Grind Growing

We hear, share and propose every end of the year exciting commitments. Grand personal and professional dream challenges.

Today I pledge for plucking out, instead, the strings for small-growth. Tuning into powdered, yet incremental growing can lead to major changes, over time.
If there is one important thing I have learned in the past years, it has been to surrender to the thread-by-thread pace of changes, rather than fight against it trying to rush them. They need their own growing flow in order for them to flourish.

Quoting marketer Seth Godin, vague plans are safely desirable though unhelpful. So let's grind down growth into actionable, believable and committable strings which to pull from every moment, every day.

The material invitation on this video invites to grind growing. Into small commitments. But a whole bush of them.

Now, I need your thicket of thought: 

• Can visualizing material growth pull out your own commitment to grow? 

Please do throw your threads in the comments section below. 

Claim Rain

Sometimes it just hits you. Even if you don't want it, you get it. You curse, change plans or avoid it. 

Wether or not it happens to you everyday where you live, it rains. And, since we cannot change its presence, why not working with it.

Instead of improving our protection from it: 

• Can a texture help us celebrate the rain? 
• Can this texture make sense only when it "gets rained"?
• How could a different take on materiality invite to expand our relationship with the rain? 

As this is an invitation to explore, do drop me your thoughts in the comments below!

Forging stories

Do materials speak? Are they loud, or shy? 

When working in the concept for an interior space, like Forte (brand-new Italian restaurant in Madrid - a recent "catalyzing" project which I co-designed for Paula Rosales and her team more&co), there is one main "plot" in its branding story. And, within the main story, each material, each texture brings her own story. A simple, sophisticated, complex, or radical one. And the combination of these textures together compile new stories.
And, when we enter, use the space, explore these materials, we unveil "another" story, a living story: that which interacts with our momentum, our mood, our daily routine, our body language.
To me, it is thanks and next to these material moments we are - even if in a subtle way - stirred to create our own life moments. And they are unique: with the attitude of our own stories weaved together with the attitude of those material stories around us.

But I´d like to hear from you:
+ Do you have a material story to tell?

I look forward to reading about it in your comments below this video.

Strong Vunerability

Have you observed?

Nature is so resilient. I have been always mesmerised by how plants grow through little cracks in the city. I find very inspiring this opposition of softness to the hard asphalt, of green life through the tough city interface. 
Through this video, I test and celebrate material textures which invite to become softer with our surroundings. 
These petals remind me that within our hard constructed environment, there is always a crack of vulnerability. A place to feel our humaness. 
Perhaps materials with dynamic properties will stir our daily routines, reminding us that our time is limited and precious.

I'd love to hear from you:

• Do you believe a material helps us feel strong or vulnerable?

• Are we ready to accept material vulnerability?

You can leave me your comments right below. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Getting (emotionally) Naked

We are very often surrounded by people, or in environments where to take a moment to yourself is challenging. I have found myself going into a toilet right before a presentation in order to close my eyes and breathe, centering myself and preparing for the performance I am about to give.  

From this observation came the idea of CLOUD ME: a pair of glasses neither to protect yourself, nor to look outside, but rather inviting to look inwards. 

Made out of natural cotton, their soft touch helps to disconnect from the visual busyness, form a personal protection and help you connect with your naked self.

CLOUD ME is still in rough prototyping state, with newer and more sophisticated updates coming very soon!

I´d love to hear back from YOU: how and when do you need to get (emotionally) naked?

Getting in touch... with greyness

Is the lack of color in our cities a conscious decision or do we accept it by default?

While traveling, and especially during moments of transit, I have often observed how grey our (built) environment is. Sidewalks, roads, facades, benches, fences, walls, floor finishes. You name it.

I am not so interested in knowing why or where this greyness comes from. Rather, bring it up front, realize how little color surrounds us, and what are the possible effects in our body and wellbeing. 

My invitation through this video is to become aware of color, or the lack of it.

I would love to hear back from YOU: what is your experience about greyness in the city?