I’m back in your inbox at the beginning of August, so I hope this finds you on the train or car, roadtripping somewhere beautiful or enjoying a wonderful summer day wherever you are.

I just came back from a surprise trip to NYC (more on that below), and landed in Austria, as my husband, our daughter and I will be spending our summer between Austria and Italy, and then head back to Barcelona in fall, after our Creative Residency.

Summer is this magical time, endless days full of possibility. For me that’s meant full, active days: early wake ups (5:30 currently 🙃), play, getting immersed in work, lots of pool or garden time. And then, when I can, slow evenings, like this weekend, when I got my daughter down by 7pm (success!), made myself dinner, put on a vibe-y playlist, and sat down to write this newsletter, to reflect and pull my thoughts together after a week full of movement and momentum.

I’m in full prep mode for our Creative Residency in September (3 spots left if you’re still eyeing it!!). I can’t wait to bring this group together, some who’ve been part of Out of Office Network for a while and joined past programs, some new people I’m excited to meet. Five days of being fully present: holding space for conversations on the changing nature of work, hearing how people are rethinking work and creative living, slow craft, early morning and late evening swims, and guiding people toward a dream project or their next chapter.

This year with Out of Office has been about building a more concrete way to take action toward a life that feels true to yourself, a more creative life. I ran a 5-week cohort program, guiding 8 amazing humans through recentering, tapping into their own sense of possibility, and running experiments to figure out what their next chapter could look and feel like. Alongside that, I built out the experiential arm of Out of Office, giving people ways to step away from routine and practice a more creative life, day to day. That’s looked like studio visits with artists, co-hosting a creative lunch, a vision boarding session, a workshop at OFFF Barcelona, and now, in the second half of the year, it all builds toward the Creative Residency in Italy this September. We also recently shot a video about Out of Office in Barcelona with our friend and collaborator Lenneke Benders, who we interviewed not long ago. It gives a good sense of what Out of Office is about.

I’ve loved building this new chapter of Out of Office, one that’s more grounded in actually building a creative, inspiring life rather than just talking about it. I’m still finding the right balance in all of it, still figuring out where I can make the biggest impact.

July, a month of expansion

July felt like true expansion. Lots of beach time with friends, momentum building all around, and a new opportunity that let me lean further into the future of work and talent space and my mission of helping people step into paths that feel true to who they are.

Last week I went to NYC to meet the team behind Liftoff, a hiring and networking platform I’ve recently started working with to build a community of creative leaders 🫶🤝 The idea behind it is that the best opportunities and people come through our personal networks and communities. People can suggest folks from their network for roles they think would be a great fit, so it’s less about someone’s exact previous title and more about where others see their potential ✨

To me, that’s the real power of building your network and community, something I keep encouraging everyone to do, and wrote about recently here. It expands your perspective, gives you direction on your own path, and brings the right opportunities to you.

If you’re someone who always gets asked for talent recommendations, Liftoff is making it easier (and more rewarding!) for you to recommend people to opportunities, so I highly recommend checking it out.

This short trip felt energizing, inspiring and allowed me to stock up on NYC energy (and bagels) for the coming months, feeling grateful for this opportunity!

Ok, that’s it from me for today. Below I’m sharing a small selection of our most recent newsletters, and if you feel pulled to our Creative Residency (have checked the website more than twice??) this is your sign to sign up — we have only 3 spots left! 🍋🇮🇹

Creative Residency Sign Up

In this edition we have a conversation with Lenneke Benders. Describing herself mainly as a photographer, she is an all-round creative who recently exchanged the high-paced rhythm of Berlin for the calm of the countryside. Len reached out to me some time ago, suggesting a collaboration, which turned into her visiting me in Barcelona, and a shoot at one of our Studio Sessions 🌼

Tell us more about your path. What’s your training and background, and how would you describe what are you doing now (for work and in life)?

Growing up I actually wanted to do theatre, but when that path wasn’t open to me I turned to photography, partly out of a stubborn wish to prove I could make a living from something creative. I studied twice, first something technical and then at the art academy, though most of what I know I picked up after school.

I moved to Berlin straight away after my studies, and that’s where my work really began. At first it was all about people, documentaries, stories - until COVID, which changed a lot for me. I became much more introverted, which also was reflected in my photography: I turned toward subjects, which is still where a lot of my work lives. I love experimenting and trying new things, and I think I always will. Right now I feel another shift happening - slowly turning from subjects back toward people and not only photographing them. Because lately that’s what I find myself craving again.

What were some pivotal transitions in your life and how did you navigate them?

The biggest transition came right at the start of my working life, with my first full-time job. I slowly started to crave a different way of working: more flexibility in my hours, more freedom, more room to travel. Eventually it came, partly forced, through a burnout. For a long time, I thought that was my own fault, asking myself why I couldn’t keep up when everyone else could. But I learned it wasn’t only me, and it wasn’t my fault: I simply needed to build a life around me, rather than squeeze myself into the one that’s expected to be normal.

So I started my own business, one that gives me flexibility, and the freedom to live and work from anywhere. The travel was the dream, but being able to rest when I need it was the real necessity: it’s what keeps me from burning out again. It took a few tries to find the version that works for me, but I got there, and I think of it now as floating with the river instead of swimming against it.

Now I’m in the middle of the next transition: the move to the countryside. I’ve always lived in cities, but I’ve started craving something greener, more spacious and calmer, somewhere I can live more with the seasons. And with it comes a new pull, to make things beyond the borders of photography. I’m excited to see what it brings.

What does “creative living” mean to you?

Creative living, for me, is a way of living that’s shaped to fit you, not the other way around - including how you choose to work. It’s not putting work first by default, but actually feeling what you need in a given moment. And it can be small: right now, for example, I’m writing this interview while sitting at a pool in the sun, because after three days of laptop work inside, I just needed something different.

I think a lot of us slip into a rhythm that feels normal only because everyone around us lives it - and end up giving up the very things that make life feel alive. For me, creative living is simply stepping out of that rhythm now and then. It doesn’t have to be every day; it’s about noticing what you need, and finding a way to let it in.

You moved from Berlin to the German countryside. What led to this decision?

I loved living in Berlin for a long time. But a city like that also takes a lot of energy, so many possibilities, so many people and noises all at once. At some point, I noticed I was escaping it more and more by traveling, and every time I came back, the dread of being in Berlin became more and more. That’s what made me start thinking about moving. Where to was still a question, but I knew I was craving a big change, more space, more quietness, a slow way of living, and that’s what led me to the countryside. We were lucky to be able to make it happen.

Half a year in, I’m genuinely happy. My energy rises a little every day, because being outside recharges me rather than drains me. I don’t miss the city the way people expect - if anything, a coffee and pastry at a café feels special again now, a treat rather than a habit. What I love most is the physical side of life here: being in the garden, making things with my hands, creating with the nature around me. And the quiet finally lets me rest, which is exactly what sparks a new side of my creativity.

In our recent Creative Living cohort, where you joined us as a guest, you mentioned you are planning your work according to your rhythm. What does that mean to you?

It means really listening to my body. I know myself well enough now to feel when I need rest, and when I have energy to create. I’ve come to work with the seasons rather than trying to be a hundred percent all the time: seasons for resting, seasons for creating, and seasons in between. The same goes on a smaller scale for my weeks. I plan ahead, usually on the Sunday before, and always build in a buffer day, free of anything, so I can rest where I need without falling behind.

What makes that looseness possible is a bit of structure underneath it. I keep my tasks in an app with priority labels, so each morning I know what matters most, and the rest flows around my energy. I also like to merge work and life rather than separate them, so a day might hold anything from the garden, a meet-up with a friend, to a task for a client. It’s not always perfect; I’m still learning, especially not to over plan, but it’s the freest and most balanced I’ve ever felt.

Do you have other creative practices besides photography? And how do these influence your point of view?

Yes, many. I create recipes from the garden, gather things on my walks and turn them into something. I go out to see a new exhibitions or collaborate with friends on their creative projects. I’ve always needed creativity beyond photography - if it were my only outlet, I think I’d lose some of the joy of it. The other practices keep me curious, and creativity doesn’t only come through making anyway; I find it just as much in a conversation, a new place, or an afternoon out somewhere unexpected.

What I had to unlearn was the feeling that everything I made needed a result worth something - money, or beautiful enough to hang on the wall. I’ve learned it doesn’t have to be anything at all. It can simply be an experiment, or a moment of play.

What is inspiring you right now?

Three things, mostly. The first is discovering new places. When I travel, everything is different - the colors, the textures, the light, the people - and all of it feeds me. But it doesn’t have to be far; it can be as simple as a new lake nearby, or a stretch of nature I’ve never walked before. The second is being around like-minded people and places - communities like Out of Office, where a single conversation can spark something. The third is the most simple of all: the little details I find around me. I make sure to go slow and notice the small things - the color the light makes, or how an object changes a space.

