Last week, scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington shocked the internet by announcing they’ve discovered a new color that can be experienced only when firing a laser into your retinas.
Only five people have seen this color, a blue-green shade called olo. But over the weekend, artist-provocateur Stuart Semple decided to widen the pool by synthesizing olo into an acrylic paint color he named Yolo.
Ironically, Yolo is a color you cannot seeat least not accuratelyunless you buy a bottle of the acrylic paint and see it with your own eyes. A 150-milliliter bottle costs $10,000 ($35 if you’re an artist) and is decidedly more accessible than olo. But can it ever be the same?
[Photo: courtesy Culture Hustle]
Liberating color
This isn’t Semple’s first foray into the superlative world of colors. Over the past few years (fueled by various feuds with the artist Anish Kapoor) Semple has created the world’s pinkest pink, followed by the world’s blackest black. In 2021, he hacked Tiffany’s trademarked blue and made his own version, Tiff Blue, which everyone could buy.
[Photo: courtesy CultureHustle]
A self-described color nerd, Semple has been on a mission to liberate color, as he puts it. If olo really is a new colora claim that’s been contestedhe believes more than five people should be able to experience it. Can’t everyone have a go?
Apparently, theyd like to. Within minutes, my DMs were crazy, he says of the requests that poured in from artists and friends alike. Semple spent all night developing Yolo and put it up on his website on Saturday. My sister messaged me about it the following day, and I was like, already done it, he says with a laugh. Within 48 hours of launching Yolo, Semple had sold close to 500 bottles.
[Photo: courtesy Culture Hustle]
From lasers to pigments
The human eye can perceive about 10 million colors known as the visible light spectrum. We see these colors thanks to three kinds of cone cells in our retinas that respond to three specific bands of light: long (red), medium (green), and short (blue). But we dont just see the world in RGB. Our brains blend signals from these cones to fill in the gaps, conjuring colors like oranges, teals, and purples.
To re-create olo, Stuart pored over the recent study, which was published in the scientific journal Science Advances, and pulled the color’s chromatic coordinates. These told him where on the visible light spectrum his own color should sit. Then, he set out on a surprisingly low-tech journey of mixing bases and pigments until he landed on the right formula. It’s like baking a cake and tasting it, he says, except instead of his taste buds, he used a spectrometer to see how close each swatch came to olo’s coordinates.
But Semple didnt focus only on pigmentshe also looked at texture. In the world of paint, a glossy finish reflects more light than a matte finish, which scatters light in all directions. If you shine a light on a smooth snooker ball, it will bounce off a very small point; but if you shine that same light on a fuzzy tennis ball, the light will get diffused, flattened.
Semple’s Black 3.0 paintthe blackest, flattest acrylic paint available on the planetabsorbs 99% of all the visible spectrum. Yolo does the opposite. It reflects 96% of light, but only in the narrow green-blue slice of the spectrum. The other wavelengths are absorbed by the paint. Thats why it looks like its glowing, Semple says.
[Photo: courtesy Culture Hustle]
You have to see it to believe it
The color you see on this screen comes close, but you can’t fully experience it here, or even in a book, because neither can reproduce the exact wavelength the paint captures: Screens use red, green, and blue pixels; printers use cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. To truly experience Yolo, you have to see it in person, which suits Semple just fine: I make things for people with eyes, not computers, he says.
Still, the artist claims Yolo is the closest we can get to olo without having a laser fired into our eyeballs. He acknowledges that the litmus test would be to show Yolo to one of those five people, but the scientists did not respond to our requests for comment.
If a screen cant fully capture Yolo, then what kind of color can we expect? Over the course of a 30-minute phone call, Semple used the word weird four times until, finally, he landed on a weird luminous teal.
To help a North Carolina community recovering from Tropical Storm Helene, a tulip farm in the Netherlands gave the gift of flowers.
Dutch Grown runs a tulip farm in Voorhout, South Holland, and a warehouse in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where it ships out its flower bulbs to customers across the U.S. After Helene devastated western North Carolina last September, Marco Rosenbruck, a Dutch immigrant who moved to the region, reached out to the company with photos of the devastation asking for a few boxes of bulbs. Dutch Grown ended up sending 31 boxes filled with 10,000 bulbs for tulips, daffodils, and peonies.
