Waves Of Ambition And Drops Of Wine In 2025
A love letter to 2024, new year's ambitions, and a peek behind the art direction I created for Capsule’s debut natural wine collection.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, balancing end-of-year admin tasks with hosting and attending Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. At the same time, I’ve been savouring some hibernation at home with my partner. To top it all off, I became a first-time aunt about a week ago, which made this holiday season feel even more magical.
Every year, I like to reflect by putting together a visual recap on Instagram, so now, I figured—I might as well share it on here too. It’s a tradition I love because it gives me a moment to appreciate all the people, memories, and experiences that made the year special. Also, it just feels visually pleasing to me. So here’s my year in 45 seconds. Now, just imagine Diet Pepsi by Addison Rae as the soundtrack.
For me, the new year is a time to revisit last year’s resolutions, reflect on what worked, and adapt them for the year ahead. It’s always rewarding to see how my goals evolve, pushing myself with exciting yet realistic ambitions that a few years ago might’ve seemed out of reach.
2024 was a good year for me. The main event? Successfully launching my freelance creative direction career after six years of working with lifestyle and fashion brands and agencies. On top of that, I’ve felt incredibly lucky and happy—living in a cozy apartment with the love of my life and creating cherished memories with friends and family. I’ve also stuck to some fitness goals (finally!), enjoyed amazing travels, and seen a big improvement in my overall quality of life since I started freelancing. And, of course, I got to start this Substack too.
So how do I decide on my new year’s resolutions? The process comes quite naturally, and I don’t overthink it—usually taking just two to three hours (per year). I like to keep it structured by setting two goals per dimension: health, career, relationships, savings, leisure, creativity, and fashion. These dimensions will most likely be different to you, as we all have different priorities and interests. Last year, travel was one of my dimensions as well, but I’ve decided to leave it out this time—I’ve traveled enough recently and want to shift my focus.
Once I have my dimensions in place, I brainstorm specific and measurable goals and actions. It feels pretty intuitive by now, as I, kind of, already know what I need to work on. This year, my main ambitions include diving deeper into new creative freelance projects, hitting my activity and fitness goals, saving up a certain amount of money, writing one Substack post per week, and practicing kindness and patience in all areas of life. I choose one visual reference per goal and put together a ‘vision board’, which I then set as my desktop wallpaper. This serves as a daily reminder of my goals. I then create a Notion sheet to track these goals on a monthly basis, giving myself a chance to adjust my actions and/or pivot where needed.
Here’s part of my visual references. Maybe I’ll explore some of these in more detail in future newsletters.
Creative Direction & Graphic Design for Capsule Natural Wines
As the festive season lingers and I’m not quite ready to let go yet, it feels like the perfect time to share a project I wrapped up in Q4 of 2024. I had the pleasure of designing the debut seasonal collection for Capsule, a Germany-based curator and distributor of natural wines.
The creative direction drew inspiration from The Splash of a Drop by Arthur M. Worthington (1895), a study of the fleeting beauty of droplet dynamics. Each splash was reimagined into a bold visual language, reflecting the unique story and flavor profile of each bottle.
For its first collection, Capsule partnered with the renowned Domaine Lous Grezes from Ribautes-les-Tavernes in Languedoc, France. Founded in 2003, this domaine is celebrated for its commitment to zero-zero winemaking—producing wines 100% naturally, without additives or oenological interventions. Their mineral-rich, complex wines have earned accolades, including the title of “Vignerons of the Year” by Gault & Millau (2011-2012).
If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for a good bottle of natural wine, so it was a joy to bring a project like this to life for Capsule. I’m planning on sharing more of my freelance work on here in 2025, so let me know if that would interest you.
Next up? I’m in the final stages of another sale edit. I’ve got MyTheresa lined up this time. Great finds coming at you in the near future!