Refueled Issue 16

REFUELED F/W

I S S U E

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T E X . U S A

T WO THOUSAND FIFTEEN

C O M M U N I T Y

H E R I T A G E

D I S C O V E R Y

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ISSUE NO. F/W

16/15

COMMUNITY. HERITAGE. DISCOVERY.

TEX.USA © 2015 REFUELED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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CONTENTS LETTER

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PUBLISHER / CREATIVE DIRECTOR Chris Brown

THE FORRER BROTHERS

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SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Gustav Schmiege

TRANS-PECOS STYLE

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RAINER JUDD

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COMEBACK AXE

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STETSON FACTORY

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ONE FAST BUFFALO

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Alycia Simpson, Rainer Judd & Ben Jenkins CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jay Watson, David Armstrong, Sean Berry & Ben Jenkins COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Valerie Price/Jon Wilsdon - Our Ruins

© 2015 Refueled Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Any commercial or promotional distribution, publishing or exploitation of contents, is strictly prohibited unless you have received the express prior written permission from our authorized personnel or the otherwise applicable rights holder.

REFUELEDMAGAZINE.COM INSTAGRAM.COM/REFUELEDMAGAZINE FACEBOOK.COM/REFUELED

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THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING. The leaves are falling and the colors changing. The winds shifting and the clouds blowing. The temperatures dropping. Welcome Autumn, with winter very close behind. This is my favorite time of the year. A time to reflect, give thanks and plot the coming new year. A time to build a fire and share a whiskey. Time to be alone with your thoughts, to examine and continue growing as a person.

As a publisher, my hope is to continue to grow as well. To strive to bring something fresh and different with each new issue. Continue to push publishing forward as a art form. A art form to share with the community. One that embraces heritage and encourages discovery. Refueled continues to be a very personal seed growing inside me. A seed that was planted long ago, nourished over time by innocent wonder, strong commitment and encouraging mentors. A seed, like the seasons, changes.

Embrace change, as hard as it may be at times. It is with change that we grow, that we are able to broaden our horizons and see something new emerge that never existed before.

- Chris Brown, Publisher

THE SOUND OF THE ISSUE WILCO SKY BLUE SKY

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Illustration by Daniel VergĂŠs :: SLOWARTWORKS :: Barcelona, Spain

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No 01

P H O T O G R A P H Y

B Y

J AY

W A T S O N

ADVENTURE

Michael Forrer :: Jacob Forrer REPURPOSED GRAIN SAN FRANCISO, CALIFORNIA

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LIVING WITH PURPOSE TWO BROTHERS SETTING A DREAM IN MOTION. INTERVIEW BY ALYCIA SIMPSON

You’ve had enough of the box store items, the humdrum sameness that retail and commerce have come to be. You’re clamoring for real talent that encompasses art, motivation, inspiration, and authenticity—something to feed your adventurous soul. Mike and Jake Forrer bring you a heaping portion of all that—skills that will rock your creative mind, and a healthy serving of humble pie.

wear when he picked us up because the ones we had were too dirty and smelly. We used to have to change in the car. Because of how we grew up has a lot to do with who we are. Having the two different worlds between parents’ houses, brothers, a sister, dad, mom, step mom none of whom understood us, we would talk it out at nighttime in our room when we were young—about people, why they are how they are, how we wanted to be. We were always having conversations between each other. We learned how to ground ourselves. We create our own comfort and are very good at recognizing and making changes when they need to be. We’ve had to understand working off one another always. “

Mike and Jake are the owners and artists behind their business, Repurposed Grain, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is their guise, under which they create amazing things using wood as their medium. They focus on reclaiming and repurposing wood, but they’re not afraid to mix it up with virgin pieces, building unique creations—anything you can think of (and some things you can’t) they can build it. The brothers call what they do creating useful art.

I’d venture their childhood also gave them the connection they have today, their sense of independence, and the ability to take on any adventure or any challenge that comes their way. Since they were little it’s always been a bit of them against the world.

What makes Mike and Jake so special? Simply put, their attitude.