What’s shifted since the move is the pace of my inspiration. In the city it used to be quick and constant - the trends, all the things I’d see and immediately want to see how it would fit into my own work. Out here it’s slower. I might notice a single dead tree in a field and simply want to return to it, photographing it the same way again and again to see what the landscape does around it over time. That slow kind of inspiration is exactly what I crave now.

What is a dream of yours of something that you would like to create, a way you’d like to live, or something you’d like to try? Let’s put it out into the universe 🪐

What ties my dreams together is the wish to make something that helps people - somewhere in the field of creativity and that has grow out of my own experience.

The first I’ve already started - I call it a collection of friends. So many people around me make beautiful work but don’t have the capacity to put it out into the world, and I’d love to carry some of that for them: a shared platform, physical or online, where their work can live. A way for all of us to move forward together.

The bigger dream is further off - a place people can come to and leave everything behind, to reset and remember what they actually want to do. Tend a garden, dance, make something, or do nothing at all, but with something underneath it too, so they leave with a little to carry back into their everyday lives. None of these dreams sit within photography, and yet photography is where I am now - and that’s exactly right. I don’t believe in giving dreams a deadline; I’d rather live day by day and trust I’ll get there, step by step.

Thank you so much Len for speaking to me. If you’d like to follow along with Len’s journey, make sure to have a look at her website, and follow along on Instagram

My creative antennae tells me we’re at the beginning of a new movement. In recent conversations with my community and creatives from all over the world, my article about turning creative living into a career has been getting a lot of attention, and Instagram being full of videos of people quitting their jobs to take a month-long ceramics course in Italy.

People want to build a career that fits the life they want to live.

As Rick Rubin said: “Often art arrives in movements. These movements appear like a wave; some artists are able to read the culture and position themselves to ride that swell. Others might see the wave and choose to swim against the current.”

The best creatives tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae — the first to sense what’s starting to bubble up collectively.

So if you’re quietly wondering what’s next, or afraid to admit that the perfect-on-paper career isn’t working for you in practice — you’re not alone. You might just be among the first to feel something shifting.

More and more people are stepping back and asking: what do I actually want to build? How do I want to work and spend my time? How — maybe even where — do I want to live?

It makes complete sense. Many of us feel unaligned with corporate jobs. Especially those in creative agencies, consulting, or tech, whose roles turned out to mean producing more and more, as fast as possible — stakeholder management instead of the impactful, creative work we were promised. Meanwhile, layoffs and AI are reshaping the landscape in front of us.

And with that, a seed that might have been planted a long time ago — but lying dormant — is starting to slowly resurface and sprout. 🌱

My aim is to help individuals build more vibrant lives and careers that feel inspiring. If this resonates, welcome — you’re in the right place!

Introducing: The Out of Office Creative Residency

For those who’d like to immerse themselves in these questions in person: from September 19–23, we’re hosting our next Out of Office Residency.

It’s crafted as a creative sanctuary and incubator for people reimagining the way they work and live — creatives, founders, freelancers and anyone questioning what’s next for them. A chance to find inspiration, forge new relationships, collaborate with creatives, rekindle your creativity, and explore new crafts.

What a typical day looks like:

🌞 Morning — Breakfast with fresh seasonal fruit, an optional movement practice (walking along the fields, stretching, yoga), and a gentle start to the day together.

📝 Daily quest — A small group reflection to talk through the big questions on your mind: what’s next for you, or what you want to dedicate time to — a creative project, writing, learning embroidery, whatever calls to you.

🌼 Natural dyeing — Two days with our artist in residence, learning the natural dyeing practice: foraging, dyeing techniques, and transforming clothing items together.

🏺 Studio visits & creative sessions — On other days, one experience per day: a creative living manifesto session, or a visit to a local artist’s studio.

🥗 Lunch — A light, fresh meal with locally sourced ingredients under the olive trees, with time for a siesta.

🐚 Free time — Plenty of space to do your thing: enjoy the pool, wander, journal, or work on your creative project.

🍝 Evening — Long table dinners freshly prepared by our local chef, good conversation, and easy time together.

If that sounds like something you crave for, join us in Italy, Sept 19-23 2026.

Creative Residency

P.S.: For those who can’t make it to Italy this time around, don’t worry, I’ll keep talking about this topic here, and am also working on an online cohort program to rethink your relationship with work, see what’s next for you, and build a more vibrant life. You can sign up for the waitlist to be the first to know here!

A few patterns kept showing up — whether I was at a panel at Adobe’s 99u conference, a breakfast gathering I organized with my friend Matt bringing together friends & people doing cool things in culture, community and the “future of work”, or talking to people figuring out what’s next for them at a dinner I was invited to with IF Design Academy (where I’m also a guest lecturer)

“I just want to work with friends and cool people.”
Work has become this weirdly serious, monstrous thing — and people are pushing back. Smaller teams. More fun. Less “junk work” and more “vibe working” (claimed by Lou at a panel at NYC Tech Week) Even design guru Stefan Sagmeister (fellow Austrian btw :)) confirmed this on stage at a 99u panel.

People are reclaiming their authority.
A lot of people I met are in transition. AI is shifting how we’re asked to work — a lot of work is becoming even faster and more on quick output, shallow, and kind of this sameness of everything. Therefore, more and more people are stepping back and asking: what do I actually want to build? How do I want to work and spend my time?

Work is not that important anymore.
Yep, a few people said this. And yes, that feels healthy. One interesting question now will be what life looks like in cities when people stop optimizing everything for productivity, as, more and more, especially with a child, I’m noticing how cities are so build for productivity, with a lack of spaces to linger and play (I’m exploring this in Barcelona right now — would love to hear from anyone having similar thoughts in different cities.)

“Get your hands dirty, make some craft and learn the humanities.”
Making is becoming more important. On a panel with Scott Belsky and MOMA curator Paola Antonelli, they confirmed something many of us (myself included, which is represented in the evolution of Out of Office into creative experiences) feel. Especially with everything feeling artificial and identical, people want craft back. Slow practices. Their own POV. Companies are hiring philosophers and futures researchers again — which feels like a nice direction.

“New inputs are the building blocks for taste.” Even with packed schedules, we need to protect time for inspiration. It’s the basis to what shapes our creativity, makes us feel connected to the world and ourselves, and is key to doing our best work.

After not having been back in NYC for 1 1/2 years, this trip was such a wonderful way to reconnect with my professional self, and allowed me to tap back into one of my favorite cities, that will always continue to feel like home. It also reminded me why I love moving through the world and paying attention, and how important it is to give ourselves permission to do these trips and things, even if they are a little out of our comfort, especially with a baby :)

Curious to hear what’s resonating with others right now — what are you seeing?

In a lot of recent conversations, I’ve been hearing more and more people who want to find a way of working that feels more true to themselves — one that gives them more flexibility and freedom to make space for all the different parts of who they are, whether inside or outside of work.

And what they’re often missing is seeing possibilities.

Early on in my career, I was struck by this feeling of what’s possible. When I moved to London fresh out of university and walked through the streets of Shoreditch — where, at the time, creative energy was buzzing — I felt like the whole world was out there for me to explore. Making up the courage to walk into “hip”-looking buildings, knock on doors, introduce myself, and leave my CV to find an internship.

And this sense of what’s possible is what I love most about creative entrepreneurship. The possibility of building on opportunities as they unfold.

With my work, I’ve made it my mission to help people who feel a little stuck rediscover this sense of possibility. Whether it’s creatives or teams in a company who feel detached, disconnected, demotivated, or lacking inspiration — helping them feel energized, a sense of belonging, and creatively inspired again. Or people who are depleted from their work and career, and want to find a different way to work and live that feels more expansive, creative, and energizing.

In a world driven by speed and productivity, we often end up following the path of convenience and sameness. That shows up in daily life — think ordering food on the couch rather than taking the time to go shopping and cook a nice meal with family or friends. In our careers, just following a pre-defined path. And culturally, it often feels like something we face everywhere: so many objects, places, brands, and things in our homes all look the same. Our culture is optimized for sameness, and somehow we’re surprised that it feels empty.

In daily life, this often means days and weeks pass where we’re not doing anything beyond staring at screens, trying to push through the day, squeezing in some “productive” work between a bizilion meetings, grabbing a quick lunch eaten at our desks, and after work maybe rushing to the gym or a yoga class, then a dinner with a friend — or crashing on the couch.

This way of living misses two huge opportunities:

1. You do much better work when you’re out in the world — you feel more inspired and connected, and find ideas to cross-pollinate new inspiration.

