The Spark: Natty Harris on Good Pens, Big Feelings and Pasta Personalities

0:03We are back with the wonderful Natty Harris, a graphic designer based down in Brazil. If you didn't listen to our chat on Monday, it is quite heavy, but very important. And we were just saying how we were impressed that we held it together because we talked about quite a lot of loss and trauma. and it was uh it was very it was very nice though to to talk through it and i think it would have

0:30Natty Harris:helped a lot of people yeah i hope so i hope so yeah well we're gonna go a little bit lighter now we're gonna um it's the spark yes let's get the shoulders going it's the spark

0:47so every week we invite that week's guest to answer a few silly questions and and let us get to know them a bit better so you've chosen what I'm going to ask you so I'm not going to put you on the spot just just so my audience knows I'm not that cruel but it's really interesting what you are creative to choose every week because you always seem to choose the most difficult ones

1:13Natty Harris:I think are you no like some of those other questions I was like I actually I need to lie down like i have no idea oh i can't remember i can't remember what the other ones were but i always find this particular question um quite challenging because i think oh god what would i say but anyway what is a trend you're secretly over but everyone else seems to love uh sans serif logos oh like the simplification of logos like when in a rebrand kind of environment where every bit of personality is being stripped back because we're trying to make everything you know easy to read on laptops and whatever and I just think come on like let's have a bit more fun and let's be a bit more adventurous and just have you know different stages or tiers of that logo and make it work in all areas but don't feel like it has to always like I just think there's so many logos now that look the same and yeah um it why be bland when you could be maybe that's the maximalist in me that's like come on yeah let's have fun yeah let's have fun I think it'll probably change it goes in cycles it does like a burst of creativity and everybody will try then to look completely different and then it'll go back to everything looking the same again same yeah exactly so the trend won't last long it won't it won't i promise you and i think the thing that's driving the move back to making things more interesting again is probably ai because ai is making everything look the same yes hugely so yeah absolutely and also you can't do fonts so as long as you've got something font-y in there you're for a while did you see jessica walsh's um uh first article for creative boom today she was talking about i have i've opened the tab it's on my phone for later typography might be the last thing ai can't fake she wrote so yeah give that a whirl yeah i think i i don't think that they yeah i agree with her i'm just going to agree with Jessica Walsh because she's yeah she's awesome I think that's wise yeah what's the smallest thing that instantly improves your work day oh you know what it's really really daft but a really good pen I love like just I'm really do make an effort to write something down in the day yes even if it's like a to-do list of the things I've already done just so I can tick and I can feel like I've a accomplish something um wake up done uh but the the the smoothness of a really good pen on paper just it immediately i'm like oh okay the world is all right it's not that bad it's fine like calm down you'll be okay it's like tom hiddleston dancing isn't it it's that kind of vibe yeah thanks so much for that visual yeah it's gonna help are we talking um tom hiddleston night manager one or two or both oh for me it's one yeah for me it's one absolutely yeah is it the rolled up shirts don't know why i'm going probably yeah the sunny environments and then the cold environments and it doesn't matter actually the actress in that she she you're reminding me of um her you've got the same you know elegant long neck oh thanks i feel bone structure i don't feel very elegant at the moment so that's very kind of you to say it's february love i don't think any of us do no i'm very much looking forward to sun stepping considerably later than you know i know it's so difficult this time of year i mean by the time this comes out it will be it will be spring and will be skipping around in jackets and cardigans oh you know the thing I'm most looking forward to is not wearing socks I hate socks so much and socks and boots it's like come on like I feel trapped yeah I went through a bit of a makeover after my back injury yes discovered that you have to wear the right socks with the right shoes you have to do this thing called threading you know make sure the colors match it's exhausting I mean I've been doing I've been dressing much better for the last six months and because it's freezing cold and wet all the time I keep going to my wardrobe every day now looking at my clothes and going oh I can't be bothered I can't be bothered I'm just going to put my slouchy yoga pants on and be done with it I think that's wise I think it you know do what you need to to get through um if you could steal one skill from another creative discipline overnight what would it be oh words I yes writing I can't I can't write well I can but not really like you can I just I can I can chat till the cows come home that's fine it's the bit that goes from brain instead of to mouth to hand like that bit to me it just there's such a disconnect because I try so hard I think it's because I try to sound intelligent and that's obviously where I'm falling over but you know words are so so so so so powerful and I just don't ever feel like I harness them well enough when they're permanent on paper and it may be that's the conflict is that I'm overwhelmed by the permanence of them but um yeah being able to write would be a dream a real dream can i give you some advice and it's probably obvious don't overthink it oh well it is my second time occupation is overthinking so i'm not sure i'm gonna get very