A little bit about us
We’re Anna & Garrett, a married couple with a background in design and a love for the city. We both still work 9-5 design gigs, Anna as a textile and rug designer, and Garrett as a graphic and product designer. Outside of writing the newsletter and all the exploring that enables us to do, we love hosting friends for Sunday lunches.
Why we started coolstuff.nyc
Coolstuff.nyc started wayyyyy back in February 2020 as a fun way to update our friends on what we were up to each week. We started with a small list of about 40 people and over time, friends sent it to friends until strangers sent it to strangers creating one big cool web of like-minded readers.
We’ve talked about it before, but the idea for coolstuff actually came about during a conversation between us and our friend Sara while we were stuck on a subway car that was being held between stations. So, next time you have a subway thought™ don’t let it go undeveloped!
Our favorite part about the NYC creative community
New York City has so much opportunity, and as a result, there’s more than enough to go around. What this ends up meaning in the creative community is very little competition and a lot of people helping each other to do inspiring things. The longer we’ve been in the city the more we realize that you’re only one degree of separation away from someone, whether it’s a chef, a florist, an artist, or a barista.
How do you find new things to share every week?
One of our favorite ways to find new things to share each week in the newsletter is by simply walking around the city and keeping our eyes peeled. There are so many cool new things we’ve found out about by peeking into windows with brown paper on the windows…there may even be a very cool new wine bar in Williamsburg opening next month that’s in this state right now.
What does the process of writing each newsletter look like?
Because we both work full-time jobs during the day, we try to dedicate one or two nights during the week to sit down and write/design as much as we can. It’s a lot of work every week, especially once you count the emails we receive between writing sessions. In the end, it’s all worth the time and sweat because writing this letter every week has become one of our favorite shared hobbies.
What’s inspiring you right now?
Right now we’re inspired by: miniature puppet shows, the striped fabric from Colors of Arley, thick wedges of iceberg lettuce, the beginnings of Spring, tortillas as a bread course, music by Waxahatchee, half-sized bottles of wine, really good linen spray, smashburgers and old-school New York steakhouses.
Follow Along:
@hello_anna_b
@albury.nyc