2. By being out and about, you create more opportunities for yourself: future work, a stronger personal presence and network. This makes you more attractive to future employers or gives you a stronger foundation if you decide to go independent.

That, to me, is the magic of creative living.

It’s about diversifying our lives, spending time outside of the daily rut, and seeing the world as your studio — and everyday life as your creative practice.

Here are some things I’ve learned over the course of my career, turning creative living into making a living :)

Get out there and talk to people

Three examples. I landed my first internship in London at one of the city’s biggest agencies at the time — Albion in Shoreditch, in the same building as Soho House — by walking floor to floor and knocking on agency doors. I’d briefly looked them up on my phone (this was pre-social media, nowhere near LinkedIn as it exists now), and landed my CV in the hands of a creative director by knocking on the door on the second floor, where the creative team sat. After I mentioned I’d just moved to London from Austria, he said his wife spent a lot of time there — a small connection that made them consider my CV, which led to an interview and then my first internship.

I met an amazing illustrator and designer, Sebastian Curi by taking a different route home after a yoga class. Instead of staring at my phone and rushing back, I noticed a beautiful sun-lit studio where Seb was sitting with his daughter and dog. I stopped, and we started talking.

I landed my first contract with Dropbox after inviting a Design Ops Manager, Michelle, whom I admired from afar for her work with so much dedication to building creative community, to a virtual session of mine. After that, I pitched some ideas for creating a tool for their Design Blog and team, which led to a first collaboration. Just a few weeks after kicking off the project, Michelle asked me if I wanted to work for them as a contractor, to run the Design Blog and take over Design Community Programs from her and a colleague of hers. This led to a 2-year collaboration, a follow-up project where I built Dropbox Design’s external presence. Still one of my fav stories and projects.

Purposeful Collaboration = Community Building

Something I’ve talked about at OFFF and in a recent talk I gave for a coaching community: for me, the way I’ve built meaningful relationships as an adult and grown my professional network — with people who genuinely inspire me — is through creating a collaboration. That’s what I did with my handbook, Reimagining the Nature of Work. Instead of writing it all myself, I invited collaborators I’d been wanting to work with to co-write different chapters with me. It was so much more fun, brought in different perspectives, and made the booklet far better than if I’d done it alone. It also gave everyone a meaningful reason to meet, talk, and create together — even in a busy world.

The same was true for a Field Guide for Third Spaces we created with Out of Office, and a report I worked on for the Kyu Collective — where I curated and interviewed people across the collective about their hybrid and remote work strategies. That project led to building a community of practice where people could exchange learnings and challenges across the organization. A purposeful collaboration, because there was a real output: something published externally that positioned the collective as a thought leader around workplace culture and the future of work.

And most recently, this approach took on a new shape in my own life. After becoming a mom, I found myself reflecting deeply on how I wanted to spend my time moving forward. I realized I wanted a part of my work to be rooted in collaboration with people around me, less laptop-bound, and more connected to my passion of being out in the world — scouting, discovering, curating. So I evolved Out of Office around that and now collaborate with artists and creatives, visiting them in their studios, interviewing them, establishing workshops, and partnering with brands and companies around all of it. A more hands-on, human, and expansive way of working — and one that finally felt like all the parts of me had a place.

Put something out into the world

In probably 8 out of 10 times someone asks me — or a friend or collaborator — how we met, the answer is this newsletter/Out of Office’s Instagram. Having something out in the world opens a door into your world. It gives people a sense of what you’re about, something they can resonate with, and naturally draws in people who are aligned with you.

For me, it’s brought in some of my most meaningful collaborations. A new friend reached out about a year ago, and since then I’ve invited her to speak at one of my cohorts, and we recently shot content together in Barcelona — you’ll see it soon. That’s the thing about building something around a theme or idea that’s bigger than just you: it creates connection without it ever feeling salesy. It’s not a pitch. It’s an invitation.

It’s also one of the most generous ways to reach out to someone you admire. Asking someone to be on your podcast, contribute to your newsletter, or be part of a project you’re building — that’s something people will almost always say yes to, because it offers them something too, rather than just being an ask with nothing in it for them.

You don’t need to have it all figured out before you start. If there’s a creative project you’ve had in the back of your mind, this might be your sign to give it a go.

Work in public

My friend Victoria once asked me to be her “just do it” coach. Other friends have told me the thing they admire most about me is my ability to dream of something and actually bring it to fruition — to imagine something and turn it into a real thing, unpreciously. So this is a big one and feels close to my heart.

While everyone needs to find their own version of this, and figure out how much of themselves they want to share publicly, I’ve found that working in public — sharing the process, giving glimpses behind the scenes, letting people into what life as a creative founder actually looks and feels like — gives people a much better sense of what I do and who I am. Especially as generalists and multi-hyphenate creatives, where it’s often hard to clearly communicate what we do, because it’s so many things at once. But when people can see your process and what inspires you, they appreciate it — they might learn something, and they’ll think of you the next time it becomes relevant.

I could keep on writing and going on about this, but in the theme of working in public, this is a starting point of what I’ve been reflecting on, which I wanted to share with you all. If this is something that resonates, our next Community Cohort will focus on this topic. Check it out.

Remember: It’s your life, and you can do whatever you want!
If you build and nurture your orbit, the right opportunities will come to you, and you will be able to build the life you want.

If any of this resonated, come find us over at Out of Office — a creative platform for people who want to feel more inspired and connected, offering tools, artist-led experiences, and programming that help you see your world — and yourself — with fresh eyes.

On the Out of Office Substack, we share ideas, stories, and tools on creative living: how to build a work-life that feels inspiring and energizing. From stories of people who’ve created a way of living around all the vibrant, varied parts of themselves — without following the standard path — to practical tools and practices for a more creative daily life, and monthly reflections and notes from the field.

This is your invitation to step outside the ordinary. You can find more at getoutofoffice.network

In today’s edition, we’re talking to Carlota Simo. Carlota is an artist and maker, who works with plant-based dyes, textiles, and natural materials. Trained in Fine Arts in London, she now lives in rural Catalonia, where she combines her artistic practice with gardening, creating naturally dyed quilts and leading workshops that explore craft, plants, and the collective act of making.

Could you please introduce yourself? How did you enter the artistic world? What’s your background?

I entered the art world at a young age. My parents encouraged me to travel abroad, so I moved to London to study Fine Arts, specialising in sculpture. After seven years, I moved back home to Barcelona, where I continued developing my sculptural practice while living in the mountains.

After becoming a mother, my practice changed — almost by necessity, as people say. I wanted to create around my child and make him part of the process. At the same time, living in the countryside led me to develop an interest in medicinal plants and their properties.

During the Covid pandemic, we returned to England to stay with my in-laws for the summer, and somehow the art of natural plant dyeing and quilting found me. It was a very organic process and a beautiful encounter. Dyeing and sewing feels deeply connected to motherhood and the act of caring. I love every step involved in the process: the time it allows for reflection, the slowness of making, and the way it forces you to slow down and truly spend time with creation.

There’s something really beautiful about slowing down to dye fabric with plants. What do you think that experience gives people that they didn’t know they were looking for?

I think working slowly with plants and fabric reconnects people with a different sense of time — one that many of us have lost. We are so used to immediacy and constant stimulation that the act of waiting, observing, and caring for a process can feel almost unfamiliar.

Natural dyeing asks you to pay attention. You cannot completely control the outcome; you have to collaborate with the material, the plants, the weather, the water. I think people often discover a sense of calm, presence, and connection through that process, even if they weren’t consciously searching for it.

There is also something very ancestral and intimate about transforming plants into colour with your own hands. It reminds people that creativity does not always need to be productive or perfect — it can simply be a way of relating to the world, to others, and to yourself more gently.

You’ve rooted yourself in rural Catalonia. How much does where you live shape what you make?

I would say it shapes my work completely. It was when I first moved to the countryside — first in the south of Spain — that I began gardening and learning about wild plants. Growing my own vegetables gave me a real understanding of what it means to produce your own food: to wait for it, care for it, and tend to it over time.

Wild plants, though, are my greatest fascination. There is something very special about waiting for a flower to return the following year — going back to the same spot where you know it will grow, and feeling that sense of excitement and recognition when it appears again.

Living in the countryside has taught me to be deeply attuned to the seasons and their rhythms, and that awareness naturally shapes the way I create and the pace at which I work.

What does “creative living” mean to you?

For me, creative living is a way of looking at life and paying attention to the small details in everything around us — from the first flowers blossoming in spring and their scent, to the random objects you might find in a city that unexpectedly inspire you.

It’s also about sharing time with others through making: spending time with friends and creating together as a way of being together, rather than simply consuming. It can be just as simple as creating at home with my children, using whatever materials we have available to us.

