CRAM

INSIDE

I SSUE 01 // OCT-NOV 201 6

07

overview

Interviews with industry professionals Becky Simpson, Darren Smith, Helen Rice + Josh Nissenboim and Mike Montiero

17

closer look

A look into the life and lessons learnt with photographer Aleisha Liebezeit and YouTube sensation Casey Neistat

35

creative spaces

Be inspired by our feature gallery of creative spaces for all situations, be it corporate, co-share or at home

overview we talk the journey, creative influences and overcoming challenges with great creatives.

cram // 7

becky simpson Designer + Illustrator + Writer

Austin-based designer, illustrator, and writer, Becky Simpson, talks to us about making the leap to freelancing, what she’s learned about celebrating process, and the most important part of any project: getting started.

Was there an “Aha!” moment when you realized that you wanted to pursue design, illustration, and writing?

When it came time to choose a career path for college, I was torn between fashion design and graphic design.

Then my mom asked me, “Do you like designing the clothes or drawing the clothes?” Game over. From that point on, I pursued graphic design and never looked back.

I’m from a small town of 1,300 people; I went to the same school with the same classmates from kindergarten to high school. Everyone knew everyone else, so when someone got a reputation, it tended to stick. Luckily, my reputation was “art kid.” I had always enjoyed writing, too, but I didn’t receive the same kind of validation for it. In college, I wrote a paper for my theater class that was so bad that my professor didn’t think I had even attended the show.

When one of my early elementary school teachers, Mrs. Franson, read us The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, I knew I wanted to write and illustrate books when I grew up. I still dreamed of writing children’s books in college, but I figured it would be in another lifetime, or when I was much older. A few years ago, I decided I had nothing to lose and pitched the idea for my book, I’d Rather Be Short. Before I knew it, I had my first book deal light years before I had anticipated, and it was all because I gave it a shot.

“When we have permission to fail, we have nothing to lose. And when we have nothing to lose, there’s nothing stopping us from giving it a go.”

Have you had any mentors along the way?

I’ve had a handful of mentors who have made a huge impact on me. Growing up, I always felt supported by the adults I looked up to in my life. My parents were constantly rooting for me, and they provided opportunities for me to grow as an artist. My art teachers also did what they could to help me succeed.

Recently, I’ve found a solid community of designers and women who are strong, assertive, creative, and working with a sense of purpose. Over the last year and a half, I’ve been meeting weekly with my friend, Jen Moulton, who designs beautiful, minimal jewelry. Our “running partner” meetings have been game-changers. Jen is a real visionary and one of the most grounded people I’ve ever known. We give one another accountability, friendship, feedback, and encouragement all in one. That experience is invaluable.

As a Creative Resident with Adobe this year, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with many influential designers and entrepreneurs both inside and outside of the company. One of my favorite parts about the program is the mentorship: I’ve had inspiring conversations with people like Erik Natzke, the principal designer at Adobe, and Nic Annette Miller, who is the head of creative development at Tattly. Their feedback has definitely improved my art, helped me think about developing my illustration business, and think about the big picture of my career. Nic challenges me as an entrepreneur and an artist because she does both; she pushes me past my normal boundaries and encourages me to think in new ways. Conversations with Erik about my book project have been so refreshing and brought me a lot of clarity—a paradigm shift that encouraged me to give the book more space to breathe.

Has there been a point when you’ve decided to take a big risk to move forward?

I worked at a design firm for a couple of years after college. I knew I wanted to eventually work for myself, but it wasn’t until I landed my first book deal that I had the confidence—or the savings—to take the leap. I’m excellent at following rules: I like approval, affirmation, and acceptance. However, there’s this tiny glitch in my wiring that has made me somebody who would rather do it on my own if I think I can do it better, even if that means sacrificing security.

Leaving that design job to freelance full time was a huge leap because I had absolutely no business sense, no practice freelancing, and no real plan at all. Looking back, I can’t believe that’s how I dove in, but I’m so glad I did. I’m so grateful and excited about where I am now. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if it wasn’t for the route that brought me here.

“I’m big on celebrating process. The awkward first drafts are the warriors that bring us to the finish line.”

You just wrapped your 100-Day Project, #100daysofgettingstarted. What inspired you to do the project, and what did you learn along the way?

Yes! What a great way to spend the last 100 days. The 100-Day Project was the perfect structure for exploration and play. The only parameter was to create something new every day for 100 days. Within those boundaries, I was able to practice, refine, explore, create bad art, and create good art. I knew I wanted to focus on creating art for the first few months of my residency, as it’s a rare opportunity to enhance my creative process without being concerned about meeting deadlines or other competing priorities. It’s been incredibly encouraging to explore and enjoy the process.

