At the studio / May 2026

May, oh May.

I think this month was about first times.

The first trip to Lithuania this year.
The first school reunion after 20 years.
The first proper run through Vilnius.
The first time taking a bus to the studio (after two years of pedaling-only experience).
And the first assignment I had been quietly dreaming about for several years.

The month actually started in slight chaos.

While data transfering my email system, I managed to lose quite a lot of information and calendar entries. It made me realise how deeply I rely on digital systems to hold together the rhythm of work and life. Slightly terrifying, honestly.

The trip to Lithuania felt a bit calming. For the first time in a long while, I didn’t overpack my schedule.
There was a family time, a 20-year school reunion that two friends and I co-organised, and my very first proper run in Vilnius. Somehow, despite growing up there, I had never really experienced the city through running before. And, naturally, I spent a small fortune in bookstores.

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Back in Amsterdam, one of the most exciting projects of the year was waiting.
This May, I had the pleasure of working on the shortlist campaign for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.

Ninety-seven emails.
A lot of creative freedom.
Fast-paced production.
And a very slow postman somewhere between Brexit and customs.

Working with Georgina and Charlotte was an absolute joy. Their trust, enthusiasm, and openness created exactly the kind of collaboration every creative hopes for. The Foundation's values to uplift, inspire, and educate sit at the heart of everything they do, and throughout the project, I genuinely felt those values in action.

Creating the campaign around adventure writing felt exciting and surprisingly easy, as I had been dreaming for a long time about creating miniature worlds that emphasise the content of a novel. Did I get your attention? More images are coming through and will be found on their social media, too.

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Meanwhile, I recorded the fourth episode of Book Making as an Art Form with the always thoughtful and generous Jeremy Jansen.

We first met while working on The Best Dutch Book Designs catalogue last year, and our conversations have continued ever since. Recording this episode felt very natural, a conversation filled with reflections on education, publishing, care, editing, and the many invisible decisions behind books. The episode will be released on 2 June.

Another highlight of May was giving a lecture at the Pennings Foundation Photobook Festival.

The talk, How to Look at Books from a Photographer’s Perspective, explored a topic that has fascinated me for years: what happens after a book is published.

We often speak about design, editing, printing, and materiality. Much less attention is given to the visual life of a book once it enters the world.

How do books travel through websites, social media, award submissions, press releases, and bookshops? What makes someone stop scrolling and become curious enough to pick up a book?

It was a pleasure to share examples and practical approaches with a full room. Many thanks to Pennings Foundation and Irma van Bommel for the warm welcome.

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Outside the studio, May also became a month of small life moments: celebrating friends’ birthdays, discovering the Acquired podcast, recovering from a two-week poisoning (not recommended), and fully enjoying cycling through Amsterdam in warmth.

And somewhere in between all of this, marathon training quietly continues. Both the running and the studio seem to ask for the same thing lately:

Patience.
Consistency.
And trust in long-term preparation.

With bookish regards,
Justina