âRemember to do what makes you feel good. Give yourself authority.â - Abena Boamah-Acheampong
Friday morning at WeWork Kenzie was AMAZING. If you werenât able to make it in person, you can watch video of Abenaâs presentation on our Facebook page, and check out some highlights attendees shared below!
Quick #sketchnote on a great morning talk on anxiety with @beanieboamah and @Chicago_CM. #cmanxiety pic.twitter.com/KzpXbRfVLS
â stefani bachetti (@stefanibachetti) January 19, 2018
Weâre so excited to kick off 2018 with Abena Boamah-Acheampong, the founder and visionary behind Hanahana Beauty, a skincare brand committed to empowering women of color.Â
Check out our Q&A with Abena below– and join us this Friday at WeWork Kinzie! (Canât make it? Donât forget– you can livestream CreativeMornings events from our Facebook page!)
From what I understand, you began your journey to creating Hanahana Beauty by simply creating shea products and sharing them with your family and friends. When you decided to begin selling your products, what went into defining your business’ mission?
I officially launched Hanahana Beauty in March 2017, but I started selling in December 2016 right before Christmas via Instagram.
For me Hanahanaâs mission to empower women of color through creating all natural products was defined before I even launched because I was making shea butter for my self and that was one of the main reason why I continued to make my own products.
What three words that start with the letter âAâ would you use to describe yourself/your personality?
alluring, accessible, adventurous
Given Januaryâs global theme of anxiety, do you have a daily or weekly practice that you tap into for self-care?
I love to start my mornings in a routine– this usually involves a form of meditation and praying and then also dancing in the mirror for 30 minutes before starting my day.Â
In one sentence, how does Januaryâs global theme of anxiety play into your work?
I feel like every day managing school, Hanahana and administering therapy involves some level of anxiety from acknowledgment to management to just discussing it it in ways that will not cause more anxiety. Â Â
What three words describe how you felt after starting your business?
excited, overwhelmed, eagerÂ
What was the most surprising thing you learned after launching Hanahana Beauty?
I think the most surprising thing was truly understanding the process of making raw shea butter and realizing all the work that goes in to it.
What are the top three places you find inspiration?
In my bedroom
In Ghana
In the sun
December was a busy month! On December 6th, our amazing 2017 partner, agencyEA, hosted a special evening event in partnership with CreativeMornings/Chicago, the Obama Foundation and Shutterstock. With just a few hours and a table full of supplies, five teams of Chicago creatives were tasked with creating and presenting concepts for campaigns to inspire active citizenship. The winners, the team called #CitizensIRL, walked away with Golden Tickets to a 2018 CreativeMornings/Chicago event, and plans for a private reception in the Savage Smyth space.
On the 16th, we held our last CreativeMornings event of 2017: Audience Takes the Stage. Three members of the CM/Chicago community took us on interesting journeys into #CMContext. Bruno Pieroni talked about the creativity that emerges from constraints (and had some fun creating a presentation entirely in haiku format). Daniel Orbach talked about what designers can learn from fighter pilots, and Marta Cuciurean-Zapan discussed âdesign fictions,â and how designers can approach the challenge of designing for worlds, environments or circumstances that donât exist yet. It was a fascinating end to a great year. Thanks for joining us, creativesâ weâre so excited for what 2018 holds!
OODA proves that there's always time for structured, staged thinking before action. -- @Orbachdl at @Chicago_CM on fighter pilots and designers. #CMcontext
— Lisa VanAusdall (@MaskofSilence) December 15, 2017
Tomorrow is our last event of 2018! Weâre so excited to cap off the year with Audience Takes the Stage, featuring presentations from three of our very own community members– Bruno Pieroni, Marta Cuciurean-Zapan and Daniel Orbach.Â
Decemberâs global theme is Context, so, in that spirit, we reached out to Bruno, Marta and Daniel to learn more about them–namely, the things we canât learn just by reading their bios. Check out what they had to say below, and join us tomorrow at Sprout Social. Weâll bring the coffee and treats. See ya there, morning people!
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List three words that begin with the letter C to describe yourself/your personality.
Bruno: Curious, centered, Carioca (google it!).
Daniel: Candid, clever, and charming.Â
Marta: Curious, cheerful, and interested in culture.
In one sentence, how does context (Decemberâs global theme) play into your work?
Marta: In anthropology and human centered design, we look to the context of people’s lives to create impactful, relevant, and desirable experiences.
Bruno:Â Because I work with very different clients and very different teams all year long, context is key; what is a great idea/pitch/joke to one group of people may be seem completely off-brief/off-brand/inappropriate to another group.
