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Being the great-grandson of the French artist Henri Matisse can be complicated. Alex Matisse grew up in the Northeastern United States, and being a Matisse meant being immersed in art. It’s what his family talked about at the dinner table; the walls of his home were full of paintings usually seen only in museums. By the time he was in elementary school, Alex could recite his great-grandfather’s most notable works, like La Danse and the Nu Bleu series. Like many of the Matisse children, Alex had artistic inclinations. Throughout his school years, he thrived in art classes, and in fourth grade he fell in love with pottery in an after-school program. But when Alex began to think about his future, he struggled to see how he could become an artist. “I really wanted to escape my great-grandfather’s legacy,” he says. “I felt like if I became an artist, there would always intrinsically be a comparison to Henri’s work.” Alex Matisse [Photo: East Fork] So Alex forged his own path as an artisan potter, eventually founding the renowned North Carolina pottery company East Fork. Now he’s resurfacing his family roots with the new Matisse Collection, launching online today. It features famous motifs from Henri’s work displayed on dinner plates, dessert plates, and mugs. The company has also developed a new dark blue color, which it is calling La Sirne (the Mermaid), inspired by a color often used in Henri’s palette, bridging Matisse’s saturated, graphic sensibilities to East Fork’s rustic craft. [Photo: East Fork] Forging a new path for the Matisse name When he was starting out as a ceramist, Alex fell in love with a community of potters who had settled in North Carolina, creating rugged utilitarian pieces. He apprenticed with the legendary potter Mark Hewitt. In 2009 he bought a piece of land that was once home to an old tobacco farm in Asheville, North Carolina, and set about starting his own practice as a potter. “I didn’t really know what it was going to be,” he says. “But I had this feeling that if I tucked myself away in the mountains for a little bit, I’d figure it out.” And he did. He met his wife, Connie, and another potter, John Vigeland. The three of them, still in their twenties, decided to launch East Fork in 2009. Over the next few years, they developed a unique look for their pottery, inspired by the heavyweight, wood-fired aesthetic of North Carolina potters but also blended with a minimalism that would appeal to millennials. They sold their plates, serving dishes, and mugs directly to customers through their website, and spread the word through Instagram. Over the past decade, East Fork has thrived. The company now has a team of more than 100 people at its headquarters in Asheville, where there is a large factory. The company also has physical stores in Asheville, Atlanta, and Brooklyn. The pottery has become iconic, particularly among millennials. It’s common for couples to put East Fork’s dishes on their wedding registries. Many consumers don’t know, or care, that it is made by the great-grandson of a famous French painter. In many ways, Alex did what he set out to do: He created his own artistic legacy that had nothing to do with his ancestors. “We’re not trying to play in the art world,” he says. “Its proper pottery. We sell beautiful objects that are functional, durable, useful.” But then something interesting happened. Alex felt a shift inside himself; he wanted to reconnect with his heritage. He wanted to somehow find a way to nod to Henri’s most beloved paintings through his work at East Fork. He is doing so for the first time with this collection. [Photo: East Fork] Matisse motifs Alex chose the motifs for the Matisse Collection very carefully. He wanted them to be recognizable but also blend in perfectly with the East Fork aesthetic. “We thought really hard about how to pay homage to his work in an honest, complete presentation, without distorting it or cutting it up,” he says. Henri’s best-known portraits are very spare; just thick black lines made in aquatint, a printmaking technique. Some of his most famous ones are Nadia au regard sérieux (Nadia With a Serious Look) and Bédouine au grand voile (Bedouin With Headscarf). In this collection, East Fork has captured these portraits on plates. Henri is also famous for his Nu Bleu (Blue Nude) series, which features blue paper cutouts on canvas designed to reflect the human form. In the East Fork collection, thes images are rendered on plates and mugs. “We just went through everything,” Alex says. “We kept trying different paintings until we found ones that fit perfectly wrapped around the mug.” In some Nu Bleu paintings there are also images of palm fronds. In the East Fork collection, this motif is isolated and displayed on cake plates. On one serving platter, there is a large image of a tree taken from La Platane (The Plane Tree), which is made up of thick black strokes. [Photo: East Fork] An homage to family lineage in an East Fork line For Alex, it felt like a serious responsibility to identify and incorporate these motifs. This is partly because the Matisse family has been very judicious about licensing Henri’s art to create products, which is quite different from other well-known