A Week of Reflection 🪞
Looking back at the season
blog.forty-six // We’re still in awe as we think back to Saturday—and the energy in the room at our first Block Party.
This week’s been a packing-and-shipping week, as we work to get the new edition of Creator Mag in your hands soon enough. In between taping poly mailers and writing thank-you notes comes lots of time for reflection on what we pulled off this season: five new videos, an apparel collaboration, a launch party, and a beautiful, forty-four page print zine.
On top of that, over the last three months, we doubled our readership. Our three busiest weeks ever for the blog all came in March. And forty-eight of you signed up for annual memberships, nearly two times the goal we set for this season.
Numbers don’t tell the whole story. Yet they tell a story. And the story here is that your support has blown us away, and while we’re pretty wiped, we’re feeling quite appreciative. It’s cliché to say it, but none of this would be possible without you, our readers.
Following this season, we’re just as committed to our mission to Make The Internet Feel Smaller. When it comes to our bigger, overarching projects, we might be a little quieter until our next season begins in June. But we’ll continue to share new interviews and essays here in the meantime, along with hosting regular gatherings at our studio in Chicago.
Speaking of which: We have five folks signed up so far for our afternoon co-working session tomorrow. There’s still room, and it’s completely free to attend—you can RSVP here.
Past that, given we have a lot of fresh faces here, I thought it’d be beneficial to recap some of our favorite stories and videos from this season. Scroll down to check them out below.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we shared an instant reaction from our first Block Party (along with photos). You can read it here.
Sponsored by Fourthwall
What Does Your Dream Shop Look Like?
Studies have shown that if you draw an idea, you’re 45% more likely to remember it later on.
So picture this: You’re on Main Street in your hometown, and the mayor hands over the keys to open up your dream shop. What does it look like?
We gave this prompt to attendees at our Block Party. Here’s what they drew:
Want to draw your shop for yourself? Hit reply, and we’ll send you a printable version of the same template we used at the Block Party. We can’t wait to see what you dream up!
P.S. 200,000+ creators and artists use Fourthwall to power their online stores. Get started for free—and receive $25 worth of sample credits, on us.
I spent a good chunk of my 2024 interviewing Hank, John, and a wide swath of fascinating people who have found themselves in the brothers’ orbit.
My goal was not only to understand why the Greens do what they do, but also to grapple with the brothers’ impact on the people, industries, and institutions around them—particularly as YouTube (the platform) nears legal drinking age.
This piece served as the cover story for our new edition. You can read the intro online (linked above); the full story appears in our print issue.
Our second cover story, “Twenty-Five Calls for 2025,” is a series of conversations that meet our creator friends where they're at, spotlighting the ideas currently on their dashboards as they chart the road of creativity ahead.
You can read more about the project in the first entry above. A condensed version of 25C appears in the zine; we’ve also been sharing each individual conversation on the blog, including with…
Temi Coker. The photographer and designer spoke on letting go of the things we can’t control—and his trademark phrase, “‘Till death do us art.”
Annemarie Allen. The creator and vlogger stressed the importance of setting a strong foundation and having gratitude for the “season” you’re in.
Linh Truong. The visual artist and lifestyle creator dished on brutalism, being reincarnated as a cat, and visiting “the motherland.”
P.S. An audiovisual version of this project will also appear on our YouTube channel this Saturday, the fifth and final episode of the season. Subscribe here to make sure you don’t miss it.
A Designer’s Art is a Mixtape of Their Life
In collaboration with designer and YouTube creator Jesse Nyberg, we dropped the “Keep It Moving” apparel collection on March 21.
An expanded interview with Jesse is featured in the new edition of Creator Mag. On top of that, we also flew out to Los Angeles to take photos and film a launch commercial. You can watch the commercial here, and check out how the collaboration came together via the mini-doc above.
All credit to Shua for directing, editing, and coloring both videos. Oh, and in case you missed it—you can purchase a piece from the collection here.
In 2021, Meta committed $25 million to We The Culture, a then-new program that invested in (and amplified content from) Black creators. This January, the company terminated its major DEI programs, including for hiring, training and picking suppliers.
Given the context of our current moment, over the last several months, I caught up with four creators who participated in We The Culture—and learned more about how the program impacted their journey.
One is an author and poet who now works at MIT. Another is a comedian who landed a show with E! News. A third is a med school grad and in-demand science communicator.
My reporting for this story appears in the zine, but you can also read it in its entirety here. With Creator Mag, our goal is to strike a balance between taking on creative projects with our friends and tackling nuanced topics like this one; we hope you enjoy this slightly more serious piece.
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.