Creativity That Makes The Cut: An Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Orange Life Magazine, Susie Hutchinson
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Gorgeous + smart = excellent. Every time Carrie and I see a copy of Orange Life Magazine in print we say, “This is sooo well done!” Orange Life online is equally inspiring. But of course. From writers to font types, founder and editor, Susie Hutchinson, makes critically good choices. And as she puts it so well, “honest creativity” always shines through.
What 5 magazines inspire you?
- Monocle is like a newscast within the pages of a magazine. I love every issue.
- Marie Claire covers issues important to women and shows you how to wear clothes.
- Flaunt is always visually inspiring.
- HOBO is my favorite Canadian magazine.
- British Vogue gives me hope that one day my life could look that!
Where does your inspiration come from? FEEDING CURIOSITY
I’m truly curious about how the world works – fashion, design, politics, human rights – all of which we cover in Orange Life Magazine. I get a lot of inspiration from just asking people in the business – writers, photographers, editors – what they’re working on. And I watch a lot of news.
How do you decide what to publish?: THE 15 MINUTE RULE
When you publish anything, you’re asking people to invest their time in what you’re creating, and I’m respectful of that. The question I ask myself before we commit to any story is simply… “Who cares? Would I spend fifteen minutes of my day to read this? Do we have access to the person, the clothes, the products we want to feature? Can we pull this off visually?”
How do you define good writing?: PROOF OF LIFE
Anybody can write well. I want someone who has real knowledge about something; life experience that they can articulate – proof of life. I want to be inspired. If I can’t get past the first paragraph, it doesn’t get published.
How do you define great visuals?: SPECIFIC TALENT
I think it takes a lot of experience and a great gift to make photography that works. Generalists don’t cut it. Really good photographers understand what they’re shooting.
How do you define great creativity?: HONESTY
When someone really owns their craft, you know it, you feel it. No phonies for me. I choose to work with people who are honestly creative and seriously passionate about what they do.
How do you balance publishing a magazine and motherhood?: CHERISHED MOMENTS AND A GOAL
My life is completely out of balance. I work when my one-year old is distracted, which means I work all the time to make up for the time that she needs me. I have a business exit strategy, and that makes a difference. I don’t want to miss a moment with her. And…I don’t want to be a woman that is without a career. I want my daughter to be able to say, “This is what my mom achieved, and I can do anything.”
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The copyright of the article Creativity That Makes The Cut: An Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Orange Life Magazine, Susie Hutchinson in People is owned by Carrieanddanielle.com. Permission to republish Creativity That Makes The Cut: An Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Orange Life Magazine, Susie Hutchinson in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Read more at Carrie and Danielle: People
July 28th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Like Susie, I snatch moments of creativity through writing when my three year old is distracted and my 7 month old is sleeping. Most writers that I admire who have children say that they write at night after the house is quiet and the babes are in bed. Before I had children, I never found the time to write because time was just something that stretched endlessly, infinitely ahead of me. It was always something that I would get to later. Now that my own “time” is so limited, I find myself being able to do much more with much less. Each free moment is poised, waiting for me to embrace it and do what I can in it. Each moment demands honesty and my full attention. The moment may last 30 seconds or fifteen minutes, depending on how engaged my toddler is with his garbage truck and how well my baby girl is napping today. So I don’t have time to waste. The fire burns within and must be tended, as Susie says, for the sake not only of my own passions but for the mighty example my creations will set for my children.
When I had my blessed Style Statement session with Carrie last fall (Timeless Inspiration), she said to me that my upcoming maternity leave would be a wonderful time to explore Timeless Inspiration. I thought to myself, Yeah, right, in between all the poopy diapers and spit up and temper tantrums and leaking boobs . . . sure. But it turns out, she’s so right. So much of our creativity can be explored in the mind and heart regions as we do the daily tasks that our lives require of us. As I move through my day, a day in which my time is largely never my own, I find myself still feeding and fuelling the impulse within in ways I never thought possible.
It’s our birthright and one of our greatest gifts to be creative and to express that creativity in whatever form we desire. Susie, Carrie, Danielle, Orange Life and Carrie & Danielle (the website) are shining examples of what we can accomplish if we put heart, mind and soul into it, regardless of what else is happening in our lives.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
What a great interview – like a lot of articles in Orange Life Magazine, it leaves me wanting more. I’d really love to have a coffee with Susie and talk to her about the magazine’s (and assume her) refreshing approach. Clearly readers were ready for less headlines like, “Get to Know His Erogenous Zones” or “Cellulite Cures That Work” and so congratulations and kudos to the magazine’s growth and popularity.
As a writer (TamaraMedia.com), this is the sort of magazine I would love to write for.
I moved from Vancouver to southern California in January and am just now finding my creativity returning…maybe when I get back in March, I’ll be ready to pitch!
July 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Ah, the life of a home-based working Mom. It is like Susie says all about balance. I write a daily blog and run two small art-based businesses in between doing all that is needed to keep my three boys clothed, fed and happy. If I’m having a writing blank I will do my daily toilet clean ups…waiting for a picture to upload I might throw in a load of laundry, I often wear a head set and make a few work calls while making lunches or doing something silly like cleaning out the hunk of toast that’s been stuck in the toaster and slowly burning for the past week. I’ve made some of my best sales in my undies and a top with spit up accents. Even though it is an absolute treat sometimes to shower, get dressed and actually talk something other than Transformers…I do feel so blessed to be able to be with my boys. It’s definitely not a June Cleaver kinda utopia but it’s working well so far with My 3 Sons! Sorry about the lame jokes, I love television shows from the 1960’s.
