THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Written by Sam Furness and delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers,
Sam here 👋 Autumn feels like it has well and truly barged Summer off the stage in the UK - and we are gearing up for an amibitous few months at CQ HQ.
In busy times it’s all too easy to get glued to our computers… which is why this week’s newsletter is all about the creative power of WALKING. Read on for: 🎟️ an invite to the World Wide Wander this Friday hosted by Street Wisdom 🚶♀️ an interview with designer, author and walker: Gemma Purkiss 🔗 a finely crafted selection of illuminating links!
This Friday, Sam (me!) will be in conversation with David Pearl (founder of Street Wisdom) and Tina Roth-Eisenberg (founder of CreativeMornings) during the celebrations. Two humans I admire deeply - come and join us.
🗓️ Friday 27th September ⏰ 2.00pm BST / 9.00am EST 📍 Zoom (it’s free!)
When I first came across Street Wisdom a few years ago - it felt like an encapsulation of ideas and practices I intuitively knew, but hadn’t quite found the right vocabulary to express.
In short: walking is far more than getting from A to B.
In fact, a walk with intention can be an essential ingredient in any creative practice… and that includes the practice of being a creative human!
I’ll let Street Wisdom producer, Phillip Cowel, tell you a little more…
Street Wisdom is a creative walking non-profit devised and led by arts-for-business pioneer David Pearl. It's all about using your walking to find new direction in life. After all, let's face it, things can get pretty confusing; sometimes we really don't know what our next steps are.
What happens to you when you have a challenge or a puzzle to solve? Often people overthink things (which keeps them in their heads), or they chat with friends and colleagues (which is great but can lead to confirmation bias or restricted ideas).
Perhaps the worst thing we all do nowadays is jump down the Google Search rabbit hole! Ring any bells?
So, on our Walkshops, instead of that, we get people back into their bodies and up and outside, tuning in to the environment around them with fresh eyes and energised selves, to practise this simple, but often deeply profound, way of walking with wonder.
We find, effortlessly, and soon enough, people begin to notice the magic in the everyday, inspired by their wandering, and will soon be gathering fresh ideas and insights from the bountiful world that surrounds them.
The World Wide Wander is our big annual, global day of Walkshops, where we walk with people all around the world, all across the day, online and in-person.
This year it's on Friday 27th September and we've got in-person Walkshops in such incredible places as Philadelphia, Seoul, Montreal, Nairobi, Toronto, Melbourne, London, Lima, Utrecht, Berlin, York, Charleston, Sydney, Stockport, Oxford, Austin, Atlanta, Glasgow... and many, many more wanderful neck of the woods!
Thank you Phillip! And I hope we can gather as many Questers as possible this Friday!
Wondering and Wandering: an interview with Gemma Purkiss
Gemma Purkiss is a Quester and designer, creating a wide range of things - from videos and illustrations to presentations and brand identities. She loves planning walks and inviting others to join her, ideally ending at a pub and with some moments for storytelling thrown into the route.
Gemma is also the author of ‘Wonders & Wanderings Along the Pilgrims’ Way’ - a book and guide about 149km walk she took last year.
SF: Hey Gemma! What’s on your mind today?
GP: In awe of the sky right now which looks like a painting by the Romantics. Besides that there’s a lot of logistics running through my brain. Planning mini adventures in the UK and Italy over the next month and wrapping up a lot of exciting projects.
SF: What does a perfect creative day look like to you?
GP: A hearty breakfast - ideally english muffins, cheddar cheese and chili, lightly toasted - followed by a walk in Epping forest with my wife and hound. Late morning would be spent doodling and getting into a creative flow in my sketch book before getting back into the kitchen to cook a nice lunch and probably plan what’s on the cards for dinner. After lunch, and another short walk in the neighbourhood for the hound it’d be a hard choice between an exhibition, bouldering, watching a documentary or daydreaming.
SF: What is a quote you always come back to?
GP: “I have no reason to go, except that I have never been and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for traveling?” Freya Stark
SF: You are a fantastic illustrator - your style is super clean and playful. Can you tell us a bit more about the design work you do and how your style has evolved?
GP: Thank you! Reflecting back on the journey my characters have been with me since I started doodling during class and then in meetings. I retrained as a graphic designer in 2018 after accidentally finding myself in film distribution and I’m still on this fantastic journey discovering more and more avenues where design is needed.
