Nostalgia, a yearning for the past, is a familiar feeling to all. Hazy memories have the ability to evoke joy, or sometimes despair, but regardless, nostalgia for the past is a consistent catalyst for present day imagination.

For independent designer, art director, writer, and educator Elizabeth Goodspeed, a connection to the past has played a pivotal role in her life and career. With over 10 years of experience in the design industry, Elizabeth has crafted a reputation for expressive work that draws on an extensive knowledge of design history and archival designs. Her work as a designer encompasses branding, packaging, book and editorial design.

Her latest project The New Antiquarians plays with the blend of archival influence through a 21st century lense. Elizabeth worked with the team to craft the full visual world for the book, evidence that her impact spans far beyond the realms of design itself.

Elizabeth spends her time between New York City, and Providence, Rhode Island. In the past two years, she also found herself teaching design to students both at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Parsons School of Design.

In Elizabeth's own words.

From the archives

You're a self-described casual archivist. What's the value in (re)discovering the old?

I think some of the initial impulse for getting into archival work definitely came from a bit of insecurity early in my design education–I was in a dual degree program in college (studying cognitive science and graphic design simultaneously at two different schools) which often left me feeling like I wasn’t smart enough for science or creative enough for art. Looking at design history felt like a way to check the work I was unsure about against proven design solutions; if this layout worked for Massimo Vignelli or Paula Scher, it would work for me, too!

I also think there’s a significant emotional bent to it as well: I think I experience nostalgia more than other people, and tend to feel pretty emotional about the past. As a result, I find that I’ve always really valued having tangible artefacts (pictures, letters, books) that connect me to the past very literally—archiving is another part of that. Even more simply, one of the things I love most about archival work is how much the past surprises me! I am always finding new approaches that seem ahead of their time, or that look differently than anything I have seen in our contemporary landscape.

To me, being an archivist is equal parts pulling ideas together and picking them apart: it’s about creating new and unexpected adjacencies from existing materials, and also taking the time to critique and analyse all the components within these materials to figure out what makes them work, why they were made, and who made them.

How does being an archivist make you a better art director?

I think being an archivist—which is to say, spending a lot of time with different things from different time periods—has caused me to be very aware of the many art direction tropes that have emerged in the advertising world over time, and therefore, has made me very aware of how much I want to play towards or against those tropes when I am creating new imagery. Similar to how all music is made up of the same 12 notes, I think that to some extent, all visual culture plays off the same set of general high level ideas, executed with different technologies (which become tropes in themselves) and in new contexts over time. These ideas, some conceptual, some aesthetic, tend to cycle in and out of fashion. Those ideas can be anything from the way props are used in a shot (like playing with prop scale, either big or small) to different compositional tricks (like fisheye or macro) to quirky lighting treatments (like silhouetting or dramatic gradient lighting)—all of which also have secondary associations with the periods when they were used, or the categories they were used for.

In a good and bad way, this kind of thinking has almost broken my brain a bit such that I often view the process of creating imagery as a process of determining what combination of existing ideas or gimmicks from the past will be most apt for the project—what this means for how I make work is that I’ve sort of assembled a big toolbox of different ideas that I can deploy when appropriate for any new brief I encounter.

Lessons taught and lessons learned

You teach at Parsons and RISD. What's the single most important thing for you to remember when "teaching" design? What do you often forget?

I’ve only been teaching for a little over two years it all still feels pretty new to me! That said, one thing I do try to remember is that I only am seeing a small part of every student’s life when we’re in the classroom; This class is just one part of their overall education, and their education (or graphic design in general) is just part of what makes them who they are. As such, I try not to take anything too seriously. In the working world, if someone is sick or dealing with personal issues, we (should) give them a day off or an extension—why isn’t that true in education? This extends to effort as well: I’d love for students to care about the work, but my yelling at them or chastising them won’t make them care more. Instead, I just try to share and model why I’m excited about the subject and hope it rubs off on them.

What I find easy to forget sometimes is what it’s like to be a beginner, and how absolutely frustrating it is to have ideas that you aren’t yet able to execute to the level of your imagination. One way I’ve found to remind myself is by critiquing student work as it is, but always giving students the chance to explain their vision, or bring in supporting materials like sketches or found references to show the idea they had in mind—even if they don’t yet have the technical skills to execute it.

What should design schools be teaching more of?  What can't ever be taught?

I am amazed by how little design school teaches about the practical, business-minded side of design. I think it’s really easy to forget that at its core, design is a client-based, service industry. We are professionals working with others to solve problems—a very different structure than the fine arts. I have so many students, especially now in our sort of crazy economy, who want to start freelancing, but have not been given any information about how to make a scope of work, how to invoice, how to save for taxes, etc. I do, of course, deeply understand the value and importance of design school being a place safe from all the trappings of capitalism, and I don’t mean to suggest we should focus on a pedagogical approach that is purely pre-professional, but I do think we could serve students better by being slightly more supportive when it comes to some of the practical needs of being a designer in the world.

One thing I think can’t really be taught is having a unique point of view. We can definitely teach in a way that encourages students to trust and listen to their point of view, but we can’t invent it for them. At the risk of putting down pure aesthetic skill, I do sort of feel as though all of us have equal potential to become technically competent at the craft of graphic design with enough effort and time to learn—but no amount of experience can make up for the perspective and different personal insights that each and every person can bring to a project.

Finish this sentence. To be a graphic designer, you need to remember ___ and forget ___. To be an art director, you need to remember ___ and forget ___.

To be a graphic designer you need to remember what excites you and forget your inner critic.

To be an art director you need to remember your audience and forget what you’ve seen before.

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Sourcing inspiration

What comes first to you: words or visuals? When do you think in words vs visuals?

Words first. I often joke that I’m a designer who thinks like a writer (or, a writer who accidentally became a designer). To be even more specific, I’d say spoken words first; I’ve always been very verbal and do most of my thinking through talking and conversations, rather than an internal text-based monologue. I actually learned recently that there’s a condition called “aphantasia,” which is the inability to form mental images or pictures in your “mind's eye”—and while I’m not quite there, I’m certainly close to it in terms of my poor ability to visualise or imagine things in my head (my mental depiction of an apple is somewhere between a symbolic dingbat or a photo seen in a very dark room.)

So, words absolutely come first for me. Then, I spend a lot of time working to determine what visuals will best convey those words or concepts. That isn’t to say that I don’t have any visual inclination, only that because I can’t really picture things well inside my mind, I often have to generate themes or concepts first to guide my visual ideation. For example, I may decide I want to make something that feels like a blend of Y2K and 1980s aesthetics, and then I’ll work to source references until I’m able to make something that feels like the idea I wasn’t quite able to actually see in my own brain. I think this has given me a unique perspective on design as it means that a lot of my visual exploration happens outside my head, on paper, with a lot of pre-existing references, rather than in my own mind first.

When it comes to banking inspiration/ideas, is more always better?

Definitely not! I’m a strong believer that less is more (kind of). I also think it’s not about how much you look at stuff but when you look at it and how you do so. As designers and artists I believe we should constantly be absorbing as much as possible from the world around us—art, pop culture, literature, design, nature, music—and letting it marinate in our minds to create a general tapestry of all the different ways that ideas can manifest. On the other hand, I think when actually starting a brief, looking at too much of other work can be quite restrictive, and in fact limit us to a certain preconceived solution before we even have the chance to ask questions.

When are you looking vs searching for inspiration?

Similar to how I think you should look at a lot of stuff casually, and only a few things strategically, I think I am always looking for inspiration, or rather, inspiration is always finding me. No matter where I go, there is always at least one interesting sign, architectural motif, beautiful leaf, or unexpectedly well-dressed person! The trick for me is figuring out how to remember or “store” these little moments of excitement that I find so that they’re ready for use when I’m actively searching for inspiration. This can be logistical, like actually taking a picture of the thing on my phone to reference in the future, or more fluffy, like trying to tap into the mood of being inspired when I am really not feeling a project.

Spotting trends: is it an active or passive activity to you?

It’s funny, I don’t know if I really ever sought out to keep track of trends—I think fortunately (or unfortunately) I have the kind of brain that is deeply and inexorably pattern-seeking, which means trends kind of find their way to me! Usually the process of “spotting” starts passively, just because I happen to notice that I have seen the same motif in a few places. But once I see, say, at least six or seven of a certain concept, it becomes a bit more active and I’ll make a folder of examples on my computer or Are.na that I’ll add to as I come across more cases. I usually give the trend a (dumb) name around this time, too.

Even though I have a natural inclination towards it, I do think anyone can be a trend-spotter. It just requires being, or becoming, someone who pays close attention to the world around them and is confident enough to make predictions based on what they see. Whether this is done just through instinct, as in someone who spots similar things easily, or more through practice, I think it’s mostly a matter of being interested in the space and working to make it happen.

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Off the Cuff

What scares you more? A blank on-screen canvas (Photoshop), a blank page in your sketchbook, or a blank Google doc?

A blank google doc! I’ve developed a lot of helpful ways to bootstrap visual brainstorming for design projects over the years but I have yet to come up with the same supportive strategies for writing—writing professionally is something I fell into a bit accidentally, and as a result, my process is still a bit touch and go. I usually start with a bunch of piecemeal bullet points that I eventually group into sections that eventually become paragraphs, but outside of that, starting a new piece always feels a bit terrifying to me.

Mental blocks: what does your mind look like?

My brain works like a hummingbird, or maybe more like a crow; it’s constantly jumping between different tangents and finding little jewels to pick up—but it’s not very good at staying focused on one thing for a very long time.

You're hosting a dinner party and can invite anyone: who would be your top 3 guests? What would the topics of conversation be, if you can't talk about design?

Ah! This is a hard one. I definitely have a lot of interests outside graphic design, but I’m not sure how well some of my different idols would enjoy each other’s company...

I suppose I would want to invite some of my favourite writers. I think Anne Rice, queen of goth, would probably be the most fun at a party. My absolute favourite designer of all time is John Alcorn, so I couldn’t resist asking him to join as well—I don’t think it would be a problem for him to get along with a crowd without any other designers, given that he was such a multi-talented thinker and had a wicked sense of humour. Lastly, (if allowed) I would want to invite my own grandma, who is my namesake, but back when she was my age. She died before I was old enough to really get to know her well, but I’ve seen a lot of photos of her and letters that she wrote when she was in her twenties and thirties and I get the sense that she was an incredibly smart and funny person.

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Find Elizabeth Goodspeed on Instagram, or visit her website. Elizabeth also curates a newsletter of found imagery and ephemera titled The Casual Archivist.