For me, creating is a form of communication and also an act of resistance.

What does a good day look like for you — and how did you arrive at that rhythm?

I wouldn’t say I’ve fully achieved the rhythm I aspire to yet. Sometimes it can be challenging to juggle all the different roles in my life at once.

A good day for me can be one where I wake up with a clear idea for a new project and am able to dedicate myself to it without distractions — really taking the time to immerse myself in the process. But it can also be something much simpler: dropping my children off at school, going for a walk before heading to work, and feeling connected to the pace of the day and the season.

I think I’m still learning how to create a rhythm that allows space for both creativity and care, but perhaps that search is also part of the process.

You’re an artist, a mother, a gardener, a teacher... How do you hold all of those identities? Do you even separate them?

I don’t think I separate them completely anymore. Over time, I’ve realised they constantly nourish and influence one another.

Motherhood changed my relationship to time, care, and making. Gardening taught me patience, observation, and trust in natural rhythms. Giving workshops creates moments of exchange and shared learning that also feed my own practice. And art somehow holds all of these experiences together.

Of course, balancing everything can sometimes feel overwhelming, but I’ve stopped seeing these roles as separate worlds. They are all part of the same way of living and relating to others.

What are you curious about right now, and what inspires you — in your work, or just in life?

I’m curious about learning more about my own practice, one which has started only with the birth of my first son 7 years ago, but that obviously because of motherhood, has had to stop several times. And what I’m more excited about at the moment is working with people that inspire me, creating together and the possibilities that it brings. I truly believe creating in communion is the future, which is why I started a master's in cultural management, to learn more about participatory art.

Do you have any rituals that you do daily or weekly that ground you and inspire you?

My main ritual is going for a walk in the woods after I drop my children off at school. We are very lucky because their school is surrounded by a forest, so it gives me a moment of calm and connection before starting the day.

I’ve also created my own plant-collecting calendar, which I regularly check to see what is growing and what can be gathered throughout the seasons. It helps me stay attuned to nature’s rhythms and creates a deeper awareness of time, place, and seasonality in my daily life.

What should people do after visiting one of your classes? What are the best things to do nearby?

I would definitely recommend going for a walk in Can Busquets, a nearby forest that forms part of Collserola Natural Park. There’s a small waterfall and a river running through it, and it’s a beautiful place to reconnect with nature after a workshop.

Another favourite option is spending some time in the square in La Floresta and having a plato del día at La Floresteca. It’s a perfect place to go with children because the square is pedestrian-friendly, and there’s also a small little house with free books where you can browse while waiting for your food.

I would also recommend joining one of the dance classes at Curious Garden. It’s something I do every week, and for me it feels like pure medicine.

🌼 If you want to dive deeper into Carlota’s orbit, visit her in her garden studio outside of Barcelona and join one of her natural dyeing workshops.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve felt a bit in-between seasons — a period of reflection, with lots of ideas and directions, and slowly finding more clarity about how I want to show up here again moving forward.

A lot of this was shaped through conversations with friends and collaborators, as well as giving a talk at OFFF Barcelona, which reminded me of something I keep returning to:

What I want to do with my work is to open up a conversation and help creatives build a life that is not about abandoning their work or careers, but wanting to feel more alive inside them. More connected to themselves, their curiosity, and the world around them.

And I want this newsletter to feel more like that too.
So I’ll keep sharing more bits and pieces that have inspired me lately:

🌼 Wildflowers everywhere

On a recent hike in the hills of Barcelona, I was completely surrounded by wildflowers — their colors, their shapes, the smell of them in the air. It made me crave being closer to nature again.

That feeling turned into something tangible: on May 17th, we’re hosting a Natural Dye Workshop in Carlota Simó’s garden studio, where we’ll work with seasonal flowers and plants to naturally dye clothing, bandanas, and fabrics.

🫂 Long lunches and evenings with fellow creative entrepreneurs

Recently, I had lunch with my friend and collaborator Marina and was invited to a dinner organized by Adobe during OFFF, and it reminded me how important it is to spend time with people who are building thoughtful, creative lives in their own ways.

Not just talking about work, but exchanging ideas, sharing questions, talking honestly about expansion, experimentation, and what it means to create your own universe.

It also reminded me that I want to share more of what this creative life actually looks like behind the scenes: the studio visits, conversations, walks, collaborations, and small moments that shape my thinking and work. Here is a first experiment doing that :)

🚶‍♀️ Morning walks before the workday

A recent collaborator told me she wanted to take a walk the morning after I shared an idea with her — to think about it properly before responding.

I loved that. Such a simple reminder that we don’t need to begin every day by immediately reacting to notifications, emails, and screens. Sometimes our best ideas emerge when we give them space to breathe first.

🌼 Making daisy flower crowns for my daughter

A small moment, but one that reminded me how creativity can live inside everyday rituals too. Not everything needs to become productive to matter.

✨ Speaking at OFFF Barcelona

As mentioned, I gave a workshop at OFFF Barcelona on Creative Living — exploring the idea that one of the most creative things we can do is intentionally shape how we live and work.

What inspires me most is seeing how much people are craving this conversation right now. Not necessarily wanting to abandon their work or careers, but wanting to feel more alive inside them. More connected to themselves, their curiosity, and the world around them.

Because so much inspiration, possibility, and opportunity comes from being out in the world: engaging with people, conversations, spaces, nature, art, movement, and new perspectives. Not waiting for inspiration to arrive, but building conditions where it can actually find us.

An ask: I’d love to bring this into more spaces—conferences, summits, communities... If you’re organizing something, I’d love to be part of it!

🌀 A small invitation for this week:

Take one small detour.

A different route home. A slower morning. A conversation with someone new. A walk without your phone. Ten minutes noticing what catches your attention.

Treat your everyday life a little more like a studio practice.

You never know what might open up from there.

🎫 A community conference invitation (NYC):

If you haven’t heard of 99U Conference yet, it’s a celebration of creativity, community and craft. I attended (virtually) some years back in NYC during covid and LOVED it. After 6(!) years, the conference is finally returning to New York City. I’m planning to be there, and I am excited to offer my community a 20% discount code: 99UWelcome20

Out of Office is a creative platform offering tools, programming, artist-led experiences to bring more creativity into your everyday life.

Here’s what’s coming up in our universe:

• 🎨 Studio Visits + creative workshops
  Find new inspiration by going somewhere you’ve never been, immerse yourself in a living artist’s practice and local culture, hear their story, learn new skills, and see the world with fresh eyes. Upcoming studio visits + sessions here.

• 🌿 Out of Office Residency, Sept 19-23, 2026
  This residency is an incubator for Creative Living. If you’ve been dreaming about a romantic Italian summer, warm evenings on long, shared tables with family style meals and meaningful conversations with people who want to live a more creative, inspiring life, exploring cute towns and lingering in the shade of the olive trees in a quiet, lush garden 🍝🇮🇹 Join us, Sept 19-23, 2026 — all details here.

Ok, that’s it for today!

Hope you’ll have a wonderful week, and I hope this update brings you something you’re excited about!

Alice

It’s been a couple of weeks since the flowers started to blossom here in Barcelona, the trees are green, and I’m feeling new momentum taking shape. And although I still really need to learn that I don’t operate at the same pace as I used to, pre-baby, and it takes me longer to publish updates like this one here (which has been in draft mode for over a week, or maybe even two, until I now finally get to add final details), I’m trying to be patient with myself, and share more about what I’m working on. Therefore, I want to write to you with an update from my world and what’s happening behind the scenes.

🏺 Out of Office is now a home for creative living.

A lot was happening last month, preparing for the relaunch and evolution of Out of Office. Besides our programs and writing to help people reimagine how to work and live, we now collaborate with creatives and artists to offer studio visits and sessions, to help people build a creative practice, and bring inspiration and experimentation into everyday life.

Upcoming creative workshops:
💎 Jewelry making — April 18, April 25, Barcelona
👕 Indigo Dyeing — May 17, Barcelona
🪑Woodwork Furniture Restoration — Barcelona, every Tue & Thur, as well as last Sat of the month, and more coming soon!
🔗 Explore our evolving new orbit here: getoutofoffice.network

Out of Office x OFFF Barcelona

I’m excited to run a workshop at the largest festival of art, creativity and digital design in Europe, OFFF Barcelona, this year: Craft a Creative Work-Life (zine-making edition).
It’s an interactive session, where I’m sharing insights on creativity & culture shaped by my work with some of the world’s most creative teams and individuals, and based on my framework for Creative Living, through hands-on making, you’ll create your own Creative Living Manifesto in the form of a personal zine.