[Photo: ExploreAsheville.com]
“At Dutch Grown, our motto is: ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’ When tulips bloom in spring, they bring hope and joy to the entire community. Dutch Grown co-owner Ben Rotteveel tells Fast Company.
The company’s generosity has now helped Rosenbruck’s new home of Swannanoa, North Carolina, beautify a local park. Rozenbroek engaged the help of a local student for some landscape design to plant the bulbs, and they’re expected to bloom for the first time this spring.
“Flowers give hope,” Rozenbroek told Blue Ridge Public Radio.
[Photo: ExploreAsheville.com]
North Carolina officials estimate Helene did $59.6 billion worth of damage in the state, and Swannanoa, a community of more than 5,000 people about a hour north of the South Carolina border, was especially devastated. The storm took out a bridge and damaged homes, but in the aftermath of the storm, Grovemont Park, where the flowers were planted, became a hub for the community where meals were distributed.
[Photo: ExploreAsheville.com]
Gardening can have unexpected benefits for communities recovering from disasters. Research into community gardens in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and New York City after Hurricane Sandy found these spaces help build resilience because they empowered residents and helped connect them with each other, strengthening the social bonds needed to rebuild together. Grovemont Park has already done that for Swannanoa, and now the flowers will serve as a reminder.
Landscape design can make our public areas more welcoming. By beautifying and intentionally designing outdoor spaces that people are meant to spend time in and enjoy, landscape design gives a physical dimension to community. Through this massive planting endeavor in North Carolina, Rozenbroek created an inviting, functional, and visually harmonious space as the community continues to rebuild from Helene.
“After the storm, we figured out that community is the basics of everything,” says Rozenbroek. “People are willing to help each other and to make beauty. Isn’t that where humanity is meant to be?”
[Photo: ExploreAsheville.com]
Tulips don’t help build bridges or homes, but that doesn’t mean Dutch Grown’s gift won’t have an impact. The tulip garden shows the practical benefits of beautification; creating a relatively low-lift project that allows those recovering from disaster to grow closer and rebuild together; and allowing community members to rest their eyes on the perennial joys and habits of spring.
Less than a year after announcing plans to establish a hydrogen-based aviation fuel hub at Pittsburgh International Airport, Pennsylvania-based natural gas producer CNX has quietly taken down the website on which it advertised the hub.
The move comes as the fate of the much-vaunted hydrogen industryseen by the Biden administration as a way to power America while reducing climate-altering emissionsis in upheaval.
While a Biden-era rule dealt a blow to those in the gas and oil industry hoping to invest in hydrogen technology and offered greater financial incentives to the renewable energy sector, President Donald Trump is showing preference for fossil fuel-powered hydrogen. Meanwhile, the fate of those Biden-era tax creditswhether for renewable energy or fossil fuelis up in the air as Congress wades through the budget reconciliation process.
Under Trumps guidance, the Department of Energy has indicated it plans to kill Biden-era funding for four renewable-powered hydrogen hubs in primarily Democratic regions while retaining funds for fossil fuel-powered hubs in mostly red states, such as South Dakota, Ohio, and Kentucky.
California, along with Oregon, Washington and other regions, are on the Department of Energys cut list, according to Politico, which said it obtained a spreadsheet of the projects.
If the recommendations are ultimately adopted by the Trump administration, Pennsylvania would very much become a state divided. While a proposed hub in the Appalachian region that would run on fossil fuels is marked for approval, a hub mostly reliant on renewable energy near Philadelphia is marked for denial.
The seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs were a main plank of former President Joe Bidens climate agenda, a $7 billion effort to establish a national network of hydrogen producers to slow the use of the fossil fuels largely blamed for global warming.
But with four of the hubs eliminated, the envisioned national hydrogen grid would become a patchwork, seemingly drawn along political lines and primarily powered by polluting sources of energy.
The hydrogen hubs program was intended to spur innovations and demonstrations on how best to advance hydrogen as a tool in the clean energy economy, said Julie McNamara, associate policy director for the Climate & Energy program at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.