Soleio is often credited with inventing the Facebook "Like" button.

As one of Facebook's earliest designers (he was there from 2005 to 2011), he was also instrumental in composing the earliest incarnations of many features we are today familiar with—Messenger, Groups, Video and more—and shaping how we interact with each other online.

Following his 6-year stint at Facebook, Soleio joined Dropbox as Head of Design, and helped grow the design team from three to over 40.

But even before finding his footing in "software design," Soleio was already adept at creation: music, specifically. Soleio credits his musical background for a very useful life skill: being able to create something from nothing.

These days, Soleio has traded in Javascript for financial models, and Illustrator for Figma—the latter not in the capacity of a designer, but as an investor and advisor. Soleio is an investor in startups globally that are redefining how we live, work, learn and create: Figma, Cambly, Read.cv, Equals, Framer, Vercel and more.

Visualist speaks with Soleio about the soundtrack to his day (humming), design as a muscle, and charting the future.

In Soleio's own words.

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Muscle memory

It's been years since you have been in an official design role. Is design a muscle that needs to constantly be trained? What muscles are you flexing more/less of today as an investor?

All mental activities are like a muscle that needs to be trained, and design is no exception. But like riding a bike or playing poker, one retains a lot of the work previously put in, almost like muscle memory.  

I’m tickled by how easy it still is to drive around in old design tools—whether it’s writing JavaScript, editing a file in Illustrator, or fidgeting with CSS.

These days the muscles I’m flexing more are relationship management, defining then honing processes, writing, and building and managing models in tools like Equals. The work I do as an angel investor requires me to exercise judgment and efficiency, and to do a fair bit of research and synthesis—skills I feel I honed as a maturing software designer.

What's a creative habit, good, bad or otherwise, that you can't seem to kick?

I’m constantly humming music under my breath. Music I’m just making up as I go about my day.

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Inner gifts

What's something that you know or think you're really bad at which, contrary to popular opinion, has not hindered your design career?

I’m not great with colour management.

I find myself to be a very monochromatic designer (and sometimes thinker) which provides a very strict constraint on the work I produce—sometimes to my detriment but just as often to my benefit.

I envy people who are skilled with combining colours into visual palettes and finding the right combinations to produce a particular overall effect: whether it’s for a visual brand or when arranging flowers or when coordinating an outfit. It’s a gift!

What's one thing in daily life that your background as a creative has made you really good at?

Before I became a professional designer, I played and studied music. I even received my undergraduate degree in music composition. My journey as a violinist and saxophonist taught me improvisation: the value of creating things on the fly and riding your intuition.

This still required me to put in my tens of thousands of hours of practicing scales and learning the structure and theory of music. I don’t know how to short cut that, unfortunately.  

But I now find myself just composing music on background whenever I’m in deep thought or in an active flow state. It’s a handy mental hack for getting into a generative mindset without letting apprehension or insecurity get in the way of getting ideas out into the world. Generally speaking: If I ever have to make something from nothing, I feel pretty comfortable with just winging it.

And what's one thing that it has really hindered?

I think this personal bent has steered me away from true mastery in any particular domain. I get more excited about novelty and learning new things than about developing deep proficiency in any one thing. This may not be an active tradeoff for others, but it has been for me.

Luckily, this pattern has served me well in life: I decided to abandon math for music, then later music for design, and then design for investing. And lately I’ve been much more interested in writing and world creation.  

I don’t know if I have a clear idea of what I’ll be doing professionally in a decade or two, and I prefer things that way. Like I said, it’s served me very well.

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Off the cuff

Creativity is innate. Agree or disagree?

Positively agree. I am a student and disciple of the Suzuki school of thought: that humans are universally creative and that their creativity needs proactive cultivation to be expressed.

Complete this sentence. Once a designer, always a designer, unless...

Once a designer, always a designer, unless you’re out of breath.

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Sandcastles and songwriting

You've described designing as being like building sandcastles. What other analogies for design thinking do you reference?

The most useful analogy I’ve used when talking about design, especially with founders who do not have a design background, is that of residential architecture.  

Very roughly speaking, you can think of a complete design process as two sides of the same coin: the work that goes into creating a model of what you want to build (the blueprint) and then the work that goes into producing that model and bringing a product into the world (the house).

If you assemble a crew of builders onto a job site on day one and start putting up framing and laying foundation, you’ll quickly find that you might create a lot of excess work for lack of a blueprint that answers many questions in advance. Sure, you can build a structure without a blueprint, but it’s not a recipe for excellence!

On a similar note, you can get fooled into thinking that a beautiful blueprint is sufficient for building a lovely home. In practice, there are a lot of real-world factors that should get fed back into the plans, and there are often a lot of questions that aren’t answered by the blueprint that need to get answered once it’s time to install the doors and put up the trim.  

For instance: we might change our minds about decisions made in the blueprint phase that have cascading effects on other aspects of the house design. Or a new constraint (budget, existing conditions, access to materials) might rear its head mid-build and force us to reconsider the model we started producing. Or we might find that the acoustics of the house are different than what we anticipated, which might make us want to reconsider the flooring we selected.

Design as a complete process is one that requires different skill sets as you progress from idea to model and then from model to product. And in many cases, you’ll find that some people really excel at the concept stage are not as talented as folks who thrive at the production stage, and vice versa.  

As such, a healthy design practice strives to excel at all these areas and clearly communicates to all participants where in the process the team currently is—both for the sake of avoiding costly mistakes but also for the sake of efficiency. You don’t need a crew of framers to revise an elevation.

I’ve observed that a lot of creative fields reflect this loose framework of concept work and production work: screenwriting then storyboarding then animation, in the case of Pixar films, for example.

A second analogy I regularly use is that of product making as an act of songwriting.  

When you’re building something that is profoundly new, it is difficult to merely reason your way into something truly innovative or rely on customer feedback alone to guide your hand. At some point, you need a combination of intuition, and originality, and courage to produce a hit tune.  

Being a great musician doesn’t make you a great songwriter by default.

In all, analogies are a useful way to explain new concepts or frameworks to others. But analogies are a double-edged sword. A bad analogy firmly held is more likely to cause you harm than bad advice! So it’s healthy to treat analogies as helpful abstractions rather than fundamental truths.

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Children and (hypothetical) teenagers

You've got a young family. What's 1 area of design that your kids are much better at compared to you?

My firstborn is exceptional at drawing, a bonafide cartoonist. He’s terrific at capturing the essence of characters and people. By contrast, I am not very good at drawing things and haven’t put in the time and effort he has, even at my age.

I’ve come to appreciate how useful a skill it is to be able to quickly sketch something from your mind for others to consume. Being able to draw a portrait of someone or of a scene strikes me as a fundamental visual skill worth cultivating as a designer.

It's the year 2072. How would you describe what you did as a 'designer' at Facebook/Dropbox to an intelligent teenager in the year 2072?

I’ve always treated Mitch Kapor’s seminal definition—back when he first coined the term “software designer”—as the gold standard for explaining the work we do:

Software design is not the same as user interface design.

The overall design of a program is to be clearly distinguished from the design of its user interface. If a user interface is designed after the fact, that is like designing an automobile's dashboard after the engine, chassis, and all other components and functions are specified. The separation of the user interface from the overall design process fundamentally disenfranchises designers at the expense of programmers and relegates them to the status of second-class citizens.

The software designer is concerned primarily with the overall conception of the product. Dan Bricklin’s invention of the electronic spreadsheet is one of the crowning achievements of software design. It is the metaphor of the spreadsheet itself, its tableau of rows and columns with their precisely interrelated labels, numbers, and formulas—rather than the user interface of VisiCalc—for which he will be remembered. The look and feel of a product is but one part of its design.

So here’s how I would describe what I did to teenagers from the future:

“Soleio helped design the systems people used to communicate and collaborate across the globe in the first part of the 21st century. He designed software for computers, smartphones, and tablets, distributed to billions worldwide via the internet.”

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A star map

'Designer x Investor' is at the top of your read.cv. In your mind's eye, how is this represented graphically?

This terrific quote from the architect Daniel Burnham is what comes to mind when I think about the work I want to support as a designer and investor: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realised. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.”

So, how to represent it graphically? I imagine something akin to a diagram depicting the evolutionary tree of human technology and what is still to come.

Or the detailed schematics for the great pyramids of Giza but juxtaposed by a basic ledger of principal materials and labor costs. Or maybe it’s a simple as an American flag on the side of a future spacecraft orbiting a Galilean moon.

In any case, my aim is to help entrepreneurs chart the future. Maybe a star map would suffice.

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Find Soleio on X and Instagram, or view his Read.cv.elizabeth g

Creative director, founder, educator, artist—Arianna Orland holds many titles to her name. Across all of her work, Arianna cultivates her joy for the craft of design.

Arianna is currently Director of Product Creative for Cross Meta Design Systems. In addition to her work at Meta, Arianna is the co-founder of In/Visible Ventures—a design-led venture, investing in visionaries shaping the world. Also under the In/Visible umbrella, Arianna co-founded In/Visible Talks, a conference for creative professionals that celebrates the art of design.

Arianna's commitment to driving the design industry forward is further evident in her role as Board President at Creativity Explored, a San Francisco nonprofit nurturing the creative potential of people with developmental disabilities.

Visualist speaks with Arianna about continuous learning, the need to retreat offline, and the definition of good design.

In Arianna's own words.

No shortcuts

Complete the sentence: Design is not magic, unless ...

Design is never magic. It is a blend of hard work, expertise, craft, and strategy. Magic implies a certain effortlessness that I feel undermines the energy great practitioners invest in outcomes. Good design can feel like magic when it helps people experience the world in new and transcendent ways.

Is your "creative process" a habit or a ritual?

Neither, I don't have a one size fits all process. I think all processes should be right-sized to the team and the assignment. I view my own creative process as more of a set of conditions that I need to be successful perhaps closer to habit than ritual.

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Learning and re-learning

Which scares you more: a: a blank digital screen or a blank physical notepad?

Neither, I'm no longer afraid of beginnings. In fact, I love them. I wrote a little about my love here.

What's one thing that you were better at during the start of your career versus now?

Gosh, I can't think of anything. I had so much to learn then and still do now.

Having a sense of humility has certainly served me well over the years. I’ve always felt extremely fortunate to have a career centred on creativity.

What's one thing that you have to re-learn regularly?

That I am enough.

My imposter syndrome doesn't ever seem to go away. I've just gotten better at recognising it and understanding how to deal with it.

I also have to relearn that I need to feel inspired to better inspire others.

To grow into a better designer, do you have to develop into a better critique of design or a better acceptance of design critique?