I decided to call it #100daysofgettingstarted because I’m a big fan of starting. Everything is connected, and we don’t know what can happen unless we try. I love it when you can trace one seemingly serendipitous event back to another seemingly serendipitous event. All of those connections happened because they happened.

And things don’t happen unless they start. Having the confidence to start and restart over and over is powerful.

The best part about starting over and over for 100 days is that you’re not only practicing your craft, but you’re also practicing the art of getting started. By the end of 100 days, you become a little less scared of the blank page. I don’t think it’s like riding a bike, though: starting and creativity are more like muscles, and they need to be regularly exercised.

Getting started is often the hardest part. What’s your best advice to those who are struggling to get started?

It’s easy to look at people who are making things happen and think, “I wish I was like that. I wish I could be involved in interesting projects and take those sorts of risks.” But the thing is: we all have that in us. Those people aren’t superheroes—they’ve just had practice. They’ve leveled up, and it’s not fair to compare our progress with their high score. My advice is that the more you practice starting, the easier it gets.

I’m big on celebrating process. The awkward first drafts are the warriors that bring us to the finish line. If we can celebrate the process, then we can give ourselves permission to fail. When we have permission to fail, we have nothing to lose. And when we have nothing to lose, there’s nothing stopping us from giving it a go.

cram // 9

Darren Booth Illustrator + typographer

Darren Booth is a Canadian illustrator and letterer. His client list boasts names such as Coca-Cola, AOL, Target, Penguin Books, McDonald’s, and the New York Times. He’s also created work for high-profile clients Steve Martin and Willie Nelson. When he’s not busy being a perfectionist, you can find him on Twitter sharing cat GIFs or making astute and funny observations.

Describe your path to becoming an illustrator and letterer.

I don’t think my path is that different from other illustrators—I went to art school and then started working after graduation. I recognized very early on in my childhood that I’d be doing something with art, even though I had no clue what that would be. When I started high school, all my art teachers told me I should go to Sheridan College near Toronto, which is known for its animation program. I thought I was supposed to be an animator because my teachers were guiding me in that direction. Also, some of the people who were ahead of me in high school had went on to Sheridan for animation and when they came back to present to our class and show us what they were working on, it was always really interesting. Once I actually went off to art school, I got six weeks in and I realized, “I don’t think animation is for me.”

I headed toward the illustration side of things and right then and there, it was love at first sight.

When I went back home for Christmas after my first semester at college, I looked through some of the journals I had kept in high school. The odd thing is that I had cut out and collected all this work from illustrators—Christian Northeast, Jason Holley, Gary Taxali, Katherine Streeter, Brian Cronin—but at the time, I didn’t realize they were illustrators. Once I learned more about illustration, it was neat to discover that I was drawn to it before I even knew what it was.

Did you have any mentors along the way?

Do you do most of your work digitally?

In my final year of high school, I had to do a small internship, which I did at a local screen-printing shop.

There was a guy there named Jay Muncaster, who was the in-house artist and he had actually went to Sheridan about ten years prior to when I attended. He studied animation and came back to Sault Ste. Marie, started a family, and opened a screen-printing shop. He was really enthusiastic about the programs he had learned and he taught me Photoshop—it was Photoshop LE of all things.

That was the first time I jumped on a Mac. He showed me the ropes and got me ready for school. Because of him, I had a better sense of what to expect when I went away to college. Working there was also great because I learned how to present ideas and interact with clients, which is still helpful to this day.

It’s about 99% analog. The only digital part is when I scan work. I might take a couple sketches, knowing that I’m going to piece them together in Photoshop and play with the scale or composition rather than redrawing the elements. At one time, I would photocopy it larger or smaller, cut it out, and place it that way, so eventually my sketches would be four or five layers and covered with tape. For the final pieces, I do the ol’ pencil on the back of the paper trick, copy it to a new piece of treated printmaking paper, and start painting.

In college, I had a lot of great teachers—Joe Morse, Paul Dallas, Blair Drawson, Gary Taxali, Lorraine Tuson—who were also all working illustrators.

In my final year of college, I interned with Gary Taxali and he was great because he took me under his wing, almost in a similar fashion as Jay did. He is brilliant and I owe a lot to him. One specific thing I learned from him was the kind of business person I wanted to be. He’s very outgoing and active. He can promote himself ten times a day and because he’s so genuine about it, people don’t get annoyed. As much as I learned from him about how to work with clients and what it’s like in the real world as a freelancer, I also learned that I couldn’t promote with that same approach. Our personalities are very different and if I promoted myself ten times a day, I’d have two followers on Twitter and they’d be spambots. Gary’s business and art reflects his outgoing personality, but I’ve learned to cater my business and promotions to my personality as I’m much more reserved. I’d rather just throw my stuff out there and say, “This is my shit. I hope you like it. Here’s my contact information.”

