IT’S December! And now with the countdown to home time and Christmas has started!
Get those details!
This week I continued with sourcing bloggers and magazines to contact on behalf of Studio Cosima for collaborations/ features in their media. My task was to compose all the bloggers and magazines into one spreadsheet separated by categories (from bloggers to influencers to magazines). I determined how the researched people related to Studio Cosima either it’s the same target market, brand values or style. Then, I had to dig deep into the internet using the company’s Instagram/blog or website to try to find their contact details and even sometimes ended up using linked in or trying to find details other ways.
Sinterklaas
What is this you ask? Well here in the Netherlands, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas who is a “Santa claus” figure with helpers called “Zwarte Piet” or “Black Pete” in English.
Sinterklaas is said to ride his white-grey horse over the rooftops at night, delivering gifts through the chimney to the well-behaved children. Traditionally, naughty children risked being caught by Black Pete. Before going to bed, children put their shoes next to the fireplace chimney of the coal-fired stove or fireplace. They leave the shoe with a carrot or some hay in it "for Sinterklaas' horse", and the children sing a Sinterklaas song. The next day they find some candy or a small present in their shoes. The Zwarte Piet figures have caused a lot of controversy; due to the legend stating that the helpers climb down the chimney to leave presents in shoes for children and because of this the Zwarte Piet is black from the soot. Yet people dress up as Zwarte Piet using black face which is obviously not okay in todays modern society. Yet from this festival you get so many nice foods to try! Such as:
Chocolate letters!
Pepernoten
Kuridnoten
Speculaas cookies (you might see these in certain Christmas markets! I remember these used to be at the Birmingham Christmas Market)
Most of these foods use spices such as, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg which sets the tone for the festive Christmas season!
So, this week has been interesting,
Studio Cosima has now moved studio spaces which turns out to be much better than the studio Party!
Here, there are more people who are all creatives. In our studio we share with the likes of a graphic designer and a coder which is an interesting mix! This Friday there was a party on the next level, so we were invited to join. I’ve managed to meet people who are, costume designers, work in textiles, jewellery and even photographers and animators. So this week has mostly been about getting to know who I’m with and getting to know more about my new neighbours and who I’ll be working along side of!