I asked their friend Syd to describe them. “Mike is so lighthearted and is everyone’s buddy. Jake is the younger older brother. He is intuitive, happy, and pragmatic. They are both such sweet guys.” The Forrer brothers are genuine hometown boys with a vision, and it all started when they were little tow-headed tykes running around their hometown of Noblesville, Indiana.

I’m curious if anyone taught them or pushed them into their craft.

Nope. “We learned the hard way. It wasn’t like this is how you do this. It was more like we figured it out on our own by taking things apart and putting them back together.”

Their grandpa was a marine and a sheriff, and was their father figure and role model until he passed, when Mike was 17, Jake 13. “Grandpa was the guy who taught us how to ‘be a man’. He was the case of beer and pack-a-smokes-a-day kinda guy. Rough and tumble kinda fella.”

It was their sordid upbringing that has made the brothers so close, instilled their palpable sense of respect and love for one another, and their family values. Of course Jake would spy and snitch on Mike, and Mike would pick on Jake, but that’s just brothers being brothers.

Even when they were little the brothers were always crafty, inventive, and resourceful—taking whatever odds and ends they could find and putting them together to build something new.

What was their first project? Skate ramps.

“We come from a big family, a split family. We’re the only two out of 5 kids who share a mom and dad. We moved around a lot when we were younger. Mom didn’t have a lot of money growing up, getting help from food stamps, reduced lunches.

Dad wasn’t wealthy, but he had money–he was a business owner. We used to have separate clothes dad would make us

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These ramps gave them more than a place to practice, both boys having been sponsored skateboarders. It created a stronger bond and a little healthy competition as they pushed each other to see who could outshine the other…siblings.

They also, skilled little geniuses, built their own bikes. They couldn’t afford new ones, so they would take bits and pieces off broken bikes around the neighborhood and repurpose those parts, building new bikes. When they’d mastered that they taught themselves how to weld galvanized pipes to the handlebars to make choppers. “It’s always been taking this and that and figuring it out.”

Woodworking, well, was just a natural progression. Jake jumped in at 18, right outta high school. Mike started framing houses for a summer job when he was in college. Each brother having an area of expertise—Jake’s the framing and building, and Mike’s the finishing work. Or as Jake says, “Mike makes things look pretty”.

Chasing a dream and a hunch, Mike came to San Francisco first, followed by Jake two years later. They had long been tossing around ideas for their own business—paint shops, bicycle shops, build-outs—and were ready for a little less talk a little more action. Once both boys in were in San Francisco they hit the ground running, picking up jobs wherever they could. When did they realize their idea was becoming a thing? What was the turning point for Repurposed Grain?

“WHEN WE WERE YOUNG WE USED TO BUILD SKATE RAMPS OUT OF SCRAPS FROM ALL OVER

“Avocados and Coconuts was the job when we knew we were ready to start getting serious. That’s when we knew we were onto something. At that point I [Jake] was a video game tester and Mike was a ski instructor up at Tahoe. I got wind of the job through our friend Steve…then it was just painting.

I started and called Mike and said, ‘Dude, get down here right now.” (Mike moved back two days later.) “The job morphed from painting to vision building. We’d show up at the studio where Jess Bianchi, the business and space owner, would throw out ideas and we’d just find a way to make it happen. He [Jess] had faith in us. It was our first artistic job, our first design job. Before we were just building.”

THE NEIGHBORHOOD. WE WOULD DRAG THEM [SCRAPS] FROM EVERYWHERE USING DAD’S TRACTOR OR LAWNMOWER WITH A WAGON

Jess introduced the boys to Jay Nelson and they were off and running on their next big break. Jay hired them for their Kauai job—building a tiny house.

ATTACHED. THE RAMPS WOULD

“Doing the Kauai build was another tipping point for Repurposed Grain. We did every step of the entire process—prepping, milling, cutting. We were shitting woodchips! We were actually in Kauai when we came up with the name Repurposed Grain.”