In 2022 I started to work with a dream team of designers in the events space which entailed large and small designs but most importantly interactive design experience. How to tell a story and engage an audience which has heavily influenced how I look at my work today. Unfortunately I lost that job to redundancy and then my next job was also lost to redundancy so now I’m navigating freelance work, an adventure in itself!
SF: ‘Walking as a creative practice’ might raise some eyebrows, but anyone who does it will know how true a statement it is. How does walking feed your own creative practice?
GP: Walking and movement are completely tied to my creative practice. Outdoor exploration fuels my creativity, enhancing access to flow state allowing me to sit and observe the incubation state between ideas and implementation. Then I can bring that transformative energy to my design work and problem solving. Walking also transports you to new places and allows you to travel slow enough to notice new things or how things are changing, creating a stronger connection to your environment.
SF: So… you’ve written a book about a walk! Tell us more about it.
GP: I’m really excited about this and cannot wait for the books to finally arrive from the printers. It’s called Wonders & Wanderings Along the Pilgrims’ Way and it’s exactly that. The day after I turned 35 I set off from my flat in East London to walk 149km to Canterbury over six days. I’m ritualistic about things and 35 for me was a poignant birthday. I (hopefully) have another 35 years ahead of me now as an adult and fully in charge of my own choices. I wanted to see if I would have some enlightenment, an epiphany or a good adventure and I did! The book came about because a lot of people asked me how I planned it and they didn’t feel like they could do it but they can! This formed the structure and purpose of the book. I want to empower readers to go on their own adventure.
It's in two parts, preparing and doing. The first part covers training, packing and preparing your daily itinerary in a fun and informative way. While the second part is my day to day adventure in the hopes that it'll give reassurance and some learnings to the reader. Looping back to my favourite job working on events, I wanted to make this book as interactive as possible. There are tear out pages with each stage of the journey so you can plan it out on a big board or calendar; there are stickers because who doesn’t love a sticker and my favourite part is that there are two types of postcards that the reader can use to send to friends and family while they go on this journey.
SF: and when / where / how can we get our hands on a copy?
GP: Pre-orders are available now, this is a mini mini run (100 copies) and it’s available here I’m hoping to be sending out copies from the 21st October
SF: You joined us on a Quest for the first time last year… can you explain your experience?
GP: Questing was hands-down the best experience for unlocking my creativity. I had been watching from the sidelines and took the leap and was thrilled to find out the theme was storytelling. Having a group of likeminded people and a weekly meet-up created a really good structure without the pressure to create. I ended up filling a whole notebook during the questing month and I still create little prompts for myself. My favourite being using the What3Words app while out walking, honing in on my location and then writing a short story based off of the 3 words.
SF: What role do you think Questing can play in life?
GP: Questing is all about curiosity and being open to discovery. It can help us out of our comfort zones, build confidence and most importantly I feel, build better connections with people, places and things. It’s great to be part of community and the tools you gain from it really stick with you.
A round up of curious finds from Gemma’s Quester world.
👀 Noticing but on another level. This amazing video of street signs from around the world is just mesmerising and really encourages you to look a bit closer at the everyday signs that surround us.
🖊️ Tools for creating. I have to force myself to not go in to stationary stores because I can easily spend everything I have and more, so instead I love to know what other people use to create and get inspired that way.
🇿🇦 All of the talks from William Kentridge, a really fascinating and diverse artist from South Africa. I love that these talks are available for free and online.
📼 I recently came across this website featuring all the designs of tape decks from the ages, it really reminds of childhood and capturing favourite songs on a Sunday afternoon (and getting enraged by the radio DJ ruining the songs!)
📍 Create your own stories from What3Words, maybe even dive into a rabbit hole of new places or familiar places near you. What do the words say? How do they tell a story?
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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I'm so happy to have stumbled across Creative Quests today via Street Wisdom. Yay! I loved this post and am looking forward to keeping on reading. Have a great Wander on Friday! I'm wandering in Leamington Spa.
I'm so happy to have stumbled across Creative Quests today via Street Wisdom. Yay! I loved this post and am looking forward to keeping on reading. Have a great Wander on Friday! I'm wandering in Leamington Spa.