Here’s #4. Enjoy!

send nudes

A project by Araba, a Ghanaian-American experience designer, send nudes documents over 100 people in their homes, in the nude, to explore the interaction between the physical and social body as it impacts our internal perception and subsequent external behavior. The interview is centered around four questions:

What is the part of your body you value the most?
What is the first thing people notice about you?
How has that (physical) thing influenced the ways in which others treat you?
Do you believe that ‘all humans are created equal’?

I find introspections like this very refreshing. Watch their TedX talk below.

→ arabaankuma.com/send-nudes

Bonafide Squatters

Obayomi Anthony is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist, whose work centers on social justice and the preservation of cultural heritage. In this project - Bonafide Squatters - he documents the living conditions in Unilag: dense rooms, packed hallways, common areas, and squatters.

As someone who went to a Nigerian university (or even boarding school), the images are nostalgic and evocative. Especially for a boys’ hostel. If you lean in close, you can hear the chaos and fullness of life from being in close proximity to so many people. I know the quality of life in federal universities is in dire need of improvement, but I wouldn’t change anything about my experience.

→ obayomianthony.com/bonafide-squatters

Timeframe

I’ve always been fascinated by handy people (or the quality of building a home yourself). I’m not going to build my own garage or anything, but a 25-inch, always-on e‑paper command center that quietly shows our family’s calendar, weather, and home status at a glance? Count me in!

Joel, a staff software engineer at Github, has meticulously documented the process of building a real‑time family dashboard—from early Magic Mirror and jailbroken Kindle experiments, to more reliable Visionect e‑ink panels, and finally to a large Boox Mira Pro display driven by a Rails backend that leans heavily on Home Assistant for data, real‑time updates, and simple, status‑only views of his smart home.

→ hawksley.org/2026/02/17/timeframe.html

constraint.systems

In the spirit of Tech Stuff ©, check out this project that curates alternative interfaces for creating and editing graphics. It’s an ongoing attempt to explore alternative ways of interacting with pixels and text on a computer screen.

The core of design still relies on human strategy, emotional intelligence, and cultural context, but tools like this make experimentation much more fun.

→ constraints.systems

Whose museum is it anyway

My work with Ajasa has brought me closer to MOWAA, possibly one of the most ambitious institutional undertakings of the last decade. Government-led projects like the John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, or the recently refreshed National Theatre are a beacon of hope for state leadership in the arts, but private institutions are setting the pace.

MOWAA’s launch weekend was not the clean start they’d hoped for. It was a collision of restitution politics, donor money, state power and royal authority, leaving the building and its programmes in place but its full public opening suspended. Call me a revisionist, but I think that was so important for the conversation that followed. I’ve read a lot of takes, but this one by Afolabi Adekaiyaoja stands out.

→ africasacountry.com/2025/12/whose-museum-is-it-anyway

The Artist Corporation

I follow Yancey Strickler religiously (Kickstarter, Metalabel, The Creative Independent, and now Artist Corporations). That man is obsessed with supporting creative work and is one of the few people I really look up to.

The Artist Corporation is a new type of business entity designed for creative people. Artists keep majority control, intellectual property is protected by law, and the artistic mission comes first. Senate Bill 26-133 would make it real in Colorado — and set the model for every state.

This might feel so far away, but if you compare this to local tech companies getting registered in Delaware, then you see how it matters for the arts.

→ artistcorporations.com

A Sexual History of the Internet

A Sexual History of the Internet is a three-part project (lecture performance, book, and financial experiment) that was recently launched on Metalabel. It’s an exploration of the internet’s relationship to sex, of how laws and censorship have evolved.

The book is a follow-up to Cyberfeminism Index, also created by Mindy Seu and designed by Laura Coombs. It’s designed to “feel like an iPhone, a little black book, and serve as a facsimile of the performance”. In the performance, the audience reads along from their phones in a dimly lit room.

Read all about it in this interview with the author:

→ magazine.032c.com/magazine/techno-development-and-desire-mindy-seu-sexual-history-of-the-internet

I’m working with some friends to transform the building at 30 Ajasa Street, Lagos Island into a production center for ceramics and 3D printing.

The building has run for six years experimenting with materials and hosting a very wide range of artists and events. Our goal is to formalise the fabrication practice and support it with rental income and workshops.

We’re looking to raise capital in a profit-share agreement. You can read all about it here: Ajasa Makerspace Deck.

If you’re interested, say hi: makerspace@16by16.co

The answers were mixed: excitement about speed and convenience, worry about IP protection, and a fear that AI might dilute our creativity. Some people love using AI tools every day; others are still feeling their way around what it means.

We explored three lenses:

• AI as a paradigm shift. There’s a “pre‑AI” and “post‑AI” world, just like there was a pre‑internet and post‑internet world. It’s changed how we search, work, and create.

• AI as an industry. Startups, GPUs, models, infrastructure — a fast‑growing ecosystem of companies building on top of this technology.

• AI as new software. Existing tools now have AI baked in, and new tools let you make images, videos, and prototypes just by writing in plain language.

The core idea: AI is giving us new ways to experience software — from sifting the internet for us, to drafting copy, to running tasks while we sleep.

But the heart of the workshop wasn’t “how to use AI”, it was “how to think with AI.”

We spent a big chunk of time on critical thinking: what it is, why it’s eroding for some people, and how to protect it.

We broke critical thinking down into four “objects” we deal with every day:

• Beliefs – what we privately accept as true.

• Claims – what we put into the world as statements.

• Arguments – claims backed by reasons: “X is true because Y.”

• Judgments – the position we take after weighing information, context, and our own experience.

The key reminder: AI doesn’t actually think. It predicts. It produces language that sounds confident and structured, but it doesn’t weigh evidence or hold values. That job stays with us.

We also named a couple of the mental traps that get worse in an algorithmic world:

• Confirmation bias – only paying attention to information that agrees with us, which algorithms happily reinforce.

• Belief bias – accepting an argument just because we like the conclusion, without checking if the logic actually holds.

Sharpening critical thinking in the age of AI, for us, came down to three habits:

1. Make judgments, not just opinions. Don’t stop at “I feel this.” Gather information that both supports and challenges your view, then decide.

2. Use mental models. Ask “why?” multiple times; break problems down with who/what/where/when/why; slow yourself down before reacting.

3. Reflect before you accept. Especially when an AI answer feels instantly right, pause and inspect the structure behind it.

From there we got practical: how do we actually work with AI day‑to‑day without outsourcing our brains?

Some of the principles that stood out:

• Try multiple tools. Different tools shine at different things — original writing, heavy data processing, image generation, etc. It’s worth experimenting instead of marrying one tool for everything.

• Write better prompts. Clear role, clear context, examples, and questions tend to beat “write me an essay on X”. We can start rough, but the goal is to iterate into sharper instructions as our own thinking clarifies.

• Plan before execution. Talk to the tool first: “Here’s what I’m trying to do, what should I consider?” Use that to shape the prompt.

• Manage context. Too much history and too many conflicting instructions in one chat can actually make outputs worse. Sometimes the best move is to summarize and start a fresh conversation.

• Build systems, not one‑offs. When something works, save the prompt and the pattern. Over time, this turns into personal “mini‑apps” for invoices, research, content drafts, and more.

