29 QUESTIONS WITH ALI LABELLE
Open to see the creative director's pristine and solitary workspace ☁️
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Ali Labelle is a creative director and brand consultant in Los Angeles. She writes the À La Carte email and runs the delightful instagram account Pasta Girlfriend.
ALI’S DIVERGENT CREATIVE STRATEGIES
Precision is easier with planning. The fact that an x-acto knife is in Ali’s top three tools is telling of her process and her desired outcomes. Instead of perfection, aim for precision: the most correct word, the most true brushstroke, the clearest and most well-communicated thesis. Precision rarely happens on accident — plan ahead.
Build your personal reference library. Gather experiences, study referential art, read books that are out of your league. You never know where potential inspiration may lurk.
Sometimes the inability to execute is a sign. “If I’m hitting a wall it usually means it’s not my best idea and I might need to take a few steps backwards.”
What are your creative rituals?
I’m always down a rabbit hole; I love to settle in with my computer and a glass of something and just see where the internet takes me. I’m also a big fan of solo inspiration days: just me and a museum or a library or a craft store where I can wander and think a bit.
Physical space or mental space?
Physical. I like to be alone, especially when I’m working.
How do you actually get started?
You know how in high school they taught us to block out our essays so we had a path to follow? You’d sort of jot notes down for your intro, your paragraphs, and your conclusion, then shuffle them around to form your skeleton before you fill it all in with actual sentences? I sort of do that.
I’ll write a list of words or phrases that come to mind when I think of what it is I’m working on, then dig into each of those a little more and find visual representations of those things to kick off my stroll through reference materials. Eventually some grouping of words and images forms the idea for a concept.
What are your three favorite creativity tools? Please give us specifics, we want to add to cart.
Hmm…an X-Acto knife, mood lighting, and Blue Bottle Instant Espresso.
What’s on your desk right now? Send us a pic.
I work at my dining table with my laptop and a mushroom lamp.
What do you do when you’re feeling deeply, existentially, sand-bags-tied-around-your-ankles stuck?
I go back to the very beginning: my notes from client meetings, or that word list I talked about, or the mood board I made. If I’m hitting a wall it usually means it’s not my best idea and I might need to take a few steps backwards.
Do you have a system? Are you Wes Anderson-style organized or are you the live action embodiment of the Tasmanian Devil?
I am a 9/10 on the Wes Anderson spectrum. I’m pretty methodical in how I approach things and I’m veryyyy organized. -1 point because I imagine Wes is kind of annoying about it all and I think I’m probably less so.
Tell us about your process. When? How? Are you strict about it?
I am naturally a really routine-driven person, so I don’t really need to be strict with myself. I try to do administrative things on Mondays, meetings and client work Tuesdays-Thursdays, and any creative work for myself on Fridays, just to give myself some time to fully get in a particular headspace.
I’d rather be on back-to-back calls all day for one day of the week so I can give myself four days of space to think and get into the zone on other things.
I am a 9/10 on the Wes Anderson spectrum. I’m pretty methodical in how I approach things and I’m veryyyy organized. -1 point because I imagine Wes is kind of annoying about it all and I think I’m probably less so.
What grinds your gears creatively? What gives you the ick?
I love history — so much of what I am drawn to is rooted in art or fashion history. Things that feel very “now” that will feel “then” very soon give me the ick.
Name one thing you’ve created that makes you beam with pride.
I’m really proud of my newsletter, À La Carte. It feels like the hub of all of the different things I do and love and the more I do it the more excited I feel about where it’s headed.
Tell us about your creative nemesis [This could be a real person like Hanya Yanagihara or a concept like strict deadlines]
Design agency bros.
Any notes for your haters? What about your lovers?
I have so many notes for my haters, but I’m going to keep them to myself. To my lovers, thank you for encouraging me and egging me on (in a good way.)
Andy Warhol used to change his perfume every three months because he wanted to have scent memories associated with that time period in his life. What scent will you associate with this time in your life?
Santa Maria Novella’s Tabacco Toscano.
What’s your current hyperfixation?
