Memos

The latest episode features Emmi Salonen, who recommends ‘The Artist’s Way’ as her book club choice. We talked about the writing and designing of her latest book ‘The Creative Wellbeing Handbook - How to fuel creativity, find balance and stay inspired’.

Feeling a little creatively tangled or running on empty? Come discover your personal Creative Ecosystem in this two hour workshop, with author and designer Emmi Salonen. Limited tickets!
L.F. Markey
Dalston store
Sunday 8th March
10am-12noon

SOLD OUT Join us at Pentagram London for an inspiring evening with Emmi Salonen on Thursday 5 March 2026.
📅 Thursday 5 March 2026
6.30pm – Welcome drinks
7:00pm – Talk begins
7:45–9:00pm – Q&A + drinks

I'm speaking at the whatimpact VCSE Summit on 11 March. A free, virtual event, bringing together 1,000+ VCSE organisations to share honest insight and practical support across the sector. If leadership has felt heavy lately, this session is designed to create space, not add more load.
Register free for 11 March
https://lnkd.in/e_F7-55E
My talk starts at 12noon.

A new year can bring big intentions but our day-to-day is made of smaller patterns. Together with Lisbon based artists and designers Rita João and Elizabeth Olwen, Emmi Salonen will explore how to bring more ease, colour and curiosity into your days.
Second Home
LISBON, Portugal
Thu 19. February 2026
18:30-20:30

In this episode of Building you Brand, Liz Mosley talks with Emmi about the lessons she has learned as a creative, including her personal journey through burnout and taking a year-long sabbatical. Emmi has chatted to hundreds of other creatives about their struggles, and she shares those insights alongside practical exercises to help nurture your creativity.

BERLIN 14.2.26 With Sonja Pham and Emmi Salonen - A Valentines Day conversation about the highs and lows of creative work, and how to keep going through both.
Sat 14th February, 18:00-19:30
At Buchhandlung Moritzplatz
FREE but registration via e-mail required - [email protected]

The NDA Podcast episode ‘Is Burnout Inevitable?’ listed The Creative Wellbeing Handbook in their resources, and gave it a mention at the end of the show. Click to listen to the full episode.

The final lesson in the series is a gentle reset for January. It’s about dreaming first, then building small rhythms that actually stick. We’ll put it all into practice at Creative Wellbeing Reset on Thursday 22 Jan 2026 at St Bride Foundation Book via the link in the article. Do come say hi! We’ve made space to recharge, together.

In Lesson #19 in my 20-part series, I share how I baked sustainability into my design practice – and how you can too, whatever the brief. It’s all about  small, repeatable choices that shrink your footprint (direct impact) and grow your brainprint (the change your work enables).

Some presents look nice on a shelf. Others actually change how a day feels. For Lesson 18 I’m thinking about the second kind – gifts that say “I see how hard you’re trying” and offer a way back to your own spark. That’s the hope behind The Creative Wellbeing Handbook too – a gift that refuels tired creatives with stories, space to think, and small steps they can actually use.

KIN magazine has run my article ‘How hustle culture is dimming your spark — and how to get it back’, where I unpack my burnout-and-back story. It leads into my new book, The Creative Wellbeing Handbook, and the Creative Ecosystem: Connection, Wonder, Pause, Movement and Joy – a simple way to keep your creativity alive.

Vacayou believes travel can change lives. It did for me. In this piece, Shelly Nyqvist talks to me about my year of “Inspiration Expedition” — or, more bluntly, my burnout recovery year.

For Lesson #17 in my 20-part series, I’m sharing what helps teams keep their creativity alive when things get hectic – from quick inspiration hours to walk-and-talk reviews.

A monthly magazine by Design Matters run an article about my new book. DeMagSign believes passionately in the power of creative inspiration, and by showcasing the most exciting and captivating work online and through their events programs, they open up this world to the widest possible audience.

If creativity is a delicate ecosystem, how do we keep things in balance? Emmi Salonen’s new book explores creative burnout. The designers radical model for creativity shifts the focus from output to input – focusing on all the things that feed into our creative process: “Connection, wonder, pause, movement, and joy.”

A sabbatical mostly spent in the Finnish archipelago helped me see what I’d been missing. Surrounded by forests and sea, I realised that creativity isn’t fuelled by hustle alone. It needs variety. Connection. Space. Joy. That experience became the starting point for my Creative Ecosystem model, a framework to help creatives stay inspired without burning out. Click for Lesson #16 of my 20-part series.

Burnout is changing. It’s less “I’m exhausted” and more “where did my curiosity go?” I spoke to Design Week about what I’m seeing: AI pressure, attention drain and approval cycles that stretch on.. My recommendation is to plan to 80%. Build in pause. Protect the inputs creativity runs on.

"Don't wait for inspiration. Schedule it: read, move, meet people, notice things and keep doing it when you're busy." Studio Emmi founder and creative director, Emmi Salonen invites us into her world of design, sharing how nature, time, and joy shape her approach to creating with purpose. Click through to read more.

Wellbeing in creative education isn’t optional. If we want the next generation of designers to thrive, we have to teach them how to sustain themselves, not just their work. If we want their ideas to change the world, we need to make sure they have the energy to create it. Lesson #15 in my 20-part series is about supporting students’ creative wellbeing.