Underneath all of this was a simple stance: use AI as an editor, amplifier, and collaborator, not as an oracle. Draft first if you can, then bring AI in to critique, improve, and stress‑test your thinking — the same way you’d ask a sharp colleague for feedback.

We closed with three simple rules:

1. Ask clarifying questions. Before you push to produce, talk about the problem.

2. Trust, but verify. Always know where your “research assistant” got its facts from.

3. Don’t stop thinking. AI can be eloquent, but it’s not wiser, more responsible, or more human than we are.

Slides here: drive.google.com

Our goal for 2025 was simple: to validate our right to exist. And we did exactly that.

With Main Squeeze, I wanted to prove there was demand for a new experience of compression wear - one rooted in excellent fabrication, without sacrificing design, comfort, or medical functionality. We’re delivering something meaningfully different, and it’s clearly resonating.

We’ve had our foot on the pedal all year, so this quiet week between Christmas and New Year has given me a moment to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what we’re taking forward.

Some of our wins are visible: 100%+ month-on-month growth, awards, MHRA registration, earned media coverage, and zero returns—all achieved with a single distribution channel, and a lean marketing budget. Other wins were quieter, internal decisions and course corrections that have set us up for sustainable, long-term growth.

So rather than celebrating outcomes, I want to share a few of the learnings that shaped how we operated and allowed us to end the year with profitability in sight.

Learning #1: Protect your margins

We chose to work with a 3PL from day one, with the intention of being “set up for scale.” In theory, it was the right instinct. In practice, I misjudged both the contract structure and the partner fit.

In those first few months, when our primary goal was demand validation, fixed fees were punitive. For much of the year, a meaningful portion of our margin was eroded by costs that only make sense at volume. By mid-year, it was clear that I needed to do something about it.

Before entering Q4, we secured a new fulfilment setup with zero fixed recurring costs and no minimums, reducing our fulfilment cost per order by roughly 40%.

That decision fundamentally reset how I think about early-stage systems. At this stage, flexibility beats theoretical scale-readiness every time.

Learning #2: Focus is capital allocation

Limited resources mean something always has to give. When we launched at the end of last year, we were shipping to both the UK and the US. Over time, tariffs and ongoing uncertainty made it increasingly difficult to keep the US market active without it becoming economically irrational.

We made the decision to pause US operations and focus where unit economics were most favourable in the medium term. That focus served us well. Concentrating our efforts reduced complexity, sharpened execution, and allowed us to learn faster. When we return to the US, we’ll do so with better systems, clearer insight, and a much stronger footing.

This year was defined by decisions that reduced surface area in order to ensure longevity.

Learning #3: Momentum over everything

In the early days, I was highly specific, especially about creative direction and visual communication. That level of precision often came at the expense of time, and in turn, attention. Perfection slowed us down.

With limited resources, I learned that building and sustaining momentum matters far more than executing on an exact creative ideal. What we needed was constant forward motion, enough acceleration to stay visible, relevant, and in the conversation for press, awards, and eventually retail. As long as we stayed true to our core message and clearly offered a new way of seeing compression socks, I was willing to loosen my grip.

That momentum has been the foundation of much of our early success.

The broader context: launching into a hard moment

This was not an easy year to launch a consumer brand, especially one without significant influencer backing or external capital.

The 2025 landscape is characterised by high marketing costs, onerous retail terms, and constrained consumer spending. Discovery has become noisier as social media feeds prioritise prediction over affiliation, and at the same time, trust in media has drastically eroded. The landscape increasingly favours large, well-resourced brands, and even corporate incumbents are leaning on price increases rather than volume for growth.

That said, this is the only environment I know as a founder. I can’t reminisce about a time when CPMs were $6, because that was never my reality. We launched into high costs, low trust, with limited margin for error. And while that may sound bleak, I’ve come to see these constraints as a gift. They’ve forced financial discipline, operational clarity, and creative restraint early. The traction we’ve gained in just twelve months has come despite macroeconomic headwinds and real microeconomic pressure – giving me even more confidence in what we’re building.

Looking ahead to 2026

In 2026, our focus will shift from validation to expansion, starting with brand awareness. That includes retail distribution, new marketing channels, and new products. But the foundation remains the same: deepening our understanding of our customer. We know who they are and what they like, but there’s still a lot more to learn. Stronger feedback loops will guide how we grow, because good product is the prerequisite for everything else. Without continuous, honest feedback, scale is meaningless.

We’ll be raising capital to support this next phase and are interested in speaking with angels, syndicates, family offices, and other alternative sources of capital that invest in category-defining CPG brands. If you’re reading this and someone comes to mind, I’d love an introduction.

Joining Moonlight marked a turning point in my professional journey.

When I came onboard, the studio was working with an external agency handling performance marketing—specifically Meta ads for Main Squeeze, our UK-based brand specializing in stylish compression socks. One of their key recommendations was whitelisting, which we implemented as part of the overall strategy. At the time, performance marketing was collaborative but externally driven. My role was observational and supportive.

That changed when the contract ended and I officially stepped in as the in-house performance marketer for the studio.

Taking full ownership was an eye-opener. Decisions now rested on my expertise, and people relied on my recommendations to drive real revenue. It pushed me into a new level of accountability—I had to not only know performance marketing but confidently execute it. This phase meant deep research, continuous learning, testing, and delivering results.

Building a Strong Testing Framework for Meta Ads

The most important observation I made before ending the agency contract was how critical structured A/B testing is to scaling Meta ads successfully. This became my first major area of focus.

Working closely with Princess, we developed multiple testing templates for Meta ads. Through trial, error, and performance analysis, we narrowed our approach to a more refined and repeatable system. The core of this system was understanding audience awareness stages—unaware, problem-aware, solution-aware, product-aware, and most aware. We made the decision to focus on solution-aware audiences, where intent already existed and acquisition could be more efficient given our constraints.

This insight shaped our creative and copy strategy. Instead of educating people on why compression socks matter, we could focus on differentiation—Main Squeeze offers cute, stylish compression socks, not just functional medical-looking ones.

Using the AIDA framework (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), we generated creative ideas tailored to that awareness stage. For each testing phase, we clearly defined what we were testing—whether copy angles, creative formats, audiences, ad sets, or offers. Instead of testing randomly, every experiment had a purpose and a hypothesis.

This approach significantly deepened our understanding of Meta ads as a platform. More importantly, we saw the impact reflected in both ad performance and Shopify results. Main Squeeze’s unique selling point—cute, stylish compression socks—finally had messaging that matched the audience’s readiness to buy.

Solving Meta Pixel and Tracking Challenges

After stabilizing our testing mechanics, we ran into a major challenge: Meta Pixel tracking issues.

For months, we noticed discrepancies in our data. Add-to-cart, initiate checkout, and purchase events were firing, but the number of purchases reported in Meta Ads Manager was consistently lower than what showed in Shopify. The previous agency had flagged the same issue, confirming it wasn’t isolated to our setup.

I began researching potential causes and found discussions suggesting that Facebook Pixel often only fires after users accept cookies. Our initial workaround—making the cookie banner easier to accept—helped slightly but didn’t fully solve the problem.

That’s when we brought in Tosin and Taqib from the Developer team. After reviewing the setup together, we confirmed that cookie consent was the root cause. The team worked on a solution that ensured Meta tracking functioned whether or not users explicitly accepted cookies.

The first test worked on Tosin’s end but failed on mine and within GemPages. After further refinements and retesting, we finally achieved a working solution.

