#057 Creative Jargon ft. Ali LaBelle

"I don’t believe the notion that you’re either creative or you aren’t; I think that if you’re curious, introspective, and willing to practice, creativity is available to all of us."

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Oct 17, 2023

Happy Tuesday,

I've got a special guest today — Ali LaBelle, a creative director and strategist based in sunny LA. Just last week, I shared Ali's newsletter as one of my top 5 favorite Substack newsletters.

À La Carte

is packed with creative suggestions, carefully curated shopping recommendations, and valuable job-seeking advice (a recent issue on portfolio sites is available to free subscribers, so you might want to give it a look). Featuring her work today is truly an honor, as it embodies everything I believe creativity should represent. Long story short, I am a fan, and I’m hoping all of you will be as well!

— Wilda <3

Creative Jargon ft. Ali LaBelle

Introduce yourself

I’m Ali LaBelle, a creative director and strategist in Los Angeles, California. I have a branding studio called Ali LaBelle Creative, where I build identities and develop creative strategies for small businesses that have a lot of heart behind them. I also write À La Carte, a newsletter about living a life of curiosity and creativity. And I run an Instagram account called Pasta Girlfriend! In short, I do a lot of different things, but the through-lines between them are that I love the process of sourcing inspiration and understanding how it impacts our points of view and supporting other creatives along the way.

Tell us about your creative process

I’m a daydreamer, so visualization exercises are a big part of my creative process (for anything — client work, designing my house, whatever!) I don’t believe the notion that you’re either creative or you aren’t; I think that if you’re curious, introspective, and willing to practice, creativity is available to all of us. In order for me to stay creatively agile, I have to exercise my brain the same way I exercise my body, and I do that by consistently going down rabbit holes, being open to discovery, and doing little self-guided activities. I write about them a lot in my newsletter!

Share a thought or reflection

I saw Tibi founder Amy Smilovic speak at an event a few months ago and was furiously typing fragments of what she shared into my Notes app. She was there to talk about her book, The Creative Pragmatist, which is about identifying and understanding your personal style. One of the things I wrote was, “You have three ways to communicate: your words, your actions, and your visuals.”

Share an interesting link

The New Antiquarians

I just bought The New Antiquarians, a design book written by Michael Diaz-Griffith and designed by my internet friend Elizabeth Goodspeed. It’s a beautiful book worth buying for the images alone, but as a bit of a “new antiquarian” myself, I found a sort of distant kinship with the people whose homes are featured. Vogue did a piece on it recently that gives you a peek inside!

Share a new resource

JOBS and other resources from Ali

I’d be remiss not to plug JOBS, my weekly round-up of creative job opportunities on my Stories. I post every Thursday morning (I’m on a short break currently, but I’ll be back at it soon!) and include roles across design, fashion, publishing, media, and more.

Share a design favorite

Leo Costelloe

I recently stumbled across the work of Leo Costelloe, an artist and jewelry designer based in London. Leo makes beautiful pieces out of metal and glass that look like realistically imperfect ribbons and bows, and they are stunning. I especially love the art objects he makes, like this silver fork.

A few things from me

Last week, I wrote a newsletter on building a newsletter and shared 6 lessons I’ve learned since sending my first issue. Give it a read if you haven’t!
If you live somewhere where fall isn’t as colorful (hello from Central Florida), you might want to check out this list of the 21 best places to see fall foliage.
My favorite hobby is digging up founder interviews from successful businesses, like this one from Baggu’s founder, Emily Sugihara. Was anyone else aware that Baggu is a 16-year-old brand?!

Daughter's House

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