🗓️ April 18, 10:00-12:30 at Disseny Hub Barcelona
🔗 Book a ticket here

🌿 Out of Office Residency

This is something I’ve been working on and have been looking forward to for a while. We recently announced our next in-person creative residency from Sept 19-23 in Italy, close to Rome. This residency is an incubator for Creative Living. It’s an invitation to loosen your grip on output, productivity, and defined roles—and instead, to notice what begins to surface when you slow down. To feel inspired by seeing different approaches to life and allow oneself to create and find one’s own rhythm. It’s a few days of: slowing down, making things, long shared dinner conversations in good company, being outside, and letting new ideas emerge naturally.
🗓️ Sept 19-23, 2026
🔗 All details here: getoutofoffice.network/creative-residencies

🌼 Creative Living: Spring Cohort

Our 6-week community cohort is back! It’s for those who are stepping away from old structures or questioning how they want to live and work next. When you feel the pull toward something more creative, more grounded, more alive—but don’t yet have the language or form for it. Get inspired by seeing different approaches on how to live and allow yourself to create and find your own rhythm.
This is a space to help you tune in and get from thinking/talking about things into doing.

Words from a Jan 2026 cohort participant 🥹

“I never imagined getting so much drive and momentum out of the program – I thought it would be more like getting tools and input, but in reality I feel so energized and ready to take on the next steps in my journey. The program (and the people in it, especially you, Alice) gave me such confidence and clarity, something I have been longing for for quite a while. I would say I feel motivated, confident and, to be honest, HYPED A F, for the coming weeks and months! The impact it had on my life and the next steps I will be taking was incredible.”

🗓️ Next cohort kicking off May 13th, application is now open.
🔗 More details here.

💭 Podcast Interview

I was recently invited to share my POV, way of living, thoughts about motherhood and moving countries on the Good Place podcast.
🔗 You can listen to the full convo here.

🚪 Studio Visit: Anna Ruiz Planella

This is the latest edition of our newsletter, where we’re inviting you to find new inspiration by immersing yourself in a living artist’s practice and local culture, hear their story, learn new skills, and see the world with fresh eyes.

Ok, that’s it for this update!

Hope you’ll have a wonderful week, and I hope this update brings you something you’re excited about and invites you to join this community in some place, virtually or in the world!

Alice

Anna Ruiz Planella is a Barcelona-based jeweler and the founder of Aguamarga Studio. I got to know Anna by stumbling across her beautiful pieces at a craft store in Barcelona, buying some earrings that I fell in love with. A few weeks later, I recognized the earrings at a design craft market where she exhibited, and started talking to her. Anna is now in our roster of artists, leading a “Wax to Ring” workshop in Barcelona. Her pieces are conceived as small, wearable sculptures, created through traditional silversmithing techniques.

Please tell us more about you! How did you enter into the artistic world? What’s your training and background?

I’m Anna Ruiz, a contemporary jewelry designer and maker based in Barcelona, where I was born and raised. My work moves between the body, memory, and materiality, using jewelry as a way to translate emotions and narratives into form.

I come from a family of artists, and I grew up in a very creative environment that deeply shaped the way I see and relate to the world.

My journey into the artistic world wasn’t linear. I first studied Business Administration, then Psychology, and later a postgraduate in Cultural Management—fields that didn’t fully resonate with me at the time, but that ended up shaping how I understand people, context, and creative work.

I was first introduced to jewelry through Escola Massana, which opened the door to this medium. What drew me in was the possibility of creating objects that carry meaning, memory, and emotional weight. From there, I continued my training through monographic courses and in a largely self-taught way, developing my practice through experimentation and hands-on making. Over time, jewelry became my primary language of expression, although I also work with analog photography as a parallel medium.

What does life look like for you these days? How do you fill your days?

My days move between the studio and the outside world. I spend a lot of time working with my hands—developing pieces, working on commissions, and try to move slowly through each stage of the process.

Alongside that, I try to leave space for other rhythms: walking around, reading, visiting exhibitions, being carried by music, meeting friends or spending more time in nature. Those moments feed the work in a more subtle, indirect way.

A large part of my time also unfolds internally—thinking, reflecting, letting things take shape before they exist in matter. Working alone brings a certain intensity - that’s probably the most challenging part, and staying connected to what is outside becomes essential to keep things in balance.

There’s a constant pursuit between structure and openness, between making and observing.
It’s a slow routine, but one that feels very connected to how I want to live and work.

What makes the world of jewelry making so special to you?

For me, jewelry is one of the most intimate forms of expression and it’s about connection. It exists in direct contact with the body, but also with memory. What makes it truly special is its ability to create bonds—between people, moments and emotions. A piece of jewelry can carry a story, hold an emotion, or become a quiet witness to someone’s life. It’s something that is not only worn, but lived with.

I’m deeply drawn to its narrative and emotional value. Jewelry can communicate in a very subtle yet powerful way—it can evoke strength, vulnerability, protection, or transformation without needing words. In that sense, it becomes almost like a language of its own.

At the same time, it’s my primary artistic language. It allows me to translate ideas and emotions into something tangible and enduring. The process is slow, physical, and intuitive, and I find something very meaningful in that. It connects me to ancient ways of making, while still allowing space for experimentation and personal expression.

I think what makes jewelry so unique is precisely this duality: it is both deeply personal and universally human. It holds emotion, but also form; it can last forever and it can transgress us.

Personally, I’ve had a very strong connection to jewelry ever since I was very young. Wearing jewelry from my loved ones has always made me feel close to them.

What does “living creatively” mean to you?

For me, living creatively means approaching everything as a form of expression; it means shaping and being shaped at the same time.
It’s about staying curious, trusting intuition, allowing space for experimentation and imperfection and embracing slowness and the unknown as part of the process.
It’s not only about making objects, but about shaping a way of seeing, feeling, and moving through the world. A constant dialogue between inner landscapes and the reality that surrounds me.

Tell us about your time at the residency in La Gomera, and how that shaped your path!

My time in Casa Tagumerche on La Gomera was a turning point. Being immersed in the island’s landscape—its raw topography, vegetation, and rhythms—shifted the way I relate to making.

Sharing that space with artists from different disciplines, in such an almost dreamlike atmosphere, opened up new ways of thinking and expanded my creative horizons. It allowed me to slow down, observe more deeply, and understand creation as something that grows from its environment rather than being imposed on it.

That experience shaped my approach to jewelry as something more organic and intuitive, where form emerges through process and connection to place. It also marked the beginning of a more personal language—one rooted in texture, imperfection, and a deep dialogue with nature.

Could you tell us the story of how you found inspiration for one of your favorite pieces?

One of the most meaningful sources of inspiration for my work was my time in the Atacama Desert. I spent a month there, immersed in a landscape that felt both vast and deeply intimate at the same time. The silence, the textures of the salt, the valleys, the volcanoes, the intensity of the light—everything had a presence that was almost overwhelming.

It was also an experience that brought me closer to more ancestral ways of living—slower rhythms, a deeper connection to the land, and a different awareness of time and community.

I began documenting what surrounded me through analog photography, using it as a way to observe and absorb rather than to capture something fixed. That process became a kind of sketchbook, where forms and sensations slowly started to take shape.

One of my favorite pieces emerged from that experience; Atacama Ring. It wasn’t designed in a conventional way—it grew out of memory, texture, and a certain emotional imprint left by the place. The surface, the irregularities, the way it interacts with light… all of it carries something of that landscape. For me, that piece is less about representing Atacama, and more about translating what it felt like to be there.

What do you think about client work and “play”/experimentation, and how do you make room for both?

For me, client work and experimentation are not opposites—they inform each other.

Working with clients brings a strong emotional and narrative dimension, where each piece becomes a response to someone’s story.

At the same time, play and experimentation are essential to keep the practice alive—it’s where new forms, textures, and ideas can emerge without constraint. This also extends into more personal or exhibition-based work, where I allow myself to move beyond functionality and explore more sculptural or conceptual pieces. Some of these works have been part of exhibitions, such as the X Goldsmithing Exhibition at the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid, or included in the permanent catalogue of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. It also includes collaborative projects with artists and studios from different creative fields, which have opened up new ways of approaching jewelry. Notably, I developed pieces for the façade of a residential building in Es Migjorn Gran (Menorca) in collaboration with the architecture studios h3o and Coll Estudi, as well as ephemeral earrings for the singer Verde Prato. It’s not always easy to find the time or the balance, but I make a conscious effort to protect those moments of openness within my process, allowing intuition and exploration to coexist with intention and dialogue.

We’re so excited to collaborate with you to host workshops where people can immerse themselves in your world. What should people do after visiting one of your workshops? What are the best things to do nearby?

I was born and raised in this neighborhood, and I’ve always loved the life of its squares—the simple pleasure of sitting in the sun and watching life unfold.