Current Fix

• If a user accepts cookies, the Facebook Pixel fires normally

• If a user rejects or ignores cookies, we manually listen for key events (view content, add to cart, purchase) and send them directly to Meta

• This ensures consistent tracking regardless of cookie consent

We also addressed another issue where Meta was losing visibility on users coming from its own platforms. The fix involved implementing Facebook Advanced Matching (hashed data), allowing Meta to better identify users when they land on the site from Facebook or Instagram and track their actions more accurately.

We’re currently testing this setup with live ads. The results remain stable, and tracking accuracy has significantly improved campaign performance and decision-making.

Expanding Into New Platforms

Beyond Meta, we expanded into TikTok toward Q4. Black Friday campaigns leveraged TikTok Shop promotions, which performed well. Looking ahead, we plan to launch Spark Ads in Q1, building on organic content for more native engagement.

We also have long-term plans to explore Google Ads in 2026, ensuring that expansion aligns with data maturity and budget efficiency.

Amazon Expansion

Alongside Main Squeeze, I’ve also been involved in research for Blank Body Beauty, which will be launching on Amazon soon. I’ve conducted in-depth research into Amazon ad structures, listing optimization, and publishing workflows. I’ve completed my first draft of Amazon ads and am now preparing to analyze results and learnings that will shape strategy going into 2026.

Working with the team at Moonlight has reinforced one core belief: everyone has a strength, and the team grows by relying on those strengths. Independence in knowledge and ownership of expertise are essential. What turns individuals into professionals and teams into high-performing units is continuous learning, research, asking questions, collaborating, and improving.

I know the next year will bring even more research, testing, and execution. Moonlight is my growth environment, and I’m committed to growing it while growing with it.

Every year during my birthday week, which happens to be in December, I have a tradition of reflecting on how far I have come, the highs and the sheges, just to make sure I pick one or two things from it.

Looking back at this year, it doesn’t feel like a clean timeline. It feels more like random moments that only start to make sense when I pause and zoom out. Small wins. Frustrating days. Projects that stretched me in different ways.

Somehow, they all connect.

The year really started in December, with oPus.

oPus is a curated directory of independent furniture studios around the world. They don’t sell furniture — they celebrate it. Craft, culture, process.

Their old website didn’t really do justice to that, so we were tasked with redesigning it. The client loved the design we did in Figma in December, which meant January was all about building it.

I was asked if I could build it, and I said yes, without losing a heartbeat, knowing fully well that I had some doubts (serious doubts in fact) because I hadn’t touched Webflow in a while. This was a simple build, but with some interactions I never came close to implementing. Lots of little details that could either make the site feel premium or completely annoy me while building it. So over the holiday break, I quietly went back to basics. Tutorials. Docs. Random experiments. Just trying to remind myself, okay, I can actually do this.

And eventually… I did.

(Also, shoutout to YouTube — It still served its purpose as it used to years ago, before everyone wanted to be a content creator and started creating low-quality content.)

At some point while building oPus, I got stuck on a 3D parallax effect I just couldn’t crack. I spent about two hours going in circles, moving elements from one div to another, getting more annoyed by the minute. Eventually, I gave up, fired up my virtual machine, played some COD, and cleared my head. When I came back, I tried one last idea — basically combining two techniques I’d learned separately while creating a WordPress website— and it worked.

That moment stuck with me all year.

It reminded me that most times, the limitation isn’t the tool. It’s just what you know (or don’t know) about it. Webflow stopped feeling like a constraint and started feeling like a canvas. But only because I was willing to admit I didn’t know enough yet — and actually go learn.

I carried that mentality forward into other projects after that.

My next project was the Main Squeeze website, my first full Shopify build and maintenance.

Main Squeeze was a lot. Fun. Chaotic. Experimental. Stressful in the best way.

The brand itself is playful and bold — a company trying to make compression socks cool without taking itself too seriously. Before this project, I didn’t know Shopify deeply. By the end of the build, I learned way more than I expected: sections, themes, dynamic content, Liquid logic, apps, etc.

What really stuck with me was seeing just how much design affects sales. Not in theory — in very practical ways. Spacing. Color. Button placement. Product cards. I’d spend ridiculous amounts of time adjusting things like padding around an “Add to Cart” button, asking myself whether 16px felt better than 20px. Whether something felt inviting or pushy. Subtle, but essential. And when you think you have nailed it, you later find out your latest update has broken something else. There was a particular instance where the only thing that saved me was the backup I made before making changes, because I’ve once learnt the hard way.

This was designed in the service of business, and I honestly loved it. Since it is a living project that I maintain, I get exposed to new things almost all the time.

With oPus, it was about craft. With Main Squeeze, it was about conversion. None of those are shallow — they’re just different purposes. And learning to design with the right purpose in mind changed how I approach work.

I also created a brand identity for a brand called Agape Collective.

Agape is a boutique strategy consultancy. They wanted to feel credible, thoughtful, and trustworthy. I handled both the brand identity and the Webflow site, and the goal was simple: make them feel real and grounded at first glance.

Unlike the ones that preceded this, this project required restraint.

Contrary to what most people believe (especially those who are not in this space), minimalism is not laziness. It’s precision. In fact, it takes a lot more to create something minimal. Imagine trying to fit everything in this post into just two to three short paragraphs and in the most poetic and captivating way.

Every alignment mattered. Every spacing decision mattered. Every font choice said something. I remember presenting an early version that had a bit more “design” — a bit more flair — a bit more of my default style, and presented it to my manager. It was shut down in the nicest way possible, because it just doesn’t fit the personality of the brand. So we stripped it back. Then stripped it back again.

Until only what truly needed to be there remained.

The final website (also built with Webflow) felt like a tailored suit. Nothing extra. Everything intentional. Where Main Squeeze was about momentum and excitement, Agape was about calm confidence: same skillset, completely different mindset.

I took this spirit of minimalism into my final project, Poser.

Poser is a mobile app that helps users find the right clothing size and try outfits virtually. There’s data, AR, usability, and fashion all wrapped into one. My job was to make something complex and technical feel effortless.

This project pulled everything together. The technical curiosity from oPus. The business thinking from Main Squeeze. The restraint from Agape.

Before I could actually start moving pixels, I had several calls with the client because I was having a hard time understanding how the technology worked, what it required from the user, and what it could provide in return.

Creating a virtual try-on made sense to me because I’ve seen products that do the same thing, but recommending a size seemed like rocket science. Never thought it was impossible, and I just couldn’t fathom how.

Once I got it, it was a smooth ride from there. Shoppers share a link to the app and get the size recommendation they need in no time, or try the outfit on to see whether it’ll look as they have imagined in their head.

I wasn’t just designing screens. I was designing confidence and helping users realize that this technology would actually make their lives easier.

When I zoom out now, it all makes sense.

This wasn’t just a year of projects. It was a year of becoming more confident — not because I suddenly knew everything, but because I trusted myself to figure things out.

To spend hours stuck on one detail. To argue over color palettes. To care enough to adjust the padding until it felt right. I didn’t struggle with imposter syndrome as much as I used to in the past years.

I learned that curiosity is a real advantage. Every time I leaned into what I didn’t know, I grew.

I learned that design is problem-solving first, aesthetics second. That beauty without purpose doesn’t last.

