Notes From The Studio / Vol. 7

It’s been a wee while since the last Notes From The Studio. Again.

I always have the best intentions of doing these more regularly, then work gets busy, life gets busy, the community stuff gets very busy and suddenly there are about 47 things to catch up on.

So, here we are.

GAB 43, good humans + actually getting in a room together

Last Thursday night I had the absolute honour of hosting GAB 43 at BAaD for the brilliant Graeme McGowan and Jamhot.

I’ve been going to GAB for years and genuinely think it’s one of the best creative get-togethers in Glasgow, if not Scotland. So when Graeme asked me to host, obviously I said yes. Then remembered this involved standing on a stage with a microphone and talking in front of a room full of people I mostly don’t know. Excellent.

We had Jordan Laird from Studio Something, Aarti Joshi of Freedom & Joy, Sean Thomas from JKR and the first ever live outing for Mick Cooke’s Blue Cat Orchestra. With pics form our pal Ryan Johnston. A pretty bloody good Thursday night.

But as much as GAB is about brilliant speakers, ideas, work and hearing what people have been up to, I think the reason so many of us keep putting it in the diary is the people.

We’re all busy. We say “we need to catch up” and then somehow six months passes. We spend most of our working lives behind screens, bouncing between emails, deadlines, projects and whatever else needs done.

Then something like GAB comes around, and we actually stop.

We get in a room together. We chat. We catch up with people we haven’t seen for ages. We meet new ones. Someone says something that sparks an idea. Someone introduces you to someone else. Sometimes you have a really interesting conversation about creativity and business. Sometimes you stand at the bar talking absolute shite.

All of it counts.

I think spending time with good humans and actually connecting in real life feels more important than ever.

So thank you, Graeme and all the Jamhot guys, for trusting me with GAB 43 and for keeping this thing going for an incredible 14 years.

And despite what may have been suggested previously…

GAB IS NOT RETIRING.

Turns out Graeme was just knackered and hangry. Crisis averted.

Meanwhile, back at the studio...

A lot has been going on here too.

I’ve been working on branding and websites for a photographer, building the brand and website for an international Bowen collective, updating a website for a relationship therapist, creating print collateral for a florist and working on a social campaign for a pole fitness apparel client.

Basically a very normal Caddie+Co mix of completely different humans doing completely different things. Which, if I’m honest, is exactly how I like it.

There are also a few new projects sitting on the desk waiting to get started, which I’m very excited about. More on those when there’s actually something I’m allowed to show you.

Text From A Friend

I have approximately nine million ideas for Text From A Friend and, unfortunately, still only the same number of hours in a day as everyone else. Help ;)

There are new products being worked on, and I’m also starting to think about how I take the brand to a bigger scale. There’s so much I want to do with it and so much more I know it could become. I just need to carve out more time to actually do it.

If anyone knows how to conjure up an extra day in the week, preferably without giving up sleep, please let me know.

Text From A Kid has been busy scribbling away too, with new products on the way and a new collaboration in the pipeline, which we are very excited about.

More soon.

Community update

This probably needs its own blog at some point because the amount that has happened since we started all of this is slightly ridiculous.

But, huge progress has been made.

After all the campaigning, petitions, surveys, protests, meetings, door knocking and general refusal to shut up and go away, we’re now working towards actually getting our community centre back open.

We’re writing the business plan, registering as a SCIO, working on securing funding for improvements around the village and taking part in the People Make Glasgow Communities programme to help us establish a new community hub and outdoor space in a second space.

Which is a sentence I definitely didn’t imagine myself writing a couple of years ago.

And because apparently we don’t have enough to do, we’re also planning this year’s Halloween and Christmas events.

There is a lot still to figure out, but things are moving. And after everything it took to get here, that feels pretty bloody good.

On my desk / in my ears

🎧 Podcast: How To Fail with Elizabeth Day - Still one I keep going back to. I love a proper conversation and people being honest about the bits that didn’t work, rather than everything being packaged up as one big success story.

📖 Books: There’s been a fair bit of reading since the last update. Apparently this is where I’ve been finding those missing hours.

All the Colours of the Dark - One of those really immersive books where you disappear into someone else’s world for a while. Big, emotional and a lot going on, but I was completely in it. I loved it and recommend it.

When the Cranes Fly South - This one is quiet, tender and very human. Not a huge amount of drama or noise, just a really lovely book about life, getting older, and the people and animals we love.

Almond - Such an interesting wee book. Simple to read but there’s loads underneath it about emotion, empathy and what it means to connect with other people.

The Correspondent - I loved the way this was told through letters. There’s something about getting to know someone through what they write to other people that feels incredibly intimate. Obviously, as someone who literally has a stationery brand, I was always going to enjoy that.

Broken Country - Family, love, choices, secrets, all the good stuff. Really readable and one I could not put down.

🎶 Playlist: Talking Heads - Back on heavy rotation after seeing David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? show earlier this year. One of those gigs that reminds you just how much you love the music in the first place.

🎙️ Audiobook: The Homemade God, Rachel Joyce - Family, art, sibling dynamics and all the complicated stuff that comes with them. I really like Rachel Joyce anyway, and this was a good one to have in my ears while working.

💪 Mood booster: People. Thursday night probably reminded me of it. Good conversations. Creative people. Community. Working with clients I genuinely like. Making time to see people even when everyone is stupidly busy. Maybe that’s the thread running through quite a lot of what I’ve been doing lately.

Brands are about people. Communities are about people. Events like GAB only work because people keep showing up. So maybe we should all do a wee bit more of that. Show up. Have the conversation. Go for the coffee. Stick the date in the diary.

Til next time, Sharon :)