Mindful Matter
Q&A with Iancu Barbărasă
For February, we welcome back Romanian illustrator, Iancu Barbărasă. Based in London, Iancu creates art to inform, delight, and inspire. His art this month was inspired by the belief that,”Some of the best things in life happen when we find people we have things in common with, whether they’re work related, or family related. But, in order to achieve that, we have to start looking for the things we agree on, not the ones we disagree on." Iancu says, "We have much more in common than we think. All we have to do is try to be open and willing to listen." For a little more about Iancu, here's a short Q&A: Where is home for you? London, UK has been home for almost ten years now. I find its diversity very inspiring, even in spite of the recent political issues. I was born in Transylvania, Romania though, and it will always remain a special place for me. What is your definition of a successful life? Having a helpful, positive impact on people’s lives, starting with family, friends, colleagues and hopefully others as well. Describe your perfect day. Wake up, have breakfast, go out cycling for an hour or two, get back, shower, draw for two-three hours, quick lunch, draw or read for another couple of hours, cook dinner and enjoy the evening with my partner. How did you get into design? I’ve always liked drawing, but I'm a rational type, so I was considering architecture and design during high school. I chose design because of the wider range of projects – my university had a mixed curriculum, so I studied both product and graphic design, and some interior design as well. After graduating, I started working in advertising but I soon switched to branding, being much more interested in work that would last longer. I've been doing this for over fifteen years now. Recently I've started expanding into illustration and hand-lettering, thanks to a few of my personal projects that have drawn attention online. Where do you find inspiration? Reading a lot and being interested in a wide range of subjects. During a project, it comes first from answering the “why – what – who – how” questions: why are we doing this, what is the product or what are we trying to say, who is it for, and how should it feel. Besides that, I always try to “steal” ideas from seemingly unrelated fields, or from old masters. All work that seems original just has less obvious sources of inspiration. And of course, I follow favourite artists and designers online, but I do my best to keep their influence in check. What's your dream design project? Any project can be exciting if you’re working with great people. I'd love to work more with clients who care deeply about their impact on everyone and the environment. For example, Patagonia or the Certified B Corporation companies. Cycling or outdoors related would be just a bonus. Which designers or thinkers influence/inspire you? I greatly admire Christoph Niemann for his intelligence, kindness and versatility; Yvon Chouinard for proving that it is possible to have both a profitable and responsible business; Milton Glaser for explaining the importance of being able to create form, not just to find it; my grandad for teaching me to look at everything with a bit of imagination and a lot of goodwill. Plus I'm always learning from so many other amazing people, like Paula Scher, Michael Bierut, Katsuji Wakisaka, James Victore, Geoff McFetridge, Jean Jullien, Matt Blease, Austin Kleon, Jason Kottke, Alan Fletcher, Saul Steinberg, Herman Hesse, Tenzin Gyatso, and so on. What was the inspiration behind this design? For a while I had been looking at how people often wear clothes with many different patterns, but most of them are just decorative, or based on trivial subjects. So I started thinking about pattern designs that would still look nice to wear, but have deeper meaning, like kindness, togetherness, kinship, affection. One of the simplest but nicest things we do with loved ones is to hold hands. So I started drawing lots of different hands joined up, and eventually settled on a repeat pattern of stripes and two hands gently coming together. At the moment, what is your favorite… Color: Red & Yellow (both better together than on their own). Food: Pain d'épices is a great cake from France, I always stock up when I visit :) Song: Say Something by Jordan Rakei (love his latest album Origin).
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New rituals for a new year.
“The core needs of introspection, ecstatic experience, beauty, feeling like we're part of something bigger — these have existed for millennia. But how we create these experiences varies over time.” - Casper ter Kuile Our friend Casper shared this sentiment in his book The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices in a time well before COVID-19. But revisiting it through the lens of the last year brings a whole new meaning to it. Given the ways our lives have changed, how we can adapt the way we embrace rituals and, by extension, embrace life and all it has to offer? Casper views rituals as the “outer expression to an inner emotion, like the love we feel for our family or the wonder of being part of the universe.” In a time when we are required, for our safety, to be physically distant from the people and places we love, the way rituals play out in our lives has changed dramatically. It’s been hard to find meaningful ways to celebrate, commemorate, and in some unfortunate circumstances, mourn, together. But I have been encouraged and inspired by the creative ways people have worked within the restrictions required by COVID-19 to create new rituals. For example: On Christmas we usually spend time with about 40 of my wife’s extended family members. This past year, we weren’t able to get together in person, so my sister-in-law created a six-minute video mashup of different family members sharing their homes, traditions and well wishes from different parts of the world. In my sister’s town in Virginia, drive-by celebrations have become the new normal — some young entrepreneurs have even started a business that sets up celebratory messages like “Happy Birthday” in large letters on your lawn to complement friends driving by with honks and waves. One friend reframed his solo quarantine as a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Another saw it as an opportunity to go deep on a writing project she had been putting off. At Holstee, our desire for meaningful connection within the confines of COVID was the nudge we needed to introduce an Online Gathering that brings our Members together once a month. It’s now become one of our most popular Membership features (and one of the things I most look forward to each month). With the new year here, it’s the perfect moment to map out your year in rituals and consider the ways that COVID’s limitations might serve as inspiration for greater depth and meaning. If you are looking for help on how to do this, explore our new Ritual Life Planner — a guidebook and annual planner we created in collaboration with Casper to help you identify and embrace your ritual life. Wishing you a year filled with rituals old and new, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee & Reflection.app P.S. Members: Remember that you can simply sign in and use the member code to save 20% on everything in the Holstee shop!
