My Social Future

I believe in social media.

I truly do. Despite the fact that it feels harder and harder to maintain. Despite the fact that it feels false and untrue. Despite the fact that it ruins people’s livelihoods who depend on it too much and make a social error in the wrong direction. Despite the fact that it has allowed anyone and everyone to have a voice, especially when those voices are harmful and disingenuous. I hold very tight to the concept of goodness. It is something that I feel I need to be surrounded by and to ascertain in my own character as I move through the world as a woman, professional, partner, aunt, sister. But is social media good? And is it good for me? It scares me that I feel as though I won’t be successful or even have a career without it. That if I wanted to turn off and live, I would struggle. And despite people expressing it successes and failures, we’ve not quite honestly had that conversation. I’d like to.

Thoreau and The Words of Home

My “Best” Room

Henry David Thoreau is most famously known for his short stint in Walden Pond which produced his canonical work Walden. I had the pleasure of studying Walden through an environmentalist lens as part of my education and found much solace in ways in which the simplicity of building and describing home informed my life. Although Thoreau’s intent when publishing Walden was to express and further promote a life lived simply, there is much complication and hard work to his experience. The reemergence of tiny homes and influencers building out vans for themselves and their cats to travel the country in nods in metaphor to the goals in which Thoreau built his house just the same. With just a bed, a desk, a lamp, and three chairs, life was lived simply amongst the 10’ x 15’ frame of the house on Walden Pond. It begs to question what we define as the needs of a home are today. Working in the interior design industry, I find much correlation with the language of Walden’s intent in taglines of firms. Lines like “Life lived well” “Simple Comfortable Interiors”, but what does that really mean. Thoreau might argue that it means just a room and a bed and the simplicity of solitude, alone.

A love letter to Everlane

Fashion is a coping mechanism.

I will stand on that bridge until it crumbles. It has been through artists and actors like Rihanna and Zendaya that that statement has never been more true. They are women who inspire me to love myself more. And companies like Everlane inspire those same sentiments. Everlane is a sustainable fashion brand that employs social responsibility into every piece they design and produce. They give high praise to all of their artisans and have a efficacy grading system for the factories that produce their clothes. But greater than their achievements in walking the walk when it comes to being a high(ish) end fashion brand that is rooted in their mission, their clothes just make you feel good. All of my life I was waiting for something to define me and make me feel like the adult I felt like internally. And through my teens and early twenties I turned to fashion, similarly in the way in which other women have, to fake it till I made it in feeling whole. What i’ve learned is that beauty is comfort.

Design Leadership in Isometric Studio

Commitment is key.

Isometric Studio is an interdisciplinary design studio that focuses on the intersection of graphic design and architecture. They are based out of Brooklyn, NY and have an international team. I came across isometric in undergrad having worked with their owner Andy Chen on my universities literary arts journal. From his mentorship, I continued my career in design by moving into interiors and Andy made his life in NY permanent by opening Isometric with his partner Waqas Jawaid. Isometric offers a range of services such as : branding, exhibition design, photography and illustration, architecture, editorial and copywriting, as well as signage. They are an industry leader and are committed to working on projects that focus on social good and do so through memorable storytelling and intellectual vigor. They take themselves seriously and it’s something I admire so much about their work. If you’re looking for a studio to follow and be inspired by, I promise you they are it.

Financial Literacy and Feminism

What do you do when financial literacy isn’t taught?

You teach yourself. That’s what Tori, founder of Her First 100k did. After working corporate jobs and getting stared down at the chest, overworked, and underpaid, she left corporate America to start her own business. She now holds the worlds most popular financial podcast and became a six figure earner by the age of 25. How did she do it? To be honest, I’m still learning how. But the way in which she champions women through financial literacy and mentorship is astounding. Tori is a firm believer that equality, a theme at the heart of feminism, cannot be reached until their is financial equality across the board. I wholeheartedly agree. Using the power of social media, Tori has built a platform that promotes self reliance, ownership, and gaining financial power through the heart of what is true, which is believing in yourself. And she offers real action steps and financial plans on how to get there. I love the way in which she’s contributing to the question of what where and what when it comes to financial literacy and advancement. The answer is you.