I learned how much collaboration matters. Moonlight is full of people who push your thinking, challenge your assumptions, and make the work better than you could do alone.

Most importantly, I learned to see design as both structure and storytelling. It is a utility that affects real people in real ways.

I don’t know exactly what next year holds, but I know what I want more of.

Work that actually matters to the people using it.

I want to keep going deeper into product thinking. Not just how things look, but why they exist and how they change behavior. I want to keep understanding the business side of design — how good work becomes successful work.

And I want to keep building alongside the people at Moonlight who make me better.

A year from now, I’ll read this again. Hopefully I’ll smile — not because I had it all figured out, but because I’ve gone even further.

For now, this was my year.

And honestly, it feels like just the beginning.

Welcome to another Tidings - a collection of some of my recent bookmarks.

ORIKI

Apartamento has produced a monograph on Nifemi Marcus-Bello’s Oríkì series.

Oriki is a design series by Nifemi Marcus-Bello that looks to investigate material evolution, production techniques and identify in the hopes to create objects, forms and experiences dictated and driven by the findings. The output of the series will be showcased through various themes, called ACTS.

The series is an exploration of three materials: Bronze (Act 1), Aluminium (Act 2), and Copper (Act 3). In each one, Nifemi thoughtfully applies the materials to different forms: stools, benches and headrests, and carefully documents the process.

Apartamento’s 150-page, square book is a rewarding documentation of his incredible work on this project. With hues of green and beautiful glossy pages, they investigate his origins, motivations, family and practice.

Nifemi is one of the leading product designers of our time. His work is honest, beautiful, and grounded in respect and curiosity for materials, people and culture. This monograph is well deserving. Kudos!

CONSUMED.TODAY

In the spirit of great documentation, try Consumed Today - a project by Shen, who makes these really beautiful websites. This one is a documentation of what they read, hear and see every day. Very fascinating!

IMG_OO1

Between 2009 and 2012, iPhones had a built-in “Send to YouTube” button in the Photos app. Many of these uploads kept their default IMG_XXXX filenames, creating a time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives.

Inspired by Ben Wallace, I made a bot that crawled YouTube and found 5 million of these videos! Watch them below, ordered randomly.

Just… incredible: walzr.com/IMG_0001

FESTAC ‘77

FESTAC is arguably the biggest cultural moment in Pan African history - an iconic gathering of Black people from across the world.

Early in 1977, thousands of artists, writers, musicians, activists and scholars from Africa and the black diaspora assembled in Lagos for FESTAC ’77, the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. With a radically ambitious agenda underwritten by Nigeria’s newfound oil wealth, FESTAC ’77 would unfold as a complex, glorious and excessive culmination of a half-century of transatlantic and pan-Africanist cultural-political gatherings.

The festival was a month-long event that involved over 56 countries, 16,000 people and spanned across the visual and performing arts.

FESTAC was the Olympics, plus a Biennial, plus Woodstock. But Africa style.... It’s hard to describe, and people have positioned it as science fiction, but it really did happen,” remarks Nance. “It’s influenced everything I’ve done, from that point on. Everyone who was a participant in FESTAC points to it as a pivotal moment in their own personal history. It meant a lot for the thousands of us who were there.Yet it’s not part of common knowledge.

This Archive holds a collection of images from the event. Pair that with Marily Nance’s immaculate photos for a jolly trip into the past.

THE HARDEST WORKING FONT IN MANHATTAN

In this 6,100 word essay, Marcin Wichary explores the history and contemporary usage of the Gorton typeface. It’s an incredible exercise in research and documentation and I want to see more Nigerian projects like this.

KEEP THINKING

In the battle of taste, Anthropic has emerged over OpenAI in my mind as the greater company. Their brand and product are very distinct and they feel more honest about what they can or cannot do.

Anthropic describes itself as a “public benefit corporation”, but it’s structured as a for‑profit. Its parent uses a public benefit framework that legally obliges consideration of societal impact and safety, but it still raises equity, takes venture and strategic investments, and operates commercially.

Their recent Keep Thinking campaign by Mother London positions Claude as the AI for problem solvers. It launched with a 90‑second hero film, followed by broad media placements across the internet and OOH.

The video has a nostalgic grain that feels very on-brand with Anthropic and distinct from the modern, refined tech startup aesthetic. It’s cool to see a tech company lean into more traditional advertising, and I hope this inspires better ads.

That’s it for this one. Hope you found something interesting. Cheers!

It’s getting realer and realer.

Main Squeeze won the AXA Startup Angel award last month, and our shoulders have not come down! It feels great to have a resonant story, reputable validation and much-needed professional support.

Moonlight is now a team of 11 people working collaboratively between Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Abuja, and London. We’re developing two businesses: Main Squeeze, a compression socks brand and Fable, a consumer software product.

Here’s how its going.

Main Squeeze

We’ve made a lot of progress with the socks this year:

• Designed and produced our first 2 SKUs.

• Sold hundreds of pairs to great reviews and press.

• Built a distinct brand and significant follower growth.

• Registered trademarks in the UK and US.

• Registered as a Class I medical device in the UK.

• Explored 3PLs and optimised our logistics cost.

• Up-skilled in performance marketing and Shopify development.

• Achieved our desired customer acquisition cost.

• And most recently, won the AXA Startup Angel award.

With some gas in the tank, the rest of this year will be about execution. We’ve learnt so much from our collaborations with influencers, consultants and marketing agencies; now it’s time to grow.

Our goal is to increase mental and physical availability by improving content, SEO/AEO performance and kicking off in-person activations. We’re also planning to launch on Amazon and one online retailer.

Fable

Fable is live, and we’re rolling out slowly.

When we first started working on this, the category for “apps that take long-form text and convert it to short-form audio” didn’t exist. Now it does—which means there’s real demand for what we’re building.

We’re not inventing a new use case, but we can do it better.

Our chances come down to three things: the podcasts need to sound like something you’d actually want to listen to, they need to actually help people learn, and we need to find people who are desperate for this exact thing.

If you have articles piling up, or you’re just curious to hear what the podcasts sound like, try Fable: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fable/id6737436331.

Everything else

Besides Main Squeeze and Fable, we’ve shipped a dozen consulting projects this year — from new brands and websites to fully-featured software products.

Our art projects are moving slower but steadily. E Dey Happen episode 3 is nearly done. The first issue of wuruwuru magazine ships Q4, and Album Cover Bank is due back online after a migration.

This is the last Recap for the year. We’ll continue to share case studies and one-off essays, but the next studio update will come next year. By then, we should have a lot of interesting progress to share.

Until then,
Cheers!

My first job was at a startup called Cart.ng. We helped mom-and-pop businesses set up Wordpress stores. Years later, I led the team that designed and launched Paystack Commerce, a software suite for creators. Both experiences, I’d say, shaped my early perspective on selling online.

That perspective has expanded a lot recently, thanks to Main Squeeze. As our partnership with the growth agency comes to an end, I reflect on it as a crash course on Meta ads. eCommerce is a different world from SaaS, and involves its own unique set of dogmas. Working with the agency has exposed us to the tools, language, and systems of performance marketing.

We've also hired someone at the studio to lead this work. Roqs brings experience from an ad agency to the team and is eager to take on this growth challenge with us. This brings the group to eight: two directors, one PM, two engineers, one designer, one social media manager, and one marketer.