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What would you stop doing?
I was recently listening to a Tim Ferris podcast interview with author Jim Collins that was filled with nuggets of wisdom. Toward the end of the nearly three-hour conversation, Jim recalled a college class in which his professor, Rochelle Meyers, asked students: “If you woke up tomorrow morning and you discovered you had only 10 years to live, what would you stop doing?” (Journal your response in Reflection.app →). This question stuck with me. I have a tendency, especially around New Years, to think a lot about the things I want to do. But I reflect less frequently on the things I would like to stop doing — especially on a 10-year scale. While many of us hope, plan, and live as if we have longer than 10 years left, the scary truth is that none of us know that for certain. The fragility of our lives is a reality that COVID-19 has brought to the forefront for many of us. The only way to make time for what you want and need, is to let go of things that no longer serve you. What will you stop doing this year so you can live your life to its fullest? To living every year with intention, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee & Reflection.app P.S. Another nugget from this conversation that stuck with me was the response Jim received after sending an unprompted letter of gratitude and admiration to Fred Hargadon, the former Dean of Admissions at Stanford University. Hargadon’s words left a lasting impression on Collins, and on me. And perhaps they will on you as well. He wrote: “The most treasured gifts in the world are kind words spontaneously tendered.” I don’t have many resolutions for 2021, but inspired by this, I do hope to share more unprompted words of kindness with those that have made an impact on me.
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Becoming.
“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming I generally find uncertainty a bit unsettling. The wideness of the unknown makes me uncomfortable, even if the outcomes aren’t necessarily bad. But I am beginning to understand that everything in life is slowly revealing itself, like a flower slowly unfolding. I am learning to see beauty in the blossom, to appreciate the magic within the mystery. We are, in the words of Michelle Obama, constantly becoming. As I set my intention for 2021, I realize there will be much that happens beyond my control, so I am also reminding myself to be patient, curious, and welcoming of what the year has in store for me. Whatever the year ahead brings, I hope it unfolds beautifully and gracefully for you. Happy New Year, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee & Reflection.app
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Q&A with Emily Lynn Perelman
This month’s art is by artist Emily Lynn Perelman, who splits her time between home in South Florida and school in Boston, Massachusetts. Emily uses her bright and surreal illustrations to make sense of the world around her. Taking inspiration from everyday shapes and sights, she is always looking for a fresh way to capture her experiences. She says her design was inspired by a “reflection on what it means to be mindful and in the moment.” Emily says, “This plays into the theme of intention because I believe it's important to hold onto the moments around you, both the static and transitional ones, and intentionally acknowledge what you're facing.” For a little more about what inspired this artwork, process, and their life, here's a short Q&A: Where is home for you? Home is in South Florida but I spend much of the year at school in Boston What is your definition of a successful life? I think my ideal “successful life” would just be to exist in a place, mentally and physically, where I can do something with substance. To be in a place where I’m not always looking toward the future but content with the present, including the trivial things in the everyday. “Success” to me can mean making an impact within my community that can create sustainable change for a better world. Describe your perfect day. I’m a sucker for a good beach day. How did you get into design? I’ve been designing and creating for as long as I remember. I was privileged to be able to be in art classes from a young age which really let me foster my passion. During high school, I started to get more serious about my creative work and started building up a large collection of pieces. It wasn’t until I started sharing my work via social media that I saw the possibility of design as a professional route. Since then, I’ve been lucky to find freelance design and illustration workas well as having the ability to share my work on a larger scale. I’m currently attending Boston University with a Psychology major and Visual Arts minor which has a great impact on how I perceive the world and my work. Where do you find inspiration? There’s not really one place I go to for inspiration. I have some more literal places I go such as my Instagram feed or Pinterest, but I could also get inspired based on snippets of conversations I have, music, or something I see on a walk. What's your dream design project? I think designing an album cover or piece of art for one of my favorite bands/artists. Which designers or thinkers influence/inspire you? Amber Vittoria, Maria Medem, Livia Falcaru, Jake Foreman. What was the inspiration behind this design? I really enjoy exploring transitions in my work, it can be a literal day to night transition or something like this piece where a static scene finds transition within itself. The phrase “This Moment” stems from a recent fixation with trying to live in the present more. As cliche as that sounds, I’ve been finding a lot of solace lately in practicing mindfulness and yoga. Sometimes my work, such as this piece, is an attempt to manifest what I want for myself. In what ways does the theme of Integrity play out in your life? There’s definitely so much merit and solace in setting intentions for what you want to get out of your life and your experiences. I tend to get wrapped up in my responsibilities and think in terms of what I have to do next, without really thinking about what my goals for myself actually are. I find that when I stop to think what I want for myself, whether it be personally or professionally, I have a much clearer state of mind. At the moment, what is your favorite… Color: Yellow Food: Thai Song: Habit - Still Woozy Quote: “Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think” - Buddha -Thank you for sharing your talent and time with us, Emily!