far well the thing is i had an old boss he's he's now one of my best friends has been for gosh nearly 20 years and he gave me the best advice early on in my career and he said um the key to great communication is not to make it sound intelligent and highbrow the key to good writing is that you are communicating a message and the simpler you can do that the better yeah it's why i love ernest hemingway um and um other such brilliant writers who just have a really great way of prose and you know sentences that are short and sharp you just say what you need to say without waffling on and I I tackle writing by just typing what's in my head and then knowing that I can come back to come back to it later and edit it and it just flows out of me I have no issue that I've always had I've always been able to do that and I've always I've never had that thing but i do understand the the need to make it sound um more intelligent yeah but paul put a stop to that and he said you don't need to do that yeah so yeah yeah hope that helps that's very good yeah thank you i'll send you an invoice yeah yes please oh i like this one who's your creative hero past or present and what have they taught you without you even knowing it so I think it will be Frida Kahlo oh and um I was introduced to Frida Kahlo at secondary school in like obviously not introduced because she's not here um but my very very very excellent art teacher Miss Duggan she we were doing a thing about the theme was about women or womanhood or something like that and she said well we can't we can't talk about womanhood without talking about Frida Kahlo and I was like who the heck is that and obviously then once the pictures came up I was like oh I know her like yeah that's fine and then just this long fascination with her ever since and going to her there was an exhibition at the VNA that me and my husband went to a couple of years back I say a couple of years a decade ago and uh wow that was a while ago um and it only like helped me deep dive into that whole her whole world and she was unapologetic and I think that is the thing that I've taken away from it all is and her life and her legacy and everything else is like just how unapologetic she was and in the exhibition at the V &A they also had a snippet about what her house is like in Mexico and she was an avid collector of random objects so she has like I don't know 20 horsehair brushes but and they're all immaculately displayed and she makes she made it was almost like whether intentionally or not I don't know she made everything a piece of artwork and to me that's such an incredible way to live that you see the impact that you make and recognize that anything can be creative anything can make people feel something can tell a story and I think yeah she was just a badass and I think that's also another thing that I'm like well I'll be a bit of Frida today I love that I've got a picture of him in my downstairs Lou you know have you yeah I've got like a picture wall of people you know people we like are creative heroes and uh yeah she's she's she's amazing because she was um also like a chronic pain sufferer yeah yeah so you know she definitely had a lot of empathy and uh compassion I would expect yeah no absolutely and I think she you know not only from the uh bus accident but also that she I think she had polio and that affected her legs and you know that's why she wore partly why she wore traditional dress was because it you know it made it more comfortable for her and yeah it was she she was just so layered and I love that about her like that stupid phrase of you know feeling like you're too much i mean frida was you know she really too much but she didn't care she was amazing she um apparently said things like feet what do i need you for when i have wings to fly isn't that wonderful it's delicious i love that oh like and like so i'm just reading through here like i am not sick i am broken but i am happy to be alive as long as I can paint yeah just like you know that how we were talking on Monday the things that we need to carry on and the things that we need to like rest rest on or marinate in like find quotes find words that resonate with you on that level that someone who has been through a similar valley of death or whatever it is that find the words that make you feel alive and I think that's so important and she's obviously she obviously had a lot a lot to say she really did she's she was a very intelligent woman clearly um oh yeah that's a good one we've not had Frida before so thanks for sharing that pleasure this is a little bit different though this is a similar kind of ilk but this is this is always interesting if you could host a dinner a party with two people dead or alive which is crude and obviously like oh we could say Thomas couldn't we and we could say Veronica but yeah that's the obvious that's the obvious who else would be there they would be there but who else would be there not including your best mates either and why are they coming so the first one uh is Kat Howe who's very much alive um she she was a speaker at the first event that I helped organize with the West of England Design Forum and I reached out to her and asked her if she'd come and like you know I was absolutely a fish out of water I'd never put an event together in my life let alone talk to anyone of any caliber whatsoever so and she was just unbelievably generous with her time her words her just everything and she was brilliant and the event was with Lisa Smith who's also brilliant and there were two incredible speakers who were just just laid it out and were really honest about things and I'm ever so grateful for the fact that they came to Bristol to do that and to come and celebrate Bristol because they both have like links to Bristol etc but then about nine months after the event I was having not like a an identity crisis but I was having like a minute where I just needed someone to speak into my life in a design respect and I messaged her on LinkedIn and I said I know this is really weird but can we have a chat like I just need I need someone like me i.e.

