Feel free to fwd along…I’d love to start meeting people this week. Thank You!
-Shayna
Book Review: Creative, Inc.
When the end of August looms and September heads into sight, you can’t help but get that “back to school feeling,” no matter how old you are. It seems like just the right time to think about starting new projects and learning new things, maybe even setting out on your own.
As more and more people embrace (or dream of embracing) the freelance life, the little details can feel illusive and innumerable. You may know your craft, but how to make a career out of it can feel like heading into an overwhelming and uncharted territory. Fortunately, designer and writer Meg Mateo Ilasco of Modern Economy has been down that path and has collaborated with fellow design maven, Joy Deangdeelert Cho of OhJoy! to help others who hold similar aspirations. With their latest book, Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business, the duo offers creative individuals solid direction, advice, and guidelines on becoming successful creative entrepreneurs. After all, we were told as children that we could do anything we wanted to when we grew up; why not snap up this book and seize the opportunity to do just that.
Artist Profile: Jo Meesters
Over the past few months, Pattern Pulp has noticed more and more artists taking the sustainable highroad. If you’re a creative person, the spark’s not going anywhere but recent material and budget restraints have forced designers to reinterpret their concepts and retool their executions. Jo Meesters, a Dutch product designer with an eye for sophistication, is a master at breathing life into used materials. Green Oasis is an initiative that was brought about in an effort to incorporate greenery into public urban spaces. Reworking 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 leftover blankets, another Meesters project entitled, Odds and Ends, is based on the idea of woven rejuvenation. If these prototypes ever go mass, they’d be a seamless fit in Anthropologie’s home goods department.
Combining fabrication with jet cutting technology, Meesters’s approach to the traditional tabletop is quite stunning in his collaboration with Marije van der Park entitled, Reshaping Wood. Showcasing contemporary symbols such as airplanes, windmills and the infamous McDonalds gold arches, Ornamental Inheritance is a menagerie of current industrialism.