LAST FOR FIVE OR SIX YEARS BEFORE DAD WOULD SELL THEM. THEY WERE THE FIRST THINGS WE

Oh yes, the name. What’s in a name? It’s only one of the most important things you come up with when starting a business. It tells the world who you are and what you, or your business, does. So I had to ask about it.

EVER REALLY BUILT TOGETHER.”

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G-PROJECT GEAR Photographer Jay Watson shot the Forrer brothers at Mammoth Lakes in California, highlighting their adventurous spirit and the G-Project Gear Bluetooth Speakers.

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SO TELL ME BOYS, HOW AND WHY DID YOU COME UP WITH REPURPOSED GRAIN?

“Repurposed Grain has an open meaning and it hits a lot of key elements for us. Repurposing, recycling, taking what’s useful and giving it a purpose is something we’ve always done. It has a lot to do with who we are, how we were raised, what we’ve done. It’s not straightforward, but it’s our name.

We don’t only do reclaimed wood, so it’s a little misleading.

We’ve actually talked about changing it, but it’s personal.

It means something to us. It means I have all these things engrained in me and have changed in so many different ways. You’re always recreating and repurposing who you are and what you do—repurposing information. For us Repurposed Grain is more of a lifestyle mentality than just a woodworking thing. It’s having an adventurous spirit, being ready for any adventure, being willing to take any opportunity at the drop of a hat, like how we’re leaving for Seattle tomorrow last minute to build out offices for Farmigo. We purposefully make ourselves available for whatever opportunities come along. Everything has to evolve otherwise it becomes stagnant. Repurposing is pushing yourself—expanding, learning new things.”

Being brothers is what makes them and their business so special. It’s what creates their vibe and the core values of their business. So what’s it like being brothers and working together?

In the one and a half years since they started Repurposed Grain Mike and Jake have made it a point to maintain their family values not just between themselves, but by extending those values to their friends and their clients. During our conversation Mike realized how their clients had all become their friends, and I became curious if that meant there was a particular type of client they looked for when picking up projects.

“Well, family means a lot to us. We’re family. It’s not just a contract or a company when you work with us. We want you to know we’re on your side. It’s a process. We take everything into consideration to build you a unique piece. Our clients become family. Our dad said, your girlfriend, me as your father, we’re not always gonna be here. The person that’s always going to be there are your brothers. They’ll be there for everything. Even if you stop talking you can’t get rid of the fact that you’re family. It’s all about family. We don’t have a type of client, we want to work with everyone, help everyone.”

Starting this business hasn’t been easy, as no business is.

What obstacles have you encountered while building Repurposed Grain?

“Let’s be real. When we first started talking about all this we were on different paths. Partied too much and had to make a choice. Either get straight or move on. Stop and come together or go our separate ways. It was about getting our heads right. We came to the realization we can’t do this as we’re doing this. We can’t do it if we’re going to half ass it.

You know back in the day we’d be like, can’t wait to get off work to go do x, y, z. We completely sobered up and switched gears. Cut a lot of friends out and dedicated ourselves to our business and our ‘plan.’ We knew what we couldn’t be doing to get where we wanted. Our goals weren’t attainable with the lifestyles we were living. We had to stop the fomo (chuckling)—fear of missing out. Our biggest obstacle was ourselves. After we came back from Kauai we saw the other side of life. We got inspired by our friends, Jess and Jay, and started surfing, trying new things like bouldering. Things that would be a type of meditation in action, where you push yourself and get to a point where you’re almost going on instinct. Once we made the choice to stop doing things, the rest of life started falling into place. We turned fear into a positive push, started building ourselves up and made the lifestyle switch we needed to make.“

The short answer—no. It seems it’s either a type of person that is drawn to them, or the boys’ energy just creates the sense of community that seems to follow them.

As brothers the boys are constantly learning and growing.

When they were kids, Mike, as an older brother, taught Jake how to be—how to follow your dreams, be yourself, and do what you want to do. Now that they’re both adults they lean on one another to create, push, and keep one other in check.

