For those of you who are newer to the blog, you may not be familiar with our moodboard series, as I’ve been a bit lax about it since last fall. However, as all things go in the new year, here we are picking it back up! Making these moodboards is a creative exercise for me and if you’re ever in a creative funk yourself, I highly recommend it.
We used to do these by hand, remember? Maybe some of you still do – tearing out pages from magazines, collecting scraps of fabric, invitations to events, letterpress cards, whatever was feeling good to us in the moment, and popping them up onto the cork. These days, I do it here – pulling images from my archives, from pinterest, from instagram and seeing where the chips fall, so to speak. This always helps bring some focus to my current style – where am I at? What am I drawn to? What does it say to be about where I’m going from a design standpoint?
So here’s January. Current obsession? Pattern and texture brought in from places other than fabric. TILE TILE TILE, but also wood and brass… even that felt backdrop as a wall. All of these are elements that are used in beautiful or unexpected ways, on a larger scale.
Like those stunning wood cabinets with such amazing visual texture, or a bath wrapped in a brass surround (hello my heaven). As we’ve been taking on more design work, it’s brought my mind back to a place of wanting to dream a bit bigger with projects and ideas, and I think this is where all of these images fit in.
There’s also a bit of these images that lend themselves to an elevated aesthetic and creativity – the chance to dream a little bigger. There is a sense of being thoughtful and creative in these elements, and that requires investment in a multitude of ways – time, energy, finances – all of it. And while this relates to spaces in this context, really I mean it to relate to life in general.
For those of you who have read this column in the past, you also know that it’s where I tend to get a little more personal, so let’s dive into this idea of investment for just a minute…
Do you guys do that thing where you pick a word for the year? I love it. And last year, I didn’t do it, and I gotta tell you (even if it sounds crazy) that I FELT it. So this year, I’m on it.
Last week I went through a few lists online that offer up words, and I wrote down the ones that really resonated with me. Curiosity. Brave. Action. Begin. Focus. Commit. Expand. Inspire. Initiate. (be) Light. Discipline. Ownership. Positivity. Resolve. Restoration.
But there was one word that stood out to me a lot: INVEST. Let me tell you – it’s pretty hard to find a word that crosses between my work and personal worlds, and this one did it for me. Better yet: BE INVESTED. It’s not the sexiest word (I still like ‘expand’ or ‘resolve’), but it certainly is all encompassing.
This year, I’m investing in coco+kelley in more ways than ever. You’ll see the fruits of this in the coming months. An updated website, more amazing contributors, and expanding our design and styling side of the business over at The Emerald Studio. By investing in my business, I’m hoping to open up more time in my personal life so that i can invest in my family and ‘me’ time too. A lot of the words above reiterate this idea. If you’re truly invested in something – all in – then many of these things fall into line. So that’s it. That’s my word.
Do any of these words resonate with you?? What creative goals have you set for yourself this year? Let’s see if we can’t inspire each other to all dream a little bigger.
large images :: lorenzo castillo // hans verstuyft architects // arch digest
