Name: Alicia Stenger

Profession: Designer, artist and educator

Instagram: @a.hl.stenger

Alicia Stenger taught art and design to young people for 7 years before returning to the pursuit of her own art. Her work plays with light, projections, sound, video, and print mediums to connect with her interest in human emotions.‍

Inside the toolkit

Notebook

I like a notebook with blank pages.

Colour

Era of inspiration

Late Modern and Swiss design are two favourites of mine.

Designer on speed dial

While designers are wonderful, I find a lot of inspiration from artists. So I’m going to say, Henri Matisse.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Futura.
• A distant love: Bodoni.
• Never again: Yikes, I have never used a font I’ve become allergic to!

Organisational method

I use a combination of physical post-it notes and digital tools—Notion for personal use, Asana at my 9-5. But I also often find myself just flowing with what feels natural on the day.

Trusted advisor

My creative friends!

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Name: Tim Preut

Profession: Owner and designer

Location: Martinez, CA, USA

Instagram: @tickyboomdesign

LinkedIn: Tim Preut

Tim Preut is a designer, and co-creator of Tickyboom Design—the home of "hella bomb brand identity and web design."

Tim strives to use his skills to spark growth in purpose-driven businesses.

Notebook

I use square gridline paper. Always.

I love how the squares act as both a constrictions and a guide—encouraging you to follow the rules, and them break them.

Colour

Era of inspiration

The '50s-70s.

Designer on speed dial

Milton Glaser

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Helvetica Now
• A distant love: Whyte by Dinamo
• Never again: Any "dyslexia-specific" fonts. They are worthless. Use a solid typeface that is easy to read, pare down your content, and make things easy to digest.

Organisational method

Digital tools. Trello, Todoist, and Craft.

Trusted advisor

Someone who is open-minded, but also clearly articulates what they want. Also, someone who has a strategy in mind and identifies whether my design is accomplishing those goals or not.

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Name: Shaina Nacion

Profession: founder and designer

Website: shainancion.com

Shaina Nacion is the founder of a creative studio and productivity consultancy for free-spirited creatives. Shaina's studio helps with branding & design, SEO strategy, creative services and productivity support.

Notebook

I typically draw on my iPad but if I had to use a notebook, it would probably be made from dotted paper.

Colour

Source of inspiration

Victorian-type posters and scientific illustrations from the Renaissance.

Designer on speed dial

Chris Do.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Montserrat—uppercase, with 1px letter spacing
• A distant love: Ogg by Sharp Type
• Never again: Papyrus

Organisational approach

ClickUp is my #bae.

Trusted advisor:

I try to rely on my clients' target audiences for feedback, but my designer friends are great too!

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Name: Jenna Hagan

Profession: Graphic designer

Location: Tāmaki Makaurau, NZ

LinkedIn: Jenna Hagan

Jenna Hagan is an accomplished graphic designer, currently working for Ara Manawa—a creative team responsible for developing future products and experiences at Auckland City Hospital.

Notebook

Definitely blank paper. I like to sketch and illustrate my ideas, or just jot down thoughts.

The page shown illustrates a design sprint conducted with Doctors and Nurses.

Era of inspiration

I’m drawn to simplicity, geometry, and a sense of handicraft. Anything from the 50s/60s, such as Alvin Lustig or Saul Bass. They have a clean and brutalist design sense but with a touch of whimsy.

Colour

I recently used this pairing for a poetry installation at the hospital: a dusty robin’s egg blue, and a soft milk chocolate brown.

Designer on speed dial

My former mentor and colleague Elliott Scott. I worked with him at Applied—a brilliant little design studio in New York.

I do appreciate more famous designers like Paula Scher or Jessica Hische, but Elliott taught me so much! His work for the World Trade Center is beautiful.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Benton Sans. I love Frere-Jones’ work
• A distant love: Tiempos by Klim—a New Zealand-based Type Foundry
• Never again: Calibri—the default typeface for Microsoft.

Organisational approach

I have to keep track of all tasks meticulously in ClickUp. I schedule blocks of design time, to ensure I get into a deep-thinking space without getting interrupted by a meeting.

The key to keeping a project organised is to communicate clearly with everyone involved.

