In short
Tina Roth Eisenberg explains how Creative Mornings builds scalable, face-to-face creative communities “on trust” (not control), measures success as “return on friendship,” and uses rituals, side projects, and hyper-local clubs to counter loneliness and algorithmic disconnection. She also details Creative Mornings’ upcoming “Release Day” (May 29) for sharing unfinished or completed creative projects.
Guest backgrounds
Swiss-born designer and community builder; moved to New York in 1999. Founder of Creative Mornings (started as “Where are my people?”). Also runs Swiss Miss (design blog, ~21 years), founded Friends Work Here (Brooklyn co-working), and created Tatly (temporary tattoo company, later sold).
Key claims
Trust breeds magic; communities self-organize when hosts define “non-negotiables” and allow experimentation; playful experiments increase “surface area for luck”; commitment is a creative practice (with “gentle commitment”).
Notable examples
252 cities/70 countries/1,000+ volunteers/25,000 monthly attendees; 450/475 stood up for “made a friend” at a talk; Release Day inspired by Creative Quests founder Sam Furness; clubs (120+ approved) like knitting and drawing groups.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Genesis of Creative Mornings
2:17 to 5:27
Tina shares the inception and growth of Creative Mornings as a global community.
“We'll return to the conversation after this quick break.”
Building Relationships through Creative Spaces
5:27 to 8:05
Discussion on the importance of community and friendships formed through Creative Mornings events.
“In fact, it's the running joke with me and my team that the only thing I measure is ROF, return on friendship.”
The Formula for Sustainable Community
8:05 to 12:45
Tina explores the elements that contribute to a sustainable creative community.
“You know, we often solve the thing that we didn't have in our childhood.”
Creative Mornings as an Open System
12:45 to 13:21
Comparison of Creative Mornings to video game systems to highlight community flexibility.
“In video games, there's these different models.”
Introducing Release Day
13:21 to 14:01
Tina discusses the upcoming global event 'Release Day' for creative projects.
“Or Roblox, where you're building your own ecosystem, and things unfold in unexpected ways.”
Release Day: A Celebration of Creativity
14:01 to 18:46
Learn about Creative Mornings' Release Day initiative that encourages sharing creative projects.
“Release Day is probably the biggest campaign we have ever worked on in 18 years of Creative Mornings.”
Release Day: A Celebration of Creativity
20:19 to 20:52
Learn about Creative Mornings' Release Day initiative that encourages sharing creative projects.
“New markdowns up to 70 % off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now.”
Embracing Side Projects and Creative Commitment
21:03 to 28:00
Discuss the value of side projects and how commitment can lead to personal growth and opportunities.
“And you have another one called Tatly, which were these temporary tattoos.”
Parenting and Creative Pursuits
28:00 to 29:04
Discussing the balance between encouraging children's creativity and their commitment to it.
“I just want my kids to find what they're passionate about and latch on.”
The Importance of Creativity
29:04 to 31:06
Exploring the role of creativity in personal and societal development.
“and I don't need to turn this into like a parenting podcast and hopefully people will still find this interesting.”
Show all 15 chapters
Curating Creative Voices
31:06 to 33:38
Insights into curating speakers for Creative Mornings and their impact.
“Because in order to move through life, you have to believe there's a better way.”
Building Local Communities
33:38 to 36:59
Discussing the launch and importance of Creative Mornings clubs in local communities.
“So if somebody is listening right now and is getting really excited about Creative Mornings, but they don't have one in their area and they think, oh, wow, maybe this is an opportunity to do that.”
Exploring New Ideas
36:59 to 38:19
Tina shares a book that inspires her and discusses the importance of relationships.
“for under 25-year-olds, something like 25 % of them say they have no close friends, like zero close friends.”
Learning About Creative Mornings
38:19 to 38:51
Information on how to engage with Creative Mornings and its upcoming events.
“Well, where can people learn more about what you're doing, about Creative Mornings, and any of the other stuff we talked about?”
Learning About Creative Mornings
38:54 to 39:10
Information on how to engage with Creative Mornings and its upcoming events.
“I think you might find our talks from the past.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02Tina Roth Eisenberg:Creativity is a discipline in optimism because in order to move through life you have to believe there's a better way. In order to believe there's a better way you have to be optimistic. Then you can be creative. If you are coming from a place of I believe there's a better way then you can really tune into what are my ideas to improve it. When Tina Roth Eisenberg moved to New York from Switzerland in 1999, she was a young designer and she kept asking herself the same question. Where are my people? 18 years ago, she answered it by starting Creative Mornings. It's a free breakfast lecture series that has since grown into what she describes is the world's largest face-to-face creative community in 252 cities, 70 countries, and more than 1 ,000 volunteers gathering with around 25 ,000 people every month.
