Entry NO. 002 Dear Studio, Everyone’s Trying to Feel Something Again

A Sunday Letter from Aomih to the counterculture that is rising to fight the overly-saturated bland.

FROM THE DESK

Feeling Our Way Back

Lately I’ve been thinking about how loud everything looks.
How much of it feels performative and flat — like a set piece, that was kind of just plopped into perspective? It is like a copy-and-past vibe that everyone seems to be replicating. As a millennial.. it feels imagination of what people think people want–it isn’t converting because it all seems to be the same.

You know what stopped me in my scroll this week? A video of someone pressing their palm into a velvet headboard. That’s it. No voiceover, no trending audio, no slick cut. Just the hush of a hand meeting texture. And something about it made me exhale. Sounds as dramatic as it actually was.

Because under all this algorithmic noise, I think we’re starting to crave the one thing we can’t fake: sensation. And this isn’t just coming from me.

Brands are loosening the grip. The over-designed, over-optimized, over-AI’d gloss is giving way to something lazier. In a good way. Looser, warmer, more embodied. We’re seeing it everywhere. Maximalist hotels with plush furniture and sink-in scents. Tablescapes that look like they’re about to tip over in the best way. Food styling that isn’t trying to be beautiful, just emotional.

What I’m calling it: the texture era.

What it actually is: a return to feeling.

I like to say it is something inbetween aesthetics and behavior. The forced ‘clean’ aesthetic just is not natural but many people surge into the look because of classness and familiarity. It’s strategic. Brands are being forced to remember that humans are multi-sensory creatures. Designing with all senses, the way we see brands, the way we feel them. (I know you are probably asking, well how can you taste a brand? This tells me you’ve never satiated over a Loewe tomato or compulsivley shivered at the sight of the Proper Hotel.)

I don’t think this is a trend. I think it’s a correction. Hopefully one that sticks.

So yes, let’s play with materials. Let’s put a citrus bowl on the floor. Let’s mist the lobby with yuzu and black pepper. Play Solfeggio frequencies throughout the lobby. But let’s not forget why we’re doing it: to remind people they’re still here. Still feeling. Still real.

xX SaSha

STUDIO CULTURE

A Week That Smelled Like Clarity

I got a new diffuser for the my place. The scent is palo santo, cardamom, and bergamot. It’s giving: spa, expensive, and summer time in the the hills of Italy.

Our days are long right now. Big builds. Time zone math. But somehow, this one smell helped me stay in my body. It reminded me that sometimes the best creative tool is... not a tool. It’s a feeling. A moment. An atmosphere. Sometimes it is something that just makes your days feel a little more special. That’s what we’re trying to create more of, even in the work.

CURRENTLY READING

A Mixed Bag, As Always

• "Atmospheres" by Peter Zumthor — Okay, yes, it’s dense. But the way he talks about light and materiality will have you rethinking your desk lamp and your entire brand strategy.

• The Why Is This Interesting newsletter — One of the few I open every week. Last week’s note on “emotional granularity” felt like a design prompt and a therapy session.

• "As Seen On" Substack by Ochuko Akpovbovbo —She really brings in the lens of gen-z to this millennial. Is it me trying to stay hip with the kids, or is it me working? Maybe I will find out in 30 years.

THE CHECK-IN

Culture Feels Flat. Design is Fighting Back.

We’re watching a real-time reaction to digital numbness. A pushback against sameness and safety. Cookie-cutter templates, AI-polished outputs (full of my antithesis; Conjunctions and negations…), trend-cycled aesthetics — they’re starting to blur into nothing and everything at the same time? It is exhausting and it fills bland. People are noticing.

What’s rising instead? Experiences that demand presence. Moments you can’t swipe past. Tactile, multi-sensory environments that make you feel something real. Customers are expecting brands to facilitate deeper and more uniquely directed ideas that offer a meaningful and experiential access to their brand’s world that they can’t find anywhere else. 

That’s the counterculture right now: feeling-forward design.

A GUEST NOTE

Still Me. Still Chatting.

Hi again. It’s SaSha. I’m really enjoying having this space — and you here with me (all 5 of you 😉.

Writing these letters feels like stretching. Getting back to the muscle of noticing. Feeling things again. Putting shape to ideas I didn’t know were floating around in the work. So thank you. For reading and for being here while we are in the ‘growth-era’ of Aomih and I decided to make a public journal. 

ON REPEAT

Sounds We’re Feeling With Right Now

• Moses Sumney – Cut Me — Still one of the sexiest soundscapes in a minute. Haunting but soft.

• Kelela – Contact — Silky. A soundtrack for designing something immersive.

• Yaeji – Done (Let’s Get It) — Because sometimes you just need to bounce around your kitchen and call it ‘work.’

Still updating the playlist. Check back next week.

CASE IN POINT

How to Design for Sensation

Here’s what brands can do to build emotional and sensory experiences:

1. Start With One Feeling
Don’t ask, "What do we want this to look like?" Ask, "How do we want people to feel here?" and “How do the experience my brand?”

Then build from there. Let every texture, scent, sound, and visual ladder back to that emotion. Don’t be gimmicky and try not to build something that is somewhat unnecessary. The value comes when you cultivate something experiential that is beneficial, and triggers a positive memory to be formed.

2. Choose Textures That Say Something
Skip the surface-level ornaments. Go for tactility that is resonant to humans–materials that communicate a mood:

• Hand-made papers cards

• Biophilic shifts in projects and visuals such as warm wood swaths, natural stone, and plants…. all the plants.

• Bring in imperfections with hand-written elements, against-the-grid modular design, hand-thrown potter instead of glossy plates.

3. Use Scent With Intention
Smell is the fastest route to memory.

• What would it smell like to enter your brand?

• What scent should linger after someone leaves?

• If this is a virtually-based brand, how can you bring sent and tast in visually? Use photography that is alluring, a close up shot of strawberries in your instagram carousel may just leave them wanting a lil’ piece of your cake ;)

Designing scent is anyone building a world, but it undeniably shows u in hospitality.

4. Embrace Imbalance
Perfectly styled tables are out. Make it feel touched, lived-in, imperfect,  undone on purpose. Think:

• Spilled pomegranate juice

• Half-peeled clementines

• A wrinkled linen runner

• Handwritten notes

• Low-production founder messages

This doesn’t mean poorly designed though. It is essential that you have the consistent quality of your brand to maintain the connection to your audience. 

5. Connect the Digital to the Physical
Make your online presence feel like your in-person experience. Use:

• Soundscapes

• Tactile metaphors

• Video with no dialogue, that bing up a targeted emotion

Your digital world should feel like an extension of your brand, property, and offering, not an approximation, and not a random share.

HOT PLATE

Things That Touched a Nerve This Week

• The velvet headboard reel I mentioned earlier. Still can’t stop thinking about it.

• Scent note cards by LO Studio — like brand mood boards, but for your nose.

• Fastprinting’s Eco-paper tape — I have been following them for a while–anyone used them?

• Ecru linen swatches currently taped to my monitor. No notes.

See you next Sunday.

Let’s keep this between us.