As for Orange Life Magazine, I am a newbie. I have looked at the sight and love the mix of art, fashion and life in general. I like the layout, tone and I will look for it. I’ll also request it at our local bookstore… There is a site that sometimes sucks me in for hours at a time called http://www.notcot.org/ . From possibly naive first impressions I think Orange Life might be a good paper version of that for me…
http://www.snickerdoodles.typepad.com
July 29th, 2008 at 8:14 am
(Sigh.) So what I’ve suspected–feared, dreaded–is true: In order to work with a tot around, it must be done in fits and starts, between “petey-budder” sandwiches and potty runs, at the crack of dawn or deep in the night. But this I know: Working, even piecemeal, on your own time (well, time you share with a child, rather than time you owe to an employer) is rich with possibility. My own daughter is four and, because I work for myself, I have been present for every critical moment in her life **AND** I have contributed equally with my husband to our household. My daughter sees that I work and that I’m there for her. (I don’t think she’s picked up on quite how hellish it sometimes feels to juggle both. My goal is to find some balance to model for her.)
As an editor, I disagree with you on one point: Everybody cannot write well–even people who manage to make a living writing. (Trust me.) But everybody does have a story–life experience that is rich and critical. If that story needs to be told in writing (which is not necessarily the case, as any artist, crafter, musician, griot will affirm) then my joy is in creating a partnership between the person who writes beautifully with the person who has a life story that begs telling. I am honored when I get to be that person. (Either person.)
July 29th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Wow. Thank you for the introduction to OrangeLife, Susie, Danielle and Carrie! I really really really want a swan bum now. Serious. All morning. I keep thinking about it. No more tromping off to the dog park in my husband’s old brown jacket and baseball cap, resembling a dowdy duck.
I’m a playwright. I used to write 12 hour stretches, all espresso’ed, smoked and Hemmingway. Cry at my own tragedies, laugh at my own jokes, well past two in the morning. Then meet up with the latest trashy lover and drink wine and feel so heady and alive and risque. Yes. Well, now I’m married with two dogs and a toddler, I just can’t support that kind of creative process. I write in twenty minute bites. Play-dough time. Snack time. Nap time. I keep my writer’s brain on and dream up characters while pushing the swing, I solve plots while doing the white load. It does make me a bit on the “dreamy side” as a Mom, so it’s always a balance. I make sure I have times when I give my daughter complete focus. As for creative content: Jose Rivera once said: “If you’re not prepared to risk your entire reputation every time you write, then it’s not worth your audience’s time.” So, I write about things I don’t have the answer to. I write about things that make me feel very uncomfortable. Right now I’m writing a play about a twenty five year old man who falls in love with a forty year old woman. Why? Because I know it happens and I know that I can’t even freaking imagine it. Why not? My husband is 13 years older than me. Why does nobody blink at that? Yet even a friend and so called feminist heard about my play and called me a “cougar” for writing it. Hm. Interesting. So, now for sure I’m going to write this damn thing – AND I’m going to cast myself in it.
Thank you for asking, and thank you, artists, for sharing your process with me too. Love it.
Cheers, Lucia
July 29th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Just checked out Orange Life’s website. First time hearing about this magazine and now it’s on my list of must reads. LOVE the mix of subjects and smart writing. As a passionate READER I appreciate the well edited content and as a DESIGNER with a voracious appetite for visuals, I appreciate the beautiful photos and aesthetic of the site…can’t wait to get my hands on the actual magazine…THANK YOU!
As for creativity, here’s a favourite quote I like to remember:
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
July 29th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Orange Life is a visual smorgasbord online, and the magazine itself is superior. Even handling it is different – it’s more of a book than a magazine – heavy stock paper, mesmerizing photography and of course, top notch writing.
Susie is inspiring in her commitment to excellence both as a business-woman and as a mother. Her priorities are laudable: to be someone of whom her daughter can be proud. This is my new mantra whenever I feel the pull to be home with my girls – one day, I want them to be able to say, “My mom did this! I can do it too!”
Thank you for this.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Well…balance schmalance. My life isn’t balanced either. It’s intense and it’s full. It’s a work hard hard / play hard formula and if I wasn’t capable of going with the flow – I’d be hooped and my son would get ripped off. I’ve finally surrendered to the chaos as order.
Once, I did an interview with a major magazine while trying help my then 3 year old extract a soy nut from his nose. Everyone got what they needed!
July 29th, 2008 at 11:38 am
LIVE, WORK. It’s a blur. No definition, no nine to five for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Susie does a remarkable job and produces one of the few magazines I keep. Thank you for creating beauty with depth.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
What strikes me about Susie’s comments is her clarity about what works and what doesn’t to create her product and her life i.e. specific talent vs generalist and having an exit strategy. I’m inspired to build my clarity muscle. Any tips Susie?
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Re: Proof of Life
I was watching an old 1994 clip of Charlie Rose this morning where he interviewed the board of the Actors Studio – Paul Newman, Ellen Burstyn, Arthur Penn, Norman Mailer, James Lipton & Frank Corsaro. He was asking how a good script affects the outcome of a work and Norman Mailer answered that the moment the script is false it is very hard for the actors to have any genuine feelings for the character and referred to a script as being too “dishonest.” Paul Newman added that when he receives a good script he is almost filled with a great sadness because there is less work for him to do, a mediocre script can provide more of a challenge. After reading your Proof of Life comment I thought; if we could all just channel our inner Paul Newman and add the riches to the pieces of writing that are missing their essence we won’t need good writing. But no. Proof of Life is necessary for good writing in both the writer and the reader.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Another great post, you have been awesome with your work, just keep going like this.
Emma