TMH Studio is my take on "Fuck it, I'm gonna build it myself."
I've had a lot of ideas for things I wish existed over the years. Things I thought would be cool to see come to life. And to be honest, I haven't created any of them.
They got stuck in the part of me that loves to think, plan, design, and then leave the idea right there: as an idea. Which is the classic designer's dilemma.
This studio is my commitment to stop doing that.
What it is
I believe everyone has a responsibility to create the things that come into their heads. To me, everyone has something valuable to share, and they're the person who needs to share it.
From my own experience, the thing that gets in the way is usually a lack of one of three C's: community, capital, and capability. Community is having the right people and environment.
Capital is having access to the right resources. Capability is having the right ability to leverage both of those things.
When you have the right version of all three, you'd be surprised at what you can build, the worlds you can make, the people you can help.
And, I keep saying "right," not "best." That's because there is no such thing as the best. The most original work comes from leveraging what only you have access to: the things that make you beautifully you. And that's only possible because you're here, right now, in this very moment, as you are.
TMH Studio is where I'm finally going to live by this myself. Less ideating, more building. Each thing I make from this studio, from articles to brands to products and everything in between, will be a small act of practicing what I believe.
Why now
My winning trait has always been having a "fuck it" mentality. My friends would say I love embracing chaos 😂.
But when it comes to work, it usually shows up too aggressively, late in the game, after months of thinking. I drive something to completion through sheer will, burn out, and either don't want to come back to it or can't.
I don't want to do that anymore. Not just because it's what I need for personal growth, but because it's what I need to do to actually start building the things I want to see, so those things can help the people I want to help, so those people can join me as I create the world I'm trying to build.
You can learn more about that world here.
The mark
The mark is a synthesis of two symbols: the Adinkra Fawohodie and the Japanese Torii.
Fawohodie is an Akan symbol from the Adinkra system. The name comes from the expression Fawohodie ene obre na enam, which translates to Freedom walks with suffering. The main thing that resonates with me about this is that I agree that freedom comes with responsibility. This relation captures what I'm trying to do at my core: create things that help people expand their own freedoms, so they can build the worlds they see, which, as I said before, we're all responsible for 🙂.
Torii (鳥居) is the traditional Japanese gate at the entrance to Shinto shrines. It marks the transition from the mundane world into sacred space, and crossing through one is an act of crossing into a place where you're protected, where things are inherently different. This resonated because of the idea of a threshold. A place you can walk through into something new, that you've never seen before.
Sidenote: I'm grossly simplifying both. I encourage you to research them yourselves.
What I wanted to express through merging these 2 marks was a single idea: Freedom and Boundary. I wanted to create a symbol that identifies my work as not just an extension of me, but as an invitation into the world of freedom I'm trying to create.
It's also why I gave myself a tight timetable to land it. Knowing me, I could spend three weeks tweaking details most people wouldn't notice, and even fewer would mention.
The mark is meant to be a seal, a stamp on the things I make that say craft, safety, openness, care. Once it said those things, I let it be done (for now, maybe 🤭).
What's next
Next is updating and launching the TMH Studio site so we can get back to building and shipping. And, the first thing on my list is building an app to keep fems safe. Then the next thing. Then the next.
Shoutouts
A big boy thank you to @Big Pay Pay Brown, @Sheena, and @Adam for helping me to refine the mark. And to my friends who hyped me up while I was working on this: Nailah, Raven, Patricia, Terence, and Lauren ❤️