Main Squeeze

Last month, we reached 100 orders on Main Squeeze! We’re now getting anywhere between 1-3 orders every day, and have grown to over 1k followers on social. We also recently got featured on The Hollywood Reporter and Thing Testing.

Although our brand marketing work is paying off, we have limited resources to invest and results aren’t predictable. So we’re relying on performance marketing to sustain the business in the short term.

The idea is: with a repeatable ad strategy, we can project future revenue and practically approach sustainability.

The process is at once scientific and intuitive:

1. Publish multiple ad concepts based on a mix of informal consumer science and practical feedback from social media. An ad concept can be an image or video, some of them done in collaboration with influencers.

2. Through this experimentation, discover a “winning creative” i.e. a consistently high-converting ad (or set of ads). It should be established that investing x in this creative will result in Nx of revenue.

3. Track the entire funnel — from seeing the ad to completing purchase — and optimise each step for best results.

In the industry, the ratio N is known as ROAS (return on ad spend).

It goes deeper—into variants, heatmaps, bundling, retention and a lot more acronyms. But we’re students of the game, and school is still in session.

Fable

Fable has been live on the app store for about three months now. There was some activity in April and May, but largely things have been quiet. Our marketing lead also left to run his own startup, so we took some time to regroup.

We’re gearing up to launch a new version of the app in early August. We’re refining the design and positioning. We’re also adding a few pro features.

Again, the goal here is to learn how to generate revenue from a software product without external funding. I’m also taking this as an opportunity to establish a solid team for software production.

GRVL

Late last year, we took on GRVL, an app for planning group trips. This was our first consulting gig, and it has been quite the experience. It took almost twice the time I expected, but we’re finally done!

Check it out at grvl.ai.

E Dey Happen

I’ve been so impressed with the E Dey Happen team. They’re publishing work-in-progress, sharing behind-the-scenes, recording podcasts and building community while making a pioneering animated series.

As I see it, Nigerian animation is currently split into two categories:

• fast-food: skit-makers with funny, culturally relevant content. It’s usually low production, quick turnaround and often topical. They’re brilliant and sometimes poignant, but not rooted in any long-term storytelling.

• prestige: studios looking to make big original stories that either involve some sci-fi or mythical themes. Used to be just a lot of trailers, but recently, a few collaborations have made it to the big screen.

E Dey Happen represents a separate, third category: animation as a collaborative, community project. A third space, if we really stretch it.

Take this interview with Astor, for example, where he talks about his backstory, the collaborative process, and more.

EDH Series

7 | Behind EDH Voices: A Conversation with Astor George

Hola Humans…

Listen now

10 months ago · 3 likes · E DEY HAPPEN

Or this one where they break down every character in the universe.

EDH Series

6 | Unmasking The EDH Universe With The Creator

Hola Humans…

Listen now

a year ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · E DEY HAPPEN

Or this comment from Eris:

This project has taken years. I started E DEY HAPPEN at 24. I’m 27 now. We’ve released two episodes, and every second has been worth it. Creating this has kept me alive, focused, inspired. I thought I’d outgrow cartoons. Joke’s on me. Animation is my lifeline.

I can go on, but you get the idea. This is very different. This is very new.

The team is actively developing the third episode and I can’t wait to see it. In the meantime, you can sign up for merch.

I never really know how to end these things, as they tread the line between journalling and publishing.

Although we’re making progress and learning a lot, we’re still not sustainable. And honestly, that’s the biggest thing on my mind these days.

I know we’ll figure it out, but I really can’t wait. Much respect to entrepreneurs all over the world; doing business is tough shit.

Besides the oppressive smell, the similarities between both cities are sparse but strong. In particular, they share an unapologetic authenticity: we won’t cater to you, but you’re welcome to make your own way.

Having grown up in different environments over the years, no one place feels entirely like home. Instead, I experience home as a connection of spaces and people across time who have held and shaped me. Home is where I’m loved; a place in the world I’m familiar with; a community, however distributed.

And yet, all of this must co-exist with a connection to the land and kinship with the people I share a system with. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel like home.

🚧

It’s been six months of officially running the studio as a duo 👸🏽🫅🏾 and, try as I may, this journal doesn’t tell the complete story.

The goal is not to make sense of what we’re doing anyway, but to be creatively accountable. We share what we’re learning to reduce the cost for others.

This journal is also an avenue for constructive feedback. Comments will be open henceforth, and I’m hoping that we invite critical and thoughtful conversations. Praise is good, but not very useful when premature.

That said, an update on ongoing projects.

Main Squeeze
Compression socks

• 🚀 Our TikTok has taken off with 250+ followers, and one educational post in particular getting 72k views (and counting). We’re also starting to see authentic engagement in the comments, which is very good.

• 🍌 Our yellow socks have finally been delivered. It took way longer than expected - say no to sea freight - and in that time, US tariffs have shot up dramatically.

• ✈️ Our marketing automation is all set up! I’ll go into detail in a future post, but we’re focusing the brand positioning on travel as we start to test ads.

Fable
AI podcasts (Hello World)

• 🚀 Fable is live on the App Store! I’ve used it a few times to “read” a long document, e.g. The African Fashion Sector - Unesco (60m)

• ⏳ We’re in the early user acquisition phase: experimenting with low-cost content on TikTok to drive awareness, planning launch campaigns for product boards, and working on establishing a marketing funnel.

E Dey Happen
Animation (Independent Arts)

• 🚀 We’ve recorded dialogue for EDH episode 3 and completed storyboards — an impressive 249 hand-drawn frames.

• ⏳ Work has started on the next production phases: character designs, followed by backgrounds and then animation.

• 🎙️ The team interviewed Yimika Owoaje, a creative writer and the voice actor for Beju for their latest podcast. It’s a refreshing half-hour conversation.

EDH Series

5 | Improvising Through Life

Hola Humans…

Listen now

a year ago · 4 likes · E DEY HAPPEN

We’re also wrapping up our first major consulting gig and we’ve learnt a lot of lessons from that experience. Maybe Princess will share in the next one. 👀

🔎

“How do you curate the links?”

I got this question last month, and the answer is: randomly.

When I find an interesting link, I usually bookmark or share with the studio. Last time, I just browsed through Slack and Raindrop and picked a handful that fit some kind of theme in my head. ChatGPT helped with the articulation.

This time, it’s more random. I dragged a bunch of links into a folder and filtered for these ones. I suppose the goal is to share an excerpt of something I found interesting. My way of saying: here’s a tasty slice of the internet.

All images are clickable. Enjoy!

☕️

If you send 10 USD to EUR today using the SWIFT network — currently the largest global interbank messaging system, it can take anywhere from one to five business days to settle. This is because SWIFT itself doesn't move money; it sends payment instructions between banks to complete the transfer.

At my new job, we build financial systems for companies and institutions using stablecoins (fiat-backed cryptocurrencies). And a very popular use case is to reduce the time and cost of international payments.

Using our product, that same 10 USD transfer happens in minutes, not days. The money moves on blockchain rails - public ledgers that operate 24/7 across all time zones. Programmable money that flows like data.

My role is to design interfaces for using our system. I build the Dashboard for customers to onboard their clients, initiate transfers, and manage information. It’s a very familiar job, and yet it feels very new because I’m learning a lot: new jurisdictions, new concepts, new technology, new culture.