Both. It's extremely important to develop a studied eye and the ability to think critically about not only the work of others but your own as well.

As a young designer, you will likely be in the receiving position. An important skill here is the ability to discern the difference between feedback and direction. You will need to develop muscle to be able to synthesise diverse input, defend the work when needed, and interpret the best of what you hear to fold back into the work itself.

If you find yourself in the giving position, it's really important to deliver your input in a constructive way. Ask folks what kind of feedback would be most helpful so you can meet them where they are. Focus on the goals of the work and any gaps you see in what's being presented.

How have you learnt to trust your own creative process?

This came with experience. I can't quite say when it happened but I can say the more you trust yourself, your gifts, and your own experience, the more you will be able to find your path.

Offline therapy

You work across different mediums: the mouse & keyboard, the letterpress, the pen. Which feels the most like 'self-care' for your creative mind?

Analog mediums feel more like self-care to me. I spend so much time in front of a computer that I find making physical things very restorative. In fact, this weekend I made a whole bunch of fresh tomato sauce from tomatoes I grew and feel like a million bucks.

When your creative reserve runs low, is that usually because you're topping it up too slowly, or because the reserve is draining too quickly?

Topping it up too slowly.

I can over-index on the work in front of me to the exclusion of everything else. I often have to re-learn that going to a museum, scouring magazines, and reading about anything that sparks my curiosity are all forms of self-care.

What's your #1 tried-and-tested refuelling tip? What's something you've tried that didn't work?

My number one tip is to look up. Look at the sky, look at the clouds, stare at the ocean if you can. Feel the grass under your bare feet. Close your eyes and feel every inch of the breeze on your skin. Hug a tree. Get some sleep. Meditate. Stare into the middle distance. What a gift it is to be in this world.

Things that don't work for me are watching any kind of online video content. Not because it isn't great, there's a ton of fantastic stuff out there. I just need to be away from glowing rectangles and out in the world.

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Off the Cuff

What does your 'creative flow' look like?

It feels vibrant, connected, alive and joyful.

Does good design have to be iconic? Is iconic design always good design?

No. Good design doesn't always have to be iconic.

Good design makes people's lives better. Good design helps people navigate and understand the world in new ways. Good design creates access. Good design considers how it will be experienced and strives to make that enjoyable.

I think of iconic as memorable or it can even be a little self-centred. To me, good design comes from a more humble place, a place of service.

If you had to break it down, your creative process is _% heart and _% mind. Why?

The creative process for me is more of an alchemy, than a formula.

With every project, every team, and every challenge there's always learning and growth.

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Find Arianna on Instagram and LinkedIn.

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Viviano Villarreal Bueron is an architectural designer and founder of MASS OPERATIONS. An award-winning international architecture + interior design studio.

Raised in Monterrey Mexico, Viviano graduated from the University Tec de Monterrey in 2008, where he studied architecture underneath AgustÍn Landa Vértiz. Viviano spent his early career travelling the world and working under infamous industry names before establishing his own studio in 2015, MASS OPERATIONS.

MASS OPERATIONS is based in Mexico with offices in Monterrey and Mexico city. Viviano's studio quickly completed a string of award-winning interior designs and by 2020 their portfolio included large scale architectural projects in Mexico such as: the “Stair House” in Monterrey, the “Barcode Tulum” and the “Farmacias del Ahorro headquarter office” buildings.

10 years after graduating, the founding of his own company, and an extensive career lecturing across Asia the US and Latin America, Viviano returned to school. He gained a masters in “Design, Theory and Pedagogy” from the avant-garde Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles and his thesis was awarded the Best Post-Graduate Thesis Prize of 2019.

In 2023, Viviano became a tenured professor at the University of Monterrey to challenge, collaborate, and exchange ideas with the next generation of architects.

We spoke to Viviano about his commitment to education, his philosophy as a designer, and how he built an international design studio on a foundation of LEGO building blocks.

When did you become interested in architecture?

As a child I was fascinated by LEGO blocks, sofa cushion forts, and drawings. These things filled my childhood. Early on I declared I wanted to 'build houses', not yet knowing that an individual who did so was called an architect. I threw a massive tantrum once, upon discovering one of my beloved LEGO brick designs had been destroyed in the process of being put away. The 6-year-old rage ended with a blown gum blood vessel! “I knew since then that you'd be an architect”, my mother later confessed. Since I can remember, my mother, in her endless wisdom, has taken every opportunity to show me art and walk me through museums.

I enrolled at my local university and found mentors through whom I would develop an insatiable thirst for new challenges that opened up the world, from Latin America, to Europe, Asia and back. As a young architect I traveled and worked overseas in contrasting cultural situations such as Santiago de Chile with Felipe Assadi, Amsterdam with Bjarne Mastenbroek of Search Architects, and Hong Kong with David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas of the OMA Rotterdam office.

How did MASS OPERATIONS come to be?

I set up Mass Operations in 2015, after 5 incredible years working across Asia with OMA. I saw the opportunity and felt I had the necessary knowledge, skills, and confidence to embark on my own projects. It was a big challenge, the biggest one yet. Starting a studio in 2 continents, with 1 person and 0 clients was not an easy task.

I decided to travel through the US by motorcycle to think about it. I interviewed  anybody who gave me a chance. Was I doing the right thing? 2 months and 12,000 miles later my mind was made up. Looking back now 8 years later, its still feels as exciting and challenging  as that first year.

Can you explain your approach to design at MASS OPERATIONS?

How is an idea formed?

In my experience, there are only rare instances of inspiration where ideas come to you fully formed. Design ideas come in hazy, blurry incomplete visions, much akin to trying to recall a dream. It takes a lot of work to fully grasp one’s own idea. MASS OPERATIONS states our working method in order to develop and understand our visions and subsequently communicate them as a fully formed and clear concept to our clients.

As designers we have materials and tools at our disposal. With each project, we set out to generate a series of steps or operations, that when applied to matter and mass generate space. Mass + Operations = Space.

Where do you find inspiration?

Those rare moments of inspiration often reach me during times of distraction, nestled in between periods of intense work. I often find myself preoccupied with a design problem for weeks: how to solve a corner, how to manage a building scheme with a given set of municipal rules, etc. Suddenly, the solution will come during a run, or in the shower. Oddly, it’s those moments of distraction, the repetition of one foot in front of the other on a run, or the washing of shampoo out of one’s hair, when the fully formed ideas come. Inspiration strikes fast, but it only comes within long periods of incessantly toiling over the issues at hand.

I am also obsessed by other people’s passions. I admire the work of any architect who sets out to improve our profession and our built environment through their work. I admire the ability of people to pour themselves into their work. Nothing is half done. Jacques Francois Blondel, Buckminster Fuller, Louis I Kahn, Gordon Matta Clark, Louise Nevelson and Frank Zappa are some of my heroes.

You also head an educational platform, Catedra Mass. Why is providing education important to you?

I believe [my desire to teach] comes from emulating the example of my mentors. They all taught and had their own practices. It seems that teaching takes on different meanings in the chapters of an architect’s life.

Teaching is in no doubt a way of giving back to the community, but if done right it pays so much back in dividends. Teaching is a symbiotic relationship. Getting to see students develop and live a happy and successful life with their work is an immense privilege. The transferring of knowledge to younger generations and the debating of ideas is something that really excites me. I believe this is the core of Academia.

With the Catedra MASS I get the freedom to teach what and how I want. It transcends the traditional classroom environment to include study trips, project site visits, interviews, podcast monologues, public lectures, all of that feeds and informs the minds of young designers in a positive way.

What is next for MASS OPERATIONS?

We will soon be opening a small interior design shop, our first in Mexico City. It’s a small shop with a big idea. It follows our credo of doing more with less. We're really excited with that space.

We are also working on a series of houses. One presents a very complicated site with a 70% slope inclination. Two other houses are exploring the notion of the stone carved cave. One of which recently broke ground this summer and we are looking forward to seeing its construction progress on site.

And finally, a large apartment complex in Cancún which has recently topped out its 7th storey level and has a scheduled completion date by spring of next year (2024).

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Browse an archive of Viviano's work at www.massoperations.com, and keep up to date with future developments by following MASS OPERATIONS on Instagram.

Mentorship can be a rewarding experience for both the mentee and the mentor. But how do you figure out if mentorship is for you? Is it a commitment really worth doing?

Many interior designers become mentors for a variety of reasons such as giving back to the industry, reinvigorating their creativity, and pursuing a new purpose in life. Mentorship is a great way to use your experience as a navigation to guide new designers towards success.

But just like any other journey, passion alone won't make you a good mentor. Mentorship requires patience, effort and time in order to build a strong relationship with your mentee. There is mutual benefit from mentorship as you will not only develop your skillset but can help elevate someone else's design profile.

Let's explore what it means to become a mentor for interior designers...

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What do interior design mentors do?

Becoming an interior design mentor is all about inducing growth. Your primary goal is to get to know your mentee, recognise their skillset and improvement areas, and introduce them to the vast range of career opportunities available. Additionally, you're responsible for conducting professional training and creating a development plan for steady progress.

However, the role of an interior design mentor extends beyond guidance. You should aim to become a role model for your mentee by being respectful, taking accountability and staying transparent. By embodying the qualities you wish to cultivate, you motivate them to reach their full potential.

Moreover, mentoring interior designers involves nurturing them to become strong leaders in the industry. Beyond honing their technical expertise, it entails developing their soft skills. With good leadership, effective communication skills and undeniable talent, they're invincible.

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Benefits of becoming a mentor

Mentorships benefit the mentor just as much as the mentees. It fuels your passion for your craft and at the same time, gives your career a whole new purpose.

Here are three reasons why you should become an interior design mentor:

Pass on your expertise

With years of experience in the industry, you have a wealth of knowledge waiting to be shared. Not just in design, but in other areas such as emotional intelligence, networking and building a reputation.

Becoming an interior design mentor lets you pass this stored knowledge to new designers. This keeps your values and experience alive even after decades—even after you've forgotten them yourself.

Build relationships with designers in the new generation

Mentorship also expands your pool of opportunities. As someone who's been by their side during their highs and lows, you get the front seat by the time they reach their goals. A proud mentor moment.

But apart from the satisfaction of seeing mentees succeed, these relationships also birth opportunities for future collaboration. After a few years, your previous mentees could become a high-priority client or a one-call-away fellow interior design expert.

Give back to the industry

Last but not least, being a mentor lets you give back to those who guided you when you were starting out. By nurturing designers who care as much about society as they do about their careers, you contribute to creating a more peaceful and welcoming industry in the future.