You could pick up a pastry from the Portuguese bakery (A Casa Portuguesa in Plaça del Diamant), or stop by Lukumas for a coffee or chai and one of their delicious donuts. You might also browse books at Taifa or the English bookshop on Carrer Verdi, or stop for an ice cream at Morreig, AMMA Gelato or Paral·lelo. Close to Plaça de la Virreina, there’s also La Munari, a shop where you can always find something interesting. If you’re in the mood for something more artistic, Siesta is a beautiful, sensitive space worth visiting.
Very close by is Parc Güell, and if you feel like walking further, there’s a lovely path leading to a viewpoint overlooking all of Barcelona. Otherwise, I would simply recommend finding a spot in Plaça de la Virreina or Plaça de la Vila and letting time slow down. And if you stay into the evening, Casa Figari often hosts wonderful jazz sessions.

If you’re in Barcelona or planning a stay, visit Anna in her studio and join one of her workshops!

One of the things society tells us is “choose one thing”, go more niche, become an expert in one thing. And there are, for sure, people or times in our lives, where this is fully valid.

But recently, I came across these fun videos on Instagram (see here or here), which really resonated and made me feel light. They’re all about “trying everything.”

We as humans are multi-layered beings. No one is just one-dimentional. We all have so many facets, and by allowing ourselves to experiment and try on different hats, we can widen our craft, our aperture about what really lights us up, and it’s just really fun and light. Doesn’t actually need to have any “goal” or purpose.

And those are the moments where you connect more closely with what’s around you, where you witness how others live and create, where you don’t just think about living differently… but begin to practice it.

So this week, I encourage you to explore everything you feel curious about!

Trying Everything = invitation + action

When I say “try everything,” I don’t mean turning your life upside down or forcing things that you don’t want to try.

I mostly mean: Be curious about what might spark your joy or interest and be open to trying it out. So…

• take the workshop you keep thinking about

• try a new creative medium

• start learning something random

• visit that exhibition your friend recently told you about

• go to the event even if it doesn’t “fit your niche”

And then, actually do it.
Because so often, the things we’re curious about stay just that: ideas we circle, but never step into them. Because life happens, you’re “busy”, or simply, don’t know where to start and maybe don’t have the energy to look for smth.

But with Out of Office, we want to help you step off the autopilot, and see your world — and yourself — with fresh eyes.

Our newly launched Artist Studio Visits & Sessions were created from this place. To find inspiration for your everyday life — not in theory, but in practice.

Through artist-led sessions, studio visits, and stories, I hope you find that small spark that nudges you to try something new, to immerse yourself in a living practice, to experience local culture more intimately.

For this week’s Creative Practice, we have a simple, but magical quest for you: Try (at least) one thing.

Not to improve yourself or to optimize your path, but solely to see what happens. And notice how it feels to step out of the narrow lane for a moment.

Check out our upcoming artist studio sessions here, from jewelry to woodworking and indigo dyeing (currently mostly in Barcelona, but soon expanding to different places across Europe — so make sure to check back for your next trip!)

Let us know how it goes,

Alice and the OOO team.

🌿 P.S. We just announced our Italy Creative Residency, Sept 19-23. Check it out and apply now until May 1st for a week of craft, reimagination of work & life, inspiring conversations, long table dinners, and more!

Especially over the past months, I’ve been reflecting on how I want to spend my days, being a new mom, about what has shaped my own childhood, and what it is that helped me on my journey to build a creative, non-linear path and life. Out of Office has been the platform accompanying me through all my past years of exploring our working life and culture, and is my creative outlet to build a new paradigm of how we work and live, while going through this journey myself, experimenting, and, I guess, being the living proof for how work/life can be built differently.

We have historically focused on reimagining how we live and work — through publishing (newsletters + booklet) and programming such as workshops, a residency, and community cohorts.

Now, I want to take it one step further and build a home for inspired living.

Whether or not you consider yourself an artist or a creative, many of us feel stuck and in (or just before) a moment of pivot. The old story of “success” has expired. And we’re ready for a new one. Many have been following the blueprint, but just find themselves burned out from it, realizing that “success” isn’t trading the best hours of our lives for a salary, but maybe it’s time filled with meaning, following our curiosity, experimenting, and exploring.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve explored and studied work/life and culture, living in different countries, cities, places and paces. Have learned from people living life in an intentional way. And have followed my zest for living life to the fullest. With Out of Office, I want to help others do the same. It is the portal I wish more people had access to.

Out of Office is evolving into a creative platform for people who want to feel more inspired and connected, offering tools, artist-led experiences and programming that help you see your world — and yourself — with fresh eyes.

With this evolution, I want to invite you to treat everyday life as the “studio practice” that creates the art form of your life.

It is inspired by visits to artist residencies, creative studios, Barcelona’s architecture, art history and creative energy, and the peaceful nature–craft blend of Tuscany. It’s not about perfection. Instead, it implies integrating playfulness, curiosity, and low-stakes exploration in your everyday life… but also intention and commitment.

What I’ve noticed in my own life is the feeling of aliveness that comes from expanding my world and connecting with the world around me. Whether that’s working from a cafe, where the sun shines in, and you’re soaking up the buzz, taking myself on a solo museum date, or an artist studio visit that changes how I see my own path.

I believe by being in the world, immersing yourself in how others work and live, bringing creativity into your daily life, living and breathing it — that is how you get closer to living a new version of yourself. Not just thinking about how to live differently, but actually practicing it in everyday life.

Therefore, besides running programs to help you uncover your potential and imagine new possibilities for how you work and live, we now expand the platform to collaborate with artists to offer hands-on, one to multi-day studio sessions and experiences to immerse yourself in a living artist’s practice.

My hope with this evolution

Over the years, I have found so much new inspiration by immersing myself in a living artist’s practice and local culture, hearing different stories on how to work and live, learn new skills, and seeing the world with fresh eyes. My hope is that this evolution of Out of Office gives you inspiration – for new paths, and in your daily life — by connecting with the world around, exploring and accessing a network of practitioners from pottery, to jewelry making, botanical dyes, wood working, to glass fusing and more.

A counterpoint to a culture optimized for speed, productivity, and sameness.

This evolution also grows out of a shared desire to slow down, and create space for curiosity, presence, craft and meaningful connection. More than ever, I feel there’s a pull to build a life that feels like it’s your own. That makes you walk through the week feeling energized and inspired, rather than just pushing through. In a culture optimized for speed, productivity, and sameness, I want to offer a counterpoint: time to be with materials, nature, and process, and to reconnect with forms of creativity that feel grounding and alive.

This is your invitation to lean into a new world and build a life that feels inspiring, makes you feel alive, with room for all the different parts of yourself, and feels nourishing and regenerative, rather than depleting.

Want to be a part of it?

• Sign up for our Creative Residency in Italy, Sept 19-23, 2026 — a creative sanctuary and incubator for creative ways of living.

• Learn more about our next Creative Living Community Cohort

• Book an Artist Studio Session (with more sessions coming soon)

I hope this resonates with you, and I can’t wait for you to be part of this new orbit that I’ve been slowly and carefully curating and building, and have been dreaming about for a while 🧡

Alice
Founder Out of Office Network
getoutofoffice.network (please check out our new beautiful website 🥹)

Creativity is fueled by getting new inspiration. That can look different for everyone. Personally, I get inspired most when I give myself time to explore (I am currently brewing something exciting revolving exactly around that — stay tuned, coming later this/early next week 👀).

It might taking myself on a solo (or with Bebe) museum date, or stumbling over an artist studio or new store, leading to a conversation that expands my sense of what’s possible and opens up my worldview. Or getting that inspiration for a new idea by flipping through a beautiful design magazine from a curated bookstore.

I love hearing others’ approaches to how they live and work. The art is to draw inspiration from others, to then make it your own.

In this week’s creative practice, I want to talk more about the ‘art’ of drawing inspiration from other artists. And while there are many ways to do that - I already spoke about letting yourself get drawn to local art studios or spaces of inspiration in your area in one of my latest field notes — today I want to explore a different angle together with you.

This week, I want to focus on getting inspired by artists from the past and present that we can find in curated spaces of creativity and exposure, such as museums and art exhibitions.

So this week’s creative practice is to plan a field trip to a museum near you that is currently having an exhibition on one or several artists and to treat yourself to a visit. 🖼️

The goal is not to imitate or copy a certain artist, but to use the inspiration and input from their practice, or even the philosophy to practice creativity for your own.

The other day, when my curiosity drew me into the Egyptian museum in Barcelona, I was inspired by all the crafts that were designed so many years ago, and felt so unique and special. It feels like nowadays a lot of things all look the same, so it was wonderful to see such different designs and feel immersed in so much art.