The boys have not only made a business out of repurposing, they’ve gained purpose. Looking forward I ask them, what does the future hold for you and Repurposed Grain? What are your goals? Their answer: “To be successful of course. But to also keep family together, to involve as many other people as we can, when we can. To keep inspiring and be inspired. Always be learning. To never limit ourselves and stay open to any creative adventure or opportunity that comes available, and to always push ourselves. It’s [our future] an open book. If you don’t try then why do it?”

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No 02

T R A N S - P E C O S F E S T I VA L O F M U S I C & LOV E

STYLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY GUSTAV SC HMIEGE

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MARK FOGWELL WORN OVER TIME LA CRESCENTA, CALIFORNIA

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LAUREN HARDY SMALL ROOM COLLECTIVE ON THE ROAD, USA

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LANGHORN SLIM MUSICIAN LANGHORN, PENNSYLVANIA

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LEANNE FORD CREATIVE DIRECTOR / INTERIOR DESIGNER NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, NASHVILLE

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FORREST BLOEDE STAG PROVISIONS AUSTIN, TEXAS

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MAGGIE FOX FILTH MART LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

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JOSH CHALMERS BEARDED LADY SCREEN PRINTS AUSTIN, TEXAS

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CARA LYNN CROSSLEY EL COSMICO MARFA, TEXAS

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No 03

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID ARMSTRONG

RAINER JUDD POTATO LOGIC

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CASA PEREZ PRESIDIO COUNTY, TEXAS

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OUR FATHER GREW UP MOVING EVERY FEW YEARS. DALLAS, OMAHA, NEW JERSEY, SON

OF A WESTERN UNION MANAGER, HE WOULD TELL US HOW HARD IT WAS TO MAKE NEW

FRIENDS, KNOWING HE’D BE LEAVING AGAIN. THIS CONTRASTED WITH THE STABILITY

OF LONG SUMMERS WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER ON HER FARM IN MISSOURI, WHERE HE

WAS BORN. HIS PARENTS, HAVING LIVED THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION, HAD

RESPECT FOR WORK AND RESOURCES, IN STARK CONTRAST TO OUR DISPOSABLE

SOCIETY. RIFE WITH MEANING, LIFE WAS RICH IN THE SIMPLEST FORMS. A STORY ABOUT

DON AS A TODDLER INVOLVED HIS GRANDMOTHER TASKING HIM, FOR THE TIME

CONSUMPTIVE ASPECT OF THE PROJECT, TO TAKE ONE POTATO AT A TIME TO A BASKET

AT THE END OF A FIELD. HE SOON REALIZED THAT HE COULD BRING THE BASKET TO THE

POTATOES. HE WAS ON HIS WAY. ON HIS WAY, WITH LOGIC, WITH QUESTIONING

AUTHORITY, WITH INDEPENDENT THOUGHT.

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After driving in a Land Rover with my mother and brother through California, Baja, Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico, Don found Marfa. Marfa, just on the edge of America.

We always lived on ‘the wrong side of the tracks’. From SoHo to Sal Si Puedes (the unpaved neighborhood of Marfa) we were far from concrete curb meets timer-watered mowed lawn, middle class dream.

Don was a passionate caretaker of both the man-made and the natural world. A protector of the beautiful, the handmade, the well thought out, and the hard won. It is fitting that he created a Foundation to be a perennial reminder of what matters: art, visceral experiences of space, and essential ideas that evolve our culture. Leaving good things alone is an undervalued idea of such potential that I might even consider it revolution worthy. Once you can decipher the good things around you, you can lose, overturn, or just plain old not be part of the things which hold no meaning, proportion, or beauty.

At the time of Don’s death there was a nuclear dump planned for nearby Sierra Blanca. We, with a coalition of people in the region, defeated it. Because out in Texas land is life. And you do not take people’s land.

IN ADDITION TO A QUIET DEMEANOR AND SPARKLING

Beyond Wild Rose Pass, beyond Balmorhea is I -10, artery to freight and industry, opening up into a never ending series of of oil rigs and strip cities, armpit of America style car culture that makes our States a pocked and bruised body. South of Marfa the un-population increases in the heat and rugged territory of Pinto Canyon, Chinati Mountains, all the way to what’s left of the Rio Grande, after El Paso, and everyone north has had their way with her. Ranchers have, for the last hundred years, been the better custodians, with their damage to the prairie being limited to overgrazing and hunting. A small loss considering the options, but still, an unnecessary loss that takes decades to repair.