Blatantly co-opting these funds for use as handouts to political supporters and favored polluters would be shameful, and fully undermine the programs ability to achieve those aims.
While the Pennsylvania hub fueled by natural gas would use methane to provide energy for the production of so-called blue hydrogen, the other hub would use renewable energy such as wind and solar to produce whats known as green hydrogen. By itself, the burning of hydrogen doesn’t produce carbon dioxide emissions.
CNX was originally involved in the former hub, known as ARCH2, but told the Pittsburgh Business Times in March that it had paused involvement in the project because of the uncertainty surrounding federal funding. CNXs name was also deleted from the ARCH2 website.
CNX did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the hydrogen hub and the sustainable aviation fuel site in Pittsburgh. A spokesperson for the airport said it is continuing to move forward with its plans to become one of the first airports to have sustainable fuel production on-site.
CNX was initially one of 15 companies enlisted in the hub, with plans to contribute low carbon natural gas to power hydrogen production, which entails using steam to draw off the hydrogen atoms from methane molecules, an expensive and energy intensive process.
But the companys evolving relationship with the hydrogen industry appears to have soured when the Biden administration finalized a long-awaited federal rule on a tax credit for hydrogen production called 45V.
That final rule, CNX argued, was overly restrictive, and failed to create sufficient economic incentives for the company to expand its production of methane released from abandoned coal mines, which it said was key to the growing hydrogen economy. CNX pitched its involvement in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel project in Pittsburgh as being dependent upon the outcome of the 45V rule.
We saw the fossil fuel industry view 45V as a lucrative chance for profit, McNamara said. Not by truly reducing emissions, but by introducing loopholes that made it easier to qualify.
CNX had previously lobbied for the intricacies of 45V to work out in its favor. A little more than a year ago, a CNX lobbyist pushed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiros office to lobby the federal government to ensure the Treasury Departments hydrogen rule was lucrative for coal mine methanea request to which the Shapiro administration agreed, Capital & Main reported at the time.
The value the rule gave to coal mine-derived natural gas came down to a series of arcane specifics in a formula that measures life-cycle emissions from beginning to end of the creation of a single kilogram of hydrogen.
CNX urged the Treasury Department to treat coal mine methane as carbon-negative with the assumption that it would otherwise leak into the atmosphere from inactive coal mines, releasing a more potent greenhouse gas than if it were captured and burned, which would release carbon dioxide. (Both are greenhouse gases, but methane is well understood to be around 80 times more potent in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe.) By ascribing to this captured methane a negative value, a tinyportion of it could be blended into a natural gas hydrogen feedstock and qualify for the highest tier of the 45V tax incentive, the same level as hydrogen produced with renewable energy.
But the final rule went against the pleas of CNX and companies like it, including the ARCH2 hub itself, which urged the Treasury Department to pass a methane-friendly rule in 2024, arguing it could lead to a loss of $6 billion in private investments otherwise and have far-reaching consequences for the hydrogen industry.
Its like the Treasury Department went out of its way to say, We hear what youre saying. And the answer is no, said Sean OLeary, senior researcher at the nonprofit think tank Ohio River Valley Institute.
The ruling was seen as a win for environmentalists, who urged the Treasury Department to ensure that any projects receiving subsidies under the guise of being clean were in fact clean. They feared CNXs proposal, and that of other fossil fuel producers, wouldve given natural-gas based hydrogen a tax boost equal to that for renewable, emissions-free sources of hydrogen.
How and whether the rule will be upheld by the Trump administrationwhich has shown strong support for fossil fuels and a general disdain for renewable energyremains an open question, and one of concern to environmentalists. According to Bloomberg, the American Petroleum Institute, a national oil and gas trade group, has lobbied the White House to ensure fossil fuels can qualify for the highest tier of the hydrogen tax credit.
OLeary sees CNXs apparent exit from ARCH2 as a sign of the hubs strained economics. In October, OLeary authored a paper in which he noted that the hub had lost four of its development partners, while a handful of others were showing signs of financial stress. This is not a resume that inspires confidence among prospective investors, OLeary wrote. CNXs reluctance to move forward signals a broader trend within the industry, OLeary said in an interview with Capital & Main.