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Holstee 2020 — Our Year In Review (and a peek ahead to 2021!)
In this final Reflections email of the year, we want to say thank you. Holstee wouldn’t have survived this year without your participation, and we are incredibly grateful for the many ways you supported us. This year was not without its challenges, both for our business and for us personally. But reviewing our year has given us the chance to celebrate our wins and make peace with some of the harder parts of this year. Here are a few highlights that came up for us: Our team. Getting to work with brilliant and passionate people is hands-down one of the things we love most about our work. Our small team spans three continents, six countries, and seven time zones. Thank you Massiel (Spain), Nicole (Maine), Bryan (France), Carrie (North Carolina), Sarah (Washington), Britannio (United Kingdom), Edward (Colombia), Madison (Colorado), Leah (Vermont), and Payton and Rachel (Arizona) for pushing us and Holstee forward this year. A few of us on a team call earlier this year. Going deeper with our Holstee Members. When COVID first started impacting our community, we decided to host an online gathering for our members as an experiment. Now it’s one of the things we most look forward to every month. Each call is a reminder of the kindness, wisdom, and compassion within this community, and reinforces why we do what we do. To complement these calls, we also built a dedicated online forum for members to foster even more connections so that we can continue to learn from each other. Launching new partnerships and products. This year we collaborated with Casper ter Kuile on our Ritual Life Planner, a product that we thoroughly enjoyed making and now get to use ourselves. We also launched our Coaches Kit, which bundled two of our most popular products, Reflection Cards and the Greater Good Toolkit. Building Reflection.app. In 2020, we launched Reflection.app for iOS and Android. We also introduced Reflect & Reset, a 14-day guided journaling experience within the app. And we added advanced features through a Premium option, which is now an added perk of Holstee Membership. A year ago, when Reflection.app was still in beta, it had just over 1,000 users. Today, we have more than 8,000 users who have created over 49,000 journal entries! We had some lowlights as well... While we feel grateful for so much this year, we certainly experienced challenges. Due to COVID, many of the small brick-and-mortar shops that carry Holstee products closed — some temporarily, others permanently — and we felt the impact as our wholesale and partnership sales slowed to a near stop. Additionally, a few of our production partners experienced significant hardships as they were forced to reduce staff or close their facilities. While we understood the need to prioritize safety above all else, these interruptions caused some supply chain issues for us, which, in turn, affected our customers and our sales. These setbacks brought stress and financial uncertainty to this year — but all things considered, we feel fortunate. We weren’t forced to make cuts to our team. Instead we were able to shift our attention and resources to parts of our business that we could push forward, preparing for a big 2021. Looking ahead... We are very excited about the coming year and the new opportunities it will bring. Membership updates. Our Membership benefits are constantly evolving to make the experience more meaningful and valuable. In 2021, we are changing the format of our Complete Membership, replacing the Pocket Journal with a larger Activity Booklet and updating our Digital Guides. We also have an incredible selection of art lined up for the year — seriously, this year’s art may be the best yet! New products. We are currently exploring three new products for 2021. We don’t want to spoil these surprises, but we will say that one of them expands on a product you likely already own and love! Oh, and this will also be the first year that we are designing a product for kids... OK, we are horrible at keeping secrets... No more hints! :-) Continuing to develop Reflection.app. This year we will be incorporating Holstee Themed Guides into the app so you can reflect on each month’s theme directly in your journal. We are also preparing to improve analytics and journaling insights, and launch desktop apps later in 2021. Taking the time to reflect on the past 12 months felt especially necessary for us this year. We hope you’re able to make time to do the same. We wish you and your family peace and joy as you celebrate the end of this year and welcome the year ahead. Thank you, again, for joining us on this journey. Mike and Dave RadparvarCo-Founders, Holstee
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Reflecting on our roots.
