The Memo

Memoir

NAME: Ali LaBelle
DATE:
JOB TITLE: CREATIVE CONSULTANT, BRANDING SPECIALIST, SUBSTACK MUST-SUBSCRIBE

Given the opportunity, Ali would have majored in details. Her keen eye has helped her start and grow her eponymous creative agency, or ALC for short.

Based in Los Angeles, LaBelle, 32, creates visual worlds for her clients to live in and thus enrich their brands and businesses.

She often turns to film, artists, cities and the like for her creative process, and anyone can get access to the inner workings of her imagination via her Substack, À La Carte. Or by following her delicious pasta appreciation IG @pastagirlfriend.

Show us one of your latest screenshots. What made it sing for you?

We love Alexa Chung.

I’m constantly screenshotting people’s outfits, and because I’m a millennial 95% of those screenshots are of Alexa Chung.

On your Buy Again on Amazon.

100 Pcs Bookmark Tassels, buy on Amazon

A random phone note you have and its contents.

I’m trying to learn Italian on Duolingo — this is a list of words I was having trouble memorizing and the little pneumonic devices I use to remember them.

A color combination lighting you up.

Reath Design never does color injustice.

I’ve been liking brown a lot lately: brown and tomato red, brown and cobalt blue, brown and lilac, brown and orange…

An old Pinterest pin that makes you squirm.

The intersection of the ironic designer label trend and sad girl Tumblr made for a lot of bad design in 2013.

What is on your browser bookmark bar – or a tab open today?

I’m writing a post for my newsletter that highlights the artist Karyn Lyons, so I’ve been digging through her site today.

How do you remember things?

So, so, so many emails to myself.

Recipe you have written down or flagged in a cookbook.

I’ve made Dan Pelosi’s famous vodka sauce (aka “the sawce”) enough times that I can almost make it from memory, but I can never remember how much vodka to put in.

Quote from a book you have highlighted.

This is, funnily enough, the only quote I can find that I’ve written down:

“'Welp, you’re either in a cult or you’re a creative director,' I said, handing her back the card. 'I’m not sure which is worse.'”

— from Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley

Follow Ali @alilabelle, @alilabellecreative & @pastagirlfriend

Subscribe to Ali at À La Carte on Substack

Visit Ali Labelle Creative for more of her work

Footnotes: