Designer Recommended: Sarah Moffat’s Favorite Products, Tools, and Gear
Sarah Moffat has wonderfully eclectic taste. Design by Julianna Collares.
Sarah Moffat can’t think of a designer who doesn’t have a collection of some sort. The Turner Duckworth Global Chief Creative Officer is a lifelong collector of groups, patterns, and, of course, objects. To those who view this as clutter, she can’t help it–gathering is in her blood. (She shares 242 variants that link back to Neanderthal traits.) Her first collection was stickers, and her longest-running — 35 years and counting — is postcards. She loves an estate sale. (For only $5 the contents of someone’s life could be yours for the taking.)
She makes her collections public in the new book from the Turner Duckworth team, I love it. What is it? The book presents stories and advice that the team has acquired from working with some of the world’s biggest brands. (They created Amazon’s arrow logo about which Jeff Bezos famously said, “Anyone who doesn’t like this logo, doesn’t like puppies!”)
Here, Moffat shares a wonderfully eclectic mix of her favorite creative products, tools, and gear. To wit, the most unexpected tool she uses in her line of work is a bathtub. And the tool she uses most often is Fiskars paper scissors. (Unchanged since 1967!) Plus, her obsession over beeswax candles, the grooviest ribbon store in London, and why linden moss is a go-to gift for friends.
The book shares Turner Duckworth’s history, bright ideas, and creative insights.
1. The Products I Use the Most in My Creative Life
Foregoing the obvious laptop, mouse, and keyboard, because where’s the fun in that?
—Maps. I have no sense of direction whatsoever, so a map is essential. Every week I wander and there is always something new to discover. If you’re a seeker, San Francisco is a real-life search engine, and it is brimming with real-life inspiration. Yes, sometimes this city can be overwhelming, but I see the beauty. When I wander, I wonder, and that’s an essential function of my job. It’s important to have your feet on the ground when dealing with the mandatories and constraints, but without putting your head in the clouds from time to time, that’s all they will ever be. Mr. Rogers put it beautifully when he said “Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence… And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.”
—Fiskars Paper Scissors. Unchanged since 1967, the bright orange handles mean that they can be located on even the messiest of desks. They glide through paper like a knife through butter. In the early days of trying to explain to people what I do for a living, I would often say that I “cut things out and stick them down.” It was true at the time as there were only two computers in the studio and “cut and paste” was a physical activity, not a key command. Of course, I also had a trusty scalpel/Exacto and all the blood-spattered ER stories that go with it, but there’s nothing quite like a pair of Fiskars for rounding a corner and trimming to perfection.
Purchase it now: $6
2. The Most Unexpected Tool I Use in My Line of Work
A Bathtub. If I am ever stuck, lost, over tired, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or under pressure, it’s time to run a bath. Done right, a good hot bath has very little to do with getting clean. It’s a ritualistic place to find focus, and it’s also a great place to conduct phone calls, catch up on your reading, book meetings, compose emails and fill out your timesheets.
Purchase it now: You’re on your own to choose this one.
3. Products Outside My Work Life That I Obsess Over
—Beeswax Candles: Mo & Co make the perfect beeswax taper in the most pleasing shades. My candle obsession stems from a tattered copy of Junichiro Tanizaki’s essay, In Praise of Shadows, where he explores the role of darkness as an indispensable element of how we experience an environment. There’s something about the way candlelight invites shadows into a room (as opposed to the way an electric light is designed to chase those shadows away) that I find particularly appealing.
Purchase it now: From $18
—Ribbons. There are almost two thousand different ribbons to be found at V. V. Rouleaux in London, and I would like a few meters of each, please. String is great (also an obsession), but what ribbons lack in practicality they make up for with joy. They can tell everyone you’re a winner, what you believe in and stand for, and they make even the simplest of gifts feel that little bit more special.
Purchase it now: From $1 per three feet of ribbon
4. Best Product Ever (for under $20)
Flewd. I’ve lost count of how many packets of Flewd I have prescribed to friends and family. I don’t know if they’re medicine but they most certainly are magical.
Purchase it now: From $7/soak
5. Favorite Gift to Give to My Creative Friends
To me, gift-giving is an art. It’s highly personal… if it’s not handmade or vintage it’s usually homemade. These are just three of my creative friends whose work I like to gift to other creative friends and all too often to myself.
—A custom Box O’Treasures from OCD. Jessica curates the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life into bespoke collections (see image above). She also captured the collections that accompany my words in “Something’s Hiding in Here” and if you are lucky enough to find yourself in Las Vegas you should book a visit to her museum at the Office of Collecting and Design.
Purchase it now: From $99
—Linden Moss. Alice landscapes miniature jungles and rainforests in vessels of all shapes and sizes. What was once a cookie jar or a bottle now houses a world you can call your own.
Purchase it now: Custom price per item
—Mishapen Ceramics. Glenn and Natashia suggested that I eat cereal out of the pair of Bali-inspired pedestal bowls that I purchased from them last year. So far I have just stared at them, lost in a fantasy of island life far, far away from Corn Flakes and Cheerios.
Purchase it now: From $28
6. My Favorite App on My Phone that Says A Lot About Me
Disney Emoji Blitz. It’s a guilty pleasure but it’s Disney Emoji Blitz. It requires concentrated bursts of extreme focus, a soothing balm for any creative brain. Plus you get to collect Disney emojis to add a little Mickey magic to your messages.
7. My Last Splurge
Rezpiral, Single Run Destilado de Agave, Verde, Tio Chico. One of the last bottles of Tio Chico’s mezcal which might prove impossible to finish. He sadly passed away, leaving Berta Vasquez, his 65-year-old mother as head of the pelanque. I suspect my next splurge will be a bottle of Dona Berta’s Tepextate. After losing 3 generations of Mezcaleros (her grandfather, husband and son), she proves that you’re never too old to start, no matter what life throws at you.
Purchase it now: $147
8. The Top Item on My Dream Shopping List
If money were no object I’d build a private ryokan, complete with an onsen, tea house, and gardens somewhere along the Northern California coast. You’re invited.
Purchase it now: Free (We are Sarah’s guests, right?)
9. The Product That I Need for My Creative Work That Doesn’t Yet Exist
It’s a little something that my friend Brit dreamed up. The B-There 3000™, it’s part time machine, part rapid transportation device. It will allow me to join the London team for a pint down the pub, enjoy a martini at Little Owl with the New York crew, and still be home in time for a negroni as the sun sets over the Golden Gate Bridge. And yes, before you ask, this is highly creative work. Some of my best ideas happen at the pub, in fact, I think that’s where the B-There 3000™ was conceived.
10. Favorite Work of Art That I Own or Want to Own
Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home, 2016. There’s a dark twisted sense of humor in Nancy Fouts’ work that I enjoy very much (perhaps because I was raised by a library of Roald Dahl books). She conjures something unexpected through the combination of the ordinary and the everyday.
Purchase it now: Sold (sorry!)
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