Daniel:Â In consulting, context is everything. Understanding your client and where they’re coming from informs the work you do on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, we’re able to transpose useful insights and information from one industry to another. The industries themselves are contexts. Finally, knowing the right tools to use in a given situation is also dependent on context. For example, the tools you can use to do user research depend on where you’re doing research and a variety of other factors; the tools you use to actually build out a design depend on the geographic context of your developers as well. It’s all context.
How does Chicago influence you and/or your work?
Marta: The rich history of work and design, as well as cultural and neighborhood events.
Bruno:Â It would be enough if the city was simply the home of some of the worldâs most talented creatives, which it is. What makes this city different, however, is how often those creatives are willing to share their process, their insights, and their stories in free events like this, lectures at the city colleges that are open to the public, and workshops led by any of those crazy talented people all over town. You could literally spend a whole week hopping from an inspiring talk by an artist at the MCA one evening, to a Chicago Humanities Festival panel the next, to a Second City class the following day, to a workshop with Jay Ryan the next morning, to a CreativeMornings event that Friday.
Daniel:Â Being from Chicago originally (okay, okay, the north suburbs) it’s difficult to separate Chicago from the rest of me because it’s such a foundational aspect of my identity. Growing up in Chicago has definitely fostered my love for all things sports, and all things food (especially the unhealthy type). The cityâs identity is also the perfect fusion of midwestern friendliness and humility crossed with big city culture and impact. People move here because they love it, and the city is really a part of who they are. It keeps me grounded and excited for the future. Additionally, living here in the winters isn’t easy, but it’s always a good reminder to never give up! There’s always a spring around the corner.
What has been your most memorable CreativeMornings experience to date?
Daniel:Â I loved the CreativeMornings a while back with Susan Messing & Rachael Mason. It was also my first ever CM/Chicago, but that’s almost besides the point. They did such an unreal job captivating and energizing a room full of sleepy adults, and they did it all off the top of their heads. It was unreal, and gave me a deeper appreciation for the power of presentation.
Marta:Â Dawn Hancock for the trajectory of building a business with purpose, Sonnenzimmer for a unique presentation, and Rashayla Marie Brown for her striking work and insight into the Art Institute community.
Bruno:Â I saw Kevin Lynch, creator of @yearbnb, in 2015, and was so inspired by his self-imposed project (spending a year living in different Airbnbs around Hong Kong, one week at a time) and the funniest CM talk I had heard thus far, that I started following him on Instagram right away. We started commenting on each otherâs photos, and last January met up for dinner in Shanghai, where I got to follow up with his project and career and get a million recommendations for Hong Kong. It was like having my own CreativeMorning â even though it was evening (wait, it was probably morning here in Chicago! It counts!)
What are the top three places you find inspiration?
Marta:Â Art installations to inspire the design of experiences, environments, and emotions; novels to put myself in someone else’s mind and how the story is told; the enthusiasms of other people.
Bruno: I get a lot of ideas while walking, so⊠sidewalks? Iâm grateful to have very talented and creative friends, who are not only far more cultured than I am but are also very generous with their time and knowledge when I try to pick their brains (my talk, for example, wouldnât have happened if I hadnât done some good, old-fashioned brain picking). Finally, I know thereâs a lot of (fair) criticism of social media and what it does to us, but Iâm a big fan of all the amazing photos, drawings, and art in general I can soak in just flicking my thumb over my phone screen for ten minutes (or maybe Iâm just lazy).
Daniel:Â This first one is a weird one, but those moments right before I fall asleep are somehow SO inspiring. I keep a notebook/phone by my bed and frequently find myself having amazing, creative ideas when I’m about to hit the hay for the night. Second is probably reading. I read a ton of non-fiction (hardly any fiction, though) and love learning about those weird niche stories and histories no one has really brought together. My talk at CM is actually inspired by a book I read! I’m currently reading one about the history of energy and how it’s influenced the evolution of society. Endlessly interesting. Finally, for visual inspiration, I actually have a curated set of RSS feeds I check every morning. I had a professor say that your visual vocabulary is like a muscle, and looking at inspirational images is how you exercise that muscle. I try to look at 50-100 images a day from different blogs/channels/feeds that I find interesting and inspiring. I’m a big fan of Nick Felton, House Industries, Gather Home & Lifestyle (local fave), and AIGAâs Eye on Design Instagram account.
Whatâs one fun fact about you thatâs not in your official bio?
Daniel: I’ve never had a hot cup of coffee in the morning. I always thought coffee tasted disgusting, and had never actually had a coffee in it’s entirety before I tried one over the summer. I’ve had sips here and there and always hated it. Hopefully I can stave off the addiction and keep living off of my natural energies.
Marta:Â I took swim classes this summer so I could learn the “put your face in the water” part that seems so important.Â
Bruno:Â I can recite virtually every line in the movie âHigh Fidelity.â But I try not to.