0:54Or as she puts it, it's church for creativity. But Creative Mornings is just one thread in Tina's story. She's also the voice behind Swiss Miss, the beloved design blog she's kept up for 21 years now. She's the founder of Friends Work Here, a creative co-working community in Brooklyn, and the creator of Tatly, the designer temporary tattoo company that started as a joke but turned into a business. In our conversation, Tina shares what she's learned about building communities that scale on trust rather than control, while she measures success in terms of return on friendship, and how playful side projects increase the surface area for luck to find you.
1:34We also talk about commitment as a creative practice, raising creative kids, and why she believes the future isn't lonely, it's hyper-local. This is Design Better, where we explore creativity at the intersection of design and technology. I'm Eli Willard. And I'm Aaron Walter. At Design Better, our primary mission is to produce work that helps people like you refine your craft, improve your collaboration skills, and get inspired by the creative process of others. If you enjoy what we do here, the best way to support us is to become a premium subscriber at designbetterpodcast.com slash subscribe.
2:17We'll return to the conversation after this quick break.
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3:26And now, back to the show.
3:33Tina Roth Eisenberg, I'm so delighted to have you here on Design Better.
3:37Tina Roth Eisenberg:I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. So we've known each other for a long time because you founded Creative Mornings, among many other things. And for listeners who may not be familiar with Creative Mornings, how might you describe it? Our tagline is that Creative Mornings is the world's largest face-to-face creative community. And then oftentimes people look at me, what does that mean? And then I oftentimes say, just imagine, it's like church for creativity. We meet once a month for a talk and a breakfast. It's deeply communal. And then people go, oh, yeah, I get that. So Creative Mornings, give us a sense for the scale.
4:14So now that we know what it is, it is massive. It's around the world.
4:19Tina Roth Eisenberg:Yes. I started Creative Mornings 18 years ago in New York City because I just love creative people. And I wanted to gather creative people under an umbrella of generosity and curiosity. And I'd never anticipated that it would grow into a global community. We are now in 252 cities in 70 countries, which means we have over a thousand volunteers that gather about 25 ,000 people a month for free for a breakfast and a lecture. I have to say, I love the concept and I'm so grateful that we actually have it here in our little community here in Monterey. And not only just having that creative outlet is wonderful, but it actually introduced me to somebody who's now one of my dearest friends.
5:01Hey, Robert, he's a fan of the show. He might be listening. And in some places, it's easy to find other outlets like this, something like this. But at least here in Monterey, there wasn't something exactly like that. In fact, years ago, I had tried to start something that started to get a little momentum, but then I got distracted with other things. But it's just such a powerful way to bring people together. They're like-minded. They're curious about creativity. And you can meet wonderful friends out of it, which is just great.
5:26Tina Roth Eisenberg:When people tell me they made friends at our events, it's literally that's just pouring rocket fuel into my jetpack. In fact, it's the running joke with me and my team that the only thing I measure is ROF, return on friendship. And I have to tell you, there was a moment last year when Timothy Goodman spoke here in New York at Parsons. And we had 475 people in the audience. It was a big event. And I played this audience engagement thing where I say, stand up if this is your first event. It's like real-life data visualization with people. And I said, stand up if you've ever made a friend at a Creative Mornings event.
6:04Tina Roth Eisenberg:And out of 475, 450 were standing and smiling. That's incredible. I have to say, I got so emotional because if I look back at the origin story of why I started Creative Mornings, it's really because I moved here as a freshly minted designer in 1999. And I was literally, where are my people? Where can I go to events where people are kind and curious? and not necessarily in their own silos of their profession. I never understood why we did that. Like why are the photographers meeting in their silo and the writers over there? That was a real moment for me. Like 17 years later standing here, it was like, actually you built the thing you wish existed when you moved here to New York.
6:45What have you learned about community? I find this to be such a mysterious thing. I think if we were to talk to most people, especially in the creative spaces, various creative disciplines, they would all be on board with the idea of face-to-face interaction, feeling the sense of connection. There's a lot of reclusive creative people, but ultimately, they like to have some moments with other creative people to feel part of that bigger creative spirit. But the notion of creating a community where people will come together and a framework where that can scale and sort of franchise across the globe seems just short of impossible to me.