Sweater vests.
I love history—so much of what I am drawn to is rooted in art or fashion history. Things that feel very “now” that will feel “then” very soon give me the ick.
Favorite meme (present-tense or ancient)?
Where do you seek inspiration most?
The past.
Last piece of media that really stuck with you, and why?
There’s a podcast called Articles of Interest that digs into moments in fashion and the history behind them, and they did a series called Take Ivy that explored prep culture and its influence and impact all over the world.
I’ve been thinking about it ever since — it kind of opened a door in my brain to an aesthetic world that at its surface feels kind of campy, but in actuality is woven with politics, social movements, music, art, and more.
Who did you look up to as a burgeoning creative person?
When I was young I thought I wanted to work in fashion (very original of me), so I was obsessed with the Diana Vreelands and Miuccia Pradas of the world. I studied graphic design in school but never really connected to the energy around the design community; I felt much more inspired by what was happening in fashion.
I loved that each label had its own visual world that was constantly being brought to life in different ways (the clothes, the campaigns, the runway shows, the stores.) I still feel that way, although maybe with a little less naivety and awe around it all.
What’s a reliable perfect portal place for you? (a place/experience that you know will transport you to a new way of interacting with the world)
I love the Getty Museum. Something about ascending the hill on the tram physically gives me the feeling that I’m being transported to a place to get inspired, and I always love their permanent collection.
What’s a piece of advice someone else gave you that lives in your head rent-free?
I’m not sure who said this to me: “Your 80% is everyone else’s 100%.”
They didn’t mean it in a “you’re better than everyone else” way, although now that I type it I’m like, ew, that maybe sounds gross. But they were trying to explain to me that needlessly pushing myself to find “perfection” or having unreasonably high expectations can be self-indulgent, and sometimes I need to walk away from a project and remember that no one else is putting the pressure on me that I put on myself.
What was a canon event for you that you wouldn’t go back and interfere with even if you could?
I started my freshman year of college without a major, so I took a bunch of different classes to see if anything stuck. One of these classes was Film Aesthetics, where each week we would watch a movie and talk about its visuals.
Our final project was to make something that summed up what we learned, and out of like, 75 people, I was the only one whose project wasn’t a video—I had downloaded a free trial of InDesign and made a magazine about it instead.
My professor asked me to stay after class that week and I thought I misread the assignment or something, but she instead asked me if I had ever thought about majoring in graphic design. That was all I needed to hear; I marched over to the registrar’s office and declared my major right then and there.
I love the Getty Museum. Something about ascending the hill on the tram physically gives me the feeling that I’m being transported to a place to get inspired, and I always love their permanent collection.
Night owl, early bird, or a secret third thing?
I’m a middle of the day girl.
If you had to get a tattoo in the next 30 minutes… whatcha getting and where?
I’ve always said if I were ever going to get a tattoo (which I probably will not), I would get the signature my grandpa used on his paintings (my last name, “labelle” in all lower case script) on the side of my wrist.
What’s currently gracing your beverage rotation?
I run off of iced oat milk lattes, white wine, Arnold Palmers, and barely any water.
Give us an example of a design, movie, book, experience from growing up that has shaped the way you work and create now? (What’s the culture that made you say culture was for you?)
(Okay side note, I LOVE Las Cultch and am thrilled to get the reference.)
Mary Poppins. I was obsessed with it as a kid and used to act out all of the parts standing inches from the TV screen.
What’s your relationship to the moon?
We’ve met.
On the Freak to Fairy Scale, where do you fall?
Just a hair towards Fairy, but fairly center.
You have to change your name to an emoji, a la the artist formerly known as Prince, what do you choose?
Probably the pink bow.
Congrats! You are a guest lecturer at Spacies University. You are teaching a bunch of wide-eyed freshmen about your technique and process. What would you call it? [Bonus: What would the final project be?]
Inspired by my canonical event, I’d teach “Life Aesthetics”, and the final project would be to sum up what you’ve learned using a 30-day trial of a program you’ve never used before.
I just love these. <3
Great interview! 🎀