Feeling Insignificant?

Earlier today, I was speaking to a stranger. Being someone whom people tend to turn to for advice, they confided in their worst fear with raw honestly. "I feel insignificant," they whispered. Nothing pains me more than hearing these words. I've been there, and it's a heart-wrenching feeling that I can so relate to.

As wanderers of this world, sometimes life can feel like it's just going on without us instead of us feeling in control of our own path. The truth is that though we may never truly we be in control, we are always whole and we are incredibly, unspeakably significant.

You. Matter. SO much.

You matter because you exist. And by living your truth, which is to be your highest self, you will not only feel significant but shine like a crazy light. In doing this, you help guide others and create a ripple effect of enormous benefit to the world.

You may never even know why, but you are so unbelievably needed and deep down somewhere in you, you know this. You may never quite understand, but you are desperately needed and useful.

Here are three ways to shake you out of the feelings of insignificance:

  1. Do one small act of kindness (community work, service, etc) - By getting out of our own way and being of service, you'll instantly spread joy to the world, and yourself as well.
  2. Meditate: “I am loved" - Remind yourself of this every time you start spiraling into a dark mindset. You'll instantly feel your shoulders melt and at peace.
  3. Reach out to a loved one of friend and just…listen - When people feel you want to be there for them, it can have a huge impact on helping you shake out of your rut. Showing love and gratitude for others is a great way of moving past your mental clutter.

Thanks in advance for reading, and please leave a comment below letting me know what you do to move past feelings of insignificance. 

So much love,
Tündi

 

On Getting Rich in Life Dollars

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We're in a new era of rich. Rich isn't just defined by cash money. It's defined by life dollars. What makes you feel richer in a holistic sense. It's about the music you listen to, the places you walk into for coffee, that morning ritual that really feeds your soul. It's the people you hang out with that make you feel really good, the small habits you love because they help you live life better. The little things that make the everyday more enjoyable are precisely the life dollars I'm talking about.

What would it be like if you spent your life dollars more wisely? If you didn't feel like the journey was being lived by someone else, but by YOU?

Step One is to understand what matters to you. A lot of people these days are chasing the dream. They want the cash, the cars, the babes, the VIP tables. That's them. Onto you...what do you want? Let me ask that again. What do you REALLY want? Are you soul-starved chasing for what other's think is best for you? Do you really care about getting that corner office or are you more of a person that thrives in the freedom of not even working in an office at all? Neither one is the right answer because only you really know.

Step Two is about taking small steps to get there. It's not how you acquire life dollars that matters (because they're free), it's how you spend them that matters. This takes a bit of soul-diving and quick on your feet thinking.

The funny thing with wants and desires are that they are often easier to attain than we think. I'm all about making changes RIGHT NOW. You don't need to spend all your hard-earned fortunes on dreams and they can often be attained on a much smaller scale for a similar feel-fucking-awesome life.

For example:

  • You want to get flat abs and feel healthy. Why? Is it to feel happier with your bod? How about starting right now. You can easily do a set of 10 crunches and take a walk around the block, stand up straighter and eat one bite less of dessert. Step 1 conquered now.
  • If you want a porche, figure out WHY you want that porche. If you want to impress that hot date in a porche, think first of getting that hot date and consider renting a porche for a day or a week to drive your sexy other half around. Seems less daunting than buying it straight out, don't you think? Tim Ferriss has a great section in his website about Dreamlining with tools on making this happen, you can check it out here.
  • Let's say you crave going on a zen retreat in Nepal. But when you get down to it, you realize the thing you really wanted was to get away from all the madness of work and meet a few new open-minded folks. How about taking a day out of work and attending a day class with a guru in your neighborhood? Signing up for meetup to meet once a month with like-minded people? Just these small acts will create HUGE change in getting you one step closer to the life you really want.

Everyone has different dreams. They could be tiny or huge, it doesn't matter. It's how you plan to spend those life dollars on small things that actually make a difference.

Now I'd love to hear from you. What do you want to spend your life dollars on? What is one small action you can do right NOW to get you one step closer?

Love and peace,
Tündi

Your Style, Your Way

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Are you inspired by your wardrobe? Are others confused by what you stand for? Are you visually consistent in every part of your life?

Dressing the part is an enormous part of your brand. What you stand for is reflected in everything you do, say, wear, and project to the outside world. It's more than marketing: it's knowing thyself and screaming it on loudspeaker.

When I moved back to the states after a period of living and working in Europe, I hustled like crazy, was working nonstop and took evening courses for one year with Genevieve Williams. A former professor at the School of Visual Arts and art director of The New York Times and Rolling Stone, studying with her was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

She taught me a very important message: to dress the part.

While projecting my work on the wall, she asked me to stand up next to it. It's as if a giant flashlight was being pointed directly on me. "This isn't you," she continued. "You don't wear any of these colors. You don't say this with your look. Where is Tündi? You look nothing like this."