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3 types of interior design mentoring

When starting your journey as an interior design mentor, one thing to consider is the type of mentorship you're offering. This will determine the preparations you need to make along the way.

Three types of interior design mentoring:

One-to-one mentorship

One-to-one mentoring is when you and your mentee set a regular weekly or monthly meeting schedule. This type of mentorship is best if you prefer to focus on one mentee at a time.

During every interaction, you identify your mentee's struggle points and recommend actionable ways for them to work around these issues. You'll also brainstorm tailored solutions, track their progress, and provide feedback consistently.

Group mentorship

As opposed to the previous type, group mentorship is when you meet several mentees in one class. The discussions are more generalised and mentees are free to share their works, ask questions, and receive feedback.

Group mentorship is great if you'd like to work with several mentees at once. Or, if you have an existing network of designers who are interested in joining your classes.

Online mentorship

Lastly, you can do remote or online mentorship. Online mentorship often happens through video conferences or emails and is best if you have a tighter schedule or prefer to stay at home.

The agenda is more or less the same as traditional mentoring. Except, it gives you plenty of time to prepare, lets you record your meetings (with consent!), and allows you to work around your mentee's and your schedule easier.

Where to sign up as an interior design mentor

Mentorship schemes you can sign up to now as a mentor.

Built by Us

Best for: BAME advocates

If you're passionate about helping underrepresented groups grow their interior design career, become a volunteer mentor at Built By Us. Built by Us works towards creating a future consisting of a diverse workforce. An industry where everyone is treated equally regardless of race, gender, and belief.

As a mentor, you are asked to devote a fragment of your time to any of the following mentorship programmes:

• FLUID - 12-month one-on-one mentoring
• Shape - 6-month one-on-one mentoring
• Build programme - speed mentoring

Be a volunteer mentor at Built by Us today.

Creative Mentor Network

Best for: Knowledge-hungry designers

The Creative Mentor Network is a great platform for those who are a bit anxious about mentoring. It's normal—everyone starts as a beginner.

To officially become a mentor, you first need to complete eight hours of training to equip yourself with the skills and resources for a better mentorship experience for your mentees. Every week, you will require to commit at least one hour for mentorship.

Mentor training comes with a small fee. However, the knowledge incurred and the satisfaction of seeing your mentees grow make it all worth it.

Start your mentor training with Creative Mentor Network.

Shadow to Shine

Best for: Empathy-driven designers

Shadow to Shine is a passion project that gives everyone a chance to succeed. Whether they're students, professionals, ex-convicts, and so on!

As a volunteer mentor at Shadow to Shine, you are required to complete at least ten mentoring sessions within twelve months. Alternatively, you can request one-off mentoring sessions instead. You'll most likely meet mentees from all stages of life, hence you need to foster a non-judgmental learning experience at all times.

Sign up to become a Shadow to Shine mentor.

The Society of British & International Interior Design (SBID)

Best for: Networking guru

If you're thrilled about meeting the most talented interior design students in Europe, then you should join the SBID Student Mentoring Programme!

This is a six-month-long one-on-one mentorship where you'll be responsible for nurturing one of the promising talents of SBID. Within six months, you'll discuss your mentee's goals and help them obtain the resources they need. This includes experience, network, and exposure to different career paths.

The potential for mentees to become part of your interior design firm may be the cherry on top!

Learn how to become an SBID mentor today.

International Interior Design Association (IIDA)

Best for: Raw talent magnet

IIDA has given over 500 mentorship opportunities to students since 2011. So if you're looking for talented new designers to collaborate with in the future, this is your chance.

IIDA mentors can work with one mentee at a time or request several mentees at once. The pairing is determined on a first come first serve basis and you'll be doing a series of in-person, virtual, and hybrid sessions depending on you and your mentee's availability.

Best part? You don't need to be an IIDA member to join. Enquire now.

Starting a career as an interior designer requires you to showcase your skills and experience within the interior design industry. Studying interior or architecture is a traditional way of doing so. But it is not the only way.

Whilst you'll be competing against candidates with bachelor's degrees in interior design or more, there are other steps you can take to showcase your relevant skills and, most importantly, passion for the interior design industry. With the right skills and knowledge, you can land a role as a junior interior designer in an established firm or even begin building your own interior design business, with no degree required.

Follow these steps to learn more about starting a career in interior design and how to become an interior designer without a degree.

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How to become an interior designer without a degree

1. Equip yourself with the necessary skills

Interior design is a highly skilled profession that requires a broad skillset of organisation, communication, and creativity. Interior design projects have a lot of moving parts so being diligent and organised is essential to keep the project on track. You'll also be responsible for liaising with both clients and suppliers, so communication and people management skills are invaluable.

Creativity and an eye for design is innate, but it can be trained. Visit trade shows, read interior design trade publications, and practice your craft in your own home—the more you expose yourself to the industry and put your skills to the test, the better you will become.

As well as developing the soft skills required as an interior designer, you'll need to level up your knowledge of interior design tools and software. Many interior designers use software and 3D technology to illustrate their designs and it is useful to have basic drawing skills to hand-draw initial concepts. Gaining basic proficiency in these skills will give you a head start, try signing up to courses both online and in-person.

2. Find interior design work experience

The best way to hone your interior design skills is to practice. There is an abundance of entry-level interior design positions on offer, but as you lack experience and formal training, an apprenticeship/work experience could be a better first step.

You can connect with large interior design firms, or approach independent interior designers. It might be easier to find placements with bigger, more stablished interior design studios but independent designers may welcome an extra pair of hands and you'll likely gain more practical experience.

Soak up any opportunity you can to gain knowledge and experience in the interior design industry (or adjacent fields). Use work experience as a foundation to slowly hone your skills and decide that interior design is the right industry for you.

3. Find an interior design mentor

Being a newbie in the interior design industry can be daunting, but an interior design mentor can ease the nerves and provide you with an excellent head start in your career as an interior designer. Mentors are industry experts with years of experience, ready and willing to share all that they have learnt.

Mentors can offer practical advice on how to reach out to potential clients, tricks to negotiate with suppliers, and can offer you feedback on your design work. But a mentor offers much more that training. Having a mentor is also a great way to build your professional network—meeting suppliers and potential clients. It can also lead to various work collaborations, exposing you to different styles and themes.

4. Build your interior design portfolio

Your portfolio is your opportunity to showcase all your skills to potential employees and/or prospective clients. design skills. Visual proof of your work is far more valuable than a written CV in the world of interior design.

Your portfolio should showcase your unique design style and the best bits of your work so far. If you do not have any completed projects to show off, you can include illustrations and concepts in your portfolio. To build your portfolio,  why not provide free or discounted interior design work for your family and friends. Or, if possible, get creative in your own home. Your designs don't have to be extravagant and polished but should serve as evidence of your commitment and vision.

5. Start networking

The first step to becoming a real interior designer, is to tell the world (and yourself) that you are one. Start with your family and friends, invite them to a get-together and introduce them to your new creative venture. From there, set up your website and social media accounts and start promoting your work to the public.

Don't be afraid to reach out to professionals in the interior design space via Instagram, LinkedIn or email. Be polite, and always include a clear ask: do you want specific advice? Are you asking a question about their work? Are you looking for an internship opportunity? Be specific and confident—don't ask, don't get!

It is also a good idea to attend industry trade shows. Here, you will meet lots of industry professionals and be exposed to all the latest trends in the world of interior design.

Best of luck!

Whether you're new to the world of interior design, or are looking to take your career to the next level, an interior design mentor can help make your dreams a reality. Interior design mentors are established industry experts, who are willing to share their expertise to help early-career interior designers to navigate the complexities of the interior design industry.

It is important that interior design mentees and mentors are a good match. You will want to work with a mentor who is passionate, experienced in your areas of interest, and who you connect with on a personal level.

To help you in your quest for the perfect interior design mentor, we have created this guide to finding a mentor that suits your needs and compiled list of digital platforms pairing aspiring interior designer with skilled industry professionals.

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What is an interior design mentor?

Interior design mentors are experienced interior designers who help budding designer start their career or take the next step in their interior design journey.

The responsibilities of an interior design mentor vary depending on your needs. They can help you find a job, start your interior design firm, connect with other professionals, or solve re-occurring issues in your business.  In addition, interior design mentors can also serve as your sounding board and advisor to discuss your ideas, problems, and frustrations.

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Benefits of an interior design mentorship

Having a mentor will help you become the best interior designer you can be. An interior design mentor is not there to tell you what to do and dictate your business, but rather to support you in your own journey and steer you and your business in the right direction. Here are out top three reasons to partner with an interior design mentor:

Develop your skills

A mentor can help fill the gaps in your existing design knowledge and develop your soft skills, such as communication, leadership, and time management. Your mentor will provide you with honest feedback to ensure you are always developing.

Stay on track

An interior design mentor can help you stay motivated in achieving your goals. They're a source of guidance and support during times of difficulty, especially when you're experiencing creative block or other challenges.

Expand your network

A mentor can connect you to other professionals in the interior design industry, help you build relationships, and explore new opportunities. They can also recommend networking events that you can attend to further expand your network.

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What to consider when choosing an interior design mentor

There are an abundance of qualified interior design mentors, but not all of them will be a perfect fit for you. Choosing a mentor is an important decision, here are four things to consider:

Specialisation and expertise

If you're looking to specialise in a certain area of interior design, it makes sense for your interior design mentor to also have experience in this niche. A mentor can provide you with invaluable information that can only be gained through experience. They'll also know what type of risks you may face and will help mitigate those circumstances before any real damage is caused.

Reputation

A good mentor will have a proven track record with positive feedback from previous mentees. This will help you determine whether you should invest your time in them or not. Ask yourself the following questions while running a quick background check:

• Have they mentored a now-established interior designer?
• Have they maintained a positive relationship with previous mentees?
• Do they have a positive reputation in the interior design industry?

Availability

If both expertise and reputation get the green flag, then it's time to check their availability. You and your mentor need to work to the same schedule, otherwise it will affect the frequency of your interactions.

Set an ideal schedule that works for both of you - could be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. This way, you can maintain consistency and make the most out of the mentorship.

Compatibility

To foster a healthy mentor-mentee relationship, you need to make sure that you enjoy the interactions with your mentor. You shouldn't feel intimidated, scared, and above all, discouraged. Rather, it should be a positive learning experience where you can confidently share your interior design work, ask questions, and remain motivated.

Top interior design mentorship platforms

Interior design mentors can be found anywhere. It is always good idea to reach out to interior designers you admire directly and ask them if this is a service they have considered providing. However, there are also specific platforms and programmes set up to make it easier to find your dream interior design mentor.

