The Anticipation Letters No.10 – To Never Forget the Source
My oldest son, Jarl Örn, 2018, then three, soon turning four, on the cliffs towards the Baltic Sea, the southernmost point of Väddö.
To Never Forget the Source
It’ so easy to get lost. To lose the connection with your vision. Your path. Your values. In times like these (yes, a reference to last week’s letter) you might settle for ok, because the status quo is so horrible. And our minds are polluted with impressions, constantly poking at our from different directions. But let’s check back with ourselves, of what we believe in, what we wish to create in this world, what we want to be a part of, and when we nourish that, we can create it, manifest it.
This week, I’m continuing to explore from the starting point of a song. To Never Forget the Source by Sons of Kemet.
To find the essence in our brand, in our storytelling, our design strategy for an exhibition, in an object or when we build a collection, that has always been at the forefront of my interest. To find out what it’s all really about, and to distill that into a concept, create around it, and share it, invite a participatory audience into its’ world.
My professor when I studied to become a product designer used to advice steering away from “Me too-products” (before the terms was used to join forces in a pressing matter), resonating with my belief to always go back to the source, distill a concept from layers and layers of knowledge, insight, highly personal combinations of inspirations and aesthetic choices. As Billie Holiday once said “You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling”. It does not mean you’re not tuned in to the world around you, that you cannot let yourself be inspired. But it means that if you do trust the process, and work with what’s really important, what comes out in the other end will be something authentic and right, that you are actually rooted in.
These letters – this is the 10th – have gotten so many wonderful comments and much appreciation lately. It is truly worth so much, that they mean something to you who read them, since for me it’s a process of opening up, collect something personal, and share it in an effort to connect on a deeper level in this space.
To never forget the source can of course also mean that our childhood, class aspects, our experiences along the way effects us. Depending on what these experiences were, we can get nourished by them, feel rooted, or disoriented and in need to carve out new paths to ourselves. Or create something protesting and healing from it as a starting point. It’s we who interpret what our source really is, since it is always a complex weave. But to explore our source has many layers, and it can go deeper and deeper. In the end we are simply (or magnificently) matter, energi, in a cyclical ecosystem, from dust we come, to dust we shall return…
As a creative, we often talk about “the source” as the creative energy flowing through us, we being like a vessel, a channel, simply a messenger and a part of something bigger. This can make us feel connected and open up for more possibilities, for creative flow. To let it come more naturally, intuitively, without forcing anything, without looking over your shoulder, without it all making sense, yet, until the whole picture, or conceptual story unfolds. Does it matter if we see this energy as an airy “spirit”, coming from above, or if it something communicating to us from under the soles of our feet, if it’s actually Mother Earth reminding us of our roles as part of her.
Une Liste de Cinque
To Never Forget the Source
Go back to the source
If you’re inspired by something, go deeper, search for the source, connect with it in your own, unique way. (Nothing worse than diluted concepts, like a bar being inspired by an other art deco style bar that’s inspired by art deco that’s inspired by...).
To let the spirit guide
We are all matter, energy. There’s a creative energy, spirit if you wish, that you can tap into. But you need to quiet the buzz, the constant input, open up and listen, start working and discovering along the way. You might be surprised. Start by connecting with all your senses and let the mind quiet down slowly but steadily.
Distill to distinct
A great concept has clarity and is the foundation where all creative work should derive from. But I find it’s important that it’s distilled to that clarity from intriguing, relevant layers, from complexity, that it has realness and depth to explore. A forced concept without that depth is more of a static framework, it will not survive anything. Like a colour and a logo and nothing underneath.
Process and vulnerability
Maybe there isn’t really one end goal of absolution. Design is a constant iteration, like being a human being is, no? So maybe it’s more like grounding in something, keep exploring exactly from the point where you’re at. To keep on learning, adding, taking away. Distilling. The more honest and vulnerable we are, the more connected to our source, and at the same time, more likely to keep evolving, instead of going round in circles.To never forget the source
How do we keep remembering our source, as persons, as brands, as creatives. The source in that sense that we keep checking in to what we’ve chosen to distill, what matters to us, what we believe in, what we we’re here for. The importance of visually surrounding ourselves with that foundation is great. As a designer I’m well aware of the impact of manifestation in your physical space (spatial experience, moodboard, words, scent…). Create your world and step into it and keep taking action, keep creating, and keep iterating.
The song To Never Forget the Source from Sons of Kemet was guiding my train of thoughts this week.
From Pitchfork: Black to the Future, is a propulsive record advocating that change comes from speaking directly about collective oppression. Collective is the key word here, and Hutchings attempts to unite the different strands of the African diaspora, working with vocalists and rappers from both the UK and U.S. Black to the Future is highly accessible, politically engaged jazz that’s more focused on communication than individual experimentation.
In May 2022 I invited people into my studio, to explore a personal project that I had been working on for the last two years.
The project was called For the Love of Pine – from root to cone. The response for this multidisciplinary, mulitsensory, holistic exploration was so nurturing. To connect with people on something highly personal.
I’m preparing for the next immersive session. You’ll be invited.
When I saw you there.
Out on the cliff, towards the sea.
Your tiny figure, under
the adolescent Pine tree.
It made me think of me.
You were me. Another time.
Another place. Yet so similar.
You connected me
once more back to me.
The title image for this letter, is from the preparation of 100 serving containers handpainting them with matcha tea.
I wrote the words above, connected to the title image of and to my son, but also to myself.
My Love of the Pine tree is a long-lived one, stemming from seemingly endless, happy summers in the Stockholm Archipelago. It’s at the core of my being. Everything I create in this project is an ode to the magnificent Pine Tree, to connect with others, with layers of time and cultures, but also a way to root myself and through that, be an anchor for my two boys.
““We can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.”
Billie Holiday
Omstart Mode / Reboot Fashion, is a permanent exhibition for Textilmuseet in Borås, a collaboration with Interior Architect Marcia Harvey Isaksson.
I explored the essence of caring rituals, to take care of what you already have, turning them into meditative rituals, actions with value, presented in a distilled and simplistic way.
I created three films “To take care of your objects” 1. The tools 2.The Rituals – Brushing 3. The Rituals – Airing”.
For some reason I can’t add movies here, but you can find them in my portfolio here. This one also has audio, for that asmr effect…
Photo/film: Ea Czyz
Model: Anton Isaksson
Creative Direction and Graphics: Charlotte Ryberg
A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine./……… / Your kind never sees us whole. You miss half of it and more. There’s always more below ground than as above./…….. / That’s the trouble with people, their root problem. Life runs alongside them, unseen. Right here, right next.
The words above are from the Overstory by Richard Powers. A different kind of novel, a collection of short stories, each one connected to trees in one way or the other. The quote is from chapter 1: Roots.
Hard to beat the clarity in the perspective highlighted in these words. To see the magnificence, the complexity and coherence of the whole, its integration with its surroundings, its intelligence. And at the same time our actual inability to fully do so, but still our sense of significance of trying.
I’m looking forward to the colour talk “Naturens Kolorit” by Johan Tirén and Johan Löfgren next Friday, March 21st. They have explored the colours from a year in an allotment and excursions to significant natural habitats, collecting the colours, keeping them for the future, when the plants might not still be there.
If you’re in Stockholm, you’re most welcome to join us for the celebration of the International Colour Day. Also award ceremony of Prisad Färg, and just a very colorful Friday after work-session.
RSVP to anmalan@fargcentrum.se
A Sunday Note to self
(to create anticipation)
To never forget the source….
This week I’ve been practicing putting a pause on what I’ve been doing, checking in with myself, breathing, gaining clarity in the quiet moment. Just a minut or less here and there keeps me from getting carried away, too far from my path, from my source.
xxx Charlotte Ryberg
In Pursuit of Beautiful Concepts
Thank you for reading The Anticipation Letters – The new Sunday ritual. A more personal and intuitive letter on design, life, work, philosophy, inspiration, creating anticipation for the week ahead. Words by ENTIÈRE founder Charlotte Ryberg. If you wish to receive it in your inbox each Sunday, subscribe below.