What she was basically saying was that my work wasn't representing me. Dang, I thought to myself, she's right. The colors were all over the place, the work looked cartoonish and overly macho. It was then that I thought carefully about what I visually stood for and overhauled my closet. My wardrobe was only one part of the equation but an incredibly important one. 

Your brand is the way the world sees you. The colors, textures, the style you're inspired by, down to every choice you make needs to align with who you are. Your business represents a very specific set of core values. Are you chic? Rebellious? Which designers do you love? Reflect those back into your brand. Visually, everything around you needs to reflect your tastes with unbelievable clarity and focus.

Some ideas to refine your style:

  1. PINTEREST
    'Pin' your favorite looks and hold it up against your wardrobe, current website, mobile site, apartment decor, business inventory, and anything you've produced for your business or clients. Find small elements to wrap into your style.
  2. TUMBLR
    A great place to wrangle in your visual aspirations. Take cues from images you're inspired by and put those elements (light, color, texture) into your wardrobe and surroundings.
  3. YOUR IDOLS
    Look at the people who inspire you: masters of their craft, musicians, celebrities, friends or anyone whom you can't get enough of. What characteristics do those people possess? Now try to bring out those emotions every time you get dressed in the morning. Surround yourself with things that remind of you of feelings brought up from your idols. Infuse these into every aspect of your brand and business.

Now I'd love to hear about you. Have you ever experienced visual inconsistency with your brand? What did you do to align your look? 

PS: If you know anyone who is having a hard time reflecting their passions and visions into their life, please share this blog post.

With love,
Tündi

Why Astrology Reading is Like Brand Building

I got my astrological chart read once by a talented astrologer.

They pointed intently at one section of the chart with burrowed eyebrows and whispered, "Well, looks like there's something unique going on here. You're going to be deeply successful in a creative field. To spread inspiration, beauty and truth. You are not the person who will choose the easy way. It may always seems like you choose struggle but in the end it'll be so much more worth it. Not everyone has this quality." Yep. Sounds about right.

The branding process is similar to the astro chart: distilling the core essence of a business down to its true purpose and tactfully inspiring the people behind that business to live that truth over time. A brand must express itself clearly to the world and create positive action and thinking. Though things always change down the line, the essence, or the core, should always remain true.

So many of us choose a path of fear of admitting to ourselves who we really are, whether we be the faces of strong-willed entrepreneurs or CEOs of mega-corporations. Working with many different clients, it's interesting to see how often folks stretch the truth about who they are in order to garner more attention in growing their brand. What's ironic, of course, is that they should really be doing the opposite: SCREAMING who they really are to the world and letting the brand fuel them to be free to express it. On a freaking loudspeaker! Love your brand. LIVE it. It's you!

Embracing who you are is the essence to growing your brand. Just like a talented astrologer sees who you are in your chart, a smart brand strategist should be able to distill your brand down and help you grow. Doing this takes openness, patience and trust.

The Importance of Empathy in Branding

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Brand matters. But the landscape of branding is changing at lightning speed, and many marketers are blind to this next phase in consumer culture. But open-minded design thinkers know what's up: weaving empathy into the branding process is encroaching on the design process faster by the minute.

What do I mean by this. No, it's not woo-woo metaphysical jargon. People are bombarded with ads, and are starting to really hate it. The idea that they are being sold to. But branding, the emotion of what they're connecting themselves too, is more alive than ever. Aligning ourselves with brands helps us define who we are to ourselves and those around us. What we crave is for marketing to HEAL us. Make things simpler for us, understanding our needs and wants rather than forcing us to break into a mold. It's not about selling at this point anymore. If a person sees you're selling, they're going to shy away. Why? Because they're looking for brands to give way more than they sell. And only in this way will marketing add to the value of branding from here on out.

The selling era is over. It's been way over for a while now. Giving is what's up. Design thinking involves giving true worth, beauty and usefulness. Giving provides empathy, helping those in branding connect to the people using their services, information or products. People don't want to be sheep anymore, they want to grow into who they really are. It's not just about researching how to get people to buy stuff. If a marketer is not giving something in return that's of true value, they're going to flop.

Taking design thinking seriously in business is necessary today for brands to be able to flourish. It takes someone who thinks not of the bottom line, but of the triple bottom line: people, planet and profits. A new world is one that empathizes with those inhabiting it.

My Wake Up Call

So today I share my story. Today marks the 12 week anniversary of one of the most profound situations I have ever found myself in. 12 weeks ago, I admitted myself to the hospital because something felt seriously off. My insides didn't feel right and I didn't know how to put it into words.

The End of Mad Men

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It comes as no surprise that the official announcing of the next and last season of Mad Men comes during the same month that Business Week publishes the Design Issue where "Good Design is Less About Taste But More About Integrity". These words couldn't be…well…closer to the truth. It signifies the future.