If you haven’t already noticed, it seems that nearly everything we do at Holstee revolves around the word “reflection”. We have Reflection Cards, a Reflection Journal, and a recently launched Reflection.app. This month’s Holstee Membership theme is Reflection. This email is part of our Reflections series. Even the words of the Holstee Manifesto, the poster that started it all, began as a reflection on what success means to us. We can’t escape it — reflection is baked into the bones of Holstee. Since the foundation of Holstee took shape through some deep personal reflections, on what we wanted from life and our budding company, I believe our work will always be rooted in it. We have experienced first-hand that when we take time to look back on and process our past, we open ourselves up to a more informed and intentional future. We are able to learn from what worked, what didn't, and what was missing all together. Life moves incredibly fast, and each year seems to move faster than the one before. Reflection gives us a moment to check back on the map of where we have been and reorient our compass to where we want to go. The perspective and clarity that comes with reflection has the power to change lives; it certainly changed ours. If Holstee leaves one imprint on the world, I hope that it is the reminder that we each have some control over our destiny — and that through reflection, and the learnings we glean from it, we are able to better guide the trajectory of our lives. Remember, this is your life. Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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Q&A with Maartje Louwers
This month’s art is by artist Maartje Louwers, based in the Netherlands. She is a 23 year old nurse who enjoys illustrating art. Maartje is a frontline worker during the COVID19 crisis and says illustrating is her time to put her mind to rest. She says her design "is a representation of time and the circle of day and night. Time can give you so much. It gives you time to heal. Time to think about what you want out of life. And mostly I hope it gives you time to enjoy life.” For a little more about what inspired this artwork, process, and their life, here's a short Q&A: Where is home for you? My home is in the Netherlands. What is your definition of a successful life? Being happy and having the people you love close around you. Describe your perfect day. A perfect day for me includes hanging with my two cats and my boyfriend, having a nice lunch with friends, (Not at the moment of course.) and preparing a home cooked meal and inviting my family members. How did you get into design? I always enjoyed drawing. A few years back I started to do it on a daily basis and improved. I found that sharing it with others gave me joy as well. Where do you find inspiration? Mostly in nature, like the waves of the ocean. As a nurse, I also like to add some anatomy to my illustrations. What's your dream design project? One day, I really would like to publish my own children's picture book. Which designers or thinkers influence/inspire you? I don’t have a specific influencer in mind, but I follow a lot of great artists on Instagram for inspiration and they all have their own unique style. What was the inspiration behind this design? This design is a representation of time and the circle of day and night. Time can give you so much. It gives you time to heal. Time to think about what you want out of life. And mostly I hope it gives you time to enjoy life. In what ways does the theme of Integrity play out in your life? As a nurse I see a lot of situations where time gets taken away from people. This gets you thinking how precious the time you have is. At the moment, what is your favorite… Color: Green Food: Sushi Song: This is so hard. My favorite artists are: White Lies, De Staat, Lorde Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons. I really can’t choose a song.
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How are you feeling right now?
Whew, this week has been intense. I spent most of it pretty anxious. And every time I felt the unease of uncertainty bubble up, I found myself reaching for my phone. Now, after a week of checking incessantly to see the latest headlines, vote tallies, reactions, messages, and memes, my body seems to have adapted to this addictive behavior. For instance, this morning I picked up my phone to play some music but somehow found myself tapping open my news app. It took a minute or two of scrolling through the headlines before I remembered that I had initially picked up my phone for an entirely different reason. After realizing this, it also became clear that I have been consuming more — in this case, news — in order to drown out my own thoughts and feelings. So today I am taking some time to unplug from the news and reset my relationship with technology. I am remembering to return to the present moment and making space for my emotions. Every time I feel the urge or catch myself opening my phone’s news app, I will instead pop open my journal and answer a simple question: How are you feeling right now? I am feeling a strong sense of relief right now, but I am also feeling so much more. There is a lot to unpack and process from the last week — and in many ways, from the last four years. Join me and make time for your own thoughts and feelings today. Wishing you many moments of reflection and calm, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. If you don’t already have a reflection practice, I invite you to check out our private journaling platform Reflection.app →
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