7:25So I'm curious, what is the formula that you've unpacked with Creative Mornings and building sustainable community?
7:32Tina Roth Eisenberg:Gathering is how I love. Creating a space where people feel literally wrapped in a blanket of love and celebrated. And where we create a space where your nervous system can relax a little bit. And where we celebrate each other. Where there's sort of this undercurrent of loving possibility. When you create an environment like that, and especially in the time we're in, people leave and are sort of remembering that there's another world that is possible. I think I just have a knack. You know, we often solve the thing that we didn't have in our childhood. I was just so determined to create deeply loving spaces, supportive spaces.
8:15Tina Roth Eisenberg:From the minute I took off and became my own independent human. And if you look at the things I've built, it's not just Creative Mornings. It's also, I started the first creative co-working community in New York City. I rebranded it 11 years ago to Friends Work Here, and I still run it, and it's intentionally small. It is basically a physical manifestation of what Creative Mornings is. And again, it's this ethos of when you share space with people that have complementing talents and interests and skills, and you have an ethos of kindness and just support, there's absolute magic how your life unfolds in magical ways.
8:56These people are also big dreamers. They have big dreams. Like Seth Coden has this beautiful quote that they know who you surround yourself with. Their dreams become your dreams. And it just all expands. So to me, identity is a communal process.
9:11Tina Roth Eisenberg:We need community to define ourselves, to build our identity. And if I look back, my co-working space has, through the support of the people that were in it, I have started multiple companies. I wouldn't have been brave enough to do that if I didn't know that these smart humans had my back and cheered me on. And I think it's the same with Creative Mornings. Creative Mornings has created a space where you can be brave. That's what I hear all the time. I am brave in Creative Mornings. I dare to do a 30-second pitch at the venue. And guess what? You put yourself out there and this community is so kind and supportive.
9:45Tina Roth Eisenberg:It will come back and reward you for having been brave through opportunities, through connections, through friendship, through collaboration, whatever it is. Aaron and I are launching a community for Design Better, which is essentially a Slack-based community, which is nothing novel. But one thing that we're, I think, both curious about, and we'd love to do more in-person stuff too, and we might have some news about that soon for something in the fall. But how do you think about keeping momentum going when a portion of the interaction or maybe a large portion is online? You have the advantage of having these monthly cadence of in-person, but I imagine between those, especially if it's maybe a new chapter, How do you keep people engaged and give them value in between those moments of in-person events?
10:28To be honest, we haven't really cracked that because other than some experimental WhatsApp groups, like for example, we have one here at New York for our chapter. We haven't really cracked the online space. I think it's hard. It's really hard. But what we do have is we have a virtual side to Creative Mornings as well, where it's like a peer-to-peer learning engine where you can raise your hand and say like, hey, I'm good at something. I want to teach a workshop or a class. It's community-led, like everything else at Creative Mornings. It's deeply generous. And the ethos of the people that attend is also deeply supportive.
11:04So I would say there's that. But I think the more you can lean towards creating spaces in person, and you don't necessarily have to always host them yourself. I always said that Creative Mornings has grown at the speed of trust. One of my favorite sentiments is that trust breeds magic. Like, I remember when I ran Creative Mornings here in New York for two years, and all of a sudden I got people that knocked on my door and said, I want to bring it to my city. I remember, like, I instantly contracted it. And I was like, are they going to keep it safe? Are they going to keep it the way I want it to be?
11:37Tina Roth Eisenberg:Are they going to translate my values? And then I realized what I had to do was sort of create the non-negotiables. These are the non-negotiables of a Creative Mornings event. And I think you have the right personality to you're in service of the community. You're showing up in a way of serving. And then I would say, take this. Let me know what is unclear. These are the things you have to do. But beyond that, please experiment. Add your own flavor. and I think that was the key that made it so successful. People felt they were not just executing a formula and they had to stick to it. They could actually be creative and bring themselves into the format.
12:14Tina Roth Eisenberg:And the cool thing is I always told them, report back to us. And guess what? We then shared it with everyone else, with all the other chapters. And now I have implemented a lot of things at my chapter event that I have learned from other chapters. Like we open now with music because of Austin. We have 30 second pitches because of the Toronto chapter. So when you create an ecosystem of let's teach each other, this works for me, what works for you, they take so much ownership of it. And in the end of the day, that's it. A community is not a community until it self-organizes. In order to self-organize, you really need to feel like you have a bit of ownership and you can really bring yourself into it.
