The Jotter - issue 33
“Build something 100 people will love, not something one million people kind of like.”
Brian Chesky.
Hello,
I attended Purposefest in Bristol this month. Its aims are admirable. Encouraging people, communities and businesses to live with purpose. I met many interesting and genuinely committed people.
However, at times it was a little too self-congratulatory.
Where was the challenge to businesses who are using purpose not as a principle, but as a marketing strategy?
Why did a presenter celebrate B Corp, yet in the next sentence tut at Nestle without mentioning that their Nespresso business is now B Corp and the emerging struggle with the soul of the movement?
In our social media addled world, where nuance is rare, once we take a side we seem less willing (or brave?) to challenge our echo chamber.
“That’s why the time to resist is at the point you find yourself going along with conventional wisdom. It’s uncomfortable to be the outsider. But the only opportunity you have to think is before you join the herd. Once you’ve joined, it’s too late.”
Dave Trott
There are many businesses who genuinely practice ‘purpose’ (as demonstrated in the March Rooster Talk by Ben Veal) and many who deserve their B Corp status.
But some are jumping on the bandwagon and their motivations need to be questioned. If ‘purpose’ and B Corp are to mean something, average won’t do.
Onwards
Andrew
01, The age of average
"... from film to fashion and architecture to advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché.
Distinctiveness has died. In every field we look at, we find that everything looks the same.
Welcome to the age of average... but the age of average is the age of opportunity.”
Why does every car look the same?
02, Architecture
This month David Chipperfield was selected as the 2023 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Described as “architecture’s highest international accolade”.
I have only seen two David Chipperfield buildings and both inspired a sense of wonder. I want to see them all.
San Michele Cemetery, Venice (June 2018)
Hepworth Galley, Wakefield (November 2022)
03, Magazine
Issue 1 of Superstore Wilderness (exploration and adventures in our edgelands) has articles and photos on how walkers and cyclists interact with the unplanned, liminal spaces on the edges of where we live.
I am half way through and I don’t want to reach the end.
“Wastelands, dirtlands, wilderness, barrens... we burden our liminal spaces with largely negative descriptions. Such are the ways of the modern age: pick a side, polarise, partition. But what of the wonders that hide in the cracks, and what better than a life spent living in the margins?”
04, Walking
04,01. To Wander
An inbox highlight is the arrival of Harry Watson weekly Musing. This week he describes what it is to be a flâneur. He sees himself as one, as do I.
04,2. The 12 hour walk
Sophie Cross, editor of Freelancer Magazine, shares her experiences of doing an ‘unplugged’ 12 hour walk which has left her “brimming with business ideas and clarity.”
04,03. Dérive
I discovered the concept of dérive, or drifting, in the aforementioned Superstore Wilderness. As opposed to the idle wondering of a flâneur, drifting uses playful prompts to get lost in a city so you can experience it in a new way.
05, Photography
When I arrived in Bristol as a student in 1986 the docks were in a state of flux. The Watershed and the Arnolfini had opened, but there were still empty warehouses ripe for refurbishment and levelled land awaiting new structures.
Photos taken by Jem Southam between 1978 - 1983 have been published in a new photobook. They show how it once looked before redevelopment took hold. One day, I’d like to retrace his steps and take photos from the same spot.
Canon’s Marsh Goods Station 1978 by Jem Southam
06, Job opportunity
(Thank you Tim LeRoy for sharing this on Twitter).
07, Work.
Chris Killip was described by the BBC as “one of the UK's most important and influential post-War photographers.” For the last couple of months I have been working with the Chris Killip Trust to design a new website. You can read more about the design influences here.
It was time to give Dunleavy Vineyards a facelift to reflect their lovely new labels designed by Jodie Newman. Updated logo, a new font and some tweaks to spacing makes the website feel snazzily new.
I had two photo projects in two very different settings this month. I photographed composer, James Dorman, in a Bristol brutalist car park and the Hanover Fox team in a Wiltshire Georgian spa.
Thank you for reading the March Jotter. The next issue will spring into life on Friday 28th April at 11am. In the meantime I hope you enjoy seeing the spring flowers bloom and listening to the birds singing.
Onwards
Andrew
“When burdened by the feeling that there are too many photographs in the world, I ask myself if there are too many flowers.”