artists, like Vincent Van Gogh. This year, much of Henri’s art enters the public domain, which allows companies to use it without having to pay fees. (Some of the earlier work is already in the public domain.) Alex wants to make sure Henri’s work is represented in the very best way through this collection. “It was a moment where we felt we could shepherd Henri’s work into the world in a thoughtful way,” Alex says. The East Fork team worked hard to render the images perfectly on the pottery. In the end, it was easiest to put them on as decals. They found a company in France that was able to translate the images into decals, and then East Fork applied them to the pottery and finished it off with a glaze. [Photo: East Fork] This collection is the first in what Alex wants to be an ongoing part of the East Fork line. Over time, the company will introduce different aspects of Henri’s work onto pottery, finding ways to draw new attention to the Matisse heritage. But in an interesting twist of fate, Alex believes there are some customers who are East Fork purists and who only want the brand’s minimal pieces that aren’t adorned with Henri’s work. “We have tried very hard to make this collection very aesthetically similar to what we already make, so our existing customers will be intrigued by it,” he says of East Forks Matisse wares. “But there are others who won’t care about this collection. And that’s fine too.”
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E-Commerce
Over the last century of glorious, tragic, turbulent, and innovative human endeavour, the cover of the New Yorker magazine has used only the illustrated image to communicate talking points of Americanand specifically New York Citylife and culture. Beyond the masthead and issue date, no set typography has ever been allowed, maintaining a unique wordless space in magazine publishing where only an image connotes the idea. The absence of copy is arresting, the silent core of what the solely visual can communicate. Though notably, the majority of weekly sales are by subscription, not impulse buys. There are few of the New Yorkers 1925 newsstand contemporaries left. Meanwhile, publications like Time, Newsweek, and Fortune have not resisted the dominant orthodoxy of photography with multiple cover lines to gain sales. While photography delivers celebrity and the spectacle of modern life, the New Yorker has maintained a belief in visualizing without written explanation to reach those readers who seek something more. But how can a magazine whose survival depends on sales maintain appeal with such apparently humble graphic means? The New Yorker, February 21st, 1925. [Image: Rea Irvin] The magazines strategy for success has been to employ a succession of brilliant art editors (just four in 100 yearssomewhat unique in magazine publishing) who understand how illustration, in the right hands, can offer appeal, surprise, entertainment and imaginative freedom to invent what French poster artist Cassandre called a visual incident. Posters and magazine covers have a similar task: both vie to grab the attention of a public subjected to evermore intrusive image assault. From simple street hoardings and news vendors in 1925, to broadcast then digital media today, the changes over the last 100 years have been immense and profound. This audio-visual bombardment of words, images, sound and movement simply did not exist back then. This golden age of the printed poster and magazine cover appears now to belong another worldso how can preservation of these ideals be viable in a 21st century weekly magazine? Illustration and its reinvention as an agile alternative to the over-saturation of audio-visual and written media is one key. The choice of illustration as communication remains underrepresented. Other than courtroom reporting, there have been few front pages that have used a drawing, but its popular appeal evidences a relevance to complex modern lives. As a discipline, illustration is closely related to the cartoon and its sequential form, the comic strip. Many New Yorker cover artists operate across these practices, demonstrating the common ground of drawing. Illustrations are used for associative valuethey conjure up an expressive or reflective mood, provide a seasoned commentary, or capture concisely a cultural moment. In the context of fake news, illustrations dont purport to be objectivethey best work through a coherent convincing visual language that offers more than words. For the majority of the New Yorkers audience, illustration has an affectionate, unsophisticated association with successive stages of development, starting in childhood. From early picture books to comics, graphic novels, music and lifestyle, illustrated communication allows interpretation and relatability. Illustration can be successful in performing the elusive act of being inclusive and appealingly anonymous. The New Yorker recognizes that diversity in content is reliant on the real-life experience of its artists. Since the 1930s when most journalists and illustrators were male and white, the magazine has sought to make a weekly visual statement of the contemporary by prioritising images that represent the diversity of New York. There is a disposable deal in buying a magazineit is not designed