Did you know that I founded a brand experience design agency?

Sainsbury’s, a seagull and a smile.

I love a reference. I really do. But I’m starting to wonder whether all this looking is actually helping me have ideas. Maybe it’s less about finding more inspiration, and more about giving myself enough space to do something with what I’ve already seen.

What a ridiculous privilege it is to have a job where you get to imagine things that don’t exist yet. To start with nothing more than an idea (sometimes not even a particularly sensible one) and somehow turn it into something another human being gets to encounter.

Sometimes you can’t see him at all. The tide decides how much you get to see, and for how long. And even though I know exactly where he is, spotting him still feels like a discovery.

Give them the date, the time and the address. But then stop and ask yourself: what else do they actually need? There’s a difference between giving people the information they need and telling them so much there’s nothing left to discover.

I’m rarely that interested in ticking off the landmarks or tourist sights. I want to know what it feels like to actually live somewhere.

So I walk.

That slightly giddy feeling of not knowing exactly what’s coming. Thinking about it beforehand. Talking about what it might be. Imagining. Always imagining. That’s part of the experience.All Begins Here

The little window in the cathedral spire opened and the trumpet appeared. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck in anticipation, and as soon as it began, I was covered in goosebumps. It happens every time I come.