15:04Natty Harris:a woman to talk to me about design because unfortunately until five years ago six years ago I think I knew one female creative director and the rest are men and you know I don't know now I know a lot more because I've done the digging and I've done the networking and I'm meeting people all the time and stuff but Kat was one of the first few people that I'd met who was you know doing that and I've resonated with so much of her talk and you know the international bit and everything else and I was like maybe just if we could just have like half an hour max like we could she could just put me at ease about all the complicated feelings I'm feeling and she was so generous with her time and her like I said her words and we ended up talking for almost an hour and she still checks in on me every now and then and I'm so so grateful that you know Muppet Natty in Bristol has occupies like even like 0.5 percent of a brain cell of her so I would love to have dinner with her host dinner make something delicious for her as a gesture of gratitude but also just to get to know her a bit better and yes like drink a lot of gin and tonics and I think we'd have a wonderful time can I come yes please I love Kat she's done the same for me she's a very generous soul um a good egg um yeah and is is so sincere you know so genuine yeah but who else I mean you've got that force of nature who else are you gonna have I'm going to have the author, illustrator, executive producer, Alice Oseman to come along because I don't know, have you watched or read Heartstopper?

16:59Natty Harris:No, I have not. Please do on Netflix and the series of Heartstopper in book form are graphic novels. no I don't have them here they're on my other bookcase and Alice is an incredible incredible creative because they started their career as a novelist and wrote their first book I think when they were 21 like and it's called Solitaire and it sort of paints the sort of the foundation of this universe that Alice has created Alice has written several other books since then and then these two characters from solitaire nick and charlie she just couldn't let them go and um then wrote heartstopper but wrote it as a graphic novel and illustrated the whole thing and to me to be able to with words that you know is an area that i'm like i can't write to save my life or whatever for her to do that then also transcend into illustration to also then go into graphic novels to then it get picked up as a Netflix show where so many pages of the graphic novel are literally like just exact replicas of what you see on Netflix to transcend so many areas of creativity just blows my mind and I would love to swim in her brain and like figure it all out or see it or touch it or understand it or ask more questions about film because I think it's fascinating and that whole world that we're so invested in because everyone's got Netflix and everyone watches TV and everything else to do the behind the scenes and for Alice to potentially speak a very similar language to me as an illustrator or as a you know graphic designer or whatever I think it would just make for such a great dinner to have Kat Howe powerhouse woman designer and then Alice who has done such incredible things I think they're only 30 um gosh you know it just it would I think I would just sit there and just absorb it all I wouldn't say anything I'd be like tell me everything tell me what's going on what's going down well we all have those I'll bring in Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Poehler we'll also ride in Frida Kahlo and then we'll just have an amazing evening amazing yeah lots of wine we'll have a great time 100 100 now we do this lovely chain reaction type thread per episode so last week's guest was David Airey the graphic designer exciting yeah I know he had quite a difficult question to answer from the previous guest it was something along the lines of what are you currently not doing that you should be doing and and why are you not doing it or something on those lines so that was quite an interesting one I bet that got a lot of people thinking why is it that I'm currently not doing that I should be doing and why am I not doing it um but David wants to know what do you want to be remembered for oh I need to lie down my gosh I know it's been I said to him that's a bit heavy he said I know I know I do apologize but I am just really curious what is it that people want to be remembered for what do you want to be remembered for and like I guess that's a really great question off the back of our Monday episode um you know where we were remembering people and what they the sort of the impression they left on us forever um and I guess for me I want to be remembered for making everyone feel at home um it's you know it's been such a privilege to do creative boom in real life in Bristol and to do you know design forum stuff and it was so out of my comfort zone but I was so inspired by the people that were doing it before and I was like oh maybe one day I'll be as cool as them and I can put events on and make people feel welcome and it's it's the biggest sort of takeaway I've had from creative boom in real life is that you know people have said I just felt really welcomed and I felt like I there went it wasn't cliquey and it wasn't that I had to be this sort of level of designer or this level of creative and I hope that yeah I made keep I make people laugh and I make people