Issue 3

Believing that compact, off-the-grid living can solve a number of social, economic, and environmental issues, designer Vina Lustado traded in working on large, luxury designs in favour of small, sustainable living projects.

When Jennie Nevin founded Green Spaces — Denver’s only dedicated eco-friendly co-working space — in 2009, she faced challenges from a community that was neither familiar with the concept of co-working, nor with running their businesses sustainably. Now that’s all changed.

In every issue of Lagom, we profile one of our stockists from around the world. This time we stayed relatively close to home and visited No Guts No Glory, an independent shop in Exeter run by proprietors Nathan and Hayley Maker.

Kyle Meyer recently left his position as Product Designer at Facebook to return to independent life. Now able to set his own schedule, he’s found cycling to be a source of shower-time-style thinking for his work, and here he shares his favourite rides around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Located on the Tjuvholmen Peninsula next to the prestigious Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, The Thief is a hotel with a passion for art writ large. We take a trip to Norway’s capital to admire The Thief’s rooms and suites, and hear stories of rock stars along the way.

We’ve teamed up with our friends at Attaché to create a beautiful travel guide to the world’s most enticing cities. The book will be published in 2016; for now, here’s a sample chapter: our guide to Hong Kong.

Tel Aviv-based artist Hilla Shamia’s unique furniture collection is one of contrasts: combining wood and aluminium, she preserves the natural imperfections of the wood and the industrial precision of the aluminium. Here she explains the process and thought behind her work.

Brooklyn isn’t short of craft breweries, but Other Half Brewing are challenging just what’s achievable by a two-man team and are winning over new fans daily with their excellent beer.

Neil Secretario is a manager at a well-known package delivery company by day, and a freelance lettering artist by night. He discusses how he balances his professional hobby with his work and personal life, and what drives him to devote his spare time to the craft of lettering.

Neil Secretario’s ‘enough is as good as a feast’ print is available to buy exclusively from the Lagom online shop as a limited, numbered edition of 50, printed at 210mm × 297mm on 305gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth — a 100% cotton, pH neutral, acid-free, matt art paper.

Where some might see a weather-worn piece of driftwood, artist Peter Gilbert might see a bird, or a face. For him, the discarded items we call waste are objects to be reborn as art.

Starting out her business, Amelia Rope prided herself on her luxury, hand-made chocolates. But she was soon to learn that the hand-made process was holding her business back, and moving toward the mechanical production process was much more beneficial than she’d realised.

We’ve never agreed with a ‘make it simple’ approach to designing products. Embracing the natural complexity of things and finding elegant ways to clarify their complexity beats dumbing it down. We’ve never thought of ‘problem solving’ as an adequate definition of design. Solving the wrong problems is easy. Seeking out the right ones means starting the process with people. Starting with people means working backwards into technology. It means hearing with humility, and creating with conviction. It means working with them, not just for them. We help over 40,000 freelancers and small business owners manage their finances every day. Over dining room tables, café tables, on trains, and on the pavement as they just leave the big meeting.

As he prepares to launch the new startup-focused publishing venture, Tiny Books, Christopher Murphy explores the importance of taking time out to recharge your creative batteries. Here he shares his passion for wild swimming and the benefits of unwinding in the sea.

As we continue to unwind, our new food contributors Julie-Anne Cassidy and Maryse St-Amand draw influence from a 1930s recipe book and add a modern twist to cook up a delicious feast with the humble sardine.