Creative bulletin n.187
As you may have noticed, I took a long break. The biggest challenge this year - and it's funny given all the turmoil of the past weeks - has been to actually disconnect. Getting on a plane for a non-business trip made my knees shake 😂
In the photo, among other things, you can see a piece of Sardinian highlands, a jute bag for intùiti, a banana bread experiment, and Sole learning to use a pillow. The perfect summary of my summer 😉
🚀 Next steps
It'll be a September full of launches:
- The book of film analysis made using Fabula, edited by a film expert.
- The first Sefirot writing course, featuring a writer who was editor-in-chief of the most important literary magazine in Italy (we'll reveal the name further on 😉)
- The very first print issue of L’Inquieto for which we acted as sponsors (our way of supporting those who are doing something good).
Summer thoughts. We messed up quite a bit this year, there was San Francisco, the opening of the office, expanding the team, and separating with Andrea. We worked hard with little concrete result, experimenting and failing to really solve the problems at hand. For months I wondered what was the point. What did we do so much for? What are the really important things for us? The feeling is that of wanting to go back in and go through a deep cleaning.
Where is Creativity? This is the funniest and most shameful part. We are a company that makes products for creativity (or claims to be) and we ended up railing for months about creating useless social content that had little or no creativity to it. Somewhere in there we missed the research and the source, we got caught up in the medium and got swept up in it.
A manual for creativity. I want to start over from here. I went on a shamanic journey during which I became a book that attacked readers while they were trying to sleep 😂 I want it to be something new, that doesn't quote anyone, that doesn't rehash content taken from others, that doesn't talk about lateral thinking and other tricks. A book based on experience, not a caress but a gory text, that challenges the reader and doesn't sugar coat it, that becomes a nightmare for those who want to be creative and then get lost. It could be called Creative Ambush: a book that cancels excuses, a book that bites 😂 A book that reminds me as well, what it is to be creative for real.
🌈 Creative takeaway: let’s thank those who leave
For me this has been the year of cut-backs and people walking away. I have experienced the terrible feeling of realizing that we felt uncomfortable with them and that certainly they felt uncomfortable with us; and, in spite of missing them, we feel better now.
Let’s thank them, as hard as it may be. Let's thank them for what they have given us in our time together, and for the ultimate gift: the space for new people and situations that make us feel comfortable to enter our lives.
And maybe they'll thank us, too.
With ❤️,
Matteo
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