Culture of C-A-R-E
Hello there,
It's been a while, so let's start from the top.
In May, my first picture book came out into the world. It's called Woei, het wonder van de wind, and I still get a little flutter every time I say that out loud. You can find it at the publisher, and I wrote a bit more about the process and the book itself over here. Making something for children, something that has to hold up under a seven-year-old's relentless questions taught me more about clarity than most client briefs ever have.
Speaking of CLARITY. Before summer properly started, I sat down and built an overview of the services and products I offer as a freelance designer ~ to have it all in one place. If you, or someone you know, has a project that could use design thinking, this is what you need right now: 📍 www.agatasmok.be/services. Consider it a wide open door 💌.
And then, in July, I closed the laptop properly.
We took some analogue time as a little family, with no real agenda, and lots of slower days. I read books instead of scrolling and I started and actually finished some knitting projects, which is rarer than I'd like to admit.
Somewhere in that slowness, something clicked. I'd been carrying a set of values around in the back of my head for a while, quietly guiding decisions without ever being named. This July I finally sat with them long enough to write them down, and I gave them a name too: the Culture of C~A~R~E.
C~larity. Clarity over decoration. Complex ideas deserve to be understood, not only presented. Design has to work, not impress.
A~ccessibility. Accessibility for different audiences and abilities. Approachable science and innovation for non-experts.
R~esponsibility. Responsibility for quality, resources, and the output. Information systems that outlast the designer.
E~quity. Equity by recognising the unique challenges faced by individuals, and providing tools and support tailored to their needs.
(Also: why use - dashes - when you can use ~ squiggles ~?)
Coming back from all that slowness (and nature, and birds, and sunsets), I kind of expected to dread the return. Instead I came back buzzing! BUZZING! Genuinely, embarrassingly enthusiastic. Some of the projects I'm deep in right now keep getting paused because of my own holidays or my work-pals' holidays, and honestly, that's fine. STILL BUZZING. There's this lovely rhythm of picking things back up with fresh eyes. I know how lucky that makes me.
One of the projects pulling me back in is the visual identity for SpaceUp. A colourful logo, and a set of templates that we keep improving. Every time I learn something new, I try to fold it back into the files, so that whoever picks them up later inherits something a little smarter than before. SpaceUp already has a website and a life of its own on LinkedIn, so I watch that identity being used and it makes me so happy and proud.
If I'm honest, I've also noticed something less flattering about myself this stretch. My enthusiasm, the same enthusiasm that got me buzzing after the holidays, can tip over into overwhelming for clients. I send things because I'm excited, and forget to explain why it matters or how it makes their life easier down the line. So that's something I'm actively working on: saying less, but saying it clearer. Turns out that's the C-A-R-E values talking back to me already.
I also finished a flyer about EOV Network and GOOS Essential Ocean Variables, the backbone of a sustained global ocean observing system. Which felt very on the nose this summer.
Just last week, I wrapped up a cover design for a PhD dissertation. More on that one soon, since it has not officially launched yet.
And, quietly, in the background, a new game design has started taking shape. A new game!! This one feels different, like it might be the best game I've designed yet. I'm building it together with some genuine superheroes from the University of Seeburg in Austria and Inetum in Spain, and I can't wait to tell you more once it's ready to be shown. I’m collecting notes about the process too to make it into a neat Case Study later.
So that's where things stand. A book out in the world, a services page finally live, values with a name, and a very full plate that I'm genuinely happy to be eating from again.
More soon,
Agata x