Built by Us

Built by Us is on a mission to increase the diverse hiring rate of the interior design industry. They support underrepresented groups in building their early-stage design careers. Built by Us have mentorships available for different career levels:

• BUILD. A mentorship programme for budding interior designers who want to look for a new job, start an apprenticeship, or gain field experience.
• FLUID. A flexible mentorship programme for existing designers looking to scale their business and enhance skills.

Explore mentorships with Built by Us.

Creative Mentor Network

The goal of the Creative Mentor Network is to create a more accessible future for creatives from lower socio-economic backgrounds. They support struggling new designers with one-to-one interior design mentoring with trained field experts who know exactly what you need.

Explore mentorships with the Creative Mentor Network.

SBID Mentoring

If you're a student member of the Society of British & International Interior Design (SBID), you can't miss the SBID Mentorship program. SBID Mentoring is a treasure trove of opportunities for interior design students who want to get ahead of their peers. Here, you can join design training, earn university recognitions, and explore student competitions to help construct a solid reputation.

Explore mentorships with SBID.

IIDA Student Mentoring Program

The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) also offers an exclusive and dynamic mentorship program for IIDA students. In this program, you 'shadow' a professional for one day and experience what it's like to officially become an interior designer. You're given all the tools you need to get started. Plus, you get to connect with established firms and professionals as well as receive feedback from your mentor.

Explore mentorships with IIDA Student Mentorship Programme.

Private Interior Design Mentors

There are a huge number of established interior designers who offer private mentoring for early-career interior designers.  Unlike the prior programmes, private mentors offer more tailored solutions and spend more time and effort working towards your goals.

Renowned interior designers who offer private mentorship:

• Melissa Lunardon. Learn how to transition from full-time employee to self-employed.
• Jo Chrobak. Discover how to start your own interior design business unconventionally.
• Veronica Solomon. Navigate the everyday challenges of being an interior designer effectively.

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The takeaway

An interior design mentorship is a great way to enhance your skillset, learn the ropes of the interior design business and build your professional network.

When looking for an interior design mentor, be sure to consider how you align both professional and personally. An interior design mentorship can be a mutually beneficial partnership for mentee and mentor when the pairing is right.

During the sakura season in Japan, it is not uncommon to find a group of strangers congregating around a singular tree, their eyes fixed upwards on the pink blossoming branches. They may stand like this, statuesque save for the occasional snap of a camera, for 20 minutes at a time. When Winnie Tam first witnessed this scene, she was in awe. Winnie had never before witnessed such a collective appreciation for the natural world, a public acknowledgement that it is the small moments in life that bring the most joy.

Winnie is an architectural designer. Or rather, Winnie's creativity currently manifests in the design of physical spaces (she struggles to confine herself to any one title). "I studied a long time to earn the title of architect, but I don't feel that architecture encompasses all that I do." Winnie is also the founder and director of Fourteen a.m., a design studio specialised in creating sanctuaries for city dwellers—restorative spaces where one can find shelter from our relentlessly fast-paced and over-consumptive society.

As a character, Winnie is gentle but assured—a manner that is hard to describe but immediately evident in her designs: a note of amber timber, a perfectly blemished wall—subtle but intentional. Winnie's designs are understated, but the thinking behind them is deep and complex. I invited Winnie to share a pot of peppermint tea and escort me through her intricate way of thinking in the hopes of identifying the essence of her signature style.

Origins of Fourteen a.m.

Winnie's greatest tool is nature. Nature gives Winnie space. Many famous creatives have ruminated on boredom's role in creativity, the principle being that boredom allows you to empty your mind of distraction, in order to make room for new ideas. Winnie explains that nature is her escape from distraction, "Normally we're too stressed and distracted but in nature, we are able to zone out and hear our own minds." In nature, Winnie also finds ready-made inspiration. "When I take the time to look at a tiny little leaf or lichen or rock formation, I am in awe of the beauty, shape, texture, and function. I always want my designs to remind us of some form of nature."

Ironically, Winnie has always lived in some of the world's largest metropolises. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Winnie moved to London to study and has also spent time living in Tokyo. She half-jokes, "If I were to move to the country, I'm not sure I'd know how to live there." The places Winnie has called home have influenced her perspective on both the world and on her craft. "My design style is a juxtaposition of city living. Growing up in a city breeds a 'head down' mentality. You feel stressed all the time and you walk by so many beautiful moments because you don't know how to appreciate things." It was moving to Japan that allowed Winnie a fresh perspective. "Japanese culture definitely influenced the way that I am now. Too often we look at things, but we fail to really see them. In Japan, every single season is appreciated. Every single day, there is something to celebrate—even the smallest things." Tokyo's residents are swallowed by city life but still manage to slow down and cherish the world around them. Japan also fostered Winnie's appreciation for intentional, traditional craftsmanship. She explains, "In Japan, every detail has meaning and there is a very particular reason why things are done in a certain way. I credit that to care, when you care for something it becomes meaningful. Somehow, when you pay more attention, you gain a lot more enjoyment."

Winnie continued this more mindful way of walking through life upon her return to London. If anything, for all her time spent in the city she has learnt to appreciate nature more, "For me, it is the wonder of finding amazing things that are so often overlooked. When I take the time to appreciate nature, I find life a lot more beautiful. A piece of beautiful foliage growing out of a drain can create a moment of pause and appreciation.  It would be nice to constantly be in that state of wonder, but sometimes it means more when you really need it. Everyone experiences those moments: when life is stressful, and you're facing a problem, and you feel like it's the end of the world—and then you look at nature. It reminds you that everything is okay, it's just a matter of perspective."

Despite her internal connection to the natural world, Winnie's early experience as an architect was defined by high rises and corporate contracts, working on projects such as Paddington Square University campuses on Euston Road. Playing a role in such large-scale projects was a mark of success for an early-career architect but for Winnie, there was a missing piece of the puzzle. "Whilst I enjoyed my work, it didn't satisfy me. I had excellent opportunities but I didn't feel like I was making an impact or that I couldn't bring my own message." Whilst grappling with her own personal sense of fulfilment, Winnie realised that her work in construction coupled with city living was the catalyst of all the stress in her life. The two paths of realisation culminated in the founding of her own practice, Fourteen a.m. Why Fourteen a.m.? Because it is a time that does not exist. "It's an impossible moment, like living in a city and finding isolation or undergoing a construction project and not being stressed. These things feel impossible, but I want to make them possible." Fourteen a.m. is as much a journey of self-discovery as it is a business venture. In the beginning, even Winnie didn't know what direction it would take. "I didn't actually know what it, or I, was all about in the beginning but over time I have learned so much about myself. Designing is a way to influence others whilst also understanding myself."

A space to call home

In 2020, Winnie began a full renovation of her own home.  The project was originally intended as a proof of concept of sorts for Fourteen a.m. but due to Covid-related delays in construction, Fourteen a.m. came to be before its completion. "Before you launch a business, you convince yourself you have to have a certain amount in place but it's not the case. As with construction, we tend to go about building a business in a very rigid way but that is where the stress comes from." Instead, Winnie opted for a more organic approach, assessing the situation rationally but avoiding imposing set boundaries.

Regardless of the timeline, designing her own home taught Winnie invaluable lessons for her new venture. Playing the role of both the designer and the client, Winnie came to better understand the client perspective. "In that job, I was the client, the designer, and the project manager. Access to all those mentalities incentivised me to make the process less stressful. I understood the ins and outs of how the design was progressing, I had complete control over its development and yet I still felt stressed. You can only imagine how stressed an uninformed client must be. Now, I keep my client as involved as possible throughout the process."

Winnie's definition of involvement spans beyond allowing clients to share preferences for furniture and colour palettes. In fact, the renovation of the home itself is just the beginning. Winnie explains that home and lifestyle are intrinsically linked, "I want Fourteen a.m. clients to embark on a personal journey. There is no sense in building a beautiful, serene home to live in without a mindset to match." Winnie is currently working with a mindfulness expert to implement a programme for personal development alongside the development of the physical space. "An architectural project will take a minimum of one year. I'm given that one-year window to gift my clients educational material and expose them to a more mindful way of living. We're developing a really woven process. Ultimately, the zen space my clients end up with should really be a reflection of the state of mind they have cultivated throughout the process." Winnie herself is not a professional in mindfulness, hence her partnership with experts in the field, but she has experienced its impact first-hand. She recalls, "I have been a very stressed person. I find the city and work hard to cope with but mindfulness really helped me. In my experience, mindfulness takes time but it is worth the investment. I've become a different person and I enjoy my life so much more, I want other people to have a chance to experience the benefits as well."

Winnie's own home exemplifies the concept of mindset manifesting in space and vice versa. Her house is a transformed Edwardian maisonette, equal parts dainty and daring, intimate and unabashed. Everything that fills the space serves a purpose. Winnie clarifies, "Each home has a certain mindset and I believe that everything in that space should share the same belief." The decor is symbolic of moments that matter to Winnie and her partner, the indents in the walls house her art and foraged treasures, and the story of the building's past is remembered with carefully marked silhouettes. For Winnie, sustainability was also a priority. "Everything is all-natural, and that was important to me. Raw timber provides structure, clay is used to plaster the walls, and handmade terracotta tiles line the bathroom—no plastic. It is manmade, but it is all reminiscent of nature. There are lots of imperfections because in nature nothing is symmetrical or identical and that imperfection is what makes it perfect."

Winnie's understanding of beauty in imperfections is infectious. After our talk, I find myself smiling at cracks in the pavement, a tree grown crabwise, and shoes withered by age. "If you don't put pressure on things being pristine, you can still appreciate their beauty after a little wear and tear. Nothing is too precious. If you're designing a home intended to grow and change with you, then imperfection has to be a part of it."

The method

In dissecting and designing her own lifestyle, Winnie learned the value of connection with her clients. To begin a project, Winnie must first understand her client's lifestyle—from morning to night, what do they do? Winnie refers to this step of the process as the Winnowing—a meticulous method of separating chaff from grain but in this case, a one-hour-long, face-to-face meeting used to sift through a client's lifestyle to find useful materials. Winnie realised that each step of her design process could be likened to a method of working the land and felt that referring to her process in this way felt less cold and unbending. "I never say: 'This is what we decided at the beginning and that's how we have to move forward.' It's much more forward-thinking and flexible. I allow the design a life of its own rather than forcing a manmade outcome. It's about a home being grown in an organic process." After the Winnowing, a design enters the Nursery—a delicate process of tending to the initial idea and allowing it to grow. Once the idea is fully formed it undergoes Pruning—a refined approach to tweaking and tailoring. "Pruning allows me to see design in a different way, a design is something organic that you shape with love and care." After that, the build commences and once complete, Winnie provides the necessary AfterCare.

