we do matters—to us, to those we serve and those we love. Then we take the next step.
LONG LIVE TYPEFORCE
It was a thrill, returning to Chicago for the return of Typeforce, an art show I’ve been going to for over a decade. This year, under Nermin and Will’s brilliant leadership, it came back in full force, radiantly, joyfully, with so much love. I hugged 32 people in one night! So much gratitude to everyone who made that gorgeous evening happen.
Thank you Will Miller, you magnificent madman. Thank you Lindsay McMenamin and Emily Berman, you two who can make anything happen and everything wonderful. Thank you Bryant Smith, rarest animal, who does to websites what Borges did to words. To S.Y. and Aniyha at Co-Prosperity Sphere for carrying the install, and to Ed and Nick for your generosity, your vibes, your high gravity brews. THANK YOU TO EVERY ARTIST FOR MAKING SUCH AN EXQUISITE SPACE TO SPEND AN EVENING. Thank you Nermin for the chance to see you shine in that room, surrounded by friends. Amen.
HELLO HOT CHI
We kicked off a fun, frenetic strategic sprint with the fellas behind Hot Chi, one of whom is Nermin’s brother, which is to say, my brother. We’ve worked together before and we do it well. This time we’re focusing on where Hot Chi goes from here, four years in with a trio of hot spots and big dreams for the future. (Fun fact: the good homie Nick Adam at Span designed Hot Chi’s blazing hot visual identity. It’s always a pleasure and a party to work anywhere Nick’s been.)
MORE MO FOREVER
We’ve been elated to witness the outpouring of love for Mo’s second season. Nermin and Mo go way back. It was still early days for the studio when she designed the wordmark for his Netflix show. Seeing it now, plastered across billboards, popping up all over the internet—y’all, we’ve been EMOTIONAL. But that’s also because season two is deeply moving. Hilarious, devastating, human as hell. Get into it.
READY TO REFLECT
This winter, we’ve been working with the Center for Reflective Intelligence to design a brand identity befitting their beautiful work. Reflective intelligence, like emotional intelligence before it, is increasingly understood as a vital (and teachable!) skill for young people and professionals seeking purpose and connection in a chaotic world. Belle and Tim literally wrote the book on it. We can’t wait to share everything about this one…we’re getting close!
COMING TO COLUMBIA
Nermin will be joining Mary Foyder, one of the most thoughtful trauma-responsive capital-D Designers in the game, to talk about the launch of Braver Collective at Columbia College on February 26. Big thanks to Jo-Nell Sieren for the chance to speak on this work, and as always to Mary for bringing us in on it, along with all-time all-star developer Nate Beaty, who truly made the site sing. Registration is free!
ON OUR SHELVES
Nermin’s doublefisting a few classics at the moment: Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being and Paulo Coelho ’s The Alchemist.
While Mizna 24.1: Myth and Memory is sold out, Nermin’s got a copy you can thumb through if you ever want to come co-work at Monday Coffee.
Kristin inhaled I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman on her trip to Chicago. Strange, stunning, wondrous.
She also had a couple of poems published in the latest print issue of Burning Word Journal.
Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks is a deeply felt, intensely beautiful and expansive meditation on place, power and belonging. It was a gift from Linda Abdullah, beloved friend and accomplice, whose work will be featured next month at Evanston Art Center’s Unbounded Territories: Where to Imagine an Alternative.
PARTING THOUGHTS
It’s a good time to get really clear on who and what means the world to you. It’s a great time to get really good at taking care of yourself and others. Start with love. Practice everything, always. Another world is possible.
When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
— Paulo Coelho