12:51In video games, there's these different models. There's something called a closed system and an open system. And it sounds like Creative Mornings is clearly an open system and gets a lot of benefits from that. A closed system would be like Super Mario Brothers, where there's a formula of you've got to go this way, from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen, and you get to the end. And then there's an open system like The Sims. I don't know, do people still play that? SimCity, anything like that? I don't play video games for a good reason. Minecraft would be the version of that.
13:20Yeah, Minecraft, exactly. Or Roblox, where you're building your own ecosystem, and things unfold in unexpected ways. Which is a good segue to, there's an event coming up that I found really interesting, which feels like there must have been some feedback from the creative community to ask for this. Maybe not. Maybe this is something that you came up with or your team did, which is release day. This is May 29th. We're doing this interview on Friday, May 15th. So we've got two weeks. People are hard at work on creative projects. And this is a big global community event to whatever you've been working on.
14:00It's now or never. Let's get that thing out. Tell us about the backstory of this.
14:04Tina Roth Eisenberg:Release Day is probably the biggest campaign we have ever worked on in 18 years of Creative Mornings. And basically what it comes down to, it's an invitation to our global creative community to release a project they've been working on on May 29th for the entire global community to see. The idea for Release Day came to Sam Furness, who is London-based, who is, I think, hands down the most creative unicorn I have ever met. He runs an organization called Creative Quests, where he takes you on quests and really sharpens and fuels your creativity. He's magical. You need to look him up. And I saw him last year, very scrappily, do a release day.
14:47And I followed along
14:48Tina Roth Eisenberg:and I told my content team here at HQ, like, send him as money eyeballs as you can. This is the best idea because he basically said so many of us have so many projects that are either just sitting there or we've not started or we haven't finished or we didn't dare to share with the world because I feel like in the time we're in there's so much cynicism and so much judgment all you want is just to celebrate people for leaning into their creativity and that's what we're doing so the entire month of may is under the umbrella of create every month has a theme in our universe and we have workshops where you can work together on your project.
15:25You can tell each other what's happening. We have an online space with the Dark Forest operating system, which, by the way, I would recommend to you if you're starting an online community. It's CNC Strickler's latest project. It's really cool. So yeah, and on May 29th, we're asking the community to share what they've worked on on our site, creativemornings.com slash release day. And it's going to be an explosion of projects. You can already go there and look at the gallery. And I am just in awe how So we have over 2 ,000 people who have pledged they will share one of their projects, which to me is just a sign that we really hit a nerve.
15:59I feel especially with AI dominating the conversation and a lot of people feeling really disconnected because we're just stuck in the algorithm. Tapping back into whatever it is that makes your heart happy that is a creative endeavor is literally the invitation and the permission that people want. I love the spirit of this. And it reminds me a little bit of an adjacent thing, which is this NaNoWriMo, if you've heard of this, National Novel Writing Month in November. That thing was inspiring to me. I had been working on a book essentially for a younger audience, 8 to 12-year-olds, forever. I started when my daughter was 8, and she's now 15.
16:33So that gives me some sense of how long it's been going. But it's probably not going to happen this year. But one of these years, I want to set time aside November to just finish it because it's been sitting way too long. But just having that little nudge in time and space to get something out there that you've been working on, in my case, for years. Or shorter, maybe. Something you just came up with. I think it's a really wonderful thing to do. We're hoping to do this on an annual basis. We're Creative Mornings. We're so lucky that we're supported by Adobe. And I remember pitching Adobe because we couldn't do this.
17:00Like everything in the Creative Mornings universe is free.
17:02Tina Roth Eisenberg:And if we wouldn't have the patron support that we have and Adobe support, we can do it. And when I pitched them this idea, I have never seen eyes pop wide open like this before. And they were like, oh, my God, hell yes, let's do this. And it made me so happy that they saw the value of leaning into the pureness of creativity, whatever it is.
17:25We'll return to the conversation after this quick break.
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20:52And now, back to the show.
20:59Following your journey, it's clearly like to do side projects. I think this Great Mornings was essentially a side project, maybe at first. And you have another one called Tatly, which were these temporary tattoos. And they end up kind of becoming something more entrepreneurial. Maybe not all the time, but talk to us about that. Because that's something that I've, in my career, I've done a lot of experimentation, little projects that sometimes turn into bigger things. And it's kind of an interesting way to approach entrepreneurship, I think.