In a world of corporate advertising buffs soul-starved on Madison Avenue with the mass exodus heading to Brooklyn in wild herds, the idea of the media bowing for integrity in design is a sigh of relief among all designers, creative experts, and entrepreneurs alike. Finally, FINALLY the world is noticing!

Because truthfully, communication is not meant to seduce the public. Communication should really be about sending a message of honesty. Of a world better served. That the be-end-all of sharing is not necessarily for profit, but for principle. For giving with a cause in mind. Because the world is bigger than a bubble.

And for this, I call upon a revolution. To honor beauty and utility (form and function) as a measure facilitated by true goodness. That we create not just for profit, but for higher purpose, one that is meant to actually make a difference in the world.

This is why I'm here. To speak to you about a life well lived where design and business are meant for the pure at heart in today's digital age. Because I know that navigating can be tough, especially as you don't know who to turn to anymore, who to believe.

I believe in honesty, integrity, and beauty with a purpose. Please join me on this path, won't you? The world is relying on you.

Audion - Subverticul

“Though his electro-pop tunes (and clothing sensibility) are as smooth as butter, Matthew Dear’s alter ego, Audion, reaffirms that the sinuous artist still has roots embedded in his Detroit hometown’s techno legacy. The warehouse-shaking electronic project has been on the low for five years, but this spring Audion returns with SUBVERTICUL, a brand spankin’ new live show that includes an iris-widening audiovisual spectacle. Watch the trailer above, directed byThe Work Inc.

SUBVERTICUL is an evolution of HECATOMB, the 2009 tour where Audion melted minds using tripped-out visual projections to match the warped four-on-the-floor beats. Dear’s side project is back with a supercharged revival, including a custom stage set built by Heather Shaw of Vita Motus, the infamous team behind Amon Tobin’s legendary ISAM tour that The Creators Project documented in all its projection-mapped glory. SUBVERTICUL will include a swath of LEDs, ebullient sound-reactive visuals, and a labyrinthine sculpture based off the Audion “A” that pulses, spins, and grows in response to the producer’s amorphous rhythms. Imagine the installations at a week-long electronic festival concentrated into one focused live show, and you’re still not close to the exhilarating experience of SUBVERTICUL. 

The performance had a soft premiere on February 22nd in Los Angeles, but the full-on debut kicks off at London’s Oval Space on May 4th, and will be followed by several festival dates around the world (see below for specifics). Audion will add more to this magic with a new album slated for some time in 2014.”

-From: The Creator’s Project

30,000 Liters Of Water

I'm a creative visionary and design nut living in Brooklyn, NY.

Truthfully, communication is not meant to seduce the public. Communication should really be about sending a message of honesty. Of a world better served. That the be-end-all of sharing is not necessarily for profit, but for principle. For giving with a cause in mind. 

We must create not just for profit, but for higher purpose, one that is meant to actually make a difference in the world.

This is why I’m here. To speak to you about a life well lived where design and business are meant for the pure at heart in today’s digital age. Because I know that navigating can be tough, especially as you don’t know who to turn to anymore, who to believe.

I believe in honesty, integrity, and beauty with a purpose. Please join me on this path, won’t you? The world is relying on you.

Read More 

Cloudscapes

“Cloudscapes is, in effect, an experiment in creating a new type of architectural space.”

Japanese architect Tetsuo Kondo has built a container of clouds, allowing visitors to experience an artificial sky inside a cleverly, and carefully, controlled environment.

Artist Berndnaut Smilde has achieved widespread fame over the past year for a series of carefully staged photographs that bring perfectly formed, fluffy white clouds indoors.

Whilst Smilde’s work provokes an immediate response, it only offers a visual appreciation of its subject. Architect Tetsuo Kondo has gone the extra step and recreated a cloud in its entirety, paying close attention to colour, density and movement. Whilst inhabiting Kondo’s installation, visitors are able to ascend through the clouds as if entering part of the sky itself.

The installation is housed in the Sunken Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tokyo, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the piece from the various areas of the museum, as well as allowing a view across the building tops of Tokyo from inside the cloud container.

The project faithfully recreates all the movement and unpredictability of a real-life sky; the clouds constantly shift position and density, and have been designed to function in sync with the time of day and the weather outside the box.

To sustain the clouds, the container holds a carefully controlled environment, with temperature and humidity set at specific levels, designed to ensure the clouds keep their shape and density.

Visitors are able to climb a set of stairs inside the container, and pass through the bank of clouds to reach the top, where they can view the surrounding Tokyo skyline.

“Cloudscapes is, in effect, an experiment in creating a new type of architectural space, one that achieves integration in engagement with its environment,” the studio explain, in a press release about the project.

http://luxuryinprogress.com/cloud-bank/