In a humorous and enlightening talk, our November (#CMDeath) speaker, Jana Kinsman (of Bike a Bee), spoke about bees, why we should care about them, and about the amazing work she is doing in our own city to help them thrive. Enjoy some highlights captured by community members below– and a timely reminder from Janaâs talkâ winter is the best time to sign up for a CSA!
âWealth has nothing to do with money.â @bikeabee #CreativeMornings #CMDeath
â Carina Sherman (@CarinaSherman) November 17, 2017
Next Friday, illustrator and beekeeper Jana Kinsman will be presenting on Novemberâs global theme of Death, touching on a less focused-on angleâ the declining bee population and how beesâ survival is closely intertwined with our own.Â
To give you a little preview– and because weâre so excited to learn more about the awesome work she does in our city–we reached out to Jana early with a few questions.Â
Check out the interview below, and join us next Friday at Savage Smyth!
What three words that start with the letter “D” would you use to describe yourself/your personality?
Determined, diligent, defiant
I understand Bike a Bee’s workspace is based out of The Plant. Has being a part of The Plant’s community changed your practice or your business in any way?
If anything it reinforces it. We all encourage each other to be more sustainable, and support one another in that direction. Everyone there is also an incredible resource in every wayâhelp, materials, ideas, friendship
What has been a surprising part of sharing your beekeeping with schools and community spaces?
How willing and excited many places are to host a beehive full of stinging insects. I thought it would be harder, but so many of the locations will do anything to get one!
What’s the first thing you like to share with people who are unfamiliar with the practice of beekeeping?
That you’re dealing with a wild insect super-organism, that it’s nothing like a pet dog or farm chicken. That it’s a craft, and a very challenging one, and that failure is part of the experience.
How did your portrait service Doodlebooth come into being?
I was invited to sell prints of my work at a designer-centric holiday fundraiser but I didn’t have any so I asked if I could draw people at the party for $10 each. It was a hit, and as I was leaving i said to the organizer, “I’m going to turn this jnto a business! I’ll call it doodlebooth, like photobooth but with doodles!” Two weeks later I had a business plan and a domain registered.
Whatâs one valuable thing youâve learned from observing bees?
Countless things. Truly. It has been lifechanging. You see the interconnectedness of the entire world.
Given this monthâs theme of death, what has beekeeping taught you about the circle of life?
Exactly that. That life is a circle. The seasons are a circle. everything has a purpose and a reason in nature and life.
I read that some cultures have mythologies that describe bees as a connection between the natural world and the afterlife. Does the practice of beekeeping vary greatly around the world?
Oh yes. Apis mellifera, the species of bee we keep in the US, is originally from eurasia. Many ancient civilizations kept bees. Many were honey hunters who took honey and bee larvae from wild colonies. To humans, ancient or modern, the idea of a social insect is fascinating and warrants deep respect.Other Apis species are kept in different ways in other areas of the world, like in India or China or south america. It’s a fascinating wide world of insect stewardship! But with Apis mellifera, the basics of the craft of beekeeping have changed very little. The hives and tools have been tweaked over the decades but the basic principles remain the same.
âCreate a business plan when youâre seven years old… and then never create a business plan again.â - Saya Hillman (Mac & Cheese Productions)
Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for an incredible and hilarious morning with Saya Hillman for #CMPioneer! Each month, we love seeing what you enjoyed most and took away from each talk. Check out some highlights from Fridayâs event below!
Recipe for how to be a successful pioneer: remove boredom from your vocabulary. -@sayahillman @Chicago_CM #findyourhappy #creativemornings
â Emily Stone (@TheEmilyJStone) October 27, 2017
@Chicago_CM Rejection. Get up, transform, continue. #CMPioneer
â Lisa Williams (@lcmwilliams) October 27, 2017
âWhen itâs dark, ask for light. When you have light, share with others.â @sayahillman #CMCHI #Lifeofyes pic.twitter.com/WwKPxNMGGe
â Chelsea Baer (@chelseabaer_) October 27, 2017
âTransform your stumbles into goodness â -@sayahillman @Chicago_CM
â Abby Brown (@abbybrowndesign) October 27, 2017
Next week weâll be joined by Saya Hillman, âHead Cheese-Itâ of Mac & Cheese Productionsâ , who, in deciding to blaze her own path towards her âLife of Yesâ â through the creation of Mac & Cheese Productions, has helped countless others embrace their own Life of Yes, and all the positivity, self-efficacy, playfulness, & community that comes with. We couldnât wait until next week to hear from Saya, so check out our brief interview with her below, and set your reminder to register for tickets Monday morning (10/23) starting at 11am!
Details and registration here.
Define what this month’s theme, PIONEER, means to you in one sentence or less.
Either I don’t fit in any of the already existing boxes or already existing boxes lack what I want so I’m going to create my own box and invite others to join me.
List three words that begin with the letter âMâ to describe yourself/your personality.