to be a keeper. Certain images of a moment can later become the visual signature of an age, though it may not always be apparent at the time. The early consistency of New Yorker art deco covers expressed both wonderful visual ideas and a graphic language for modernity. The skyscrapers, bridges and lights of the quintessential modern metropolis are beautifully shown in Adolph Kronengolds cover from March 1938. The New Yorker, July 21, 2008. [Image: The Politics of Fear, by Barry Blitt] Barry Blitts 2008 politics of fear cover, showing Barack Obama in Muslim clothing and Michelle Obama in combats with a gun slung over her back, expressed much more than portraits in an American presidential campaign. It provocatively articulated media exaggeration and control, forces that dominate today. And then there are the images that transcend a stylistic era and which are elevated above beyond specific facts in a way that helps us see the world in a new way, like Saul Steinbergs view of the world from 9th Avenue cover from 1976. The viewpoint is literally floating above the street, not so high that local details are unrecognisable, yet just beyond the Hudson are diminishing deserts and prairies and over the Pacific ocean you can see Japan. A wonderful satire on the attitude of global centrality and specifically a New Yorkers idea of their own importance, the image has been copied and referenced ever since its publication. The completely black cover by Art Spiegelman and New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly for September 24 2001 achieved the impossible task of visualising the feeling of loss following the world trade centre attacks. Mouly has been the art director since 1993 and possesses a supreme visual intelligence that has driven the success of the pictorial cover for more than three decades. She maintains that artists are able to say new things about the same themes year after yearsomething AI cannot do as it refers only to the past. The present, however, is elusive and the province of the artist gathering energy like a lightning conductor. Plus, crucially, AI doesnt doodle. New Yorker artists are people who can present a dilemma, an issue, a moment or a spectacle visually, not abstracted, but through emotional empathy. The covers are non-linear but require reading. The multiple layers of meaning are often open to interpretion. The beauty of the New Yorker cover lies in not equating it with a written description, but rather in prompting an emotional response to what it is to be alive in that moment, whether good times or bad. Thats a pretty wonderful objective and guiding principle for a weekly publication. Geoff Grandfield is an associate professor at the Illustration Animation Department at Kingston University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Picture this: A teenager stares at their phone, paralyzed by headline after headline about the climate crisis, political dysfunction, and societal division. They want to act but feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem. This scene plays out millions of times daily, and it represents a critical challenge for brands: 80% of Gen Z globally report being personally affected by climate change, yet their engagement with sustainable solutions is declining. Looking to the future, many young people are asking, Whats the point? Instead of feeling empowered to act, young people are becoming paralyzed by anxiety, overwhelmed by complexity, disillusioned by a lack of leadership, and increasingly disconnected from the very solutions they seek. This isn’t just anecdotal. It’s a pattern we’re seeing globally, and it challenges everything we thought we knew about young consumers and sustainability. The Aspirational Paradox In 2015, we identified the rise of the Aspirational Consumera youthful, values-driven segment hungry for brands that unite performance, purpose, and new possibilities for the role of business in society. A decade later, many of these Aspirationals are now parents and remain the most committed to sustainable living. In fact, our latest research of over 30,000 consumers across 31 markets shows that they’re significantly more likely to engage in sustainable purchasing behaviors across categories. But something has shifted with the next generation. Despite feeling the most impacted by climate change and expressing the highest levels of environmental concern, young people today are becoming increasingly disengaged. Around the world, Gen Z is significantly more likely than baby boomers and older to say they’ve been greatly affected by climate change (49% versus 38%, respectively), yet their engagement with sustainable behaviors is declining. The number of Gen Z globally who feel indifferent about sustainability has increased from 22% to 31% since 2021, while enthusiasts have dropped from 30% to 21%. This isn’t because they don’t care. If anything, they care too much. Consider this: 38% of Gen Z globally say they feel stressed or anxious all or most of the timea full 21 points higher than baby boomers+ (which encompasses baby boomers and everyone older than them). American youth are also more stressed than their global peers (44% versus 38%, respectively). We’re witnessing what happens when awareness meets overwhelm. The