Winnie acknowledges that her method is not suitable for everyone. "If you're not into this way of thinking, you might think that I'm crazy." Those who do seek out Winnie's services have a natural appreciation for beauty and a willingness to embrace the process. In other words, "They're ready for the journey." Winnie can play the chameleon, stepping into her client's shoes in order to see the space through their lens and design accordingly but if a client's mindset is too foreign from her own, Winnie would rather refer them to a designer who can provide a more suitable service. "As designers, we design lifestyles. And so it is important that our visions for that align. You live in a home and without the action of living there, without your journey of being there, the home is redundant."

Truly mindful design, must be conscious of the experience delivered not solely the finished product. Winnie conducts herself as a designer with this in mind. Designers approach a project brimming with ideas and preferences and naturally, Winnie is not immune to this. "Of course, I am inclined to have preferences but I want my relationship with my client to be a very mindful one, where I understand who they are and put that ahead of my own tastes. Especially when it comes to residential design, the design is as much the client's as it is mine." Ultimately Winnie strives for a design that truly embodies her client, and that means being unselfish. "You can't be possessive about a design being 'yours'. Your client is the one who lives there, and they should want to live there."

Defining a sanctuary

Winnie reaches the conclusion that her signature style cannot be defined by something physical. It is her ethos that leaves a mark: the commitment to bringing appreciation and gratitude to our lives and harnessing the healing power of nature. Winnie's current vehicle for promoting her ethos is interior design, but their is always the possibility to translate that same message via a new creative medium in the future. Winnie explains, "I believe in constant evolution, and I still see so much potential for refinement within my process.  I hope that my process can constantly evolve and improve and I learn more from each project and client."

Though Fourteen a.m., at present, focuses on residential interiors, Winnie makes it clear that a city sanctuary is not limited to a space for living. There are different moments of stillness and connection scattered around a city. Winnie explains, "A coffee shop, an office, or a hotel. It's the feeling of a space rather than its typology." In fact, a sanctuary does not have to be a physical space at all. One could find sanctuary in a dress, a book, or a piece of art.

For Winnie, the challenge is never a lack of ideas but overcoming boundaries imposed by her technical understanding. "If I can, I want to design everything. I think many designers share the feeling that creativity does not have a finishing line. Creative people have a common desire to create beautiful things because, when we look at existing beautiful things, we gain a certain gratitude from them. We create because we want to gift the gratitude back.”

A city sanctuary has no design manual; it is about the way the design makes you feel. "It's an ethos, a lifestyle. I want Fourteen a.m. to be something that can be integrated into our everyday life and our mindset."

Connect with Winnie Tam

Website: https://www.fourteen-am.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourteen.a.m/

Email: winnietam@fourteen-am.com

Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app. It has evolved into a multi-faceted media platform with frequent updates, drawing in billions of users to discover what everyone is posting and what conversations are being exchanged. The allure of Instagram has grown beyond personal accounts as businesses realise the potential to reach audiences far and wide with online marketing.

One of the first steps you should do is to convert your Instagram page. Found in the settings of your account, it takes just one switch to transform into a professional account. Then, you can access tools in your Instagram insights. Instagram Insights is a great tool for everything you need to know about your followers and content. However, with the vast metrics available, many are still confused about how to use the data to their advantage.

Peeking into the performance of your post, reel, and story can only take your social media engagement so far. So to maximise this tool, you can use it to improve your social media strategy. In this guide, we'll cover everything from tracking social media analytics to interpreting the output for your marketing strategy.

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What is Instagram Insights?

Essentially, Instagram Insights is the platform's dedicated in-house analytics tracker. As mentioned, only professional and business accounts can access this insight tool. You'll be able to check who follows your account and, most importantly, the performance of your content. The analytics will show which post or reel is performing the best and attracting new followers. With the information provided, you can then use the data to improve your social media strategy.

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Instagram Insights explained

To access Insights, click on the professional dashboard tab at the top of your Instagram profile. Click the 'See All' button in the upper right corner to access insights. Here, it provides summarised information about how many accounts you've reached, the number of accounts you've engaged, and your total followers. You can also check each post's insight by clicking 'View Insights' just below the photo. For reels, click the three buttons on the lower right side of the screen. Get started with Instagram Insights by looking out for these key analytics...

Accounts Reached

Accounts Reached refer to the number of unique users that viewed any of your content. It also provides a graph that shows how many of your followers and non-followers you've reached. To learn more, let's break the 4 parts into sections:

Content Reach

The insights on this page are dedicated to which type of content reaches your audience best. You can also pick a period range to see statistics covering the last seven days to the previous two years. It will reveal which reel, post, story, or live video performed best and can filter the top content.

Reached Audience

Reach Audience breaks down the top towns/cities, countries, age ranges, and genders of all the unique accounts your content has reached.

Impressions

Find out the total number of views on each piece of content, including repeat views.

Profile Activity

These analytics are important for accounts with buttons, such as a call button, business address button, and website button. It shows the number of taps on the following buttons made by visiting users.

Accounts Engaged

Accounts Engaged shows the number of followers and non-followers that engaged with your content. Take your nights a step further by viewing "Content Interactions"— this section presents the number of accounts who liked, commented, shared, or saved your content, whether it be the post, reel, or story.

Total Followers

As its name provides, it shows your total number of followers. It also shows the number of follows, unfollows, your followers' top locations, age range, gender, and active times.

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Using analytics to improve your social media strategy

Instagram insights offer more than just numbers and statistics, they are your roadmap to a more engaged Instagram audience. By learning to analyse the data provided and use it to inform your social media strategy, you'll see improvements to your level of audience engagement and, hopefully, your client conversion rate too. Ready to get started? Use your analytics to inform the following areas of social media management...

Posting schedule

Track your social media analytics and note the times when your audience is most active. You can schedule posts so you don't miss your follower's prime-time activity.

Content performance

After you identify when to post, you can highlight posts that receive the best engagement. For example, if multiple 'behind-the-scenes' vlogs receive the best engagement, you can pin that as successful content production. From there, your strategy can branch out to include tutorials of your work. If the tutorials do well, they are a successful part of your content production strategy. Growing a successful strategy comes from understanding how you did and then trying new ideas from there.

Understanding your audience

Appreciating the love and support from social media is one thing, but targeting the right audience is another. Let's say your business caters to women in their 20s to 40s who love handmade accessories, but your social media tracking shows males in their 40s and 50s to be the main audience watching your content. Perhaps it might be time to revisit the drawing board or change your target audience.

Struggling to attract new clients despite your relentless efforts to update your website? This is your wake-up call to start tracking your website traffic!

Website traffic refers to the number of potential clients that visit your website over a certain period. It provides valuable insights about where your engagements are coming from, what the most-viewed content is, and how long viewers stay on your website. Armed with this data, you'll know exactly what your viewers need and want!

Not sure where to start? Here is a walk through everything you need to know about how to monitor site traffic—from the basics to the best website tracking tools!

What is website traffic?

Website traffic is a measure of how many visitors are coming to your website. The more people browse your content, the higher your site traffic is. This data helps you identify the best marketing strategies to use and what type of content gets the most attention.

There are a number of key metrics that help you better understand viewer behaviour. You don't have to monitor all of them. You'll have to determine where your priorities are and what you want to keep an eye on. Five key website traffic metrics to track as a wedding planner:

• Unique visitors - number of new users that visit your site in a day, week, or month
• Page views - total number of times a webpage has been viewed by visitors
• Session duration - average time visitors spend on your website
• Bounce rate - number of visitors that exit your website after viewing only one page
• Conversion rate - the percentage of visitors that have turned into clients, subscribers, or followers

Why should wedding planners monitor website traffic?

As the wedding planning industry continues to grow, understanding the behaviour and preferences of potential clients has never been more crucial. For this reason, real-time website traffic tracking has become an indispensable practice for wedding planners.

Analysing your website traffic gives you a deeper understanding of how your website is resonating with your target audience. This includes whether or not you're attracting the right people and if your marketing strategy is working. Top three benefits of web traffic tracking to wedding planners:

• Identifies traffic trends. By monitoring website traffic, it's easy to stay on top of wedding trends. This way, you'll know what content to create and what services to promote in certain months!
• Improves website performance. With a birds-eye view of what goes in and out of your site, it's easier to spot underperforming pages or features. For example, if you have a high bounce rate on your landing page then maybe some buttons aren't working or it's taking too long to load up.
• Boosts conversion rate. Lastly, monitoring web traffic also highlights pages or content with high conversion rates. This allows you to allocate your marketing resources more effectively and amplify your chances of attracting paying clients and not just ghost visitors.

How to increase website traffic for your wedding business

The data you get from monitoring your website traffic can be used in several ways. For one, it can be used as basis when choosing the best marketing strategies. Two, it can be used to spot website issues and strengths.

The long-term goal for website traffic tracking is not just to boost viewers, but to improve your client acquisition. This way, you score more projects, improve your skills, and attract wedding planning vendors to collaborate with in the future. Here are three different ways to boost your website's traffic:

Use SEO Keywords

Investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best decisions you can make as a wedding planner. The simplest, and least expensive way to do this is through keyword optimisation. SEO keywords are the most commonly searched phrases on Google and other search engines. By strategically incorporating these into your content, URL, meta tags, and headings, you have a better chance of ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs). Thus, boosting your website visibility to wedding clients.

If you're a new website, then it's best to start by optimising your content for long-tail keywords. Although these keywords have a lower search volume, they have less competition and give you a better chance at ranking on the first page.

Promote on social media

Social media is another powerful tool to use to increase website visitors.

Start by identifying the social media platform your viewers are most active on then use your website traffic tracking results to list down the best type of content to promote. If that's settled, regularly share valuable content, use hashtags, and link your website on the caption to drive traffic to your site!

Make your website mobile

With the proliferation of smartphones, more people access the internet through mobile devices now than ever. Hence, if you want to improve your website's accessibility and user experience, then it's time to make your website mobile-friendly.

Three ways to optimise your website for mobile devices:

• Use a responsive web design. Responsive web design automatically adjusts your layout to smaller screens. A lot of online web development platforms have this feature, but you can always ask the help of a professional to get this done!
• Compress your media. Images, videos, and files with large resolutions slow down your website. So if you want to decrease your website's load speed, then you should compress your images without compromising quality!
• Adjust your font. Check if your fonts are legible and sized right for mobile screens. Adjust as needed and make sure it isn't so large that it takes up the entire space!