WIT, DON HAD A RARE FORM OF RIGHTEOUS ANGER THAT COMBINED PASSION AND INTELLECT. THESE DAYS WE COULD USE BARREL LOADS OF SUCH FIRE TO SCARE OFF THE CURRENT THREAT TO WEST TEXAS, THE PLANNED 143 MILE TRANS-PECOS

LA MANSANA DE CHINATI :: THE BLOCK/SOUTHWEST STUDIO MARFA, TEXAS Image © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA

PIPELINE INTO MEXICO.

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DONALD JUDD 1928 - 1994

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CASA PEREZ PRESIDIO COUNTY, TEXAS

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THE ART STUDIO

THE ART STUDIO MARFA, TEXAS

MARFA, TEXAS

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LA MANSANA DE CHINATI :: THE BLOCK/NAVAJO ROOM

LA MANSANA DE CHINATI :: THE BLOCK/SOUTHWEST STUDIO MARFA, TEXAS

MARFA, TEXAS

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No 04

MADE

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COMEBACK

AXE PASSION & RESPECT TOWARDS NATURE

Cemal Can Dinรง started collecting axes and hand tools as a young boy in Turkey. Searching and purchasing them online was the most efficient method considering his location, but the costs was high. The solution - craft his own, with great passion and detail.

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Fig .01

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Fig .02

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Fig .03

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Fig .04

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Fig .05

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No 05

MADE

P H O T O E S S AY

STETSON FA CTORY PHOTOGRAPHY BY GUS TAV SC HMIEGE / WORDS BY C HRIS BROWN

John B. Stetson, born in 1830, created a rugged hat (The Prospector) for himself made from thick beaver felt while panning for gold in Colorado. According to legend, Stetson invented the hat while on a hunting trip while showing his companions how he could make cloth out of fur without tanning. Fur felt hats are lighter, they maintain their shape, and withstand weather and renovation better.

As their travels continued, a cowboy is said to have seen J.B. Stetson and his unusual hat, rode up, tried the hat on for himself, and paid Stetson for it with a five dollar gold piece, riding off with the first western Stetson hat on his head.

My father always wore a Stetson. As a child in the early 60's, I have great memories of trying on his beige Royal Stetson while he was at work in the oil refineries. It was sweat and smoke stained from days in the garden and nights around a open fire during frequent weekend camping trips in the piney woods of Southeast Texas. It smelled like him and gave me comfort in wearing it. I own that hat today, along with my grandfather's Open Road Stetson. This beat up Open Road has become a main stay in my wardrobe. It just feels "right".

Stetson made an unusually large hat from felt he made from hides collected on the trip, and wore the hat for the remainder of the expedition. Although initially worn as a joke, Stetson soon grew fond of the hat for its ability to protect him from the elements. It had a wide brim, a high crown to keep an insulating pocket of air on the head, and was used to carry water.

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No 06

LIVE SLOW MAKE FAST THE HAWK’S MIND & THE BUFFALO’S HEART. WORDS & ART BY BEN JENKINS

This is for you folks who create for a living. For you, compartmentalizing life into nicely organized boxes — work life here, personal life there — is next to impossible. And for good reason. If you can’t bring true human experience into creative work, it probably won’t make any real impact. So I propose we trash the idea. I came to this conclusion the hard way so I’m going to take a stab at telling you about it.