Magnetic
Multifaceted
Mindful
In three words, describe how you felt when you first started Mac & Cheese Productions.
Go, don’t think.âŠ
How do you come up with M&C’s Offerings (e.g. Sleepaway Camp, Idea Potluck)?
I question:
What is one daily practice/habit that helps you cultivate a Life of Yes?
I work from home so I clean right before I go to bed or right when I wake up (ideally, the former so that I can hit the ground running in the AM). My mind is much more likely to be inspired, relaxed, and motivated when my environment is serene, decluttered, and inviting. I also take cleaning breaks throughout the day, when I still want to be productive but need to get up from the computer and move my body. Some of my best ideas come when I’m scrubbing toilets. (Also why I now have a “housecleaner” branch on the Mac & Cheese tree – get paid to do something I love, am good at, and you hate? OK!).
Whatâs your favorite thing about being your own boss?
Autonomy – 10AM Tuesday yoga or Trader Joe’s, afternoon naps, wake up slowly via the sun not the alarm, no pants most days, take random days off and spontaneous trips, make decisions without having to run them by anyone, choose when I want to be “on” and interact with others and when I need Saya-Time, adding and subtracting branches to the Mac & Cheese tree when I want, no time-wasters (meetings, protocol, conference calls, office small talk, red tape, inefficient systems).
What is one piece of advice you’d share with someone who wants to blaze a new path for themselves, whether starting a business, going to school, accepting an exciting new role, or making another big life decision?
The Perfect Time Unicorn, and his cousins More Time and Better Time, don’t exist. Stop waiting for the perfect time, more time, or a better time to take that trip, quit your job, move to another city, ask that cute barista out. You will never win that game. All your ducks will never line up. Your future self will not have more time than your current self. There will always be an excuse not to jump. Just jump. Nike the bejeezus out of life and just do it. Whatever it is. You can always change course, you can always come back.
Last Friday at Savage Smyth, Rule29 founder and Creative Director Justin Ahrens joined us to talk Compassion. Justin shared the story of how “a few knucklehead friends with an ideaâ grew into Wheels4Water, and how Wheels4Water has evolved and come to raise more than $430,000 and help more than 10,750 people receive safe water, sanitation & hygiene training.
Check out some highlights attendees shared below, and stay tuned for news of this monthâs speaker!
Loved today’s talk from the always energetic, heartfelt and inspiring @justinahrens for @chicago_cm’s #compassion theme. #creativemornings pic.twitter.com/K8wK4XoYpY
â Sara Novak (@senovak) September 29, 2017
Great takeaways from today’s @Chicago_CM #NationalCoffeeDay âïž Creative Mornings! Thanks @justinahrens! #CMtakeaway pic.twitter.com/vo6XY5wCXD
â Artisan Talent (@ArtisanTalent) September 29, 2017
On September 29th, weâll hear from Rule29 Principal and Creative Director, Justin Ahrens, presenting on Septemberâs theme of Compassion. We reached out to Justin early to share a little insight with you, and he responded during a more than 3,000-mile bike ride!Â
That bike ride, his project Wheels4Water, has, since 2014, aimed to bring awareness and funds to community water projects throughout Africa. With the help of communities across America, the 2014-2016 rides raised more than $230,000. In 2017, W4W is bringing clean water & sanitation to a school and village in Uganda, and hopes to bring the total number of people who have gained access to safe water through their work to 10,000.Â
Join us on September 29th at Savage Smyth, and check out our Q&A with Justin below!
Define what this month’s theme, Compassion, means to you in one sentence or less.
For me, compassion means the idea to give of oneself, or oneâs possessions was never invented. It is an innate part of humanity. We give to share. We give to love. We give to make the world a better place.
What does it mean to you to “make creative matterâ?
This is part of how I typically describe it:
We understand design changes our experience.
We know stories shape us.
That wonder awakens us.
And the only way that tomorrow will be better than todayâŠ
Is if we help others see possibility more clearly.
And this is why we make creative matter.
List three words that begin with the letter âCâ to describe yourself/your personality.
- Curious
- Collaborator
- Caring
Can you share a person or project that embodies your definition of compassion?
Sister Mary Corita Kent: I loved her passion coming through in her art and how she wanted to influence others to see the world differently - Â http://corita.org/
What are the top three places you find inspiration?
- Music
- Making space to shoot images daily
- Travel & Adventure
How does your work with Rule29 influence your nonprofit/charity work?
The work is really intertwined. Each type of work we do really informs and makes the other types of work better. Primarily in the way we ask questions and the posture we take whether its for profit or non-profit. In many ways the exploring, process and developing of the story for each now looks very similar but continues to evolve.
Where did the name âRule29â come from?
We wanted a name that would make people ask what the meaning was and then we tell themâŠ
