Style is the answer to everything — From the Desk of van Schneider — Edition №258

Welcome back and if you're new here, welcome to DESK!

In case you missed my last essay "Objects of Affection", you can now read it here as online version. Please share it with friends or colleagues if it resonated with you.

For this week, I got another new essay for you which I haven't shared anywhere before. It's a bit different than my usual ones and I loved writing it.

Style is the answer to everything.

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"Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing.
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it.
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art.

Bullfighting can be an art.
Boxing can be an art.
Loving can be an art.
Opening a can of sardines can be an art.

Not many have style.
Not many can keep style.
I have seen dogs with more style than men,
although not many dogs have style.
Cats have it with abundance.

When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,
that was style.
Or sometimes people give you style.
Joan of Arc had style.
John the Baptist.
Jesus.
Socrates.
Caesar.
García Lorca.

I have met men in jail with style.
I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.
Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.
Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,
or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me."

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What you just read was a piece written by Charles Bukowski. You can also listen to it in one of my favorite mash-ups. Or if you prefer it without music, here by Ben Gazzara as Charles Bukowski in "Tales Of Ordinary Madness" (1981)

It's possibly one of my favorite poems ever written. I read and listen to it on a regular basis.

Charles Bukowski knew something about style that modern influencers and designers still can't fully grasp: style isn't about what you wear, or how you visually brand yourself — it's about how you carry the weight of being alive.

The search for style (in myself and especially in others) has been a lifelong obsession of mine. It all started with skateboarding, where I quickly learned what the skateboarding community has long understood as a hard truth that extends far beyond their world: style transcends technical complexity.

While anyone could eventually learn to kick-flip through sheer repetition, those who infused the movement with their personal flair became the skateboarders we fell in love with. The mathematics of an overly complex trick meant nothing compared to the poetry of motion of a much simpler trick.

But style isn't just about winning, its just as much about losing. It's about how you carry yourself. It's about maintaining dignity in the face of indignity. It's finding beauty in the ugliness of a dangerous fall while jumping down a set of 15 stairs, while attempting a frontside boardslide. Style is how you fall, how you roll your body and how you get up again. Even if you didn't land the trick, the style is there.

Not many skaters had style, but for those who did it immediately enchanted you. You could see and feel it. Their facial expression, the way their body moves, the way the board moves almost in slow-motion. You can't even pinpoint exactly what makes it special. It's like a dance.

Style is its own victory, it plays by its own rules. Style isn't decided on a powerpoint presentation or brainstorming meeting because style can't be forcefully created. It comes from deep within the soul. It's your authentic self, the ability to remain oneself in a world that demands conformity.

In our time full of curated personas and artificial personalities, having style is like striking gold. You can't buy style. You can't fake style. You can only create it for yourself. It's something you earn after you've lived and failed. Some say you can only have it once you fully accepted and loved yourself.

Style is your unique signature on how you load the dishwasher, how you put on your pants, or how you spit out the toothpaste after brushing your teeth. But style is also how you approach your work, its the invisible signature that spans across your entire portfolio and body of work.

Style is the answer to everything because its the only thing that can't be taken away from you.

It's not what you do, but HOW you do it.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful week!

Yours truly,
Tobias