BUFFALO CROSSING. In my mid 20’s, after growing up in Texas wholeheartedly pursuing sports and occasionally scratching creative itches when it rained, I found myself cut from the Philadelphia Phillies Minor League baseball system. Wounded and out of options, it was time to hang ‘em up and find a new identity. I finished grad school and found myself working as a runner on a documentary film project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Came across the American Bison there who, I was told, are the givers of life; symbols of endurance, sacrifice, and survival. They remind us of the abundance we are given, and the gratitude we should have for it. On this trip, I saw how the loss of heritage and identity could cause people to lose connection to their spirit. Losing your ways is serious business. Visiting this place marked a new starting point for me. I had a sense there was a creative world out there for me to explore and be grateful for, and that I should leave sports behind. Back in college, my painting teacher had gently thrown me out of his class and into a graphic design class, where he said I could most usefully apply my obsession with rearranging things. I was thankful to have a undeveloped talent for something that I could pursue again, wholeheartedly. After months of job searching, I took a contract job retouching decorative collectible plate designs emblazoned with kittens, puppies, baby angels, pink unicorns and all sorts of manly subject matter. About lost my mind doing that, so I left Chicago and headed back to Texas because I missed the smell of the Southwest. Back home, I was gifted a few freelance projects from friends and family, eventually stringing more jobs together to make what is now my 17 year-old design company, Onefastbuffalo.

OFB had a very spiritual, creative beginning for me. As are many new ventures started by young people, there was pure instinct, good intention, and honest aspirations. Everything was self taught. Onefastbuffalo represented the freedom to roam, to explore, and to create. We would see the true nature of things, make new stuff, and give it to people. During OFB’s first 10 years, we experienced the typical ups and downs of growing a business. I cut my teeth in that decade. I got my "time in the water" as my surfing or fly fishing buddies might say today. We got bigger and did some good work over that time, but nothing great. But, year after year, it became less about the joy of making art and more about accumulating jobs, simply executing our client’s instructions, and trying to win awards for validation. Personally, I got good at being a person working in the creative industry, not at living creatively. I ended up a good 40 pounds heavier than my playing days, was only a semblance of the athlete I used to be, and was mentally exhausted, and burned out. The most unsettling thing about that decade is that for the most part I don't remember most of it.

I think the founder of the brand Patagonia, sums my decade long journey up best.

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THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF PLANNING SOMETHING LIKE EVEREST IS TO EFFECT SOME SORT OF SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL GAIN AND IF YOU COMPROMISE THE PROCESS, YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE WHEN YOU START OUT AND YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE WHEN YOU GET BACK. - YVAN CHOUINARD

HAWK SIGHTING. One day I came home from a busy day at work and my 5-year-old son handed me a drawing. It was of me working at my computer with a caption that read: "My Dad is a Grafik Disiner." In the drawing,on the screen, was a hawk. Kids can see through all your B.S. They see your true heart. My son knew who I really was... a graphic designer. Not the boss or creative director. A designer…who is fascinated with Redtailed Hawks whenever they fly by. I always notice them.

Hawks, I was told, are messengers, guides. They are symbols of clear vision, awareness, intuition, wisdom, and insight.

When the hawk shows up, the message is to evaluate the self created illusions of our identity, and to become who we really are. I never saw the point in being self destructive as some kind of artist. Scorched earth of relationships, and eventual early demise. It’s sexy and all, but it ain’t me. So I took this hawk seriously. I had lost my ways. I realized I had become a manager not a maker. I decided to deconstruct both myself and OFB, and rebuild a work life where I could live a truly creative life…and hopefully still make a living.

"How we spend our days is, how we spend our lives" - Annie Dillard' Here is the roadmap I sketched out for myself that helps keep me in check. It’s not about shortcuts, life hacks, or time-management. It’s not about work/life balance. Rather, It is about aligning work with life in a way that nurtures your creative engine and supports longevity of creative output. Time is really the key stock material of creation, and of meaningful experience. Real mastery takes real time. But we can’t make more time — we can only improve how we use the time we’re given.

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Ben Jenkins ONE FAST BUFFALO PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN BERRY

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LIVE SLOW. THE HAWK’S MIND.

