Lately, it struck me that I often find myself in places where there isn’t a soul in sight. Despite the fact that we’re sharing this planet with eight billion people.

You’ve probably experienced it too. Just standing on a beach, at an odd hour, in a weird season. It’s a strange sensation. And I’ve realized that I’m often actively searching for those negative spaces.

The Art of Negative Space

In design, we talk about negative space as the “breathing room” around an object. But we rarely apply it to our lives. We’re obsessed with filling things, filling the feed, filling the calendar, filling the silence.

Standing alone on the beach while the “real world” is at work feels like a glitch in the simulation. It’s desynchronization. And for a creative I feel it’s a superpower. When I’m in a crowded room, my brain is busy processing social cues, noise, and expectations. I’m in output Mode. But in the silence of an empty beach on a Tuesday, I’m in observe Mode. I see the “skeleton” of the world. I see how light actually hits a surface when no one is there to Instagram it. I find the signals because I’ve muted the noise.

Why Hurae needs the silence

At Hurae, we thrive on the chaos of the internet. We love the memes, the trends, and the “now.” But if you only ever live in the noise, your work becomes an echo.

To create something that actually cuts through the clutter, you have to step out of the clutter. You have to be the person standing in the empty square, wondering why everyone else is so busy being busy.

My advice?

Next time you’re feeling stuck, don’t open Pinterest. Go find a place where you’re the only person left on Earth for twenty minutes. Look at the architecture. Listen to the wind. Notice the emptiness. The best ideas aren’t found in the crowd. They’re found in the gaps the crowd left behind.

Must reads 👀

We read up a lot on trends and we are always happy to share that knowledge with you. By giving some examples you can understand how our brain works:

• What would you pay to bring your fictional boyfriend to life? 👀

  The Boyfriend Book Box is a subscription service capturing the scent, belongings and even private parts of the morally grey men in dark romance novels

• WalkmanLand pays tribute to the pocket tape devices of yesterdays: the Walkmans. These analog machines are considered one of the devices that have most influenced the behaviour of people in modern societies. We want to collect all the once commercially available models under one roof, in one catalog.

• The $2 trillion global wellness market gets a millennial and Gen Z glow-up

  Younger generations are spending disproportionately on wellness

• Gen Z’s ‘Financial Nihilism’ Finds Outlet in Prediction Bets, Crypto 💰

  Being financially “behind” is fueling moves into higher-risk and speculative assets as a way to catch up, according to a survey.

• Good read: Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking 🙃
  An AI might be able to code faster than you, but there is one advantage that humans still have. It’s called agency, or being highly agentic. The highly agentic are people who just do things. They don’t timidly wait for permission or consensus; they drive like bulldozers through whatever’s in their way. When they see something that could be changed in the world, they don’t write a lengthy critique—they change it. AIs are not capable of accessing whatever unpleasant childhood experience it is that gives you this hunger.

• A New Generation of Mall Rats Has Arrived

  Gen Z shoppers are hanging out at malls and documenting everything on social media, helping boost a budding recovery in stores

• Gen Z’s latest status symbol is running a marathon—and it’s terrible news for Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Hermès. Gen Z, a generation finishing college and beginning to climb the career ladder, was hit with a COVID-era perfect storm of financial woes and push toward virtual communication that has led them to prioritize all things fitness

• ‘Generational shift’: UK gyms busier than ever as gen Zers ditch pub for pilates

  More health-conscious young people take total to 11.5m memberships, report finds, as experts cite social aspect alongside fitness.

Hurae: Serious business, surreal results ✨

We’re not the biggest agency, but we aim to be the most interesting. For brands willing who don’t want to follow the book, but write it.

Trusted by Knokke-Heist, Accountable, Croky, AVA, Febelfin, Geberit, Ancienne Belgique, Molecule, Okay, Heylen Vastgoed and many many more.

Ceci n’est past un agency

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