Trusted advisor

Designers tend to give clients a bad rep in terms of feedback but at the end of the day, you are working with the client to create a visual solution to their problem.

If clients aren’t able to give constructive feedback, it’s on the designer to help give them the language to discuss the work.

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Name: Caleb Jones

Profession: Multidisciplinary designer (web design, graphic design, branding)

Location: Mountain West, USA

Instagram: @calbeajones

Caleb Jones is a multi-disciplinary designer or, in his own words, "a systematic organiser of information, a visual problem solver, and an idealistic perfectionist who seeks to build functional end-products."‍

Notebook

Grid paper ranks top, with dotted paper coming a close second.

I’ve used a lot of grid paper to capture rough mockups for web layouts. It's a nice tool if you are working on technical drawings, font design, architectural layouts, floor plans, and more. It has so many uses and still works just fine for drawing and sketching.

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Designer on speed dial

Purely based on their work, I'd love the opportunity to collaborate with Angel Acevedo. He is behind the brand God is a Designer and Acevedo Aesthetics Corporation. He continues to put out cool streetwear, grow his brand, and do cool stuff in general.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: I recently fell in love with a number of relatively recent Grotesk fonts, specifically Founders Grotesk. It was released in 2010 by Klim Foundry based in New Zealand. I was fortunate enough to receive approval to use this for a website I built recently. I’m stoked to see Founders Grotesk in action. It's simple enough that I think I can use it for years to come without it looking dated or old, but still has more character and liveliness than the bare minimum Helvetica (no hate on the old classic though…)

• A distant love: I have always loved Pistilli, but I’ve never had the right project that I could work it into. Salome is my runner-up in the flamboyant fonts category, alongside Pompadour numbers.
• Never again: Quicksand is pretty terrible in my opinion. Whilst I try to be an optimist and say every font can find a home in the right project, misuse has ruined this one for me.

Colour

For the longest time, I was a fan of—self-named—Charcoal 31 (#313131) and off-white (#f1f1f1). But I have recently refined that to Charcoal 22 (#222222) and off-white (#fafafa)—a similar combination with richer, darker charcoal and much more subtle off-white. I am here for the subtleties!

Beyond just the black and whites, I have also used Charcoal 22 and Lime Green (#9ed600) on a couple of projects recently—it just keeps looking good! It has good contrast and is lots of fun.

Organisational approach

Personally, I am a Trello Evangelist! I keep my whole life organised there. However, I try my best to show up for clients at their pace and in their space—I like to communicate with clients in their preferred channels. Sometimes that's tracking projects through email, other times it's Slack.

The environment I work in necessitates this flexibility; often times we are not given deadlines or timetables to manage a project. Additionally, I work in an environment where priorities are shifting sands—loosely organised chaos!

Trusted advisor

No question, other designers give the best feedback. We speak the same language. Although, I’m lucky—“other designers” and “family & friends” are one and the same for me. I routinely get critiques from my brother, who is a graphic and digital designer.

I do have to give a nod to non-designers who are aesthetic aware, i.e. it's not their day-to-day job, but they are adjacent to design and aware enough to be able to communicate legitimate constructive feedback—that outside perspective is very helpful.

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Name: Jo Skillman

Profession: Creative director

Location: Houston, TX, USA

Website: joskillman.com
Instagram: @jo_jayne_s

A designer and writer at heart, Jo applies her skillset to building large-scale brands and campaigns that engage and excite communities. Previous clients include, The White House/Michelle Obama, The CW Network, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Notebook

Blank paper all day.

They don’t make for pretty sketches, but they do turn into good logos.

Colour

I’m a fiend for warm colours. Especially the burgundy/red-orange with fuchsia/ice pink combos I’ve been seeing a lot lately.

Era of inspiration

I'm into vintage of every era. I have a particular love for the boldness and linear nature of Art Deco, and I once centred an entire campaign on mid-century clip art I found at an estate sale.

I’ve also directed a brand identity centred on vintage political buttons. Any era can be an inspiration depending on the client!

Designer on speed-dial

I have a years-long and very active group text of several senior designers, and I continue to believe that brain trust is far more helpful to me than any one designer’s phone number, no matter how famous.