The wheels are coming off, OLeary said. Even after subsidies are taken into account, the economics still arent there to make many of these projects work.
Another project development partner for ARCH2, KeyState Energy, is also showing signs of uncertainty. In February, a primary customer for its blue hydrogen, Nikola Corporation, a transportation company that had planned to use the hydrogen for a zero-emission truck fleet, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company plans to sell its assets.
KeyState CEO Perry Babb told Capital & Main the company had pivoted from its energy production project with Nikola to a new ammonia fertilizer project that has a committed customer, and will still rely on hydrogen and receive funds from ARCH2. The first payment from the hubs program has been doled out and KeyState will invoice for reimbursement soon, he said.
Babb said he still meets regularly with the remaining ARCH2 project partners, who are all positive in expressing a way forward. But he noted that, for years, hes weathered regulatory uncertainty; the final 45V rule was the nail in the coffin for Keystates original plans to produce blue hydrogen under ARCH2. He said the company has also put its participation in the Pittsburgh Sustainable Aviation Fuel hub on pause.
Last May, I began to notice dozens of hydrogen projects being canceled, he said. I had thought that it was essentially because the business case wasnt sound.
With the continued uncertainty around tax credits through the end of the Biden administration . . . we said, Thats it. Were done. Were going to go where theres a market thats predictable.
While failing to find a partner in the Biden-era Treasury Department, CNX could soon turn to the state, where Gov. Shapiro is reupping a $49 million tax credit for hydrogen production as part of his Lightning Plan, a six-pronged portfolio of legislation designed to speed up the commonwealths clean energy economy.
Though supported by some state environmental groups, the plan caught the ire of others, like Karen Feridun, cofounder of the grassroots Better Path Coalition, who said in a statement that the Lightning Plan would continue and even expand fossil fuel production. On March 11, a group of Democratic senators and representatives introduced 12 cosponsorship memos, six in each chamber, carrying out Shapiros plan.
Hes going to do whatever he needs to do to try to keep [hydrogen] going, Feridun said of Shapiro in an interview with Capital & Main. Its a nice way to kind of provide cover for having a continued fossil fuel plan, one that sounds really good to voters.
Should ARCH2 unravel, Feridun fears grassroots environmentalists would be tasked with tracking individual projects, without the cohesion of a hub offering guidance. Even so, she said there never was a clear map that defined what the footprint of all of this was, which left frontline communities in the dark.
Like OLeary, Danny Cullenward, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said he now sees the hydrogen hype bubble beginning to burst. Though he believes hydrogen has an important, if niche, place in the clean energy transition, its economics dont make sense in all uses unless heavily subsidized.
We basically set up a structure that said, at the end of this rainbow is a giant pot of gold. And everybody said, Wed all like to do that. That all sounds great to us, he said. I think now the cold, hard reality of, Does hydrogen make sense? And in what applications would it make sense? is becoming a little bit more real.
The whiplash of all this impacts Pennsylvania communities, many that are former oil, gas, and coal towns learning that major projects theyd once planned for are no longer.
Its immensely damaging, OLeary said. State or even county and municipal level governments, theyre making economic development choices based on these expectations.
The distraction impact of whats going on is just staggering.
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Remember when Netflix cost $9 per month and The New York Times website was free? Well, the days of online media feeling like a bargain are long gone. Today, its become a costly convenience.
But there are still great deals to be had, thanks to cheap yearlong introductory subscriptions, budget bundles, and libraries. One thing to skip: those one-month free trials that are easy to sign up for but even easier to forget to cancel.
Here are some of the best ways to truly save on digital media.
Free content with ads or from the library
Free news sources include the Associated Press, the BBC, DW (Germanys international broadcaster, available in English), The Free Press, The Guardian, and NPR. Many other sites offer a portion of their content free.
You can also tap into free content newsletters and podcasts from typically paid sources such as Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In fact, most podcasts are free to stream (though they may include ads), from Joe Rogan to Jon Stewart.
Meanwhile, a library card can help you score a world of free media through apps. Libby provides e-books and audiobooks on phones, tablets, and the web. Hoopla has e-books, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music, and comics, with apps for phones, tablets, and smart TVs. Your library may not have every title you want, or there may be a waitlist. But its a great place to start.