21:24Tina Roth Eisenberg:I have a very low tolerance to complaining. I grew up in Switzerland. There's a lot of complaining. And so when I catch myself complaining about something repeatedly, I literally have to talk to myself and remind myself that I have two options. I can either do something about it or let it go. Then my problem is oftentimes I want to do something about it. And then I start like creating a fix. My Tatli, which unfortunately RIP is dead now. I sold it and then it was shut down, which is really sad. But here we are. But Tatli was a response to my daughter bringing home tattoos that were an insult to my aesthetic.
21:59And as a joke, I launched it. And then instantly people wanted ordering like for stores.
22:03Tina Roth Eisenberg:And I was like, what did I do? So that was a fun thing. And by the way, that was also made possible in my MailChimp. I know, Aaron, you were at MailChimp at the time when that happened. I just think when you start something in a playful way without leaning into it, it needs to be serious and this needs to pay for my rent and this is the big thing, there's such lightness around it and you have so much fun doing it and you're just prototyping it. I swear to God that people sense that lightness and the joy you're having doing it. So I always tell people, start something just as a playful side project, call it an experiment because it takes all the pressure off.
22:36Tina Roth Eisenberg:And then when you sense that there's energy and interest coming at it, then just keep going. You don't have to tell anyone it's no longer an experiment. Do you know Luis Mendo, by chance, an illustrator? He's based in Japan. No. You should go check out his work. We had him on the show recently. And a lot of his projects are just start-aside projects. He did these sort of fake New Yorker covers during COVID that just took off, got him a lot of illustration work. And he talks about that. Yeah, it's just a fun thing I did. And it really benefited my career and what I'm doing now. You know what I think it does?
23:07Tina Roth Eisenberg:It increases the surface area for luck to find you. People love getting in touch or hiring someone who shows initiative, who has ideas, who is able to anchor an idea into the ground. All the things I've done have just opened doors for me. And it started with my blog, man. All I did was just posting things I loved and thought were fun. It is kind of amazing how much you have done and how much has grown. And that starting point is Swiss Miss, which is this design blog for listeners who may not have encountered it. It's been around for 20 years or more. 21, yeah. 21. And it's been a wonderful resource.
23:48It's usually not long, elaborate posts. It's like, these are beautiful things in the world. And I love that. I wonder, what have you gained from the discipline of running Swiss Miss, of always posting? Pete Davis gave a beautiful talk at Creative Mornings in April of 2024. He wrote a book called Dedicated. He did research on the happiest people are the people that are committing to a place, a cause, a thing, a community. And that we're all kind of like stuck in the hallway of life and nobody's committing to a room. Like we're all keeping our options open these days.
24:25Tina Roth Eisenberg:And once he articulated that, I realized that whenever I committed to something and I committed to my blog, to the practice of looking at the world with curiosity and then keeping an archive and sharing it with the world, because I realized it was so good for me. It was a good practice for me. And it made so many people happy. I was like, that's a win-win. Why don't I keep doing it? And so many opportunities came my way because of it. You both have also teenagers. I talk about it all the time. what is a thing you're committing to? What is something that lights you up and you can push through even on a day where you don't want to do it?
25:01Tina Roth Eisenberg:Because all the things that are worthwhile, they take time. Good things take time. And that is a notion I think we have lost. We're a bit in this immediate gratification. I do hope that my children see that. And I mean, I see it in my daughter already. She's a poet. She has a self-published book and she's working on her second edition. And to me, it's like, oh, she gets it. She is leaning into something. She's committing to her poetry. And I feel like my blog has been the most rewarding thing I've started in my life and has opened countless doors for me. I love that idea of commitment. Something I'm going to try to reinforce with my daughter because she's wonderfully creative.
25:36She'll do these little projects. Like when she's a little younger, she'd created these little refrigerator magnets. Like one was a miniature sardine tin that was open and like a Pop-Tart and, you know, just for fun posted it on LinkedIn. I think people are like, oh, where can I buy these? I'm like, that wasn't the intent. And then she'll get on to something else. And I think it's great to do that exploration with the idea of maybe like, oh, this one has some traction. Like keep at it for a while until you figure out, is this something I can do for years? I like that idea of the creative commitment.
26:02I want to push back on this idea. So I am a believer in commitment. And it is something that I often, when I start the year, there's usually a note at the front of my journal about discipline, bringing discipline to certain pursuits. And I like the idea of thinking beyond short-term goals and trying to create endeavors. Like, I am pursuing music. Am I a good musician? No. But it's just a thing that I want to continue to explore. I also think that, especially for younger people, and sometimes for older people too, there's something to be said for not getting too committed or optimizing too early.
