Drift Time, Dopamine, Drive

We have been thinking about three words recently:

Drift. Dopamine. Drive.

They sound contradictory, but increasingly we think they belong together.

Running businesses and managing busy working lives means we are naturally good at drive. There is always a plan, a destination and something that needs to happen next.

Drive gets things done.

But without anything to balance it, life can become one long checklist.

That is where drift time comes in.

Drift time is deliberately leaving enough space in a day for something unexpected to happen. Taking the street that looks interesting. Going into the shop you hadn't planned to visit. Sitting somewhere for another coffee because you like the atmosphere. Changing the itinerary because you have found somewhere better.

Some of our favourite moments from travelling have happened precisely because they weren't scheduled.

Above: Jason admiring Lever & Bloom tempting treats in Bloomsbury London

And then there is dopamine — or perhaps more simply, the little lift that comes from experiencing something new.

An extraordinary interior. A brilliant independent shop. A new neighbourhood. An exhibition. An unexpected outfit. A great meal. Or simply seeing how people somewhere else are living and dressing.

Below: Jason in front of the mural in Hub Box, St Ives Cornwall

Travel gives us plenty of those moments.

Amsterdam is a perfect example.

We know the city well enough now that we no longer feel compelled to race around its headline attractions. Instead, we can wander. We can return to favourite places, take a different street, notice what people are wearing, find an independent shop or sit beside a canal and simply watch the city happen.

That combination of drift and curiosity does something important.

It feeds the drive. You return home with ideas.

Not necessarily ideas that immediately become products or projects, but colours, textures, conversations, observations and references that become part of your creative vocabulary. And as you can see from this photo of us at Battersea Arts Centre this summer, drive can take many forms!

It is also one of the reasons we want Style Notes to reach beyond what we make and sell.

Style is influenced by far more than clothes. It comes from the places we visit, the things we notice, the people we meet and the experiences we collect along the way.

So alongside style, business and design, we want to share more of the places that inspire us too.

Not definitive guides to everything you must see, but our version of a place: neighbourhoods we enjoy, places we return to, things we find and whatever catches our attention along the way.

So we will start with somewhere we know rather well.

Next stop: Amsterdam, Our Way.