For more TV and movies, skip Hulu and Netflix in favor of Amazon FreeVee, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, and Tubi. They are ad-supported, but nowadays so is the basic tier of most paid services. If you can handle commercials every few songs, check out the free tiers of Deezer, SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube Music.
Long-term introductory subscriptions
Many news outlets offer steeply discounted introductory rates for digital and digital/print subscriptions. As of this writing, deals include: six months of The New York Times for $4 a month; a year of The Wall Street Journal for $8 a month; and The Washington Post for just $40 a year. The San Francisco Chronicle offered three months for 25 cents, and the Los Angeles Times had four months for a single dollar. (For even more options, check out DiscountMags.) At the end of the introductory period, newspapers may offer further discounts to keep you from canceling.
Streaming deals change more often, so keep an eye out. They have included a year of Hulu at 99 cents per month or three free months of Peacock (both with ads). Spotifys ad-free Premium plan is free for three months.
Shared subscriptions
You may save with a subscription that allows you to add one or more people at a discount, or even for free. For example: Two people can get one year of The Washington Post for $60.
Depending on the plan, Netflix lets you add either one or two people at $6.99 a month for service with ads or $8.99 without. Spotify offers a dual ad-free subscription for $16.99 a month and a six-person family plan for $19.99 (versus $11.99 for one person), but everyone has to live at the same address. Amazon Family allows a Prime member to add one adult (related or not) and up to four children and four teens to share e-books and some other media for free. Apple Family Sharing allows up to six people to access much of what the first person subscribes to, such as AppleTV+, at no extra charge.
Bundled subscriptions
Savings on video bundles are often small, and may not help if the individual streamers are offering their own discounts. One to consider is the bundle of Hulu, Disney+, and Max (including HBO, Studio Ghibli, CNN, Food Network, The CW, and others) for $16.99 a month with ads or $29.99 without.
For news, you can get Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Investors Business Daily at $16 a month for one year. For $12.99 a month, Apple News+ provides a selection of content from over 500 sources, including The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and (ahem) Fast Companyall shareable with five other people.
Look closely at bundles with wireless carriers. For instance, T-Mobiles $85-a-month Experience More plan adds AppleTV+ and Netflix (with ads) for $35 more per line, per month than its Essentials Saver plan. But subscribing to both streamers on your own costs only $17.98. Experience More may be worthwhile for its additional wireless features, but not just for streaming.
Buying a significant piece of Apple hardware (it varies by service) gets new users three free months of AppleTV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and Apple Arcade. The companys Apple One bundle starts with TV+, Music, Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 a month, versus $28.96 if bought separately. For $25.95, you can share all that, plus 200GB of storage, with five people. Throwing in Fitness+, News+, and 2TB raises the price to $37.95.
Student, teacher, and military discounts
The pricey Financial Times is free to pre-college students and their teachers at participating schools. Students and teachers can get a digital subscription to The Economist for 75% off. In addition, universities may offer free subscriptions to news outlets for students, faculty, and staff.
Hulu offers students its ad-supported plan for $1.99 a month. Spotify bundles that plan plus its ad-free Premium service for $5.99. Apple charges the same for ad-free Music and (for a limited time) TV+. Peacock runs $2.99 (versus $7.99) for the first year. (The site Student Beans keeps track of deals on media subscriptions and many other items.)
There are several options for military personnel, such as Peacock Premium at $3.99 a month for 12 months. Paramount+ offers a 50% discount for the life of any subscription plan. (Military discount sites The Exchange and GOVX list more deals.)
You may be feeling overwhelmed by all these cheap and free offerings for all kinds of people and all kinds of media, but thats better than being overwhelmed with big bills.
Lets be clear: We shouldnt expect kids to be experts in financial literacy. As much as they love YouTube, I doubt many spend their time watching videos of Warren Buffett.
However, the oldest members of this Gen Alpha group will become adult consumers soon enough, and between the way they approach money and their perception of spending, two things are quite clear. The first is that regardless of their industry, companies will be put to the test by this generation. The second is that Gen Alpha may have a rude awakening when faced with the harsh realities of life.
