Issue 15: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

We’re all ears

Our mission is to deliver a weekly hit of creativity to your inbox. Now we’ve done 15 issues, we’d love to know how we might do it better. Do we need to broaden our coverage to include style tips from Doja Cat? Should we offer a look-ahead to Bridgerton Season Three? Or something else. Write to Sir John Hegarty at: John@thegaragesoho.london.

OPINION/ CREATIVITY 

Code breaker: tenets for better work

💬 Sir John Hegarty

Everyone needs a code to live by.

In the course of my career, I’ve discovered ten rules for creative business (I’m aware that the list below contains eleven, but the last one is a bonus). Whenever I’ve adhered to them, work has soared, and things have often turned out better than expected. I hope they help you with whatever you’re trying to get done this week.

1. Be an optimist. 
   You have to believe that you are going to have an impact and make the world a better place. Energy and enthusiasm are contagious.
2. Remove the headphones.
   The world is full of inspiration. Listen.
3. Mix with the best.
   Great thinkers congregate, learn from each other and get inspired.
4. Read shit.
   Read good things in the hope it will rub off. Also, read outside your discipline to give yourself an unexpected advantage.
5. Respect your ego.
   Ego is “I”, your sense of belief, your opinion. Don’t allow this to become “hubris”. This is when your self-importance is too high.
6. Respect, don’t revere.
   Admire ideas, not people. The former don’t let you down.
7. Constantly question.
   Children are restless and constantly questioning. This is how their knowledge expands. Don’t be afraid to ask the unusual question. It will expand your knowledge.
8. Embrace juxtaposition.
   It will dramatize your message and encourage your audience to question ‘why?’.
9. Never exclude.
   Creativity is an expression of self. Make sure you have as many different people in the room as possible.
10. Be inspired by beauty.
    Everyday beauty is all around you – just look for it. It will lift your creative spirit.
11. There are no rules.

THE AGENDA

1.
Parents’ Day is a national holiday in South Korea dedicated to mothers and fathers. With the country’s cultural exports in the ascendancy, it’s a reminder that creativity often begins at home – with a bit of early encouragement.
8th May  

2.
The EU marks Europe Day. It’s 74 years since the Schuman Declaration created an economic alliance between France and Germany (and prevented further fall-outs). Rio Carnival it isn’t. The bloc’s achievements can be saluted by a ruminative walk around the Roman amphitheatre-inspired European Parliament in Strasbourg.
9th May

3.
For a celebration of everything hand-made, head to sites around the UK capital for London Craft Week. It comprises of around 750 makers, designers, brands and galleries. Highlights promise to be a glass-blown installation from artist Dale Chihuly, and Hauser & Wirth’s Objects of Contemplation.
13th – 19th May

Finding Nemo
Contributor: ANP / Alamy Stock Photo

EUROPE / MUSIC

Nul points

Unmissable – and unlistenable. The 68th Eurovision Song Contest kicks off today in Malmö, with a series of semi-finals before the big show on Saturday. Expect the usual kitsch displays of European unity: a violin quintet from Moldova, a Croatian pop star named Baby Lasagne and a black-clad Ukrainian duo performing an ode to Mother Theresa. Odds are on Switzerland’s Nemo who is being lauded for a sort of opera-influenced rap that they perform in an upper register. The contest itself is a reminder that there’s a difference between what people will vote for, and what they will pay for. While Eurovision gets dizzying viewing figures, artists that perform well on the programme rarely score highly in the actual charts.

Contributor: Clo’e Floirat

CREATIVE HACK

Solitude

Too much collaboration is a bad thing. Making time for quiet seclusion enables deep thinking to happen.

UK / MEDIA

Box-art

Stars of the small screen will be in the spotlight this weekend at the BAFTA TV Awards. The ceremony will be hosted by comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett on Sunday at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Television is one of the UK’s most important cultural exports, and the industry’s biggest night sees international smash-hits like The Crown and Top Boy celebrated. Also up for multiple awards is Succession, which Brits have legitimate claim over given creator Jesse Armstrong hails from Shropshire. But it’s not just big drama series that will be getting their due at the ceremony, there are also categories for news coverage, with Sky News nominated for its coverage of conflict in Myanmar and the Israel-Hamas War. Reality TV shows are also up for prizes, with Married At First Sight and Squid Game: The Challenge nominated. From the high-brow to the low, it’s an important celebration of the art of television-making in all its forms.

Slick Rick: expensive tastes. Strong neck.
Contributor: WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

NEW YORK / ART

All gold everything 

As Jay-Z says, Diamonds Is Forever. Jewellery has a prominent place in hip hop culture. Since the dawn of the genre in 1970s Brooklyn, its stars have been characterised by a penchant for flashy, diamond-encrusted accessories and New York’s American Museum of Natural History will be paying homage to these artfully-crafted status symbols with its new show Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewellery. From Thursday, visitors to the museum’s recently revamped Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems will be treated to a display featuring pieces worn by the likes of the Notorious B.I.G., A$AP Rocky and Nicki Minaj. The institution is known for prehistoric fossils and scientific collections, but a contemporary display like this shows that an OG museum can still keep it real.

The creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.

/Elizabeth Gilbert