There’s a lot of competition in the space and every decision matters. Naturally, I like the challenge. I also really like the team, and that I get to work on global financial rails from a New York perspective.

These first two months have been very chaotic with all the moving around, and I’ve really only been able to focus on the job. But I’ve made a lot of initial progress, and I can now settle into some kind of rhythm.

Until next time.

🪖

We recently got this crazy bill of $42k from Delaware! Turns out we owe the state some money every year (a franchise tax), whether we’ve had any activity or not. And there are two ways to calculate this: the Authorized Shares or Par Value method.

Authorized Shares

The first calculation is based on the number of authorized shares i.e. the maximum number of shares a corporation is legally allowed to issue, as specified in its Certificate of Incorporation. A common startup practice is to authorize 10,000,000 shares (Common Stock), which makes this an incredibly expensive way to calculate franchise tax. This method is most likely what the state used in its estimate, based on a guesswork share count of 4,000,000.

Par Value

The second method a.k.a Assumed Shares is more favourable, because it considers the company’s gross assets and accounts for issued shares. For a new company like ours with no activity, gross assets comes to zero, Assumed Par Value Capital comes to zero as well, and the minimum tax applies.

Filing State Taxes

It’s pretty straightforward to pay for Delaware’s franchise tax online (see support.stripe.com). The form is kind of annoying, but with a little help from ChatGPT, we got it done. You can also recalculate the tax on this page, and it automatically uses the cheaper method.

We missed the March 1 submission deadline, so our eventual bill came to $668: $400 minimum tax, $200 for lateness, $18 interest, and a $50 filling fee.

Filing Federal Taxes

Asides state taxes, we also had to file federal taxes. The form applicable to us (a C-Corp) is called the Form 1120: the U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return. Whether or not you’ve had any activity, you’re expected to submit this too.

Filling the 1120 was more tricky. The form is quite onerous and the submission process isn’t as straightforward. Without expert knowledge on what boxes to tick, we opted to hire a professional. This cost $400 for late filling, plus a $200 service charge and $16 processing fee.

Tax Woes

In all, we paid almost $1,300 for existing as a Delaware company. We only just completed our incorporation in December (literally the end of the tax year), so this was a particularly painful cost to bear.

We could have gotten this down by filling early or exploring cheaper providers, but even then we’d have ended up paying up to $700. I think it’s just crazy how obscure the whole tax process is for new businesses and how costly professionals are.

Honestly, there should be a single box to tick that says “zero activity” and everything just gets filed. But alas, where there’s money to be made…

International Tax

Moonlight also operates in the UK and Nigeria, and we have tax requirements in those countries too. That’s our next priority.

Once we’re done filing this year’s taxes, my goal is to set up a simple, international tax system that runs automatically. I’ll share when we make progress.

Each edition will start with updates on each company - what we’ve been up to and what we’re looking forward to, followed by a curation of interesting visual references from the internet. Eye-brain candy.

We’ll close with a personal essay from the studio - myself or Princess. Not to give too much away, but this one is about New York!

I hope you enjoy it. Comments are open.

🚧

Main Squeeze

Compression socks

Main Squeeze sales were low in Q1, but unsurprisingly. What we’ve done so far - influencer seeding and PR outreach - has yielded positive but slow results. The lesson here is to start marketing 3 - 4 months ahead of launching a new brand.

We completed our most important objective though, which was to hire an audience manager and growth consultant to optimise our social media and website. Caitlin used to work for Alexander McQueen and the agency we’re working with has a lot of experience scaling eCommerce businesses. Fingers crossed on Q2.

We’re also exploring retail opportunities and refocusing inventory and sales on the US, as they make up 70% of the compression socks market.

Hello World

Technology studio

Timi and I are working together again! Hello World Studios Inc. is now a registered company in the US, making experimental AI products.

Our first product is Fable, an iOS app that transforms any document into a podcast. We’re currently testing with the first set of users, and I find it very useful for digesting complex, boring documents e.g. rent agreements.

Samson now runs client operations for the studio, leading development for projects like grvl and Friends of 16. His team is a collective of part-time designers and engineers, similar to our original model.

Independent Arts

Creative Incubator

Eris and Ivie are shaping a new genre of animation! We’ve started production for EDH episodes 3 and 4 — if that doesn’t ring a bell, check out this press release.

IA is helping with funding, direction, and distribution, while the EDH team handles production and marketing. We’re making two episodes at once, so it’s a brand new process. Much to be excited about.

These upcoming episodes will really bring the universe to life. And they get to share this experience with their fast-growing community.

Highly recommend you check out their journal.

EDH Series

Animated Series Journal

By E DEY HAPPEN

🚬

This month’s links are themed around cultural identity, creative authenticity, the evolution of tradition, and the importance of historical preservation. Enjoy!

The responsibility of the image-maker

I think a lot about businesses as arbiters of culture and what role we play in creating and promoting authentic images of the communities we represent. This article by writer and curator Jane’a Johnson, the former director of the Photography Museum Amsterdam, was a timely read. I loved this retro image of the author’s intricately decorated teenage walls, with her sister pictured in front.

yearbook.northsix.com

Agu Display

Font design is an increasingly growing practice among Nigerian designers, with exciting projects like Agụ Display that blend history, design and technology. Created by Seun Badejo, the typeface is a synthesis of Nsibidi symbols and contemporary decorative san-serifs. The website - designed by Studio Null - is an interactive treat, with exciting gimmicks that really bring the characters to life.

agudisplay.com

Fuji&Hakone

Fuji&Hakone is a streetwear brand that pays homage to vintage manufacturing and collegiate wear. Founded by Kodjo Glover-Akpey, a digital product designer in the UK, the clothes are produced in Japan using an old loop-wheeling technique. The brand leans into a “Black Japanese” aesthetic, with references to Yasuke - the famous Black samurai, and this cool photograph, probably taken in East London.

fuji-hakone.jp

Afro Hair Styles Zine & Poster

Sandy Christ is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in the UK. In this collaborative zine, the German-Nigerian artist explores African hair styles, digging into their history and stories with a composition reminiscent of West African salons and barber shop posters. The zine is Riso-printed in two colours, which gives it a distinctive retro look.

sandychrist.com

Democratic Intuition (2013 - 2020)

I’ve been dreaming about art books. This one, by Botswana-born artist and professor Meleko Mokgosi, is called Democratic Intuition. The large-scale, multi-part project explores themes of democracy, power, and the everyday experiences of people in postcolonial southern Africa. Mokgosi’s project is not just a critique of Western democracy but a meditation on the nature of power, autonomy, and representation within postcolonial Africa, asking whether democracy can truly function in societies shaped by colonialism and inequality.

pacificpacific.pub

Souleyman Cissé

Malian filmaker Souleymane Cissé died on February 19, 2025. Recognised internationally as a pioneer of African cinema, he was the first director from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Cannes prize for his 1987 film Yeelen. I’d love to watch a documentary on this class of Russian-schooled West African filmmaking legends, but this post-humous essay from Sarah Jalani will do for now.

artreview.com

An African Design Canon

Homenka, a Nigerian design studio founded by Zoë Chinonso Ene, is integrating the ideals of Natural Synthesis into their practice. The team is documenting An African Design Canon, a visual repository of historical, everyday African product design. The collection is a cultural monument for long-lost creative practices and a trove of knowledge for practising artists.

homenka.com/aadc

☕️

That’s it for the curated links. And now to some personal news…

I started a new job at HIFI!

