Dear Friend, Reader, and Supporter,

Thank you for your click of faith and for subscribing to Hotpot. Seeing your name popping up in the signup notifications means more than what you think. You are making my day.

So, what’s hotpot, this thing on the internet that you subscribed to? And why I am so hyped about it?

Hotpot is a blog and a newsletter

It is a medium that provides me with all the creative freedom I seek to connect meaningfully with you. A medium through which we can cancel the algorithmic and advertising noise on social media feeds, ensuring that both you and I, the sender and the receiver, have control and freedom over the message.

As the sender, I am 100% sure that my message will reach you; as the receiver, you have the choice to either ignore or read my message. That simple.

Nothing new per se, but it is certainly a paradigm that has gained more relevance as communication and social platforms evolve. Overall, a new way for me to try to engage with you through what I create and explore.

This feels so much different than posting random posts on social media. Your subscription symbolizes a contract between us and my commitment to show up consistently for you.

You can probably sense my discomfort in creating, expressing myself, and connecting with others over social media. I am not only terrible at it, but feel incredibly awkward on them. Yet, there is a strong desire to communicate and share what I know to engage in new conversations.

Back to basic, back to emails, and to a simple website, powered by a membership platform that enables me to have control over my data, my content, and its distribution.

The text editor of this newsletter is my new playground, a canvas that can host all sorts of content and media I need to express the stories I want to tell and share.

While at andreabrena.com, now live for more than 15 years, I have always been showcasing “the best of (sort of)” my work, I crave a place that can serve more as a platform rather than a display, where I can experiment, sharing personal stories, hypotheses, questions, and points of view. Hopefully, this will give you food for thought, a moment of wonder, and an invite to reach out and share back your thoughts.

If my website is my living room, with arranged artwork, a design sofa, and maybe my overly-published and never-sold hand-knotted carpets, I now want to invite you to the kitchen, a hotpot with a simmering broth at the center of the inevitable Autoprogettazione dinner table by Enzo Mari, and a mix of ingredients. Each with its own flavor; all to share.

What can you expect from Hotpot?

(cheesy answer) Anything of my life that has flavor!

We are often defined and confined by our title, job, or field of practice, and even quantified by who and how many follow or engage with us. I am sure we are all much more than what we appear to be across digital platforms or in real-life professional and social contexts. Showing up as your whole self is darn difficult, my friend.

So, again, what can you expect from Hotpot?

While I am trying to avoid confining myself in a static definition. Hotpot is a place where I can show up as a whole. Exploring topics and formats of knowledge creation, and creative expression and exchange. A place to embrace a twirling dynamism, for sure.

If all of this sounds too vague, worry you not. While the destination is not clear, the direction feels right and will be adjusted on the way.

There is a quote that can describe how I am approaching this journey from the book by Anne Lamott, "Bird by Bird" that goes:

“E.L. Doctorow once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.'

In the next issues, there will be space for planned content I have been meaning to write for a long time and for the unexpected, too. "Da cosa nasce cosa" is the Italian expression that means "one thing leads to another" and that best represents the spirit of this project.

In the next issues, there will be space to explore different aspects of my expanding design practice, my passion for walking and photography, and much more.

Expanding Design Practice
It is expanding, you read it right. As a design graduate, I underwent different levels of personal crises given by a title that comes with its flaws. Struggling to fit into a single design domain, mine has been an expanding practice and journey that has seen my interests tap into different fields and shift from product to people experiences.

This expanding design practice will give me the chance to talk about a lot of experiences I gained over the last few years and hold unlimited unknowns for the future.

Walks & Photography
Over the last few years, I have been walking a lot. Less than I would like to. I happened to do that with little old cameras at hand, looking for beauty and meaning in my surroundings and trying to capture them, most time by myself, at times with people I admire and care for or my dog, who I also admire by the way.

About me

I am a designer, who graduated in Man & Living from the Design Academy Eindhoven, and over the last ten years, I have been building creative and strategic projects based on empowering, inspiring, and connecting members or employees.

About this membership

The rules of the game are simple. Subscribe for free and you will always have access to content published on Hotpot.

I am publishing an issue every second week. Starting today. Committment.

Subscribe for a yearly rate, and you will be crowned as my patron. Your support will fund this newsletter and future projects and mean that you truly want to see more of me in the world. In return, should I be selling any sort of good or service in the future, you will be granted unfair discounts. But if you are a patron you are a person of goodwill and you are not doing it for the discounts.

Want to be a hero? If you like Hotpot, forward this email to a friend and invite them to subscribe.

Conclusion

Building platforms and venues to share knowledge and foster connection has been part of my professional day-to-day for the past few years. Creating a personal platform feels much different: more intimate and meaningful. The time that went into writing this is the proof of it. Way more than I would ever expect.

A newsletter misconception, it’s not a one-way but a two-way street and a medium to connect with you. Should anything fascinates you, intrigue you, or piss you off, please reach out.

I’d love to hear from you and I am excited at the idea of leveraging Hotpot as a platform to build something new together.

What did you think of this first issue? I'd love to hear from you! Don't be a stranger and feel always welcome to say hi! You can write to hotpot@andreabrena.com

Thank you very much for reading and I see you in a couple of weeks.
I wish you an inspiring weekend!

Andrea