Set yourself up

I always like to go into art exhibitions or museums as open-minded as I can. Trying not to expect anything and stay open to learning something. If you are unsure of how to approach this — here are some small tips that might help:

Read more

I’m currently experimenting with a new format here on my Substack. Each week, I’m sharing a new creative practice. To tune more into the world. Be more present. Slow down and treat everyday life as the “studio practice” that creates the art form of your life. You can read more here.

In this month’s Field Notes (which I have neglected for a little while, as I was finding my new rhythm with bebe being part-time in day care now, settling into a new city post-holiday getaway, finding a work studio, and kicking of the current Creative Living Cohort — which is full of the most amazing women from across the globe, so grateful 🥹) I want to share what has inspired me over the past weeks, and give you a taste of our new Substack experiment.

The other day, I experienced a moment that made me feel so alive.

I was walking home from a yoga class in my new neighborhood, Poblenou in Barcelona, and for no particular reason, I decided to take a small sunny passage instead of the usual street I walk down.

As I walked through it, I noticed a beautiful, light-filled studio with its doors wide open. I passed it at first… but then my curiosity pulled me back. So I took a few steps back and looked inside more closely.

Out front, there was a guy sitting with a baby and a dog. I thought the baby looked about the same age as my daughter, and so I said hi and told him his kid looked so similar in age to mine.

We started chatting. It turns out he’s an artist who recently moved to Barcelona from LA with his wife, kid and dog. So there was a lot we right away had in common: new city, new chapter, babies the same age, both having lived in the US. We talked a bit more, and he invited me to come by the following week for a playdate and a longer chat about life and work in Barcelona.

Then something similar happened again last weekend.

I had just come back from a Barre class when I noticed a new shop I hadn’t seen before. I walked in, browsed a little, and started talking to the shop owner. She told me her story: how she had been a graphic designer, then became an art therapist, and eventually opened this shop to bring together brands and people she loves. A place to build local community — through workshops, running clubs, and other gatherings.

I wanted to share this because it perfectly captures the spirit of Out of Office.

It’s about not moving through life on autopilot. Not rushing from A to B with our eyes down and our minds elsewhere. It’s about being in the world. Engaging with what’s around us. Noticing what catches our attention. Pausing. And following what makes us curious.

So this week, I’d love to invite you to try this too.

Let yourself wander a little. Stroll through a neighborhood. Notice the small things that spark your curiosity. And let yourself lean into them. Maybe strike up a conversation with someone who catches your attention — in a café, in a shop, or even someone whose sticker, t-shirt, or book they’re reading makes you curious.

You never know what kind of story, connection, or small magic might be waiting just a few steps off your usual path. And new inspiration might happen, when we slow down enough to meet people who are living into other possibilities — and recognize that we can actually do the same.

And if you read this and think, “but I am busy, I have a job and work to do, I can’t do that.” I want to encourage you to still try. Our minds don’t work in a linear way. The creative process is not linear. We need time to get inspired, incubate new ideas, and find new signals out there for new ideas. And you don’t need permission to work from a cafe instead of your desk, or take a break, and rely purely on your job for new insights, learnings and opportunities.

Instead, you can try to take more initiative in shaping your working life on your own terms, and in a way that you feel alive and that fuels your needs, dreams, and conditions for flourishing.

🌀 How to practice
Don’t rush, let yourself wander. Take a different route to work and give yourself time (aka leave 30min earlier if you have to be somewhere at a certain time). Notice what draws you in. Pay attention to what feels exciting to you.

🫂 Share back:
Post one photo from your exploration or something that caught your attention in our Substack community chat.

I hope you have fun with it, and I would love to hear your experience with it. You can share some things you noticed, either here on the chat or also always happy to see your shares on Instagram. 💛

If you want more of these weekly practices, you can sign up for my paid plan.

See you next week!

Alice

For the next few weeks, we’ll ask you to go on a weekly creative field trip — a sm…

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Personally, I don’t believe that the beginning of the year is the time for grand gestures or monumental changes. We can observe that in nature too: everything is takin…

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The beginning of a new year belongs to the latter.

This year, specifically, I found it hard to get started. I had a veryyy slow start to 2026. As we returned to Barcelona after being with our families over the holidays, then moved into our new home, and then had our baby start daycare 🥹, there were so many moving parts that I struggled to feel grounded.

Now, the energy is shifting, and I’m excited to start setting the vibes and tone for the year ahead. So as 2026 unfolds, I’d love to invite you to join me for a moment - to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what truly matters before moving forward. ✨

This first two-month container of our new Paid Substack Plan is dedicated to that space. And there’s hardly a more grounded, creative way to begin than with a vision board.

In the words of Pablo Picasso: “Everything you can imagine is real.”

A vision board isn’t about rigid goals or future predictions. It’s about tuning into how you want to live, work, and feel - and giving that vision a visual form.

To help you know where to start and how to successfully visualize your 2026, we have created a resource for you on how to build your own Vision Board, and bring this practice into your community.

As part of this paid plan, we highly encourage you to share your vision board in the chat, so each week, we get to encourage each other on this journey and learn from this community!

Creative Practice for January 26: Vision Boarding

Below you will find a full guide for how to create your vision board, as well as a checklist to host a Vision Boarding Session with a group of friends.

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After returning from maternity leave and a slow year of reflection and exploration, I’m evolving out of office network into its next chapter: Your home for living a more creative, inspiring life.

What we’re building is a platform for people who want to feel more inspired and connected.

→ Tools & creative practices that turn your surroundings into new inspiration
→ Community Programs to help you reimagine the way you work and live
→ Creative experiences to learn from artists and practitioners
→ Creative Culture Offering/Thought Leadership (speaking, workshops, booklet)

We want to invite you to treat your everyday life as the “studio practice” that creates the art form of your life. Why: Studio practice is not about perfection or pressure. Instead, it implies playfulness, curiosity, and low stakes exploration… but also intention and commitment.

With the new year of 2026 and this new season of out out of office network, our newsletter will also expand into two separate Substack plans:

🌟 FREE PLAN for the curious inspiration seekers → Our monthly newsletter series, where we’re widening our aperture around more creative (and gratifying!) ways of working and living. Ways that allow us to build our identities around all of the vibrant – and varied! – parts of ourselves. This includes thoughts and shares from me, out of office network founder, Alice Katter, as well as regular interviews with inspiring creatives.

👥 PAID PLAN for those, who want guidance, and to invest in an accountability partner + community → A new creative container and community designed to weave experimentation into your everyday life — no matter where in the world you are. Through weekly prompts, you’re invited to build creative practices and reflect alongside fellow creatives. This is about connection, accountability and exchange – about not doing it alone, bringing creativity into your everyday, and making sustainable creative living more accessible.

Choose your subscription plan

What’s new with the PAID PLAN option

It is an invitation to invest in growing and sustaining a more creative way of living. Through a regular creative practice and exchange with peers, newly learned creative resources and tools eventually turn into your personal rituals for yourself and your projects.

While the newsletter offers inspiration and perspective, the paid plan is about practice. About showing up, again and again, and letting small shifts accumulate. Structured in 2–3 month containers, this space is designed to support consistency, deepen exploration and integrate creativity into your everyday life – until it becomes less of an intention and more of a way of being.

• Seasonal Dispatch

  An email to set the tone — with stories, practices and inspiration to frame the months ahead.

• Weekly Micro Experiments & Field Trips

  Each week, you’ll receive a prompt to bring creativity into your day. Think: small adventures, fresh perspectives, and a modern take on The Artist’s Way’s “artist date.”

• Seasonal Creative Salons

  Live online gatherings with artists and creative thinkers exploring alternative ways of working and living off the default path.

• Global Community Space

  A shared chat where we exchange experiments, reflections and everyday moments of creativity - from café corners to park benches and newly found exhibits. It’s where we cheer each other on, exchange ideas, and celebrate what it means to live creatively together.

• Local Community Outings

  Optional meet-ups in your city to explore exhibitions, workshops or creative spaces together. Join or start a local gathering in your city — a collective “field trip” to visit an artist's studio, or a museum.

🗓️ Subscription Plans

You choose the subscription plan. You can join the Paid Plan for either:

• Monthly: for €6

• Full Year: for just €43

Choose your subscription plan

✏️ What happens once you join

Once you join, you’ll enter our first 2-month container, with weekly prompts and access to our community chat. That’s where you can:

• Share your weekly field trips and micro experiments

• Post photos, reflections, or stories from your creative explorations

• Discover and connect with others in your city or region

• Join local outings or start your own

Continue Out of Office for the rest of the year!
An annual membership gets you into the community for the year, where you can deepen your practice and continue to grow the creative community you helped create.