REST, MAINTAIN, AND PLAY. Many in our industry wear long hours as a badge of honor — late nights, weekend work, little vacation time. And I was one of them. But the new OFB changed that. We now have a work season and an off season. We work from September 1 to June 1 — and during the summer months we are closed for business. I got this idea from my time in athletics. In professional sports, it would be absurd to ask athletes to play year round. As the season goes on, the athlete gradually wears down physically and mentally. The same can be said for creative minds. For that reason we also focus on physical and mental wellbeing. We get sleep, We eat healthy, We get outside and play. All animals play. We need it. Play usually involves physical activity but it’s also a form of mind rest because it’s meditative. We stop thinking. We engage in the activity. It recharges our physical and mental batteries.

The play I’m interested in these days is surfing and fly fishing — two activities that are hard to master. They keep me in a present state of mind and engage me in the physical world. Understand that a healthy body leads to a clear mind and improved creativity. It is not about how much you can work, its about how much quality work you can make.

The hawk’s mind is designed to fly, to live with clear vision, have wisdom, and refuel the spirit. Artists have the ability — if they stop long enough to observe with their own eyes — to see things in the world and make connection when others cannot.

TRADE EXCESS FOR SIMPLICITY. OFB’s first ten years can be summarized into one word.. excess. I owned too much stuff, had too much office space, held too many meetings, had too many people offering too many services to too many clients. Accumulation and excess are the American way, and I was American as hell. So during the next year, I worked to remove clutter and excess from my life in every way I could control. Either I needed it, loved it, or got rid of it. I believe too much of work/life balance in the today’s business world is about employers tactically bringing a “personal” feel into the workplace. Things like beer taps in the office, TV’s, chef's kitchens, lounges, pool tables, gyms, skateboards, basketball courts, on and on. But these things don’t balance work and life, they just making work feel more like home. I was a pro at creating these distractions. So to stop the behavior, I got rid of our office space and all the stuff in them. Working remotely from wherever we chose, instantly gave us more time for the work. It reduced the number of wasteful meetings. It cut out commutes entirely.

And of course it greatly reduced hard costs so we could choose the clients we took on more thoughtfully. Next, we stripped our service offerings down to one thing…call it Branding if you like. We realized that we truly loved, and still do, is for people to hand us a portion of a product or business idea, ask us to flush it into a full thought, craft an identity for it to exist in, and help bring it to life. All other services where abandoned. Last, other than having a website to show our work, we even we stopped spending time marketing ourselves. No biz cards, no leave behinds, no over-the-top holiday promotional, no more entering award shows, no outbound sales calls, no office parties, no networking events. We even stopped writing custom proposals. The new marketing plan was to live experiencerich creative lives, bring those experiences back to the studio, get deeply involved in our clients' dreams, and make stuff people would talk about. Getting rid of things unneeded or unloved simplified everything and created space in my life.

You can create more time by no longer working more than you need to to pay for things you don’t need or want.

EXPLORE, SEE AND COLLECT. Once we got rid of our office space, I started getting comfortable with the idea that I could work from anywhere.

Pursuing play got me traveling. But I wanted to cheap way to travel for longer periods of time. With savings from getting rid of things, I bought a vintage 1958 Airstream trailer that we redesigned and rebuilt into something functionally new.

This gave me and my family an office and a home we could take on the road — to work and live with long stretches of time for playing and exploring. More time for journeys, not just vacations. This changed everything for me and probably will greatly shape how my kids see the world. These journeys fuel my life and work. What I observe, see and collect during travel serve as my creative fuel later.

FIND THE ESSENTIAL AND THE PURPOSE. At OFB, our process includes time to learn, study and immerse ourselves into the world of our clients. First, we clear our heads and then sort through the research and data to find what is essential. We audit preconceived ideas and expectations. We study the territory. We let go of projects and ideas that are reactionary or developed out of fear. Then we keep the ones that are fearless and can create the most impact. It’s important to not get caught up in the rush of the projects you see other people doing, just to do them. Have the guts to say no. I struggle with this more than anything else. Not every project is worth doing. And not every idea should be pursued.

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MAKE FAST. THE BUFFALO’S HEART.