Who will write us through?

Words are powerful.

I’ve always believed that deeply and innately. The first time I discovered their power was through a YouTube performance of a poem titled “That Girl” by Alysia Harris. And as I look back at it now, it doesn’t feel so relatable but maybe just nostalgically relevant. The performance, the power, the rhetoric and speech, it moved and still moves me. From watching this video, I dove head first into poetry and the art of words. And as I traveled through my own personal tumult, where family imploded and I cemented myself into the destruction, they were the one thing that felt steady, balancing, and true. Poets and writers are the voices of trauma and triumph, categorically in this way. Similarly to the way journalists follow a code of ethics in their response to the truth, I believe poets and writers follow a mission to be the voice of times of tragedy. Poets like Adrienne Rich who wrote emphatically against the Vietnam War and equal rights for women. Poets like Nikki Giovanni and June Jordan who wrote of identity and what blackness and beauty is. And now, as we enter a period of some of the greatest tragedy since the era of the world wars, who is writing us through? It’s a question I’ve posed to myself every day as I listen to the number of casualties rise in Ukraine and around the world from hundreds of other crises. Who will write us through?

2 of the Best Project Management Software for Designers

It takes work to manage a business

Like real, hard work. It’s almost another full time job entirely. Even if you have project managers on your team, in the digital age, software can really save time and money for your internal operations. Working for a few firms who implemented a few different software, getting past the learning curve was worth the sweat and tears. Here are a few staple programs and some new to the market to consider when you’re ready to go big. 1.

1. Studio Designer

Studio designer is a product focused program that take’s its cues from programs like Design Manager and is straightforward in function. Without creating too much emphasis on integration, SD allows you to manage products like a pro and develops wonderful product clipper as well as internal information gathering tools that make sourcing and resourcing, as we know happens often, a breeze. It also offers a generous reporting and finance management option that is internal which keeps things simple. It’s definitely gaining traction after IVY’s popularity has wained. Check it out!

2. Indema

Indema launched in 2020 and is definitely the new kid on the block. But don’t count them out! They excel in customer service and when you walk through a demo, you walk through it with the owner. They also don’t try to oversell you on the program and definitely vet their interested parties to make sure that the program is right for everyone. Indema offers a really wonderful lead generation management tool which provides automation to getting back to interested clients. Its internal hr management and Gantt chart tools are a step in the right direction for project management software in my opinion! Visit their website here!

It's The Industry

More Than Just Decorators..

Interior Design is an industry that get’s a bit of a bad reputation. It’s known for being a bit exclusive, aims to serve a certain socio-economic class, and is generally left to be understand by the average person as women who decorate. With advances in technology, platforms that allow businesses to work smarter and automate, as well as creative industries continuing to soar as degrees being pursued by a talented millennial workforce, the face of interior design is changing and I’m very happy to be a part of that change. I’ve worked in the industry for seven years. In that time i’ve seen popular designers fade from view for their inability to adapt to the change. Designers who followed, especially in the North East, a very coastal and traditional approach to interiors that has lost it’s footing in what’s new and popular. Designers who certainly adhered to the former rhetoric of genuinely talented interior architecture minds who were seen as nothing more than pretty decorators and found that path easier to follow. In that experience it caused me to question, is it just the industry? Is it like fashion where what’s timeless will always be and what’s trending has a shelf life? Well, yes and no. In my experience, trends in interiors follow a generational shelf life. The early 00’s brought us grey and white, literally everything. The 90’s was reds and yellows, wallpaper and faux floors, and so on. Where trends fall to timelessness is truly the intersection of where an architectural intelligence combined with personal style formulates into a compilation of comfort. The first American Decorator, Elsie De Wolfe once said “I’m going to make everything around me beautiful—that will be my life” and she is right, it’s about beauty more than the industry.

John Moreland at The Sinclair

Oklahoma in Boston..

