How I Work: Matt McCue, Editor, Creative Factor
Sharp pencils, lay flat notebooks, and good lighting leads to a fantastic workspace.
Welcome to our new section! Yes, it’s me for our debut. I'm never sure if I should use the first person, or third-person, so let’s just dive right in. Herewith, 10 insights into how I work.
Rise and Shine
I’ve lived in New York City going on 18 years, and I’ve started pretty much every day here with a run in Central Park…that usually starts before 6 a.m. Once a week I meet my friend Tucker Margulies, a partner at Coalesce, for said run. We cover a lot of ground literally and figuratively. By the time the sun comes up, Tucker has usually helped me refine a story idea or solve something for the Creative Factor. Then it’s on to coffee. My father-in-law turned me on to Anderson’s Coffee from Austin, Texas. I like my coffee gasoline strong. Do I admit I have started to read my horoscope in the New York Post? Hey, everyone needs to find guidance and enlightenment somewhere.
Work Uniform
On days I go to the office and out and about in the city I like to dress old school — navy suit, dress shirts from Principe in Florence, and one of many ties with cartoonish icons on them that I tend to buy every time my wife and I visit Paris. I think I’m one of like five people in the world who enjoys wearing a tie. That's part of the fun, doing what nobody else is doing.
How I Structure My Day
Sort of like a mullet: important business at the top of the day, with the more social-y parts of the job in the back half. I like to work in big blocks of time, and I’m probably happiest working with writers on their stories, from conceptualizing to editing them. I tend to edit by asking lots of questions on the initial pass. The first piece I ever edited, I essentially rewrote it. The writer was understandably perturbed! Since then, I have learned to use questions to help the writer see where the piece should go and reach that destination more on their own terms. I start my workdays a little after eight and finish shortly after six. Then it’s whisky time!
Playlist Favorites
I have a quirk that I like to listen to one song over and over until I’m done with a given piece. Right now it’s a version of Rush’s Fly By Night played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. If you like that, you’ll love their take on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
Tools of the Trade
For being a words guy, I tend to sketch out my ideas before turning them into a strategy or story — favorite notebooks include Design Works’s Standard Issue No. 12 and the LeuchtturmB6+. (Maybe one day we’ll do a story on the secret world of notebook aficionados and fanatics.) And I’m a sucker for a sharp pencil. I recently stayed at the Dorset Square Hotel in London and took a handful of their red and white striped pencils. Another quirk — I don’t like traditional desks. I prefer tables and I’ve recently worked on a Skovby dining table, which I like to keep simple: MacBook Air, notebooks and pencils. Because I am a geriatric millenial, I have added a Mantar table lamp to see better. I keep it on all day.
Dream Studio
Stephanie Goto’s. It’s perfect. Unfortunately for me she has a long-term lease.
One Unique Thing About My Work Process
When I'm making stuff, I like to start in the middle. It’s too intimidating to start at the beginning and I don’t yet know how a piece ends. The middle is forgiving. Even if I don’t fully know where I’m going, I’ve got room to figure it out. Then it’s on to the end. I tend to finish with the beginning. Go figure.
Mantra
I was fortunate to compete under two best-in-class coaches. Bob Brown, an Iowa state championship-winning coach and Mark Wetmore, a national championship-winning coach at the University of Colorado. Coach Brown always told us to give “nothing but our best” and Coach Wetmore only had one rule, “be a person of character.” Those two mantras cover just about everything that is important.
My Bright Idea that Never Saw the Light of Day
A B2B-focused publication for the design industry. I’ve tried to bring it to life twice, and have never gotten it off the ground. Open to any and all ideas!
To-Do List Item That Keeps Me Up At Night
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