Why join the network?

Whether or not you consider yourself an artist or a creative, many of us feel stuck behind our desks with routines that leave little room for curiosity, play, and inspiration. Days blur together behind screens and to-do lists, and creativity and exploration get boxed into holidays or weekends, instead of daily life.

The beauty of out of office is that it can mean something unique to each of us. Exploring a new hobby, an afternoon at an art gallery, a two-week adventure, or twenty minutes of lying under a tree, watching the leaves dance.

The magic lies in stepping away from routine in order to slow down time, tuning in and connecting with the world around you.

Over the past few years, I’ve led residencies, creative workshops, and courses helping individuals and teams reconnect with their creativity, curiosity, and sense of play — from the hills of Northern Italy to our growing online community.

This new offering is an evolution of that work. It’s my way of extending the spirit of those in-person experiences into an ongoing, collective practice for anyone who wants to live with more presence, creativity, and joy.

Excited to see where this takes us and hear your thoughts,
Waving from a beautiful cafe in Barcelona,
Alice

That’s why I’m opening the next Creative Living Cohort — a 6-week group coaching experience kicking off at the end of January. It’s the perfect time to start planning your next chapter and season of your life, in community.

It’s a program to dream up a more inspiring life, and get the frameworks to execute on it, designed for focus, slowness, and meaningful exchange, all while you remain rooted in your everyday world.

Think of it as an artist residency — but for your life.

🌿 Like a residency, it brings together a small group of curious, creative people — many of them multi-hyphenates or exploring more unconventional paths — who may feel a little stuck, hungry for fresh ideas, or simply ready to try something different.

🌀 There’s a shared rhythm that holds us: communal rituals, collective reflections, and moments of exchange that create intimacy, accountability, and a sense of cohabiting a season together. At the same time, there’s generous space to work at your own pace — to listen inward, tend to your own questions, and reconnect with the enjoyment and aliveness of creating.

Participants often describe it as a place to come home to themselves, to draw inspiration from both their own dreams and the dreams of others, and to leave with tangible practices, renewed agency, and the energy to reimagine how they want to live and work going forward. Early bird pricing is now open until Dec 31!

Apply now

What to expect

Module 1: GROUND
Build your personal compass. Reconnect with what makes you feel alive, define your personal metrics of success, and lay the foundation for a way of living and working that’s right for you. This is where clarity starts to take shape.

Module 2: EXPAND
Open up your world view. Redefine work in the context of your life, refine your path and define a rhythm of work and life that recharges you daily.

Module 3: PLANT THE SEEDS
Step into full ownership of the life we want to live. Build rituals and practices, and the action steps for your next season of life.

What’s included

• 6 weeks of live zoom sessions

• Reflection-based exercises, rituals & journaling prompts

• A beautifully designed workbook + welcome kit: part field kit, part journal

• Tools for rethinking work-life patterns & imagining new rhythms

• Intimate cohort for accountability, support, and connection

• Personalized one-on-one coaching sessions with Alice Katter, Founder of Out of Office

Apply now

Together with artist Marina Esmeraldo, we gathered 18 creatives and artists from across the city to eat, draw, reflect, slow down, and share what this season has been stirring.

We began with a drawing exercise — a warm-up to get out of our heads and into our hands. From there, we moved into reflection and visualization of the season ahead, and then did a collective share-back.

It was soooo nice to hear where everyone was at, and what’s on people’s minds. What struck me most was how hungry people were for this kind of gathering and how much they loved connecting with each other and sharing what has been inspiring and challenging for them over the year, as well as what their hopes and dreams are for the season ahead. I just love creating spaces for people to dream bigger ✨

Last year, I created a Season’s Planning worksheet as a way to mark this moment of transition and stepping into a new season. Since then, it’s become a ritual I come back to throughout the year — in my own life, across the programs I host, and most recently in an end-of-year gathering I was invited to facilitate with UME, a design agency and creative collective.

Again and again, I see how powerful it is to slow down before rushing into the next chapter.

The worksheet is an invitation to step off the treadmill of constant doing — and instead design a life that aligns with what makes you feel alive, honors the personal season you’re in, and what you want to bring into your life.

A prompt to begin

Before looking ahead, I invite you to pause with this question:

What chapter are you closing—and what chapter feels like it’s beginning?

Take a few minutes to write freely. Let unexpected answers surface. Recognize what shaped you, and allow yourself to dream ahead.

If this question resonates, the full worksheet offers a spacious, guided process to continue this reflection.

Inside the Season’s Planning Worksheet ✨

When you become a paid subscriber, you’ll be able to download the full Season’s Planning worksheet, designed as a ritual of reflection, celebration, and intention-setting.

✨ What You’ll Gain:

• A guided, light process to reflect on your year with intention.

• Space to dream boldly about what’s next and set meaningful intentions.

• Tools to align your actions with what seasons your life will bring.

Download the worksheet below — I hope you’ll enjoy it and would love to see your Season Planning in the chat! I’m also sharing mine from last year to spark inspiration!

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Many people are in a moment of pivot, thinking about where to go and what’s next.

This came through clearly in a short survey I ran (if you still want to add your reflections, I’d love to read them). It’s also showing up again and again in conversations with friends, and it was a very present theme in our Creative Living Fall Cohort.

In recent conversations with two friends and regular/new collaborators working in the creative industries (Marie and Marina, who wrote about her experience here), we philosophized about how often we try to compartmentalize our identities — searching for this one thing to focus on. This isn’t just a personal dilemma, but a symptom of our modern world: a culture that pushes us to fit into neat boxes (career paths, job titles, “roles”), even though humans are inherently multi-dimensional. When our (working) lives don’t allow space for the many varied parts of who we are — curiosity, creativity, play, rest — we can burn out, feel restless, or get stuck in a loop of sameness.

A similar theme emerged in the last Out of Office cohort. After a few weeks in, many participants began describing themselves as multi-hyphenates — not as something to fix or simplify, but as something to honor. They realized that what they craved most wasn’t clarity in the form of narrowing down, but permission to follow their different curiosities.

All of this is, of course, connected to what’s happening in the world around us. We’re living through a period of profound transition. A new wave of technological change (hello, AI) is reshaping how we work and create. At the same time, we’re witnessing broader societal shifts — a re-evaluation of success, a questioning of productivity at all costs, and a growing desire for lives that feel meaningful, spacious, and humane.

And if you’re still missing data points, you can always look at astrology haha (year of the snake = shedding 🐍).

So if you’re feeling in flux, you’re not alone.

This sentiment was echoed in a post that recently surfaced on my LinkedIn feed from Sarah Herberg and Ashleigh Penrod. And what I especially loved about it was the encouragement for their readers to lean into that flux:

“It’s a time of holding tensions that aren’t easily resolved. And in a seeming paradox, it’s within those tensions that relief and freedom is found.”

What tension is worth holding for you right now? What could you let go of to make things a little easier? What might create more space for exploration and growth?

I was reminded of it again while facilitating an end-of-year closing for UME, a design studio and creative collective, where I invited the group to reflect on two simple questions — that I would also love to hear your answers to in the comments!

• What has been inspiring you in your current season?

• What has been challenging?

It felt like such a grounded way to take stock — not by forcing conclusions or resolutions, but by noticing what’s present.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that moments like this — the in-between, the uncertain, the shedding — aren’t meant to be rushed through alone. They need space, reflection, structure, and companionship. They need a container that allows curiosity to lead, without immediately demanding answers or outcomes.

When I asked people what they most needed in this moment, the most common response was:
“A partner to help me dream up a more inspiring life — and provide the frameworks to actually move toward it.”

That’s why I’m opening the next Creative Living January Cohort — a 6-week group coaching experience kicking off at the end of January.

Think of it as an artist residency — for your life.

Apply for Spring Cohort

A shared container designed for focus, slowness, and meaningful exchange, all while you remain rooted in your everyday world.

Like a residency, it brings together a small group of curious, creative people — many of them multi-hyphenates or exploring more unconventional paths — who may feel a little stuck, hungry for fresh ideas, or simply ready to try something different.

There’s a shared rhythm that holds us: communal rituals, collective reflections, and moments of exchange that create intimacy, accountability, and a sense of cohabiting a season together. At the same time, there’s generous space to work at your own pace — to listen inward, tend to your own questions, and reconnect with the enjoyment and aliveness of creating.

Participants often describe it as a place to come home to themselves, to draw inspiration from both their own dreams and the dreams of others, and to leave with tangible practices, renewed agency, and the energy to reimagine how they want to live and work going forward. Early bird is now open until Dec 31!

Apply for Spring Cohort

I’d love to hear what inspired and what was challenging for you in 2025 in the comments 👇