Was there a point in your life when you decided you had to take a big risk to move forward?

I don’t know if I’d call it a risk—it was more of a kick in the butt. It was when illustration work was starting to become a full-time gig and I was still working the day job.

I gave up the income and security of the full-time job to submerse myself completely in the freelance side of things.

Are you satisfied creatively?

That’s a loaded question. I guess I’m satisfied with my perpetual creative dissatisfaction. Does that make sense? What I’m trying to say is that I know I’ll never be satisfied and I’m cool with that. It’s okay if I make a piece now and I’m happy with it and then two years from now, I hate it. I almost expect that to happen.

When I started mixed collage with my paintings, it was just out of laziness because I didn’t feel like whipping out the paints again and repainting an area. Instead, I just cut out a piece of paper, stuck it on, and it was done.

I was catering to my own laziness and eventually, it became a thing.

In some ways, I feel like a dinosaur because I am working traditionally. I need to feel the work and be able to respond to what’s going on on the page; that’s what keeps me interested in the piece. I’ve done some work in Photoshop, but I feel like I’m just sitting there, staring at a computer and it doesn’t seem natural to create that way.

But if I’m designing or tweaking my website, I love being on the computer.

I also like having a tangible piece when I’m done. There’s something magical about seeing a painting from Picasso in a book for twenty years and then seeing it in person at a gallery and realizing, “Holy crap! It’s huge.” Or, you think it’s huge and the painting is tiny. I don’t think I would be satisfied if I produced a piece 100% digitally and had nothing to show for it other than a PSD file.

If you could give one piece of advice to another illustrator starting out, what would you say?

Maybe it sounds trite, but I’d say to make the kind of work you want to make. I think when you’re in school, you start out making the work you want to make, but then you get out and the industry starts to mold you in a certain way. If you keep making the work you want to, eventually work will come in.

In regards to the hand-lettering work I do, I probably made 30 or 40 pieces before I even got an actual commission. I had it in my portfolio for a long time and art directors would say, “That’s great, but I don’t really know how to use it.” Nobody used it back then, but now the market is over-saturated with it. I think I can hear the clock ticking on it, but I’m going to ride the wave as long as possible.

I would tell young people not to worry so much about having an original style. I would say to just focus on doing good work and the rest will come. As long as the work is good, I think people will respond to it. Style is a result of good intentions.

cram // 11

Helen Rice + Josh Nissenboim CREATIVE DIRECTOR + DESIGNER + ENTREPRENEUR

Helen Rice and Josh Nissenboim are creative directors and co-founders of the award-winning creative agency, Fuzzco. They are known for their playful, refined style, and have worked with clients like MailChimp, Google, Slack, Etsy, and Bonobos, among others. They opened up a second office in Portland, Oregon, in 2015 and recently launched Pretend Store, a digital and brick-and-mortar retail offshoot of their studio.

Tell me about your path to starting Fuzzco together.

JOSH: Everything started when Helen and I met in St. Paul, Minnesota, at a small school called Macalester College. I studied math and Helen studied studio art, but we actually met in French class. We became close very quickly and dated throughout college.

When we graduated in 2003, we had to figure out what we were going to do next. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and did a lot of different things: recorded an album, worked at a library and a liquor store, then got a job at a software company. Helen joined me in Wisconsin before she and I moved to Charleston together in August 2004.

HELEN: Part of my senior show in college was making children’s picture books. Josh helped me with the writing and I did the illustrations, and that was kind of our first project together.

At the time, we couldn’t find any jobs in Charleston that got us excited. I had been doing some design work, and Josh knew how to build websites, so we said, “Hey, let’s try to do this for people we know in town.”

JOSH: We came up with the name “Fuzzco” in a few hours, and we took shifts working on my old PC from college because we had very little money to work with.

After a while, we began to learn a lot, build relationships, and do good work—we were hooked. We probably charged way too little when we started, (laughing) but we said yes to everything for the sake of learning, working, and growing.

We didn’t know that we wanted to start a creative agency. It began because we needed something to do, and it eventually grew from there.

When you began looking for clients, did you tap into your social networks, or did you actively market yourselves?

JOSH: The first work we found was due to our friends’ willingness to work with us and spread the word. Helen grew up here, so one of our first clients was a textile designer who was also the wife of someone Helen had worked for, and another was an architect that her dad had worked with. The only marketing we did was making some postcards that we mailed and stapled to telephone poles in our neighborhood—but we received a letter from the city asking us to take all of them down or else we’d be fined.

HELEN: The timing worked out really well, too. Back in 2005, Charleston was booming, and the beginning of our business coincided with the beginning of a lot of other people’s businesses. We were a scrappy alternative to

some of the bigger, more traditional agencies here, so we were met with a lot of opportunities.