26:39So feeling that, well, if I'm going to do this, I've got to do it the right way. and I've got to do it every day. And I find that sometimes that's constraining. Like there's a balance to being committed to a thing and also not being constrained by a thing.
26:55Tina Roth Eisenberg:But I think that just comes down to your level, what do you consider commitment, right? I am not endorsing like tiger mom behavior. You know, you have to dance with it. There've been days where I was like, I really don't want to pose today and I maybe skipped it, right? But in sort of the big arc of my life, I was like, this is something I'm proud of and I want to contribute to. And obviously it ebbs and flows. But I hear you, especially when you're younger. I would never force my kids to do something they don't want to do. For example, my son, my daughter's thing is poetry and she's really good at it.
27:27It's beautiful, right?
27:28Tina Roth Eisenberg:She's a magician with language. And then my son is just wildly musical. I am not musical at all. I look at him and I was like, I don't know what to do with you other than just throw any resources I can at him. But he has found music as his thing, and he's committed to it. And I see that. That's what I mean, right? Because I see young people that was like, what is your thing? And they got nothing. Yeah, that breaks my heart. It's the one thing that I've always wanted for my children. Parents, they think, I want you to be successful. I want you to do well in school, et cetera. I just want my kids to find what they're passionate about and latch on.
28:07Find that thing that lights you up and go there. I have learned the hard way, though, with my youngest son, who is commitment phobic when it comes to creative pursuits. Very creative person. He is musical, inherently kind of musical. But when I created, like, you got to go to piano lessons all the time. He was great at piano, but he's like, nope, I'm not doing it.
28:31Tina Roth Eisenberg:My son did the same thing. Yeah. And so now I've learned, like, okay, he's pursuing guitar and flute. You do that when you'd like to do that. And I'll set up, here's a teacher, want to go work on a song, but that's it. It's very light. And sometimes I feel this. And I wonder, you know, ADHD is a common thread that keeps popping up in our nearly 300 interviews with people. We see a lot of creative people whose minds are neurodivergent in some ways. But anyway, that's where I'm coming from with the pushback on commitment. It's like there is this balance. Gentle commitment. There you go. This whole area is so interesting.
29:09and I don't need to turn this into like a parenting podcast and hopefully people will still find this interesting. But I think raising kids, which interesting is like almost the most powerful thing you can do is unintentional things. Like we have a lot of books around the house and that's how I grew up too. It's like bookcases everywhere and books. And there's actually research around the fact that if you do that, kids get naturally more interested in reading. I think it's true for my daughter, my son. I'm not so sure yet if that's actually worked out. We'll see. But that could be the negative thing, too, where we live in a very expensive area and being kind of entrepreneurial.
29:44Sometimes there's financial stress. And I see my daughter has maybe picked up on that. And she's massively creative. And then we talked about what she wanted to do. She said, well, I want to make a lot of money and I want to be a lawyer. I'm like, I don't know if you're going to be happy being a lawyer. I don't know if the lawyer is going to exist in 10 years from now. They might all be robots. Sorry. Sorry to any lawyers in the crowd. or at least, you know, robot assistants, we'll say. But I feel like, frankly, our future is in creativity and the human sides of that. I don't know if there's a question there other than like we lead by example whether it's good or bad.
30:19I agree, I agree. You know, this reminds me, I highly recommend you watch Yancy Strickler's Creative Mornings talk from last year. If you search Yancy Strickler on creativemornings.com, he's the co-founder of Kickstarter and he's on to building really exciting new things. And his talk was hands down my favorite talk in 18-year history of Creative Mornings. And he sort of really talks about where creativity came from. And he is convinced that the creative class is the one who's about to take off. And it's a really beautiful talk. I highly recommend you watch it. And I was just sitting there and my heart was just bursting when he was talking.
30:58He's so deeply in service of the creative community with what he's ever built. And I was thinking that to me, creativity is a discipline in optimism.
31:06Tina Roth Eisenberg:Because in order to move through life, you have to believe there's a better way. In order to believe there's a better way, you have to be optimistic, right? Then you can be creative. If you are coming from a place of, I believe there's a better way, then you can really tune into, like, what are my ideas to improve it? And I feel like Creative Mornings has created rituals of optimism, where we practice sort of that orientation of there is a better way. There is a kinder way. It just makes me really happy that creativity is really having a moment right now. Let's go deeper on this. You're in this unique position that you've seen so many different types of creative thinkers, and you've watched them coalesce their ethos, their methodologies, their spirit of creativity.