Best website traffic monitoring tools for wedding planners

Now we're down to the last question—how to monitor site traffic? There are currently a lot of website traffic monitoring tools that wedding planners can use to track their site traffic. Here are five of the best site traffic analytics tools for wedding planners...

Google Analytics

Star Feature: Conversion Tracking

Google Analytics is one of the leading site traffic tracking tools that many businesses use. It lets you monitor active website usage real-time, and discover your top traffic sources (social media, direct traffic, organic search, etc.). Furthermore, you can easily monitor how well your website is working towards its goals with its Conversion Tracker.

Start monitoring your website traffic with Google Analytics for free or avail Google Analytics 360.

Semrush

Star Feature: Organic Research

If you're already optimising your website for search engines, then SEMrush is guaranteed to become your best buddy. With SEMrush's Organic Research tool, you can track what keywords drive the most traffic, how you rank for said keywords, and what keyword opportunities to go for. This eases your SEO efforts and contributes to a more robust website tracking toolkit!

Try SEMrush for free to get limited access to their web tracking tools, or subscribe to the SEMrush paid plans now!

Matomo

If you are as much of a planner in real life as you are in your career, then you'll love Matomo's Customisable Dashboards and Reports. This feature lets you highlight the web traffic metrics that matter most to you, whenever and however you want. Matomo offers an array of advanced analytic tools to choose from including event tracking, user interaction analysis, and more!

Download Matomo's self-hosted version for free, or purchase its cloud-hosted version, Matomo Cloud!

Clicky

Star Feature: Heat Maps and Session Recordings

Want a clear visualisation of your website traffic? On Clicky, you don't just get vague numbers—you get a heat map of what users click, scroll, or spend the most time on! Clicky's Heatmap and Session Recording feature records individual user sessions that show how every user navigates your site. This allows you to see how well your website is performing from the user's perspective and helps you identify weak areas.

Try Clicky for free, or take a look at its paid plans now!

Ahrefs

Star Feature: Site Explorer

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO and web traffic monitoring tool capable of crawling your website to gain valuable insights into its performance and web traffic. At the same time, it spots opportunities for growth by analysing your organic search traffic, backlinks, referring domains and more. The cherry on top, it also keeps you updated on the latest wedding planning trends, to help you create relevant content at all times!

Ahrefs is a paid web traffic tracker that comes complete with everything you need. Explore the Ahrefs Plans and Pricing now!

Interior designers often start their businesses on their own, taking on every role required to keep their new business afloat. But as business inevitably grows, a question arises: Should I hire more employees for my interior design business?

Some interior designers thrive as solo-preneurs, while others feel that hiring more talent for their interior design firm is the best way to grow and expand. Expanding your team is a smart way to jumpstart the growth of your interior design business. With more hands to help, you'll have more capacity to take on new clients and projects. However, building a team doesn't happen overnight. Hiring new interior designers, or general employees, requires patience and foreplanning. It is important that you hire employees who understand your process and ethos, and that you have the right infrastructure in place to help them succeed.

If you're an interior designer considering expanding your team, this article will help you understand when the time is right and how to find the right employees for your business.

3 signs you're ready to expand your interior design team

Everyone would like a helping hand every so often, but you need to decide whether hiring an employee is a sensible and necessary move for your business. Before making the decision to expand your team, assess yourself against these common reasons for hiring a new interior design employee.

1. You don't enjoy your work

Your work should make you happy. If it doesn't, there is a problem. If you find yourself constantly exhausted, anxious, or unmotivated then you may be suffering from burnout. Burnout is a side effect of stress and is rampant among creative entrepreneurs. Burnout can cause your creative spark to fizzle out and as a result, your work as a designer becomes a chore rather than a passion.

And no wonder you're stressed if you've had no time off! Being a hard worker is a great asset, but not if it is to the detriment of your well-being. Remember, you are worth more than your career! If your schedule is packed to the brim, then hiring new staff for your interior design business would allow you to redistribute your workload and take the necessary time off. It will also help reignite your passion and inject fresh enthusiasm into your business. Recruiting a new employee could be your key to a healthier work-life balance.

2. Your quality of work is suffering

If you're not producing your best work and delivering an exceptional service for your clients, something needs to change. Client experience is everything. If your client feels that you are distracted, disorganised, or not delivering on your promises then that will have huge negative implications for your business.

Negative feedback from clients could be a wake-up call to the fact that you can no longer manage on your own. Expanding your team through strategic interior design recruitment will make your whole process more efficient—leaving you time to deliver a personalised, professional service to all of your clients. Hiring a skilled interior design employee is an expense not to be taken lightly, but remember it is an investment in your business's future.

3. You're experiencing rapid growth

Congratulations! This is an exciting time for you and your business, but the success can also be overwhelming. Suddenly, you are swamped with administrative tasks, client enquiries and accounting responsibilities.

Rather than put the breaks on, now is the time to go full steam ahead and hire a new employee to help you continue to grow your business. Think about the areas of business management that are eating into your time the most and make sure you hire an employee who is capable of helping in these areas. Productivity is key in the fast-paced world of interior design. When employees are just as skilled as they are passionate about their craft, you can expect high-quality work and higher attention to detail.

How to hire a new employee as an interior designer

If you've decided that expanding your team is the right move for your interior design business, you now need to know how to hire the right talent for your business. The right employee will bring fresh ideas, have a genuine passion for the role, and be motivated to succeed. As a result, you'll see vast improvements in your firm's productivity and level of client satisfaction.

The key to finding the right talent for your business is to not simply search for new employees but to attract them. You need to make your interior business stand out as a place where potential candidates would love to work by appearing organised, professional and innovative. Follow these steps to attract the best interior design talent and make a hire that will contribute to the growth of your business.

1. Outline the role

When hiring for your interior design business, you need to write a job description that sells. Introduce your firm's culture and goals to attract candidates who share the same values. Keep it clear, concise, and informative. Then, follow with a clear list of qualifications, responsibilities, growth opportunities, and benefits. Tips for writing an effective interior design job description:

• Be transparent and specific. Don't use vague descriptions like "big salary".
• Use positive language
• Use SEO keywords
• Link to your social media pages and portfolio

2. Advertise the role

To attract the right talent, you must advertise in the right places. Interior design job boards and communities are saturated with hiring advertisements, so although it is worth posting anywhere you can, it is also worth thinking outside the box. Try scouting emerging talent from trade shows, university graduates, and small-scale competitions. Try advertising your position on these interior design hiring sites:

• LinkedIn. A leading professional networking platform with a vast interior design community. Engage with interior design groups and discussions to expand your network and attract potential candidates.
• InternMatch. A dedicated networking website specifically designed to connect junior interior designers with established firms. Create a profile for your firm and attract promising candidates looking to gain practical experience.

When a potential candidate sees your advertised opportunity, the first thing they will do is look you up online. Your online presence, across both your website and your social media, serves as the face of your firm. Thus, you'll want to keep them well-managed and updated. Be active on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Share your recent projects and actively engage with the interior design community. Present the best of your business online, and you'll attract the best talent  in return.

3. Support your new hire

Cultivating a positive work environment is key to retaining great employees and attracting new ones in the future. Provide your employees with opportunities for professional development by off mentorship, and skill enhancement workshops. You should also strive to promote a healthy work-life balance by offering flexible working hours or employee wellness programs if possible. A healthy work environment = happy employees.

The takeaway

Hiring new talent for your interior design firm could be the key to unlocking new business growth. You can hire employees to help take the strain out of your workload and rekindle your passion for interior design, or to help you meet the demands of an already organically growing business.

When you make the decision to hire, you should do so with a clear strategy and end goal. It is important to hire people with passion, professionalism and respect.

Marina Felix is a writer, researcher and creator; her penchant for storytelling has led her to discover new narratives across art, architecture, and interiors. This time, however, her curiosity has led her further afield—back to her childhood home and then onwards, travelling across the US in an attempt to piece together a fragmented biography of the continent's once richest lady, Arabella Huntington.

Arabella Huntington was an art collector, philanthropist and wife of railway tycoon Collis P. Huntington—on that history agrees. From there, the accounts begin to differ. Arabella is a woman immortalised in contradiction, to some she was conceited and deceitful, to others smart and charismatic. Rather than blindly believing either speculative narrative, Marina opted to refer to the evidence at her disposal. And so began her journey across America, tracing the story of Arabella Huntington through scholarly archives, public records and scattered ephemera: letters, receipts, menus, drawings, and journals.

Marina's work is an act of female solidarity; repositioning Arabella as a public figure in her own right, regardless of her marital status. But it is also a personal act of kindness, a modern-day woman recognising another woman's incapacity to control public perception and taking it upon herself to rewrite her story.

As told in Marina Felix's own words.

When and how did you first become acquainted with Arabella?

I have, in a vague sense, known of Arabella since I was a child. I grew up in San Marino, California—a small suburb of Los Angeles that most people have only heard of because of the cultural institution that it lays claim to: The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. When it first opened to the public in 1927, the institution was called the Henry E. Huntington Library & Art Gallery—Henry Edwards Huntington was Arabella’s husband for the last 11 years of her life.

About a year ago, I learned, for the first time, that Henry E. Huntington was not alone in founding the museum that had always been in my backyard. He and Arabella jointly signed an indenture in August 1919 that would leave their estate—which at the time included 500 acres of land, botanical gardens, agricultural operations, and two priceless cultural collections, one of books and manuscripts and the other of art and decorative objects—to the public after their deaths as a benefaction of sorts. I spent the first 18 years of my life living in San Marino; I visited The Huntington at least annually, if not multiple times a year, and I did not know that. The sole portrait of Arabella that was and is on display at The Huntington frightened me as a kid, and I much preferred to run through the botanical gardens than to sit inside the museum.

Come spring 2022, I found myself in the early stages of dissertation research for my master’s program in Edinburgh and decided that I wanted to incorporate The Huntington into my research as a case study, but it eventually became its focal point. The Huntington is an Eden-like place and I credit so much of my pursuit of art history and Early Modern history to its influence. It was through the dissertation research that I became more intimately acquainted with Arabella. As I learned more about Arabella, I encountered a lot of conflicting data. Some accounts of her are scathing, describing an unparalleled hauteur and an air of condescension that not even royals could afford (that’s a paraphrase of a direct quote); others tell of a mother whose heart of gold and love for her son was unlike any other, of an enchanting, charismatic woman whose wit, taste, and sense of humour made her a beloved presence.