What are some of the greatest benefits and challenges to being an entrepreneurial couple?

HELEN: The benefits outweigh any negative associations. We love what we do, so the fact that we work together means that we can work longer and harder, then go home and keep problem-solving. We have the ability to move forward and celebrate together, and when things are hard, we have the ability to lean on each other and have each other’s backs.

The hardest aspect is that it can feel never-ending sometimes. Occasionally, when we go home, we agree to take a night off of talking about work. But, for the most part, we’re on the same page and help each other stay sane. It’s a good thing.

JOSH: A lot of people ask, “How could you possibly run a company with your wife?” But I say, “How could you possibly marry someone you couldn’t run a company with?” (laughing) HELEN: Exactly. We share everything.

JOSH: If we weren’t running this business together, neither of us would be as fulfilled or as challenged. I believe that being a couple has given us a competitive advantage: we have accomplished more in less time than some other businesses have because Helen and I are in constant communication.

HELEN: Right. As a wife, if Josh had to work until midnight, I’d be so upset. But since I’m working with him until midnight, it’s great! (laughing) One more question: What type of legacy do you hope to leave?

JOSH: I guess it would be important to us for the people we worked with to have positive memories of our time together. Nothing too ambitious: just hoping that the time we spent on earth with people meant as much to them as it did to us.

HELEN: Yeah. Having grown up in Charleston, and considering how much I love it, I hope that what we’ve done with Fuzzco has helped put it on the map.

JOSH: (to Helen) Maybe before we die, we’ll adopt 100 cats and name them all Josh or Helen. Then we can give them away to various people in our will who will be forced to remember us for a few years. Does that count as a legacy? (laughing) HELEN: (to Josh) Wow. Hopefully I don’t outlive you for 20 years.

cram // 13

Mike Monteiro graphic designer + director of mule design

Mike Monteiro is the co-founder and design director of Mule Design, a studio whose clients include ProPublica, All Things D, and Mint.com.

He’s also the co-host of the popular podcast Let’s Make Mistakes and author of the books Design Is a Job and, just recently, You’re My Favorite Client.

So how did it all begin?

Accidentally. I was one of those misguided humans that went to art school to get a worthless art degree. I was also stupid enough to get a master’s degree in Fine Arts.

While I was doing that, I came across a part of the art building filled with Macintoshes. I started playing with the Macintoshes and found them great fun. That’s how I stepped into design. I graduated with a minor in Design and that’s how I’ve earned my living since.

If you could go back in time and have a conversation with your 25-year-old self, what would you say?

How does having tech skills (i.e. front-end development ability) impact a web designer’s value?

Everyone else is as scared as you are.

If you pretend you are not scared, eventually you’ll just forget to be scared.

It can only increase it. If you do two things really well you’re more valuable to me than someone who can do one thing really well. And if you only do one thing, you better do it better than anybody.

In your fantastic book, Design Is A Job, you encourage designers to never work for free (and you provides great advice on how to actually get paid). What sparked your passionate stance on this?

Not sure this is a passionate stance as much as I just believe people should get paid for their work. Designers are trained craftspeople. It took time and money to develop and learn that skill. And what we do has value.

Especially in a business setting. I think a better question is “Why are so many designers willing to give their work away to companies and organization who turn around and benefit monetarily from it?” I can’t think of any other profession that is willing to do this, or more interestingly, feels compelled to do this while simultaneously complaining about it. People will always ask you for free work. That’s not something you can control. What you can control is how how respond to the request.

Get comfortable saying no. And more importantly, get comfortable explaining the value of what you do in a way that inspires enough confidence that people will pay you to do it.

Historically, women don’t negotiate as frequently as men, and are less comfortable talking about money. What advice would you give to make a negotiation easier?

From where I stand, everyone is uncomfortable talking about money. Male and female. That said, the business world has historically undermined women’s value and confidence in an incredibly repulsive way.

So I can understand how this has made an already uncomfortable situation that much more so. Approach every negotiation with confidence. And always start by stating your benefit to the company or organization.

For example, “In the past year I’ve increased this, grown that, expanded etc.” Show them the financial benefit of keeping you around. Many people, male and female, negotiate with an emotional plea of how hard they work.

Stop doing that.

What is your best tip on getting started for new web designers?

Your first job should be at a place where you’re surrounded by lots of designers with more experience than you. Learn all their tricks. The greatest design skill of all is learning how to deal with other people and knowing how to work a room. If you can’t work a room you can’t get your best work through. Nobody does this better than someone who’s done it a million times.

Watch them work.

When you interview candidates for positions at Mule Design, what 2 qualities are you looking for in a designer?