31:49What are the threads that run through what you've seen in all of these different Creative Mornings talks and just the conversations with people you've met? It would be hard to summarize 18 years of talks, but the thing I can tell you that I have learned because I curate the speakers in New York, and it's fascinating for me to see how much I have learned in discerning who would make a good speaker. And sort of what I've realized, and I had to articulate this the other day, because somebody asked me, what is really the criteria for you? I always say, I want people on stage that model a creative, brave life.
32:27that showed another way is possible, that have taken a risk. For example, one of my favorite speakers was Gittika Agaral, who was building Vacation Away with an artist. Have you interviewed her? Yeah, we've had her not on the show, but she wrote a newsletter with us, and we've done a few things with her. She's wonderful.
32:46Tina Roth Eisenberg:She's magic. So basically what she has built is a mini apprenticeship vacation. You can choose a country, Japan. you can learn how to dye fabric with an artist and possibly even stay with the artist for two, three days. This is hard what she's building. I want her to succeed, but it's magical what she's building. I want to put people on stage and put a spotlight on people who are really pushing the boundaries with what's possible, that are brave, that are building things that are a little unreasonable, a little crazy, because I think we all need to be given permission to break out of our own little safe worlds and safe boxes and imagine that there's a different way.
33:25And we need to have spaces where we support each other and cheer each other on. So I know that people get a boost after they speak at Creative Mornings, especially in New York City. And that to me is like this ethos of celebration of each other and each other's bravery is just what I want to see more of in the world. It doesn't have to just be us. More communities like that. So if somebody is listening right now and is getting really excited about Creative Mornings, but they don't have one in their area and they think, oh, wow, maybe this is an opportunity to do that. I'm sure they can go to your website.
33:53Do you have any pro tips on somebody wanting to start Creative Mornings? Yeah. So if you go to creativemornings.com and you scroll to the bottom, there's a link that says start a chapter. Fair warning, it's a pretty extensive process, but we're doing this on purpose that we really want the people that they want to do this and bring this to the city. But once you jump over the hoops and you get to be the host of a city,
34:15Tina Roth Eisenberg:We just give you all the resources. You are part of a global network of creatives, which is incredible. That is like the biggest perk ever. And we support you. And you are in the center of your creative community in your city. And you can knock on doors of people that you want to have speak because you have a global brand in your background. It's a really beautiful thing. But if you don't want to do that, you can also just tap into our virtual events for now and just get a taste of the community. It's not exactly the same, but we call them field trips, a virtual field trip every day. And they're completely community-led.
34:47So if you have something to offer, you can also just approach us and say like, hey, I want to teach this for an hour. Oh, I have an experience I could share. And just start contributing to the universe of Creative Mornings. Tell us about clubs. So clubs is our latest baby. You know, Creative Mornings chapters, we meet one Friday morning a month. And all we heard is once a month is not enough. And so we realized, and I think it's time that we extend the trust that we have given chapter hosts to our community members and say like, hey, is there something you love doing and you want to make friends when you do it?
35:19Then start a club and we offer you the platform. We help push it to our community. And we started it in New York two years ago. We have greenlit over 120 clubs. Some of them have been running a year and a half straight from photo walks to knitting to drawing to writing. literally anything goes, people want to just meet up. It's generosity-based, it's community-led, it's completely free. And we're slowly but surely rolling them out in other cities. And if you're really eager to bring it to your city, reach out to us as well. When the internet started, and I was the biggest internet fangirl, Aaron, you know that, right?
35:52And I was like, oh my God, I can see the world. I can be friends with anyone, anywhere. And I feel like what's happening now is that we've lost the art of being friends with our neighbors. And I believe the future is not lonely. It's actually hyper-local. And so clubs is really our contribution for people to bring their community building, their love for community into their hyper-local neighborhoods. And so that gets me very excited too. You have a knitting club in Brooklyn, Fort Greene, and you have a knitting club on the Upper West Side. And that's going to be our biggest focus to create this meet.
36:25It's almost like meetup.com on top of our community. But unlike meetup.com, we're not just a platform. We actually are a community with built-in value. So I know people who have gone to drawing clubs and have told me, I suck at drawing. I want to draw. This is the only place I would ever go to a drawing club because I know there's such kindness and an ethos of celebration here that I feel safe to do that. And again, to me, we're winning when I hear things like this. Circling back to the beginning of our conversation, it feels like this is such a great antidote to these really, frankly, disturbing trends where there's a survey that says it's, I think this is for under 25-year-olds, something like 25 % of them say they have no close friends, like zero close friends.
