Happy Birthday Creative Factor!

This week, we

? Recap our latest Creative & Coffee event featuring insights from creative director Richard Turley.

? Hear from SHoP Architect Angelica Trevino Baccon about what makes for a great space to create.

? Dig into what it is really like when your creative partner is your life partner with two of the best chefs in California.

But first, Editor Matt McCue toasts a meaningful milestone... Creative Factor's two-year anniversary.

The View From Here

Here at Creative Factor, we are not particularly self-congratulatory. We work hard every day, and, when we go to town, we tie up the horse, let our work do the talking, and often leave without a word. (Gotta love a good Western analogy.)

But today we are going to take a moment to reflect because we hit our second year in business. All of the team’s hard work is paying off and that is something worth highlighting. We've grown 3x over the past year and are building out some exciting initiatives.

There are a number of ways to partner with and join us this year, including:

1. Sponsor Our Creatives & Coffee Event Series: This intimate monthly gathering helps curious humans kickstart their day with a creative exercise and caffeine. We're proud to have Adobe as our launch sponsor, and we'd love for your brand to be the next one. Supporting our events is proof of your brand’s commitment to fostering creativity and innovation.

2. Join Our Design Leadership Community: We held our first member call last week and had a great discussion about how creative work is a business driver (not just an aesthetic exercise). We can't tell you more because it's a private group, but we have amazing members who lead creative teams at the most important companies out there. Learn more and join here.

3. Partner with Our Story-Driven Marketing Studio: Not everyone knows this, but we run a growing content studio where we partner with companies to tell their brand stories. We’ve worked with nearly a dozen organizations, and would love to work with your brand. Learn more about how we can support your marketing vision.

We remain committed to expanding Creative Factor and making a positive impact on the creative community. We can’t do it without your support.

Have a great week.

Matt McCue, Editor

Creatives & Coffee Recap: Why Richard Turley Hates Mood Boards

We’ve held our Creatives & Coffee event twice now, and the weather gods have not been on our side: Pouring rain for the first one and a snowstorm for the latest edition on Thursday.

The creative class was not daunted by a wintry mix, however, and they made the trip to Round K on the Lower East Side to hear creative director extraordinaire Richard Turley share how he pushes his big, bold concepts forward from original idea to final deliverable.

Sponsored by Adobe, Creatives & Coffee goes deep into one’s creative process, exercises, and principles – the secrets they use to make best-in-class stuff. The candid conversation with Turley covered a lot of ground; here are three takeaways from him to ensure your bright ideas don’t get stuck in the bureaucratic mud.

Read what happened at the event here.

Angelica Trevino Baccon: Creative Spaces Must Evolve and Adapt As?We Do

“We found ourselves researching the history of how creative people work. Kafka was a night owl, while Beethoven loved the morning and then took long walks in Vienna to get inspired in the afternoon. We looked at amazing pictures of Edison taking three-hour naps in the middle of his workday in a three-piece suit. Spaces ranged from large and sparse with a hard chair by a window to a cozy armchair and table dense with objects to the Medici sculpture garden, an outdoor workshop where artists sketched, practiced, dined and slept. We found such richness in all of these examples... People need spaces that give us choice because every day is not the same.”

– Angelica T. Baccon , Partner, SHoP Architects

Read the full story here.

Valentine's Special: When Your Creative Partner is Your Life Partner

What is life like when your creative partner is also your life partner? It happens, and it can be intense and also make for a stronger relationship.

For Valentine's Day, we spoke with chefs Russ Moore and Allison Hopelain , two Chez Panisse alums who went on to start their own critically-acclaimed Bay Area restaurant, Camino, that served Cali-Med-Asian food. The menu changed daily (a slightly crazy business model, they admit), but the expectations for each dish were consistently high — when Russ couldn’t find a vinegar he liked enough to cook with, he started making his own barrel-aged bottles. But the success wasn’t forever, and they ultimately closed the restaurant.

Here, Allison and Russ share what it took to run one of California’s most-loved restaurants for over a decade; what they learned about working with their spouse; and how they celebrated the success and weathered the disappointments together.