I need somebody who understands design from a problem solving perspective. If you don’t have a clear understanding of goals you’ll never be able to measure whether your work is successful or not. I also need someone who’s willing to fight for good work. Someone who’s willing to be an advocate for what they’ve done, but also open-minded enough to see when it’s wrong.

You recently wrote on your company blog a post about why gender balance is important to the success of your company. Can you share a specific story or incident in which this has been true?

That’s difficult to answer because we’ve been genderbalanced from day one. And we generally skew female.

In general, I try to hire people who think differently than me. I already have one person who thinks like me — me.

So if I’m going to have other people around I want to make sure they’re bringing different points-of-view and experiences to the table. The stuff we’re designing is being used by all kinds of people. I want to make sure it’s being designed by all kinds of people. Empathy is such a huge part of getting this stuff right. And a room full of dudes will generally design things for a room full of dudes. But a room with variety will design with variety in mind, and that leads to better, more robust solutions.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give all design students, to get them ready for the world of client services?

First off, the work does not sell itself. Never has, never will. I’ve seen a lot of great work thrown in the dumpster because the designer could not explain to a client how that work solved their business problem. Knowing how to sell work to a client is a core design skill. It’s not taught in school, which is criminal. As a guy running a design shop, a designer who can sell pretty-good work is infinitely more valuable to me than a designer who can’t sell great work.

Secondly, the client is just as afraid as you are. They’ve fought for the budget to hire you. Their job is on the line.

And their business might go under if this project goes badly. So have some empathy for them. And never miss an opportunity to show them that they’re in good hands with you. Be confident in what you’re doing. Take charge.

Behave like the expert they hired. They actually need to see that to be put at ease.

cram // 15

Wayfarer

Clubmaster

The Ray-Ban Original Wayfarer has been a trendsetter for many good reasons. Its timeless style, comfortable fit, and durable construction make it at home anywhere. Made of scratch resistant polarized glass which blocks 100%UV the lenses are a true joy to look through.

Following the successful revival of the Ray-Ban Wayfarer, its successor is now celebrating its most deserved comeback. Released onto the market in 1986, the Ray-Ban Clubmaster was a reinterpretation of the browline glasses that were so popular throughout the 1950s. A real summer essential.

closer look stories and lessons from industry professionals Aleisha liebezeit and casey neistat.

cram // 17

Aleisha Liebezeit GRAPHIC DESIGNER, PHOTOGRAPHER, WIFE, MAMA and CREATIVE BEHIND ‘The Love Collective’

THE LOVE COLLECTIVE

we chat photography, design, life hints and faith with photographer, mama and designer, aleisha liebezeit cram // 21

let’s talk about life This is me: My name is Aleisha. I‘m 24 years old, married to Jared Liebezeit and together we have a beautiful 1 and half yr old daughter called Breony and a couple of Fur Babies (Frank the Cat and Danger the Dog). I am trained Graphic Designer and a photographer for my own company, The Love Collective.

I was born in Nelson into and am the oldest of three. I went to Waimea College. I wasn’t the most confident outgoing girl in High School. It took me a few years to find the right group of friends who accepted me and were also a good influence. I wasn’t the smartest person either! Cab Maths was my friend and when it came to sitting my school exams I remember sitting in a English exam, eating all my lollies and then walking out.

Shocking I know, but I really struggled in the academic side of things.

While I lacked in this area, it was made up for with the art subjects. Design was my biggest passion.I took photography too but felt at the time that I was called to do design.

When I was 13 I laid eyes on this very cute blonde guy with braces at youth group.

He wore chuck taylors, played the guitar and had incredible eyes. I stalked him as you do... we became friends and then decided to ‘ go out’ basically be Boyfriend and Girlfriend. We dated for 2 ½ years. That guy is my now husband Jared.

At the time we thought it was love. Now that I’m a mum to a wee girl, the thought of her having a boyfriend at 13 and kissing him is disgusting and so gross! I don’t know what we were thinking.

I spent my high school years being apart of Epic Youth. I really think being planted and apart of a youth group where I was on a team serving and in a lifegroup kept me grounded in my faith and influenced me massively. I also felt so accepted here too which I think is a massive

issue for teenagers these days as they try to find themselves and where they belong.

I finished my 7th form year on a high winning a scholarship to study Graphic design in Christchurch.

This I feel is really where God changed the font in my story book and things started to get more serious! Back then, design school required that we have proper cameras to learn photography. Within a few weeks of having my camera, this love for capturing people and their stories was born.

At this time God was rewriting my love story and placed Jared back in my life. Something I always hoped to happen but had left it in Gods hands. He pursued me when we realised we still loved each other after so many years. I said yes to the ring, quit my job as designer in Nelson, launched my photography business and off we went to plan a wedding. It’s crazy how God can work at times! Often our weakest moments is where God can move the most!