37:07And I just think, wow, that is just a tragedy. And so if you can build these local things where people, like I did, find a new friend, I think that's actually really, really positive impact.
37:17Tina Roth Eisenberg:You know, we call ourselves a friendship engine. It makes me happy. It really does. That's great. What are you excited about right now, Tina? What are you inspired by, Maybe something reading, you're watching, you're listening to, or maybe something adjacent that is giving you new perspective. I'm reading this book, Serviceberry, and I am totally not going to be able to articulate it. Like I would have never found it if it wasn't for this woman, that this woman was putting quotes out. Like she had a whole thread on threads on this book. And I was just so enamored. just to read you one of them that got me to buy the book was The Prosperity of the Community Grows from the Flow of Relationships, Not the Accumulation of Goods.
37:58Tina Roth Eisenberg:The book's called The Service Berry, and it's titled The Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. And it is such a left-field book that I would have never read otherwise, but it's full of gems, so I highly recommend. This looks very interesting. I love finding metaphors and adjacencies in biology or just the natural world. Totally. It's a gem. I highly recommend. That's great. Well, where can people learn more about what you're doing, about Creative Mornings, and any of the other stuff we talked about? Yes, you can find us at creativemornings.com. You can click on the city tab. You can find a city near you.
38:35Tina Roth Eisenberg:Or you can click on the release day banner at the top and join us. And we would love to see what you release on May 29th. I'm excited about release day. I think I'm going to throw my hat in the ring as well. I've got a project I'm working on. Both Eli and I have spoken at Creative Mornings. So if you go to creativemornings.com and search, I think you might find our talks from the past. And I've just gotten so much value from Creative Mornings over the years. So thank you for everything you've done. What a treat to have you on Design Better. Thank you so much.
39:09This episode was produced by Eli Woolery and me, Aaron Walter, with engineering and production support from Brian Paik of Pacific Audio. If you found this episode useful, we hope that you'll leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to finer shows. Or simply drop a link to the show in your team's Slack channel, designbetterpodcast.com. It'll really help others discover the show. Until next time.
40:03about all the things that truly matter. And it's always prompt, especially to be with family. Make it your first choice to celebrate your dad. Ship UPS Air with our money-back guarantee, exclusively at the UPS Store U.S. retail locations. Visit the upsstore.com slash air shipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply.
From the publisher
When Tina Roth Eisenberg moved to New York in 1999 as a new designer, she kept asking herself the same question: where are my people? Eighteen years ago, she answered it by starting Creative Mornings—a free breakfast lecture series that has since grown into what she describes as the world’s largest face-to-face creative community: 252 cities, 70 countries, and more than a thousand volunteers gathering with around 25,000 people every month. Or, as she puts it, “church for creativity.”
Visit our Susbtack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/tina-roth-eisenberg-creative-mornings
But Creative Mornings is just one thread in Tina’s story. She’s the voice behind Swiss Miss, the beloved design blog she’s kept up for 21 years; the founder of FRIENDS, a creative coworking community in Brooklyn; and the creator of Tattly, the designer temporary tattoo company that started as a joke and turned into a business.
In our conversation, Tina shares what she’s learned about building communities that scale on trust rather than control, why she measures success in “return on friendship,” and how playful side projects increase “the surface area for luck to find you.” We also talk about commitment as a creative practice, raising creative kids, and why she believes the future isn’t lonely—it’s hyperlocal.
Bio
Tina Roth Eisenberg is a Swiss-born, Brooklyn-based designer and serial founder—though many know her simply as "swissmiss," after the design blog she started in 2005 as a personal visual archive, which grew into a popular design journal drawing an average of a million unique visitors a month. Raised in Speicher, Switzerland, and shaped by Swiss design (and, as she puts it, a lot of fresh mountain air), she completed her design studies in Geneva and Munich before moving to New York in 1999. She is the founder of CreativeMornings, the world's largest face-to-face creative community, with monthly talks in 252 cities across 70 countries; the founder of Tattly, the designy temporary tattoo company; co-creator of the to-do app TeuxDeux; and founder of FRIENDS, a creative coworking space in Brooklyn. She lives in beautiful Fort Greene, Brooklyn, with her two children, Ella and Tilo, who teach her about current memes and TikTok.
Books & Links mentioned:
CreativeMornings.com
Creative Quests, Sam Furness
Dark Forest,Yancey Strickler
Nanowrimo
Swissmiss
Yancey Strickler: Creative Mornings talk from May 2025
Vacation With An Artist
Creative Mornings Field Trips
Creative Morning Clubs
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
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