The buffalo’s heart is meant to run fast, endure, give its spirit, and provide for the world. As an artist with a buffalo’s heart, you’re not here to be a spectator. You have an opportunity to contribute and provide abundance to others’ experience of the world.

magazines. But those can act as a crutch. I prefer to keep my work area as sparse as possible. It promotes a feeling that something needs to be created there. And it helps me avoid retread or falling back on past successes. I like to build in some discomfort when creating. I like designing while hungry... on an empty stomach. Another is designing while standing up versus sitting. I like to be cold. And I like it noisy.

Figure out what works for you.

MOVE TO MAKE. Good strategy happens best in an active, moving state. So instead of jumping onto the computer, grab a pencil and note pad, maybe a recording device, a bottle of water, and step outside and start walking. Walking frees you from the clutter of data so you can simply focus on what you have learned.

Search for THE idea using movement as a trigger. The challenge is to find the idea in your mind, then only use the computer as an excavation tool.

CREATE LIKE A RIVER. As a designer, it's important to work fast — to create in a fluid, flexible and fearless manner and to trust your intuition and natural instinct. Think of creativity like the flow of a river.

Water flows up to obstructions but it doesn’t stop. Instead it flows over, around and under them, always moving downstream. During the creative process, we actually need the obstructions, the struggle, the boulders in the river to make it interesting. To guide us. To push us. That’s actually what shapes our ideas. I reiterate to work fast. Find flow by being fully immersed, fully focused, fully locked in, and fully living in the moment. I remember this feeling from sports. It’s what I loved about playing, not just winning. Don’t hold back. Yes, use that creative fuel you found while exploring. But be inspired by the past, don’t repeat it. Don’t just decorate, express new meaning. Make a big freaking mess. Then remember it is crucial to strip the new work back down to reveal the most powerful message with the fewest pixels. I look to nature for guidance here. God makes unbelievably complex things. Nothing seems to be in excess but nothing is missing. These works are simply beautiful. I keep a pocket knife on my desk as reminder to strip down, cut out, be sharp and keep the work clutter free. I think that it's best to give clients one completely flushed out concept rather than multiple had don’e ideas. Give them your one best shot.

MINE IN SOLITUDE. “Without great solitude, so serious work is possible.”

- Picasso The best of an idea is many, many feet underground. That's why we call bringing that idea to life the mining process. Mining is typically done best in complete solitude. Why do it alone? Because you have less distractions and more time to focus. You can also be yourself in solitude. You have the freedom to explore ideas without judgment. Being alone in solitude is a bit scary. It’s uncomfortable. Trust your instinct. Have the confidence that you will uncover your idea.

BUILD IN DISCOMFORT. “What good could come from comfort? It’s certainly not art.” - Jack White.

As creative types, we tend to keep comforts around us in the form of inspiration: cool art, old projects, design

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For me, Live Slow Make Fast is not a roadmap to a particular destination, but instead a cyclical system for the generation of many new ideas over a lifetime. If I get outside of it, I fall back into a slothful form of lazy behavior we call busyness. But If I play inside this cycle, I’m contributing, I’m living, and i’m getting better at the things I want to get better at. True Mastery is a journey and a gift. So align your work with your personal interests — the things you’re passionate about — and your work will express more true human emotion. Burnout is absolutely avoidable if you fill your days with experiences that matter to you and fuel your work. Don’t separate life and art. If you're feeling overwhelmed remember 888. Twenty four hours in a day divided into three parts — eight hours of rest, eight hours of work, eight hours of play. Meditate 15 minutes a day. If you don’t have 15 minutes, you need to meditate 30 minutes. And my own personal favorite burnout check: If I don’t have time to cook my own meals in a day, I’m too busy. Inspiration is not your privilege. I’m always hearing about creative people wanting to get inspired. We are responsible for finding our own inspiration. If you’re bored with the work you are doing, you are likely bored... period. Maybe you just need something to overcome. Find some struggle. Go hungry even, figuratively or literally. Find some discomfort and you’ll find inspiration without asking others for it. Let go and put a little risk into things. If you’re lucky enough to live a creative life and make a living doing it, be grateful. Wake up tomorrow and realize you have 100% freedom to make anything you want. Do beautiful things, make beautiful things.

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COMMUNITY. HERITAGE. DISCOVERY.

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