That all happened 5 years ago. I am still working for myself as a photographer for families and weddings while being a mum to Breony. I recently photographed my 100th wedding. If you had told me in high school when I wasn’t the most confident outgoing girl, often teased by friends for being so blonde, that I would be a wedding photographer I wouldn’t have believed you.

It’s quite amazing, while I was working on this, I realised as I looked back over my story, how God truly takes his time, to mold us and develop our characters and personalities. Shaping us over the years, allowing us to go through horrible breakups and incredible makeups to get us ready for when we need to put our shoes on for him, and walk in what were called to do. The coolest thing too is he doesn’t stop once we reach one goal. He just keeps pushing us forward into better and greater things!

I believe that God gifts every single women with a specifically God designed gift to glorify him with. I use to wish that I could sing like the music team. So often we always want the gifts that others have, not realising how perfect our gift is.

It can take time figuring out and learning what it is but Incredible things take time.

Us women are incredible human beings.

Since adding the title of Mum to my name in the last year it’s been a new season of putting someone else first before myself, balancing my time and passions, running a business, spending time with God, remembering to still make moments, kiss my husband and be a wife.

Being a Mum is very hard work at times and I only have one child! However, it’s extremely rewarding and i’m constantly learning new things every day from Breony. It adds a whole new value and perspective to life and it opens up a whole lot

of windows in our mum brain. Whenever I go on the internet I usually have a couple of websites on the go, at the same time, checking Facebook, your emails, quickly paying a bill, to then notice how many Kmart tractions are on your eftpos account to then seen a notification for the newest arrivals at glassons.

Sometimes I feel like our female brains can be like this. Its hard not to be thinking about so many things at once. This has been my biggest challenge as a mother and business owner. Learning to close down the windows that don’t always need to be open and thought about. I wish there was more hours and days in the week, but there isn’t! So im constantly learning, testing and adapting new ways of juggling everything. I have set days that I work and check emails. I try to make time just before bed to spend a few minutes reading my bible, journalling down my thoughts and prayers.. I also love listening to Christian podcasts on life, business and motherhood. I have a favourite one called ‘plantedwithlight’ if you’re looking for inspiration.

We live in a world of having to always be available ­social media is demanding, but sometimes I feel its good for us to not always be available. Especially when we have little ones growing up so quickly, friendships to invest in, husband and boyfriends to spend time with. They can’t wait. But work and emails can. Time is so precious. I’ve learnt to put limits on how often I go out so i still get those chill out blob days at home where its makeup free and fat pants all day! I have set days that I catch up with close friends. I feel it’s better to have quality over quantity.

I have always enjoyed the buzz and excitement photography gives me, especially being able to chat over coffee about dream weddings and peoples lives. As well as this, I get to photograph beautiful brides, women and girls, ­being able to inspire them, shower them with compliments and make them feel beautiful even when they don’t always feel it.

I love Instagram it’s a great platform be inspired and to connect on especially for business. Over the last 2 years my following on Instagram has grown due to becoming a Mum and mixing this with life and my photography. I’ve been so blessed by this and love the Instagram community.

I’ve also benefitted from being able to meet quite a few incredible like minded mums and other creatives through it.

With this comes the danger of not always feeling enough. I realised that I was comparing myself to other instagrammers and creatives out there. I had to be careful to not fall into the trap of having to have all the latest clothing trends and home decor to have a perfect life.

It’s harder when you have a business because you have to constantly be promoting your work online so I can’t really take a break from Instagram so instead,

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I’ve learnt to be careful with what I allow into my life and especially my social media feeds. The amount of influence this has on us is massive! I choose not to follow the most incredible photographers, picture perfect homes, or similar.

In the last year while finding my feet again after having Breony and all those post pregnancy hormones calming down, I found myself wanting to do more than just photograph people. I didn’t know what but knew there was something more.

While looking through my Instagram feed, I realised how many mums and women seemed to think so low of themselves. So many of them have their lives wrapped around the same things I began to struggle with, like having the perfect home, the perfect life or going out and drinking as much wine as they can to drown their sorrows in. This is what motivated my to start my most recent venture - T-Shirt design.

A few years back we rebranded and changed our business name to The Love Collective. We had always imagined that one day we would be offering more than photography.

The idea for the new meda came after I bought a t­shirt from an online store and remember thinking ‘ If I was to design a t­shirt for women, what would I do?’ I knew that I wanted a design that could reach anyone, inspire and be based on Christ. I’m not overly paitent. So I got stuck into this new idea about designing a top.