We move money between the US, Europe, South America and Africa using stablecoins. I manage the Dashboard and help with customer service.

It’s so nice being an IC again man. I spent so much of my time teaching people how to work like me, and now I get to just do it. swoosh. And the team gets it. I get emojis and thank yous and nice compliments.

The job is very fast, scrappy, and high agency. It adds 45 minutes of call time to my calendar every week. The rest is async and ad-hoc, US hours. I prefer to work this way in Lagos; otherwise, I’ll be at the office in New York.

Now that I have a major responsibility, the studio is back on autopilot. I have 30 minutes of call time scheduled per company per week, which is easy to manage. Everything thing else is ad-hoc too, prioritised as needed.

We have good ownership on studio projects, but the teams are fragile and cashflow is still inconsistent. So even though I’m not thinking about the day-to-day, I’m waiting for things to get more established.

The new job also means the end of my London experiment. I’ll be moving back home (again). I’ll miss a lot about this city, especially being close to my friends. But I’m so glad to be rid of council tax.

Anyway, cheers to new beginnings.

See you around!

🥂

Welcome back.

I made a new studio website that better articulates what we are: a creative practice for building sustainable companies. Check it out at moonlight.ng

This year, I’ve cut down on ventures to focus on Main Squeeze (compression socks) and Hello World (software). I’m also restricting my consulting practice to design and strategy gigs as I prepare to get back into a full-time job.

By the end of the year, Main Squeeze is looking to sell out our first inventory of socks, while Hello World is looking to discover an AI use case people will pay for. These milestones will help validate the hypothesis that we can build sustainable global businesses with small distributed teams.

Our practice this year is about sales: branding, customer acquisition, conversion optimisation, knowledge management, automation and more.

If this is something you’re interested in, working on, or if you have any thoughts or questions, please send me an email. I’m always happy to chat.

Happy new year!

I think everyone should work in a studio practice of some kind. By this I mean a small team of people where the main focus is apprenticeship and craft. Commercial goals are important, but a studio is a critical space for personal/community development.

The Moonlight studio is centred around play - the highest form of research, and craft - refining our ability to bring people together to make exceptional art, software and businesses.

Most of all, it’s about telling stories.

As we look towards next year, I've been working out how best to operate the studio given our various interests and limited funding.

I ended up with three pillars:

1. Craft: Our main ethos is the development of people and craft. We do this through technology internships (Helloworld) and a support system for artists (IA).

2. Consulting: We bankroll the studio by making software for artists and non-technical founders. We aim for 1 - 2 projects a year and carefully select clients we can build a long-term relationship with.

3. Products: While consulting is great for cashflow, we hope to make long-term income with successful digital and consumer products.

For the first three years, the studio was focused solely on craft. We worked with dozens of artists and made projects like Hanky Panky, Cover Bank, Ludo by Yadi, Feel Good and E Dey Happen. Later, I started the Helloworld Internship program to work on technology projects like Friends of 16 and Tix.

Next year, our focus is shifting to products and consulting. We recently launched Main Squeeze and signed a contract to build a travel app for a client. Both projects are aimed towards consumers in the UK and US.

With this ahead of us, I’m looking to set up a more stable team for 2025. I’ve put together a standard competency framework so that salaries are paid according to responsibility levels. I’m also working with accountants to clean up our books.

Come January, Moonlight will finally be operating sustainably. We have limited runway and need to do some business development to extend it. But otherwise, the structure works. Friends, we have a studio!

Last week, Main Squeeze officially launched to family and friends. If you’re in the UK or US, you can buy one now: mainsqueezeworld.com

Our first set of orders will be personally dispatched, but we’ve signed up a 3PL to manage future deliveries. We also built a custom app* to manage communication between our fulfilment partner and Shopify.

Princess and India are taking the lead on marketing. The plan is to advertise on Instagram, seed the product and find retail and PR partners. India joined last month as our first marketing intern.

And so we’re off to the races:

• Receive orders from friends & family

• Recover investment made so far

• Sell out initial batch of socks

We sold £500 in our first week. Here we go!

*We built an app to avoid the additional £40/month cost of upgrading our Shopify Plan to integrate with our 3PL automatically. Thanks to Timi for inspiring the idea and Tosin for getting it out quickly. The entire thing (plus interface) took under a week.

I started my garden with four plants and three edibles. When I bought them it was summer and they were all flowering.

My first problem was the molluscs. Our ivy-covered fence is home to a small community of slugs and snails, and I imagine the new plants were like a tasty buffet. I won this battle with my intricate defenses (small containers of beer), but most of the plants were never quite the same.

I had a lot of faith in the edibles and tried to keep them alive. I imagined harvesting parsley to make a plate of eggs or basil for a Kra Pao. But I couldn’t hack it. By the time we got back from New York, they’d all withered.

The flowers, on the other hand, survived. It’ll be next summer before they’re blooming again, but the Blue Glow and Sea Breeze are showing some foilage. I feel like I could be doing more, but they’re okay. All I have to do is wait.

Independent Arts is alive: independent-arts.org. I first mentioned it on the studio journal last year, and now there’s a logo, website and mission. We’ve also signed our first contract to fund six episodes of E Dey Happen.

In doing this, my goal is to separate practice from platform. IA will help artists produce passion projects, and wuruwuru will remain my creative outlet.

I often forget this, but all of these companies - Helloworld, Independent Arts, wuruwuru - are like folders to organise my work. At the end of the day, there’s just me - with 24 hours a day like everyone else.

Instead of thinking of these as separate streams of work, I want to think of them as plants in a garden. They will be in and out of bloom, but as long as I continue to water them, they’ll be ok.

Everything in its season.

The question I think you’re most curious about is how my sabbatical is going. What is it like to take a break and do… nothing?

Well, I’m not doing nothing. Attempting to pull out the rug was disorienting. But I’m doing much less and…

I’m reconnecting with myself

I’ve been talking to friends and family every day. Multiple times every day. When I think of someone, I call them to catch up. When I start to get in my head, I call someone to gist. I’m making new friends too.

I know a lot of people who do this normally, but historically my world has been very quiet. I operated on a “low information diet”, as Princess puts it.

I’m learning so much about myself by embracing others: who I am, who I want to be. I’ve scattered myself across so many people and scenes, and now it feels like I’m picking up the pieces. Kintsugi. Ah, there’s my title.

I’m travelling

Recently, I was in New York, Barcelona and Aruba.

New York is a really inspiring place and I hope to spend more time there. Compared to London, it feels so full of promise. Unfinished.

We lived in Park Slope, at a friend’s apartment. Walked 10k steps every day. Saw Show Dem Camp in concert. MoMA PS1. Hamilton on Broadway. I had lunch with a new-dad tech investor and coffee with a lovely studio director. I went to a house party with a bunch of really quirky folks and partied with new friends.

New York left me with a longing. Barcelona was a quick but memorable stop. And Aruba was a warm cocooning with people I now consider family.

I’m building new habits

1. Working out: I no longer hate the gym. Thanks to Dan (my trainer), Princess, and Feyi (my sister), I now go 1 - 3 times a week. I have a clear incentive (mobility in old age) and I hope to never stop, or at least for too long.

2. Cooking: My answer to “do you know how to cook” is now a resounding yes! I make very good eggs and meat, and I trust myself to deviate from a recipe. It’s crazy how much of a difference this makes to the experience.