We’ve found each other jobs, travelled together, designed an entire cookbook, celebrated birthdays, troubleshot print issues, shared business tips and largely been an irreplaceable resource for each other.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: A condensed gothic typeface always lets you say more with less space, and that’s an important quality.‍
• A distant love: Ambiguity by Monotype. I almost got to use it in this really unexpected beauty campaign… so close.
• Never again: Lato. It’s a great workhorse font and a ton of people use it. So many in fact, that I hope to never see it again. I prefer my typefaces to have a bit more personality.

Organisational approach

I am crazy organised. I use project management software, creative briefs, digital moodboards, and white boarding tools, Google Cal invites, and handwritten notes. Whatever it takes to get the team on the same page and the same schedule.

Trusted advisor

Children. Bartenders. Attorneys. Chefs. People you happen to be standing next to at a coffee shop.

I’m a big fan of polling people around me who don’t have any "skin in the game" at all because they have no design ego and no reason to overthink.

I’ll sometimes sketch or brainstorm in public places just for access to guest brains: “What does this look like to you?” “When I say ‘education,’ what do you think of?” “What does this colour remind you of?” After all, I’m almost never designing things for just the client.

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Name: Emunah Winer

Profession: Designer and creative director

Location: Israel

Instagram: @emunahwiner

Emunah Winer is the co-founder of Nihilo, a branding agency helping founder-led companies to reach the top of their fields through an artful blend of visual and verbal design. Industry specialisations include spirits, outdoor, biotechnology, and female innovation.

Notebook

Blank. Lines get in the way. I don’t sketch but I do take lots of notes.

Colours

Era of inspiration

Unknown. The era I research and reference is directly related to whatever specific project I’m working on—I let that lead me.

Designer on speed dial

Brian Collins.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Inter. Free, clean, uncomplicated. I use it for all agency collateral.
• A distant love: Any reverse italics. GT Planar in particular.
• Never again: Montserrat.

Organisational method

I use a combination of pen-on-paper and digital tools to keep on top of projects. However, sometimes I just let myself go with the flow.

Trusted advisor

I always like to ask my husband because he knows absolutely nothing about design! Sometimes we get stuck in our own design heads and having a “regular” point of view really helps.

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Name: Ben Hartley

Profession: Digital designer

Location: London, England

Instagram: @benhartleydesign

Website: hartley.design

Ben Hartley is a freelance digital designer specialising in type-driven visual design, branding and digital experiences.
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P.S. Ben is currently available for work!

Era of inspiration

For aesthetics alone, I love Art Nouveau for its shameless indulgence and organic textures. Especially when I need a break from the digital, and at times cold, design space we're in.

But Mid-Century Modern design is my go-to for communicating information and ideas clearly and pragmatically—distilling the content into a structured layout, bold typography and vivid colours.

Notebook

Dotted. My thought process is very structured.

For the first step of a project, I like to plan things out on paper in connected notes and sketches. This is fairly obvious when it comes to web design when you have blocks of content to organise. But even with illustration and font design, dotted paper helps me estimate proportion and divide the page up neatly.

Designer on speed-dial

Bethany Heck. I read her article on multi typeface design when I was in a formative stage of my growth as a designer and it completely blew my mind.

I had always been spoon-fed the idea that you should only use a maximum of 2 typefaces in a design but her rebellion against that taught me to question design conventions.

Colour

I’m using this green and yellow combo for a client branding project at the moment and it's giving me such fun, light-hearted energy. I've always loved yellow and how it seems inherently more bright and vivid than other colours—as though it refuses to calm down and step back.

Fonts

• Firm favourite: Inter by Rasmus Andersson.  If I ever need a reliable font that I can set and forget, this is what I fall back on. It’s open source, optimised for readability, and has a nice, neutral tone. It doesn't look half bad at headline sizes either!
• A distant love: Voyage by VJ Type. For me, it’s the peak of type design as art—with the most indulgent curves and details. However, I’ve never had a client project that I could justify using it in—it’s almost too dominant in its personality. I have tried it out on a personal project, where I could let it be the focus of the design. I've even considered getting the ampersand as a tattoo, it's just that stunning.
• Never again: Favorit by Dinamo. It’s not that I think it’s a bad typeface, it's a great design, but I had to use it as the primary font for a company I worked at where it just didn’t suit the information-heavy design I was doing. The quirks were a constant irritation—the 8 is heavier on top and I would constantly be asked if a bug had flipped it upside down!

