Strands of Genius: Ana Mendieta Should Still Be Alive, Fuck You. Pay Me, Captured Ephemera...Plus a Love & Victory giveaway
Guest curated by Meg Moorhouse
Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by Meg Moorhouse, Designer, Love & Victory
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, MEG MOORHOUSE::
LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Love & Victory
Hey, there. Meg here.
First and foremost, I’m a designer. When asked my favorite album today, I could only name one of the top three (current top 3 — tastes change!). The others I was only able to describe in layout and colors. To be fair, each of those albums (Gloria Scott’s What Am I Gonna Do and Marie Queenie Lyons’ Soul Fever are the artists’ only releases.
I run a design studio in Brooklyn, Love & Victory, which is bigger in ambition than size. I can design most things (that feels like a bit of a dare), but my work mostly focuses on the liquor industry — think apparel, barware, and other swag for lovers of cocktails. Occasionally, I design for music or film, and I’ve been thrilled to take on more and more illustration work.
When I'm not in the studio, I'm probably hunting down records or eating Sichuan dry hot pot at my favorite joint in my 'hood. Hit me up for Sunset Park eating recs if that's your jam ;)
Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): Meg is the founder of design studio Love & Victory, “a one-stop resource for thoughtfully-designed, quality goods that shine a spotlight on her favorite things: delicious food, stiff drinks, soulful tunes, and socially relevant causes.” I discovered her work back in 2018, when I fell in love with Meg’s “woman with whiskey pin.” And now we’ve been collaborating with her on party favors for an event we’re hosting. We’ve absolutely loved working with her and love what she represents! Thanks for being the awesome person you are, Meg.
All Strands subscribers have been entered to win a Set of 4 Cocktail Recipe Bandanas! Scroll down for details on how to snag extra entries below :)
:: THE LINKS ::
ANA MENDIETA SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE
I binged this podcast so hard — as in, I stayed up til 3am ’til I finished all 6 episodes. It investigates the untimely death of Cuban-born, feminist artist Ana Mendieta — likely at the hands of her husband, celebrated artist Carl Andre. She fell 34 floors from her NYC apartment window just months after their marriage. The story is pretty damning for Andre, but the podcast shows how his reputation was perhaps not tarnished enough. (Pushkin)
FUCK YOU. PAY ME
Every business owner should watch this talk (the most popular Creative Mornings talk of all time) by Mule Design co-founder Mike Monteiro. The most hilarious quote from it? “Starting work without a contract is like putting on a condom after taking a home pregnancy test.” I have a hand painted sign above my desk with this emblazoned on it. Know your worth. (YouTube)
CAPTURED EPHEMERA
Am I really sharing this? Shame on me. One of my favorite sources for music ephemera from the Brooklyn record shop, Captured Tracks. One of my favorite purchases was an ESG show flier. Pro tip: set post alerts to find out about new stuff first. (Instagram)
Looking for more from Meg Moorhouse? Those enrolled in The School of Stolen Genius will receive a deep dive from her in their inbox shortly! You can access all our expert interviews for SOSG here.
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Woodoku
:: City :: Philadelphia
:: Book :: Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
:: Podcast :: We Can Do Hard Things (I can't decide if I'm willing to admit that.)
:: Album :: Bettye Swann's Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me
::DEFEND ::
xo Meg
PS: Dig soul music as much as I do? Give this a whirl.
:: HOW TO WIN A SET OF 4 COCKTAIL RECIPE BANDANAS::
Just by being a subscriber, you’ll already be entered to win. However, we’ve also got a few ways for you to earn some extra entries, capped at 100 entries per person.
All you have to do is share a link to the newsletter in some capacity, and send an email to ashley@geniussteals.co on or before November 30th.
Here’s the scoop:
Sharing on social media = 5 extra entries, per platform. You’ll send a link to your post(s) to Ashley.
Sending an email to your team/department = 25 extra entries. We hope your team will thank you! Forward your email to Ashley for your extra entries.
Sending an email to your whole company = 50 entries. Damn, look at you willing to use that all-agency list serv. Thanks, we appreciate that! Forward your email to Ashley for extra entries.
We would like to grow our subscribers so obviously this is helpful for us and we are incentivizing that a little bit but we also believe that sharing is caring, that people we meet always tell us they find this newsletter unique and useful amongst the advertising industry, both broad and personal, and if you like it, wouldn’t people you like enjoy it too?
We’ll select winners on December 1st, and announce the winners on December 5th.
:: WHAT TO SHARE ::
We’re leaving that up to you. We’d love for you to share what you love about the newsletter, or why you read it, or what you appreciate about it — but just sharing a link will still get you extra entries.
We’ve flagged some of the more popular editions of Strands of Genius here, in case you want to share a past edition:
There was that edition where we explored grief, which included links about overcoming productivity dysmorphia, when a major life change upends your sense of self, and 3 questions to ask about trends.
Or the edition where we highlighted social media bans around the world, which included links about why community matters so much, retouching and influencer marketing, and shrinking The Gap (how the clothing brand lost its way.)
We covered the tough topic of abortions in May, and included links on big ideas in advertising, why Marvel is the most important cinematic innovation of the 21st Century, and why analogies are superpowers.
The newsletter we received the most responses to was when Rosie wrote about what it’s like working with a spouse, and included her favorite writings from Faris, including a post about America, Freedom & The High Cost of Healthcare, toxic nostalgia, how to get lucky, and Stone Junction.
And then there was a follow-up from Ashley, our Director of Operations, who wrote about what it was like working with a married couple, and included links on the nature of fame and attention, Italy’s B Corps, and the gay history of camels.
Or the time when Faris wrote about constraints, and included links on playing with brands, how tenderness and attention are related, and why we love the word ‘smooth.’
Rosie was a little nervous to send the newsletter where she talked about waning ambition, but it turned out many of you shared the same perspective. That edition also included links on why the return to the office isn’t working, the six forces that fuel friendship, and the first edition of the Warc Attention Economy podcast.
And there was the edition where we shared our favorite questions to ask, which also included links on being wrong, the insane cost of cars, and nine ways to channel stoicism to help your anxiety.
You can find and search the entire archive of Strands of Genius here, if there was an edition we didn’t spotlight that you loved and wanted to share :)
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)
Great post! I went back to read your article on Social Media bans and It's scary to think that authorities still have the ability to block opinions and control the flow of voice. VPNs are a godsend in those scenarios.
Btw, nice Spotify playlist :)