WORDS BY CAI SEPULIS; PHOTO BY CHRIS TIESSEN
What do I carry in a day? Honestly, when I finally empty my pockets, it’s more than I realize. My work shifts constantly: design, art direction, illustration, and running a print magazine while maintaining my own art practice, prepping for shows, building new work, keeping the ideas moving. My kit isn’t really a kit. I’m more of a crow, collecting as I go – drawn to things that are useful, beautiful, or just too good to leave behind.
All the drawing tools. Staedtler pens in various thicknesses, pencils, usually a few more than I can account for. A notebook that gets used for everything: sketching, brainstorming, quick notes, and the running laundry list of what it takes to keep a magazine alive. It’s equal parts ideas and evidence. I’ll sit down for a coffee and end up drawing for an hour. This is not a complaint.
The studio is where the real mess happens. Apron streaked with ink, silkscreen squeegee, a vintage first aid tin repurposed for clips or string, whatever I grabbed and can’t lose. Things migrate from the counter into my pockets and stay there for days. Stowaways. A charcoal stub saved before it meets the wash.
A few mainstays I keep coming back to. The bandana is non-negotiable. I have dozens. It’s less an accessory than a uniform. If I leave the house without one, something feels off. A compact WESN pocketknife that genuinely earns its keep: for crafting, cutting, and sharpening pencils when they get soft. A TAG Heuer I’ve worn since we celebrated our fifth issue, one of those pieces that marks time in more ways than one. And pocket change, rarely for anything in particular, but just in case I encounter a record bin or something small and perfect I didn’t know I needed.
Tiny note cards for love letters on the fly. A deck of playing cards, mostly for cribbage these days, which I’m still learning. Mementos from TOQUE visits: a beaded bracelet from Illbury + Goose and earrings by StrayStones. And stickers, illustrations I’ve designed for clients that I keep on me to share and pass along, because you really never know when someone might need one. Or for when I want to leave a small trace behind.
It’s not organized. It’s not minimal. But it’s mine. A mix of work, play, and whatever I pick up along the way.
Bears and swans. Always.