Organisational method

Digital tools, but as basic as possible.

Simplenote and Clear are my go-to. The minimal functionality keeps me focused on the work itself, not the productivity.

Trusted advisor

This may be an unpopular opinion, but... clients. At the end of the day, they know what the result needs to be.

I had to learn how to navigate client relationships in a way that gets the right kind of feedback from them. Of course, there are difficult clients that make things hard but the good ones have helped me produce some of my best work.

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Elaine Thompson leads Pistachio Designs, an interior decorating firm based in NYC. AT Pistachio, Elaine ensures that each client's lifestyle is carefully considered and translated into a highly personalised home.

Meet at the milestones

When possible, I always prefer a face-to-face meeting to get to know new clients (zoom totally counts)—conversation typically flows best that way and we can really dive into the nitty gritty. As a project evolves, digital communication works well. Especially as we share reference images or floor plans and renderings. Milestone meetings are another great opportunity to chat things out, face-to-face, and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Design for life

Understanding my client's lifestyle is one of the most important factors when working through the design process. Lifestyle gives me a sense of what clients value most in their day-to-day lives and I use that information to inform my design choices.

Decisions aren't final

The most challenging part of the design process is probably all of the decisions that need to be made every step of the way. The smallest details can make a huge impact...it's a lot! I remind both my clients and myself that nothing in interior design needs to be permanent; it's ever-evolving and ok to change your mind down the road.

Client deep dive

We asked Elaine to imagine she was working with a couple who have just bought their first home—they only have a small space to work with but they have big ideas and dreams! How would she get a feel for the life they want to live here if she had just ~5 questions to work with?

Who do you turn to for style inspiration?

Is it a celebrity with a fabulous home? A favourite writer? A friend with great taste?

What is your favourite at-home activity?

The answer here is so telling, it really gives me a sense of this couple's lifestyle. Do they love staying in for a quiet evening catching up on their Netflix queue? Or do they prefer to host friends for dinner parties?

Where was your first trip together?

This is a fantastic icebreaker and usually leads to some fun stories too! The location and type of trip they took can also help provide inspiration for a colour palette or mood.

When did you realise you want to work with a designer?

Do they need help honing in on their design aesthetic? Do they get overwhelmed by the details of making a space feel 'complete' and need someone to narrow down choices to keep things progressing? The more I know about what a client's strengths and weaknesses are, the better we can all work together!

Why do you gravitate toward certain colour palettes?

Do you like muted colours for the calming effect they evoke or are you afraid you'll overdo it if you work with brighter, more saturated hues? Either way, I'm here to help!

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Find out more about Elaine's services on her website. Find interior inspiration on Elaine's Instagram.

Julia Edwards is a London-based makeup artist. Julia has been responsible for the beauty looks of Stormzy, Michaela Coel and Megan Barton-Hanson.

What shaped your appreciation for makeup?

Perhaps it is a cliché, but I grew up with a glamorous mother. I love looking at old photos of her and seeing her unwavering commitment to glamour. She wears a smokey eye every day, even if she’s just going to put the bins out!

I have always been fascinated by watching my mum apply her makeup. Although she’s definitely had some unusual application methods! She used to absolutely cake on her mascara and then meticulously separate her lashes using a safety pin—obviously don’t try this at home!

What is your go-to cure for creative block?

If I’m feeling uninspired, I stay off social media as much as I can. Comparison, when you’re already in a somewhat self-doubting or negative head space, only serves to make you feel worse.

I usually try to just ride out a creative dry spell. I find that if I focus on spending time with family and friends and doing things that make me happy, my creativity returns naturally by itself.

How do you want your work to be remembered?

That’s something I am still figuring out for myself at the moment. I feel like I am in quite a transitional phase of my career. I have a lot of plans and goals that I am keen to realise.