John Moreland, folk roots singer based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma shifts slowly to stool at the from of the stage on a Thursday night in Cambridge. I am gripping the slowly warming aluminum of a Narragansett Later in my left hand and the right shoulder of my partner standing in front and to the right of me at the same time with my right. We’ve waited two years for this show. It had been cancelled twice prior due to COVID mandates. You can see it in John’s face, part passion, part obligation. If there is one thing I hate being, it’s being an audience member in a Boston crowd at a concert. Chatter, bullshit small talk simmers. A subtle riff begins to roll like far away thunder from the simple belly laid electric guitar, infantile against Moreland’s frame. People woo. And then, the bellow of a midwestern smoky voice sings heartbreak like it invented it. My partner and I found John Moreland’s music together. It was something we bonded over at the beginning of our relationship and have shared fervently with every new release since. Three songs in and Moreland still hasn’t said anything more thank a soft “thank you, thanks so much.” It’s perfect. The night rolls slowly on our tongues like the heartbreaking songs that bring the devil through the floor to slow kiss heartbreak. It’s perfect.

Godlikeness

It must be my body.

I will start by saying thank god for this table. This one that I am sitting at by my kitchen window. This one that my grandmother wrote letters from. And paid bills from. A perch I rescind to underneath the moon of the late night kitchen light above the sink. Light that guides when lying near my lover is not enough to calm my questions. A mountain to sip tea upon. A porch on the lip of the lake.. you get it.

Where would we be without women, first of all? There was us, dancing like ribbons around her skirt. Thank god for grandmothers and every woman who’s ever made the beautiful decision to have a child. And every woman who’s saved lives by deciding not to. Women who’ve set my blood running free with love. Who’ve asked the perfect question and made me feel seen. Even women whom I do not forgive for other reasons. For they’ve made harder choices than I. Who’ve cut away parts of themselves forever because they actually can only think of the child.

Whether we are maternal or we are not, it is our nature. Women nurture. It is our survival tactic. And we certainly know what is best for the body we breathe in.

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I am faithful. I am broken from my grandmothers broad shoulders after all. And I believe in godlikeness. Where i’ve found it most (and truest) is in the eyes of a child, it’s true to me. I’ve found it in their learning and their larger teaching. But so is a sunrise in Appalachia godlike. And the image of my sister in a wedding dress in summer. Have you ever found it?

In godlikeness there exists love, sure. But I believe it is bigger than that. It is an admiration of sacrifice. There has been so many hard conversations across tables like this one I sit at now. Conversations, admittedly i’ve imagined but never had. There have been hearts that have sat and broke alone while choosing the one thing they did not choose. We would all be destroyed by the things women keep quiet, carry, or never forgive themselves for. The godlike are the hollowed that still believe. These recent bills passing are not practicing any god I know. They are only keeping women quiet, hysterical, dutiful, and in the yellow wallpaper.

It must be my body. It must be.

https://www.plannedparenthood.org

Hey There..

Welcome to The Style Underdog.

This is a space I’ve been thinking about in the back of my mind for a long time. A space for the many paths of creativity I’ve traveled to meet and shake hands, and continue moving forward to hopefully change the rhetoric of what it means to walk ahead. It’s taken me nearly ten years to finally step on the other side of fear and offer my voice to a world I’m still getting to know—the world of architecture and interiors. I’m not going to pretend my start was ever clear cut. In fact, I joke the only reason I’m here is because I landed a good retail job on Craigslist.com a bunch of years ago. And while that is 100% true, I stayed because I finally found a language that was tactile and tangible enough that made me feel like I was enough. So, hey. My name is Elizabeth Tobin. I’m a writer trained as a poet who was a former designer and is now working as a Project Manager for an awesome interior design firm based out of New England. What I hope this space will become is a space for the underdogs. Having not walked a linear path into the world of design, I’m inspired by stories who’ve walked just the same. I hope to highlight the movers and shakers of this vast and inspiring industry, surprising art and exhibitions, as well as commentary on culture to all who are underdogs themselves seeking to be seen. I’m so happy to have you.