There are tales of a salacious, indecent Arabella who lied her way to the top; but I never fully believed that storyline. So I looked for more evidence—I looked at her collections and tried to imagine the kind of person that would be compelled to bring those objects into their life, to aggregate things in such a way that they created an impression of a character. I looked at the art that she was drawn to, the decorative schemes that she dreamt up, I looked at the titles from her personal library, and I thought about her attitude toward counterfeits and her commitment to women’s charities. I recognised a character who valued, at least, the aesthetics of truth and someone who prized beauty—in layered textiles and antiques, in authenticity, in philanthropy—and I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to her story.

Why is it important to unravel Arabella's lost biography—both for the public and for you personally?

I think it’s exciting, frankly, that there is still mystery in the world, and that not all of it lies ahead of us. That, and the fact that Arabella's story deserves to be told as a standalone work.

I didn’t really consider the public when I started this project, and it wasn’t so much for myself either. It’s been for Arabella. I’ve just been following my nose, steered by some invisible compulsion and a feeling that it’s the thing I should be doing. My father told me once to be a friend to the friendless. It’s not that Arabella had no friends, but since she died in 1924, the interpretations of her life that found their way into the world haven’t always been friendly. As this project has played a greater role in my life, the growing possibility of it being received by the public has made me think more broadly about the themes in her life, in her character, that transcend time. Her story, like so many, is nuanced and it’s important to me that each dimension gets its due diligence. Sadly, Arabella is just one of many influential women whose story has been lost in history.

Can you share a timeline of your journey so far?

I discovered the tip of this project’s iceberg in May 2022 during my master’s dissertation. As I got deeper into that work, I started imagining scenes of Arabella’s life, encounters with other figures and things she might say or do, and that was all firing in my imagination as I put the finishing touches on what was a pretty academic work. Since I’d never taken on a project like this, I was hesitant to speak it out loud—what if I didn’t find any new answers? What if I got to the end and didn’t like what I found? What if it took me years, not months? How would I pay for my life? So I reached out to a few writers that I knew and I asked them, "How do you make it work? How do you feed yourself while you’re researching and writing something that no one has asked for?" After that, I spent some more time thinking through what savings I had, and how to logistically orchestrate this for myself.

In the end, I got really, really lucky. It turns out an old family friend of ours, Nancy Armitage, had been researching the Huntington family since the early 2000s purely out of her own passionate interest—she’s a California-based artist (and her sons had been my babysitters!) At the suggestion of my mother, I called Nancy up and soon realised I had a real friend to share all of this energy with. She is relentless as a researcher, and she told me on the phone that she had “a lot of journals” filled with information about the Huntington family. She asked if I planned to go in person to do more research, and in the same breath offered to let me stay in one of her spare bedrooms.

Her house is about a 12-minute bike ride from The Huntington and so, I needed a bike. The best way to bring a bike from your parent’s house in Wisconsin out to California is via Amtrak. Knowing that Arabella travelled by long-haul train for so much of her life, it seemed like a worthwhile experience for me to have, if only to gain a bit of a descriptive edge. So in October 2022, I boarded a train from Chicago to Los Angeles and that is what I consider to be the real first step in this journey. And yes, I definitely over-romanticised the experience ahead of time, though I would not trade that experience for anything. I spent nearly eight weeks in San Gabriel, California, biking to and from The Huntington most days, treating archival research like my job. During that time, I realised I was going to have to consult more material than was available in San Marino if I wanted real answers—or at least, information that hadn’t passed through someone else’s historical filter.

In mid-December, I flew from California to Austin, Texas, where Arabella’s brother and sister lived; it was also the birthplace of her best friend and personal secretary, Carrie Campbell. I found a few leads in San Marcos, Texas that I’m still now chasing down. By the beginning of 2023, I had purchased a used car and arranged for research appointments in Syracuse, New York, where there is a good amount of archival information on American artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, Arabella’s daughter-in-law. On New Year’s Day, I drove from my parent’s home in the Midwest to upstate New York and I spent three weeks in a little Airbnb in Syracuse, avoiding slips on ice and devouring material in the university’s Special Collections Research Centre. At the end of three weeks, I had a lot of material that I’d never seen before, and neither had Nancy for all of her years of work. That was big for me. When my time in Syracuse was up, I set off for New York City via Oneonta, New York—H. E. Huntington’s birthplace and the city in which he had grown up.

Once in New York City, I took a trip to The Metropolitan Museum to see one of Arabella’s old interiors named the Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room. I was also very lucky to consult materials at the Hispanic Society of America, where the staff quite generously let me into their archives to see what material I could in a single day. I went to Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue, since Arabella’s last New York residence was what stood before it, and I asked the staff if any of them knew that information. They didn’t.

From New York, I drove to Richmond, Virginia—the city in which Arabella grew up. While in Richmond I commuted to Newport News, Virginia, where I spent some magical days at the city’s Mariner’s Museum—an odd-sounding place to find information on a female art collector, but Collis Huntington’s 1869-70 railroad venture with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in no small way led to the founding of the town and I suspect it was then, while he was completing the negotiations for that job, that he first met Arabella. With great thanks to the late Cerinda Evans, former librarian at the museum, there is a wealth of material on both Arabella and Collis Huntington. It was also there that I saw the only known sculpture of Arabella—a definite win. We are very lucky to live in a world where emailing archivists and librarians goes a long way! I have definitely made the most of that where I could.

I spent a few weeks digesting all of this information, trying to make sense of what I’d gathered when I got lucky again. I was offered a place at ChaNorth, an artist’s residency in the Hudson Valley run by New York–based arts nonprofit ChaShaMa. After the residency, I made my way back to Austin, where I was able to (finally) verify the birth and death dates of Arabella's closest friend, Caroline "Carrie" M. Campbell—an oddly difficult task up until my visit to the Austin History Center by way of the Austin Public Library. A few new rabbit holes presented themselves to me there and, whilst I've made efforts to see them through, it's now a matter of sitting down to give shape to this work. There are a few other places of interest that I could stand to visit—New Orleans, Alabama—but for the scope of what I'm writing now, they may come further down the line.

Your information has been primarily sourced from scattered ephemera—how do you find it?

For the objective sources, it really comes down to archives and other books/histories about either Collis P. Huntington or Henry E. Huntington, of which there are a couple of really fantastic examples (and to those scholars I have to express my deep appreciation and admiration because there is a lot of material to sort through). In the archives I’ve found old shopping receipts, letters, calling cards, telegrams, photographs, journals, sketches, newspaper clippings, you name it.

I have also been gathering old magazines, postcards, etchings and advertisements from the time period and own a growing collection of books by authors that I know Arabella had in her personal library. Admittedly, these sources are more peripheral but they help to create an atmosphere for myself as a writer and for my eventual reader.

Handling such a personal collection must be a very intimate experience. How do you approach the process with respect?

It’s incredibly intimate. It may sound silly, but there have been portraits of Arabella that I’ve seen in these archives, ones that have never been published, that took my breath away or brought tears to my eyes. Or there have been moments when I’m reading a journal entry or a letter, and I’m so moved by the small favours and moments of kindness that I’ve encountered. I can say very honestly that none of the information that I’ve found thus far is particularly shocking or scandalous, at least not by the standards of my modern frame of reference.

Respecting this process and the delicacy of it is something that I’ve thought a great deal about since she clearly went to pretty extensive lengths to keep parts of her past concealed. If Arabella were alive today, I hope that whatever I put out there she would be glad for. Much of that comes down to what I mentioned before—societal values and what is deemed “indecent” or “becoming” today are vastly different from the social norms that were in place between 1850 and 1924. Given my understanding of the massive paradigm shifts that have taken place for a woman’s agency, independence, and personal freedom since then, what I am writing approaches her life with respect and honesty, to the best of my ability. That said, I do intend to weave in more than one perspective on Arabella, and I hope that my readers see the value that comes with that multi-dimensionality.

You are able to draw a more honest picture of Arabella from these intimate records than had you been able to conduct an interview—agree or disagree?

I agree. After all, the whole basis of my interest in Arabella’s life came from the records and pieces of her life that still exist. Piecing together someone’s character based on the objects and artworks they were/are attracted to is almost easier than having a conversation with them. There is less interruption and a certain bareness to that kind of introduction—the objects speak for themselves.

I will, however, temper my agreement because if I’ve learned anything during my brief stint as a journalist it's this: you can always be surprised in an interview.

What challenges have you faced in putting together the puzzle of Arabella's life?

The biggest challenge for me has been learning to recognise and/or accept what might truly be a dead end. Just today I received an email from the archivist at an all-girls finishing school in New Orleans that has been operative since 1727, and we know through oral history that Arabella attended a finishing school in New Orleans roughly during the Civil War. It has transpired that it wasn’t that finishing school, though I still have lines in the water to see if I can find an old student record that can confirm her attendance. I’m also interested to know what name she was using at the time.

Another challenge is making sense of the sheer volume of research that I’ve collected. Whilst there isn’t exactly a deadline for a manuscript, I am constantly self-auditing my day-to-day work output. It’s been a real exercise in patience with myself to accept that the road I’m walking is a long one.

This is your first project of this kind, is it your last?

It is. My background is in art history and architectural conservation, and the resulting skillset is one that has led me to pursue this project with confidence, however naive or misplaced that may seem.

Is it my last? Not no! But with where I stand now, I don’t think that a forgotten figure tale will be the next project that I take on. I love writing stories about misunderstood characters, or characters where your first impression wasn’t the right one. It just so happens that Arabella’s story is also, in a sense, a forgotten one, or at least one that I think deserves retelling.

What can we expect from the finished product?

I’m currently writing the manuscript of what is going to be a book that paints a portrait of Arabella—if I had a talent for painting I would probably do that, but all I have are words. It’ll be a book somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, and I hope that it captures the story of her life and character as even-handedly as I can manage.

Curating an exhibition isn’t out of the question, either—I proposed one to The Huntington to celebrate the centennial of her death, but for understandable reasons, they respectfully declined the proposal. I, for one, think it would make a spectacular exhibition in addition to a book.

What do you hope your audience will take away from Arabella's story?

I want to see Arabella recognised and celebrated for her contributions to American art history and museology, but I don’t expect the general public to become too concerned with that aspect of it. Maybe they will. What I see in Arabella’s story is a struggle to define herself, to try (and inevitably fail) to control how she is perceived by those around her. In an age where so many people are constantly curating and editing their digital profiles and personas, I believe Arabella’s experience could provide a worthwhile model. Some things don’t change, or at least not as much as we think. Individuals are complex and nuanced and imperfect and this is a concept that has been weighing on minds for a long time.

To learn more about Marina Felix's work and keep up to date with her Arabella Huntington project, visit her website.