generation with the most at stake in a sustainable future is feeling a real lack of agency to shape it. [Image: courtesy of the authors] The Hidden Opportunity Without visible leadership or meaningful opportunities to act, young people are losing faith in the commitment of business and brands to deliver a sustainable future. But here’s where it gets interesting: While a whopping 77% of Gen Z in the USA currently falls into inactive and indifferent segments, two-thirds of those who didn’t buy sustainable products in the last month say they would have done so if they could have. The desire for better choices exists, but barrierslike price, knowledge, and availabilityblock the path between intention and action. This represents both a crisis and an opportunity. For brands committed to remaining relevant to the next generation while building resilience for a world in flux, this moment demands a fundamental shift in how we approach sustainability. [Image: courtesy of the authors] How to Win Back Gen Z Drawing on decades of research in psychology and social science, we’ve identified five core principles that transform sustainability from obligation into opportunity. Each principle bridges the gap between intention and impact, helping brands move from incremental progress to transformative change. 1. Lead with Truth David Bowie was right then, and its still true today: Young people are quite aware of what theyre going through. Sixty percent of Gen Z in the USA feel extremely worried about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.” Yet, when brands face challenges with radical honesty, they earn respect. According to Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, acknowledging difficulties actually increases optimism and supports resilience. Being honest about challenges helps build trust while illuminating pathways forward. Companies like Tonys Chocolonely are confronting harsh realities like labor exploitation in their industries by making their supply chains traceable and transparent. Oatlys provocative messaginglike their F*ck Oatly online archive of criticismsacknowledges difficulties while maintaining optimism. Rapanui helps customers see the exact journey of their clothes. And Seventh Generation is honoring the origins of their name and repairing relationships with Indigenous communities by redesigning their corporate foundation to champion community-led philanthropy focused on Indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and environmental protection. When brands are honest about challenges while offering solutions, they build credibility. 2. Make Power Personal Our beliefs about our own capabilities directly shape our actions. Psychologist Albert Bandura proved that this sense of self-efficacy is the foundation of human agency; when we believe we can meaningfully affect our circumstances, we’re more likely to act. But theres a crisis of agency among young people: 42% of those aged 1824 globally say they feel individually powerless to do much to save the environment.” We can help transform climate anxiety into creative agency by showing how small actions can spark immediate impact. When consumers feel powerful, theyÙre more likely to transform challenges into choices, repeat sustainable behaviors, and share brands with others. Companies like Sojo are empowering consumers to help their clothes last longer by making garment repair as convenient as food delivery with on-demand repair and tailoring services. The Ordinary is democratizing high-quality skincare by stripping away the frills to ensure quality products are affordable. Beautycounter’s The Never List turns complex chemistry into clear decisions by providing consumers a list of potentially harmful ingredients that are never in their formulations. And brands like Bower and Trashie make recycling clothing and other everyday items easy and rewarding by providing simple take-back systems paired with incentives from partner brands and charities. By removing practical barriersbe it price, availability, ambiguity, or simply inconveniencewhile building psychological confidence, brands can help people move from feeling overwhelmed to feeling capable. 3. Create Connection Loops When anxiety gets in the way of individual action, community creates momentum. Our research reveals a powerful pattern: Young people gravitate toward sustainable behaviors that create connection. In the U.S., Gen Z is significantly more likely than older generations to embrace collective consumption models. This isn’t just about reducing wasteit’s about building new relationships between people, products, and the planet. When sustainability becomes social, anxiety transforms into shared purpose. Consider Notpla, whose seaweed-based packaging alternatives aren’t just eliminating plasticthey’re bringing nature-based packaging into large-scale cultural events to promote learning and evangelism. Irelands peer-to-peer clothes-swapping platform Nuw builds local sharing communities by hosting hybrid digital and in-person events. And Back Market celebrates peer relationships and repair culture as the global marketplace for reborn tech. These brands understand that lasting change happens in community with others. By creating connection loops, they’re helping transform individual eco-anxiety into collective creativityand making sustainable living less about sacrifice and more about belonging to something bigger than ourselves. 