For about 2 weeks I was jotting down ideas for tops, throwing words around till one day I picked up a devotional at my sister Olivia’s house and read this verse all about walking in Christ’s love, loving others as he loved us. I knew straight away this is what I wanted on a top - “Walk in Love”­.

While I had the designer start drafting up ideas for this, I decided to apply it to my life whenever I could. Walk in love, ­being friendly and interested in the checkout operator, investing more in my clients and photo sessions, taking the time to stop and talk with the shop assistants. ­Just small things like that. What hit me was the moment I shifted my focus off myself and onto others I started to worry less about myself and any issues in life that might have being getting me down.

We launched the Walk in Love tees a few months back and just recently ‘Get Your Crown On‘ tees with another design currently in the works at the moment.

My desire with these tops is that they will make getting ready for the day a little easier for us mums, women and girls, bring confidence, inspire, encourage, uplift, love and connect people to Jesus and make a difference in this world.

So far our tees have been sold to a whole lot of women all over NZ. They’ve gone to Australia, England, Brazil and even Canada. It blows my mind,I totally wasn’t expecting this to happen.

I pay the designer who hand letters the design a set price per tee for the rights to reprint their design.

For our first tees I didn’t think many would sell, so only paid for the reprint of 20 tops. God obviously had other ideas and we have since sold nearly 100 of these.

Each of our tops is hand wrapped with love, including a personalized note to the buyer on a card with a gorgeous print about love on the back for them to keep. I’ve had quite a few women message me saying how much they loved their wee card and how its now on display in their home because they love the reminder.

I feel extremely blessed and thankful when I’m told things like this. It makes me so happy that so many women are buzzing over their tees, being apart of the club of spreading the love regardless if they are believers or not.. It’s not me making a difference but God working through me. And he can do the same for you.

I feel it has taken 5 years to get a glimpse of an idea of what it might be that God has called me to. 5 years of becoming confident in who I am and discovering my love for people.

I’m so passionate about having a passion for something. Having a side project to work on when I’m not working on weddings and clients photographs. I feel as this can be our breather from the craziness of life.

If you’re reading this and thinking what is my passion, what is this my gift? What makes me buzz and glow with so much excitement? ‘ Maybe you know exaclty what it is or maybe your still figuring it out. Keep going and don’t give up.

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CASEY NEISTAT YouTuber, filmmaker, entrepreneur, producer.

CO-FOUNDER OF BEME.

do more

Five lessons we can all learn from the daily vlogs of filmaker and youtuber, casey neistat. cram // 29

work hard & be brave Casey Neistat has been internet famous for years, but his rise to YouTube stardom accelerated when he started making short films every day. Casey is a YouTuber, filmmaker, entrepreneur, producer, and many other things. But most of all, he is a storyteller (and motivational speaker in disguise).

With an insta-audience of millions and viral-ready videos highlighting everything from taking on Apple to spending Nike’s money, Casey Neistat is the poster boy for online campaigning.

If you go to a party, but you don’t post a photo, then did it really happen? The curious case of Casey Neistat is that he doesn’t need a party, or anything in the calendar at all for that matter, to post something online and will bank 49K likes all the same.

That’s what makes him so special. Whether it’s a hilarious snippet of him riding round New York on his skateboard or just Casey being Casey and getting caught in the rain, he is always engaging and he is always honest. He’s built a brand, he’s built a company – Beme - and he’s built a life for him and his family with nothing more than a video camera and his likeable personality. With every post and every video, Casey teaches us that you don’t need an event for your life to be eventful.

Casey is different from other vloggers and YouTubers with big audiences. YouTube is great for entertainment. It is also a good place for education. Most channels stick with one thing.

But Casey entertains people and educates them at the same time. That still doesn’t make him unique—the quality of his entertainment and education does.

He is an inspiration to people from all ages. I’ve read and heard countless stories of people who picked up their camera for the first time in years and started shooting because they love it.

Others are challenged by Casey to find their passion in life.

Casey Neistat has mastered the art of entertaining and educating an audience—a combination that everyone who aspires to become an influencer desires. But other people can learn from him as well. Here are five of my favorite takeaways from Casey Neistat’s daily vlog.

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1. TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE You can make more money, which you can use to buy more stuff, but the one thing you can’t make or buy more of is time. You also can’t speed it up, slow it down, reason with it, bargain with it or stop it. Time is the great equalizer—it’s the one thing that is finite for each and every one of us. What you can do, however, is maximize it—which, as you can see in Vlog 43: Fat and Lazy, is something that Casey has elevated into an art. While his approach to time management may be a bit manic, even militant to some, I understand his ethos around it and I respect his discipline to it. For Casey, there are two types of time: Work and Family. Period. If he is awake, whatever activity he is engaged in falls squarely into one (or occasionally both) of these categories. “Free time,” Casey says, “is the enemy of progress” and his obsession with omitting it from his life means that he sucks the marrow from every waking moment.