feel at home you really do and got so many lovely people giving that kind of feedback after your first in real life and you you met um lewis clark as well yes yeah no we're we know each other from online for ages and you know i was always commenting on his stuff like lush love this or whatever and then he was a speaker at one of our design forum events and i got to meet him in real life and I was like I almost want to touch your face just to know that you are real like this is so bizarre because you've only ever existed on my phone to then have you right in front of me this is wild and he thankfully wasn't entirely put off by me for saying that but we've caught up several times and he's come to creative boom twice now and he he's advertising for us for design forum our next event in March and um and he's he's just lush and I feel like I could talk to him all day and I don't know him really beyond those like three interactions but um wholesome yeah it's so nice it's so nice to meet people and feel at home yeah I just find it absolutely astounding that I've built this platform called Creative Boom with the the the desire to make something that was inclusive and felt really cozy and welcoming and not like necessarily just for the cool kids and how that translates to other things it just sort of naturally you know reflects in other things like creative boom in real life um all of the hosts are so fantastic yourself included it's it's so wholesome and the feedback we get and all the people that go and it's a lot of people who say you know I was really anxious about going but when I got there it was so down to earth and lovely and friendly and there were no egos and there was no pretension and and you know I'm like crying my eyes out reading all these things because of the time I've had recently and I'm just like my god I I actually started this 17 years ago and it's got such a strong mission I guess that yeah people feel like it I just can't get my head around it it's just mad anyway well you set the culture and the culture goes like that doesn't it like from the top it will resonate down and you know you don't tolerate egos and you don't tolerate nonsense and bullshit and everything else and you say it as it is and all of that good stuff that we need and then it just it and you know it's it's infectious yeah it it trickles down you can't you can't ignore it and it's so needed like we're just in a in a season of life at the moment as a society where we just need to feel human again and what does that mean well it means the full spectrum of it but also not tolerating bad behavior and not tolerating people being dickheads really so true and it goes back to what we want to be remembered for you know it's um it's nice to do something good it really is yeah okay I'm putting you on the spot now because of the little chain we've got have you got a question for our next guest I do if you could be a pasta shape what would you be and why this is good we've had a lot of heavy questions I love that and i suppose we've got our ad and why and why and why okay i'm writing that down that's going to be put to our next guest which i think i can't confirm because the the the schedule always moves around but i think it's louise sloper from uh typo circle oh wonderful that's so exciting well good luck Louise with your pasta shape I already know what her I already know what her question is for the next guest as well oh wow that's very efficient of her I know well that's Lou all over that is you know she's brilliant absolutely brilliant speaking of brilliant you've been brilliant thank you so much for generously sharing your story and time um on this sort of lovely wintry evening in the UK I hope I hope spring brings lots of sunshine and happiness and good times and I very much very much look forward to meeting you in person in Bristol at some point if not in real life it'll be at the forum yes I'm so excited you've got me to do a tour I know I know and you know what when you said like oh go on then I hate doing it or like you know I don't like doing it but I'm gonna do it anyway and then you asked me to do the podcast I was like I can't turn around and go oh no thanks yeah exactly yeah I've got to do it yes a little bit yes yeah okay all right well I've actually I'm actually doing the talk tomorrow in the studio um so so it's a practice run and then I'm doing the same talk at Wilson's Republic in March um and then by the time I get to you hopefully you'll have I've got it refined and it'll be a little talk that I take on tour if I uh but I have said to my Tom I've said if I hate it if I hate it I'm not doing anything beyond Bristol I'm just gonna like retreat again and hide but I think that's normal as well like prior to today I was like I'm gonna be using a lot of energy doing nothing the two days before doing nothing the two days after I just need I need that peak and then I definitely need the trough after yes totally totally we'll have a lion tomorrow for sure yes like putting a snowboard at the top of the slope and just make willing yourself to tilt forward and go for it it's that yeah it's that turning point that's yeah i know that for you well look out bristol here i come thank you so much natty for your time it's been so lovely getting to know you and uh yeah i'll see you uh at the next event yeah see you soon Thanks to Adobe for sponsoring this episode.

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