Since the pandemic, I have been more focused on stability and have naturally gravitated towards doing a lot of commercial work rather than overly creative and expressive projects. My work recently has been more commercial/clean or glam rather than experimental and editorial. I enjoy creating the latter and I’m itching to get back to it.

Whilst I love creating natural/no makeup-makeup looks, usually more is more for me. I’m in my element when creating a dramatic look.

Whatever style of makeup I’m doing, whether it’s a classic smudgy and sultry liner, a really juicy glossy lip or a more conceptual artistic look, I want whoever is wearing the makeup to feel powerful and sexy—whatever that means to them.

We asked Julia to share her 'bucket list concept'—the creative vision that she hopes to one day bring to life...

We asked Julia to share the creative vision at the top of her bucket list...

Glamourpuss

Growing up I was obsessed with two things: faces and cats. I’d love to do a beauty shoot that combines the two.

I'd create an ongoing beauty series where models pose next to a cat with visual similarities. For example, a ginger cat with a redhead model, a cat with heterochromia and a model with heterochromia, a sphynx cat and a model with a shaved head and so on.

I want models from all different ethnic backgrounds—the more diverse the range of human and cat faces featured, the more interesting the shoot will be. The odd celebrity featured in the series would also be fun! The model Sydney Harper is absolutely gorgeous and would be a fun way to kick off the series, I could see her posing with a Siamese cat.

I envision really luxe but simple and effective styling. Big chandelier diamond earrings, or a statement jewel necklace against a plain backdrop. I absolutely love Desiree Mattson’s work, the way she captures a mood and the overall feeling of opulence in her photography would be perfect for this concept.

The main technicality to overcome would be getting the cats to sit still and pose without being spooked by the camera!

Find out about Julia's work on her website. Find her on Instagram for never ending makeup inspiration.

Once upon a time, Louise Hall enrolled in a personal colour and style consultation with House of Colour—and it changed her life.

After weaving her new appreciation for colour, shape and style into her own wardrobe, Louise chose to share her knowledge further by setting up her own personal styling and colour consultancy, House of Colour La Jolla.

What's on offer

Face to face, Zoom, emails, or even Instagram DMs—you name it, Louise has used it to connect with her clients. Clients tend to reach out to Louise in the way they find the most convenient—and she's perfectly happy with that.

Louise offers two main consults: Personal Colour Analysis and Personal Style Analysis.

In her colour analysis, Louise searches for her client's most complimentary colour palette, including their “wow” colours. A colour analysis must be done in person and usually takes place in Louise's custom La Jolla studio.

Recipients of Louise's personal style analysis discover how to combine their body architecture with their own personality, to find styles that naturally look good on them, whilst reflecting their authentic selves. In short: they learn how to tell the world who they are.

Louise can conduct a personal style analysis in person or over Zoom—virtually works great too because it enables Louise to see inside a client’s entire closet if needed.

True to you

People can fall victim to liking something just because they believe they should. Because they were told to by a magazine, social media, friends or family.

Louise finds it can be a challenge to identify what is true to the individual, and what is a result of outside influence. When a client suffers from real difficulty in expressing how they feel about clothing items and what they truly like or dislike Louise remains patient and works harder to understand her client's character.

Dressing the whole woman

It’s not just about dressing a body type/shape, it’s about dressing the whole woman.

Louise works hard to understand the intricacies of her client's personalities so that she can effectively dress them from the inside out. "Sometimes we wear items that theoretically should work for our body architecture, but they still don’t feel right." That's because we don’t feel ourselves in them, and that's where Louise can help.

Louise loves receiving feedback from clients such as, “I never realised what a difference texture, pattern, flow etc. could make.” Or, “You’ve given me permission to truly express myself—the outside matches the inside.” But Louise's personal favourite? “You’ve changed my life!”

Client deep dive

We challenged Louise to lay the foundations for a thorough closet edit—if she had just 5 questions to work with.

What... do feel like when you wear this?

When... did you last wear this outside the house?

Why... settle for something that doesn’t make you feel amazing?

Who... are you wearing this for?

Where... do you spend most of your time? (Let’s make sure you have a great closet for that!)

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Got a question for Louise? Learn more about her services on her website. Find transformational stories and handy styling tips on her Instagram.