2. TOOLS ARE NOT PRECIOUS Photographers have a tendency to fetishize gear—often elevating certain pieces of kit beyond what they really are: tools. For example, at the recent Paris Photo, I quickly lost count of the number of Leicas hanging around the necks of attendees. In fact, I don’t remember seeing more than a handful of Canons and Nikons combined. Watching just a few episodes of Casey’s vlog, you realize that there is nothing at all precious about the gear he uses, whether you point to his shelves of beat-up point-and-shoot cameras, or to the battered skateboards he uses to get around NYC. Apple fanboys will cringe in horror watching him take an engraver to a freshly unboxed MacBook Pro. But these things are merely tools to do a job—no more, no less. They have no intrinsic value other than their ability to perform their requisite task. If any one of them is broken, it is repaired or discarded and replaced, and not a tear is shed in its absence. Utility is key. Can you do the job or can’t you?

3. FIXATE ON YOUR PASSION Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” One of the character traits about Casey that is immediately apparent is his passion for what he does and his motivation to keep contributing to the stream by making movies. Perhaps nowhere in the vlogs to date is this more apparent or as cut and dry as it is in Vlog 47: Just Me Talking where Casey addresses questions around what to do when faced with major life

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decisions. “In life,” he begins, “you should only ever be doing one of two things and that is: figuring out what you’re most passionate about, like finding your dreams in life. And then two, realizing those passions, realizing those dreams.” Admittedly this belief can appear to be brutally myopic, or that it’s advice given by someone with the means to follow it, but it really does seem to be the way Casey has been hard-wired from the beginning.

4. HAVE FAITH IN YOUR PATH One thing you won’t see in Casey’s vlog is self-doubt.

He seems to have an unwavering belief in himself—not arrogance, but a confidence that his effort, force of will and reluctance to ever play it safe can and will propel him forward. “Life shrinks and life expands in direct proportion to your willingness to assume risk,” he says in Vlog 28: The Most Dangerous Thing in Life. Have there been mistakes along the way? Absolutely, but behind every misstep or setback was his conviction in the direction he was headed. As he remarks in Vlog 34: My Biggest Failure, “I trust myself and I trust my perspective.”

5. MONEY IS NOT A MOTIVATOR Casey is pretty transparent about his life. He talks openly about having his son Owen at 16 and the years spent as a dishwasher in “a shitty seafood restaurant” cleaning burnt clam chowder from the bottoms of arm-deep steel pots. But he also talks about how he took ownership of that and every other job he’s had— and how since he turned 18, the motivation for everything was to tell stories through movies. “I always made a living so I could make movies,” he says. “I never made movies to try and make a living.” For Casey, passion is the fuel, not money.

“If the reason why you’re doing anything creative is to make a living, then you’re doing it wrong. You get into it because it’s a true passion, it’s something you really believe in….” It’s not that he has anything against making money by being creative—it’s just that money should be the byproduct of, not the decision maker in, his creative process.

If you’re looking for daily dose of inspiration that doubles as a daily kick in the ass, look no further than Casey’s YouTube channel. And if you have any misconceptions that vlogging is somehow not filmmaking, Casey has a response for you there.

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Radial Chair

Stendig Calendar

Natural oak with a comfortably curved seat and back, and features rounded edges, creating a timeless aesthetic that sits comfortably within any interior.

The black and white Stendig Calendar, with its dramatic and bold graphics make it a popular as well as functional focal point of design in residential and commercial interiors around the world.

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Trestle Desk

Pot Basket

The functional wooden trestle table enables productivity and organisation in your home and office.

Round grey iron wire storage basket

by Fog Linen. Perfect versatile small storage solution.

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CREATIVE SPACES A collection of Inspiring creative spaces for corporate, co-share and at home.

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corporate Located in Melbourne, Australia, the new Porter Davis offices are replete with themed workstations from around the world, contemplative spaces where employees can rest and rejuvenate and a Las Vegas themed games room. The new office has been designed to specifically go against the grain of prison like cubicles so often seen in large-scale offices.

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co-share Studiomates Offices, located in New York (in the Dumbo district to be more precise: DownUnder the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). It’s a place where creatives - ranging from designers, writers and architects to documentary filmmakers - do their business. Full of Eames furniture and quirky details like the artwork, the accordeon stools, the bike on the wall, it’s no wonder the creative juices get flowing here.

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HOME OFFICE One of the greatest benefits of a home office is the freedom to decorate and design it as you wish, but without letting either space lose their distinct identity.

We shouldn’t blend the workplace with the rest of our home. Just as a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind, a disorganized home office may be the source of unnecessary mind-blocks to new ideas and solutions.

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