3. Journaling: I’ve been writing more to myself.

Also,

• I unsubscribed from all my newsletters. This has significantly reduced my information overload.

• I’m working through a list of iconic films I got from my friend Seun. The first one we watched was Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl.

• I just finished reading Color Stories, a book about the beauty industry.

• I also really enjoyed the Shotgun Seamstress book, a collection of essays and stories about the Black Punk scene.

I’ve been working a little

Yes yes…

Mostly, I’ve been working on the Main Squeeze website with the team. It’s been a month of having the designers on, and we’re only just getting into a rhythm.

We’ve also been branding Independent Arts to close out wuruwuru season 2. And I’ve been supporting friends (and their startups) with strategy and advice.

Finally, I’ve been dreaming

I was talking to Fu’ad the other day about something he describes as a “maker complex” - a compulsive need to make things.

I think my complex is rooted in a desire to make life easier - for myself and for others. Making is an existential need for me. If I was alone, stranded on an island, I would make tools. It’s not always work, even when it looks like it.

Beyonce gets it.

In two weeks, my Moonlight responsibilities should slow down to a pulse. I’m going to take up swimming, and maybe add in some personal study.

Broadly I’m focused on building connections, maintaining a sustainable routine, and calming my mind. Happy survival.

It’s been 9 days since I quit my job. I’m used to week-long breaks so things don’t feel very different yet. I’m sure this will change soon.

Also doesn’t help that I’ve been busy with admin for Moonlight: documenting, delegating and articulating expectations for while I’m away on sabbatical. I’m giving it until the end of the month to wrap this up.

Studio Updates

• Transition Planning: Franklin and Samson are set to run Helloworld while I’m away. Princess is on top of Main Squeeze. The other projects (wuruwuru, Independent Arts) will go on pause.

• Hired Designers: Princess and I went through a month-long process to hire our first designers! We shortlisted six candidates and chose two. They’ll work with us for three months on Main Squeeze and other stuff.

• Consolidated Google and Notion: I’ve moved all Moonlight domains into one Google Business account. I’ve also merged multiple Notion workspaces into one. This simplifies our billing and user management.

• Documented Handbook: I wrote down some basic studio guidelines to help the new designers get started. Will continue to refine it.

• Independent Arts: After failing to get two of the grants we applied for, I’m more resolved to set up a fund for creators. We’re splitting up Independent Arts into its own company to focus on research and grants.

Project Updates

• Helloworld

  • Friends of 16 is now live! Check it out and sign up for a membership.

• wuruwuru

  • Looking to sell/give out all Noro stools by month-end.

• Main Squeeze

  • Jade and Princess shot our first campaign last Friday. Brilliant!

  • Website will be done in a few weeks and then we can launch.

• Independent Arts

  • E Dey Happen #2 is in sound production and due this month.

Life Updates

It’s really exciting to be taking a break. I keep alternating between what is work and what is not (does writing this blog count?)

I’m in New York for a few weeks to kick things off. I’m thinking good food, the art scene, Black community and lots of girlfriend time. It’s also a good opportunity to reflect on the past decade of work and practise my storytelling.

If you have any recs, do share!

Boo. We have a website, email, Notion, Slack, even Substack. Of course it’s a thing! But also, Moonlight is an idea that exists in the future, and describing it now can feel like putting it in a box.

So let’s try two boxes:

1. Moonlight is a system for creative production

2. Moonlight is about making ideas sustainable

From a distance, Moonlight looks like a venture studio for creative businesses. In my mind, Moonlight is a super-powered exoskeleton for creative production.

Moonlight is a venture studio in development, and Main Squeeze our first portfolio company. Our goal is to eventually build a $1m consumer business. Practically, this means selling ~3,000 units of a $30 product every month.

After a decade of making digital products, this is an interesting challenge for me. It’s also a practice run for Blank Body, Princess’ flagship project.

Building Blank

We're building one of the most important body care brands in the world, come see :)

By Blank Body Beauty

Idea

Main Squeeze was inspired by Princess.

I was dancing in my room with friends (for research purposes), and the topic of compression socks came up. I think Jade brought it up? I’m usually never bothered to buy because I’m uninspired by the options available. But Jade is easily one of the coolest people I know so finding out she wore compression socks was pretty interesting to me. Her mum buys them in neutral colours & she often wears them during or after long work days. So really, MainSqueeze was about making the kind of socks that Jade would wear.

In my mind, compression socks were for the elderly, pregnant, or for medical use. And they are. 1 in 3 adults experience foot or leg pain, and 60% of people experience some form of leg swelling. For many people, compression socks are a prescribed solution.

But also, compression socks are generally useful for anyone who moves or sits for long periods of time. They help to reduce swelling in your feet, improve blood circulation, support muscle recovery and increase comfort.

I’ve worn our Main Squeeze samples at the office, at home, on flights, and come to the same conclusion as Princess: everyone should own a pair.

Market

We’re not the only ones who know how great compression socks are.

In the UK there’s brands like Not Your Grandma’s. And in the US, there’s Comrad, a multimillion-dollar company that’s probably our biggest inspiration so far.

Comrad has more than doubled every year since launch, signed distribution deals with major retailers, and acquired close to half a million customers.

But despite the successes of these companies, many people still don’t use compression socks. At $48b, the global socks business is a massive industry. With exceptional execution, we can succeed as well.

Customer

We’re building Main Squeeze for four groups of people:

1. Corporate Cici: Sits for long periods

2. Busy Beju: Constantly on the move

3. Ajala the Traveller: Frequent travellers

4. Gymrat Gina: Fitness enthusiasts

Compression socks can significantly improve the quality of life for anyone who fits into one of these categories. This includes nurses, DJs, set designers, retail workers, fitness enthusiasts, club goers and so many others.

Our target customers are young at heart and style-conscious. So for our socks to make it into their wardrobes (and lives), we need to make them fashionable.

Brand

Naming the product was really a team effort. We started with placeholder names like SuperSocks and Active Socks, and then reached a three band shortlist: Lillies, MainSqueeze and Sock It.

I really liked Lillies, but thanks to Princess we went with Main Squeeze.

The brand name is inspired by the people in our lives who provide comfort just by being around. For some it’s a sibling, for others a friend, and for many, a partner. If you’re lucky, it’s a mix of all. We want to celebrate these relationships through our branding and storytelling.

Princess was already working with design agency Orchidea for Blank, so we asked them to help with some basic branding for Main Squeeze. The brief was deeply researched and full of samples of socks we’re inspired by, brands we love, brands we want to emulate, and those we don’t want to feel like.

Here’s a screenshot from the mood-board:

After a few weeks, we settled on a logotype, colours and packaging design. My favourite element is a mascot we call Buddy.

What next

About six months of research, design and testing have gone into this, but we’re still very early. Some of the more interesting challenges like marketing, operations and customer experience are still ahead.

Sometime this July, we’ll launch Main Squeeze in the UK and US. Our first production run will be 600 pairs of socks in block colours.

I’ll share a scheduled update like this every two weeks to all subscribers. Paid subscribers will get more real-time updates e.g. new samples. You’ll also be able to ask questions or leave feedback in the comments.

If you’re curious, consider paying for a subscription.

PS: Last word from Princess

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok abeg @mainsqueeze.world :)