Samuel Geals fell in love with photography at a young age, and has continued to pursue his passion ever since. Today, Samuel works as a multidisciplinary photographer specialising in fashion editorial shoots.

Samuel is commited to collaborating with emerging models, to champion a new generation of faces within the fashion industry.

Find more of Samuel Geals' work on his website or check out his Instagram.

Meet Samuel Geals

When did you fall in love with fashion photography?

There were two formative moments in my desire to pursue fashion photography.

The first was working with a professional model. When I got into the studio and the model arrived, she looked through the clothing options and made it her own. She moved her body and followed my lens and it became more of a collaborative effort to create great images. This sense of collaboration continued as I started working more with teams of creatives. I'll always be addicted to the moments we all put our minds together to create something great.

The second, purchasing my first lighting diagram from a professional fashion photographer. For my next shoot, I booked the studio and set up the lights following every detail. Once I saw the image appear and what had been achieved I was hooked. I then started playing around with the lighting set-up, turning one light off or changing the lighting modifier for a different effect.

These two moments pushed me so far forward in such a small amount of time. I ran with it and haven’t stopped since.

Where do you find inspiration?

A lot of my work is inspired by lyrics written by metal/metalcore bands and most of my shoots are named after the song or band I was listening to when the idea came about. There’s something about the dark poeticism and fast beat that put a fire in me to create. I also regularly watch films with award-winning cinematography. Watching people at the top of their game create is inspirational in itself.

Although I do follow lots of magazines and other photographers' careers, it’s more common for me to take inspiration from music and film rather than from other photographers. I think that creative types, from all backgrounds, need to have different visual or auditory stimuli. Even if you were to go out into the city and see the world moving along or out into nature to clear your mind, it’s something different from the usual.

How do you hope your work is remembered?

Firstly, I want my work to be remembered for the timeless aesthetic that I love so much—the strength and power of the female (and male) form.

I’d also like it to be remembered by all the people involved in creating that photo shoot. From the make-up artists, hair stylists and clothing stylists to the brand, client or agency.

I like my images to serve a purpose and create a memory. Moving into the next phase of my photographic work, I’d now like to edge more into a political stance. Having been a listener of metal and punk since I was young, I’m now delving into my nostalgia and history to find new meaning.

We asked Samuel to share his 'bucket list concept'—the creative vision that he hopes to one day bring to life...

Dress for the revolution

I have been watching futuristic/sci-fi cinema—like the Blade Runner series and Equilibrium—and taking more notice of how they portray fashion and style in the future.

This very much ties in with my new phase of introducing a political and punk concept into my work.

I want to tell a story of the struggles between us, the citizens, and the governments and police forces that we reside under. There are so many ways to tell these stories, subtly or controversially—I feel it’s an area for me to explore and create a unique identity.

For the most part, I would like to create sets and shoot this idea in the studio. I'd need control over the lighting in order to create other-worldly shadows and harsh light. If I were to choose a location, it would be a very modern but heavily concreted area in a large and towering city, mixed with glass buildings and reflections.

Some of my inspiration for this concept came from Steven Klein and Steven Meisel. These two photographers are able to create a completely unique world—a fantasy if you will. They are able to take you away into a new dimension and they execute the image itself in a beautiful way, whether it’s raw and desaturated or heavily saturated with coloured gels on the lights.

I'd keep the styling open to interpretation from a number of different clothing stylists and brands, however I'd love to work with Tom Ford and Atsuko Kudo Latex.

I envision a mixture of eccentric clothing with exaggerated features, smart wear with clean and crisp lines, latex and bondage-type items, trench coats and clothing with interesting silhouettes. I'd want to incorporate accessories that allude to a dystopian society, such as oxygen tanks for a world where the air is no longer breathable and using police batons to create a menacing vibe.

I'd need models with strong faces that can pull off a menacing look. I like to work with new and upcoming models, but if I were to choose one model in particular it would be Steinberg—they have an inner innocence but a very metal/punk aesthetic.

I have already done some editorials moving in this direction which will help me to permanently introduce this aesthetic into my work. But this is a question with endless possibilities and this is only the beginning...