4. Invite Joy When sustainability connects to fundamental human needs for joy, growth, and vitality, it becomes self-sustaining, especially in difficult times. For psychologist Martin Seligman, the experience of human flourishing requires more than just removing negativesit demands positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. When we focus the benefits of sustainability solely on reducing harm, we miss the opportunity to support genuine well-being. Our research confirms this insight: More than 75% of Gen Z globally views both healthy and sustainable lifestyles as enjoying the good things in life rather than sacrifice. For them, sustainability isn’t about having lessit’s about living more fully. Consider Pangaia, a collective of scientists, technologists, and designers using bio-based materials and bright colors for sustainable fashion that feels fresh, smart, and stylish rather than austere. NotCo uses AI to create plant-based alternatives that replicate the flavor and texture of animal products in favorites like mac and cheese, hot dogs, and ice cream. And Who Gives A Crap transforms everyday paper products into playful, design-forward objects of joy while supporting global sanitation efforts. When sustainability contributes to all dimensions of well-being, it shifts from sacrifice to a source of joy and gives brands new opportunities to increase relevance, differentiation, and loyalty. 5. Weave New Stories The stories we tell about ourselves and the world become the lenses through which we see reality, notes the philosopher Charles Eisenstein. And when 77% of Gen Z in the U.S. feels disconnected from current sustainability messaging, we need new narratives that reconnect and reengage. And it is possible: Our data show that despite the challenges young people face every day, they are significantly more optimistic about the future than their elders. Gen Z in the USA is much more likely than baby boomers+ to believe that in 10 years, most people will be driving electric cars (51% versus 21%, respectively), buying secondhand (51% versus 20%), renting items instead of owning them (43% versus 19%), and living waste-free (40% versus 15%). This is a powerful moment to help young people write a new chapter and to tell stories that help make sense of today while showing whats possible tomorrow. Vestiaire Collective understands this, making secondhand fashion feel aspirational and luxurious while building community around preloved style in their peer-to-peer, vintage and designer marketplace. Selena Gomezs Rare Beauty is destigmatizing mental illness and fostering conversations around hope and agency. And Too Good To Go reimagines food waste as an opportunity for daily adventure through deliveries of surprise bags from local cafes, bakeries, or restaurants. These brands aren’t just selling productsthey’re helping people see their role in a better story, one that unites individual well-being with collective flourishing. By reflecting consumers realities and amplifying their aspirations, brands can weave new stories that shape our identities, build our communities, and shift culture for a more sustainable future. The Next Frontier: From Insight to Action The opportunity is clear but challenging. By designing products, services, and experiences that inspire confidence and build momentum toward better living, brands can help transform sustainability from a source of anxiety into a path toward agency, creativity, and joy. This isn’t just about selling more stuff. It’s about helping people express their values, connect with others, and participate in positive change. It’s about making sustainable choices more affordable, accessible, and rewarding so they feel less like sacrifice and more like possibility. The data show that young people are ready for this shift. They just need the truth, better tools, and a like-minded community to create it. Young peoples eco-anxiety deserves a sacred space for mourning and fury, rather than dismissing their feelings as weakness or offering empty reassurances that everything will be fine, says Ariana Gomez, the founder and CEO of Technology for Impact. Their deep care about the climate crisis is a powerful fuel for building a better futureyet they can only access this potential when we honor their emotions and support them through the process.” The time for incremental progresshas passed. The next generation is calling for deeper transformation. Brands that can make sustainable living feel both honest and hopeful, aspirational and accessible, and unite individual well-being with collective flourishing will define the future of consumptionand help design a future with more joy and thriving. This is about more than market share or brand relevance. It’s about helping an entire generation move from anxiety to agency, from paralysis to purpose, from being overwhelmed to taking action. The tools exist. The demand is clear. The only question is: Who will have the empathy and creativity to lead?
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E-Commerce
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