Weve done several studies on Gen Alpha, with the most recent focusing on their thoughts and interactions within five key industries: beauty, automotive, financial services, food, and luxury. And while we uncovered many great insights, I cant help but focus on the spending. Seventy percent of respondents say they have a basic understanding of money, and again, at their age, we shouldnt necessarily assume that to be the case. However, other findings paint a picture of a generation that has a taste for the finer things in life, high expectations, and increasing influence.
Luxury possessions are of value to Alphas
Typical toys and video games arent the only things catching the attention of Gen Alpha; they have big dreams about the life theyll one day lead. Thirty-five percent aspire to own a luxury car when they are older, and who could blame them? But did you know that 68% already own a luxury product by the time they turn 10 years old? While they place plenty of value on digital goods and their digital identities, 66% say they would pay a premium for real-life products.
Alphas believe they are entitled to what they want, when and how they want it
How will they pay for these luxury high-end items? Early signs indicate it wont be through traditional institutions but through e-wallets and online banks. Alphas top five favorite financial brands are PayPal, CashApp, Visa, Apple Pay, and Venmo. Companies that dont offer these digital payment options may miss out on purchases. Additionally, others that dont provide flexibility on the products themselves could face similar pushback because Alphas want to customize. In fact, 58% of respondents would rather customize a car than save money by purchasing a standard model. Im sure youre noticing the theme of a lack of frugality, which aligns with an eye-opening mindset: 75% of Alphas say they deserve to get most of the things they want.
Parents are giving Alphas a meaningful decision-making voice
Perhaps this financial ambition and confidence stems from the parents, who say their children play a central role in many decisions within their households. For example, 61% believe their kids have final say on which car the family purchases, and the same percentage believe their kids have influence over what the family eats. While they have a voice in the choice, we must also acknowledge that they likely arent feeling the impacts of those decisions because they arent yet financially responsible for the purchases.
Kids dream big, and thats a good thing. That inspiration and imagination should never be discouraged, and there are only so many real-world considerations they can apply when theyve had minimal experience.
That being said, companies that arent keeping Gen Alphas perspectives at the forefront of their strategies could find themselves drastically off the mark when these consumers reach purchasing age. At the same time, Alphas appear to be experiencing a false sense of reality on the accessibility and affordability of luxury or customized products. Both trends could impact the way this generation budgets and manages money, how it prioritizes desired purchases, and its brand loyalty.
Of course, they are still young, and these feelings could change quickly. But based on the data we have today, the companies that meet Alphas experiential needs in areas like flexible options and digital payments could have an advantage. And to the social media creators posting financial literacy content, I dont think youll have a hard time getting engagement from Alphas once they start paying their own bills.
Being the great-grandson of the French artist Henri Matisse can be complicated.
Alex Matisse grew up in the Northeastern United States, and being a Matisse meant being immersed in art. It’s what his family talked about at the dinner table; the walls of his home were full of paintings usually seen only in museums. By the time he was in elementary school, Alex could recite his great-grandfather’s most notable works, like La Danse and the Nu Bleu series.
Like many of the Matisse children, Alex had artistic inclinations. Throughout his school years, he thrived in art classes, and in fourth grade he fell in love with pottery in an after-school program. But when Alex began to think about his future, he struggled to see how he could become an artist.
“I really wanted to escape my great-grandfather’s legacy,” he says. “I felt like if I became an artist, there would always intrinsically be a comparison to Henri’s work.”
Alex Matisse [Photo: East Fork]
So Alex forged his own path as an artisan potter, eventually founding the renowned North Carolina pottery company East Fork. Now he’s resurfacing his family roots with the new Matisse Collection, launching online today. It features famous motifs from Henri’s work displayed on dinner plates, dessert plates, and mugs. The company has also developed a new dark blue color, which it is calling La Sirne (the Mermaid), inspired by a color often used in Henri’s palette, bridging Matisse’s saturated, graphic sensibilities to East Fork’s rustic craft.
[Photo: East Fork]
Forging a new path for the Matisse name
When he was starting out as a ceramist, Alex fell in love with a community of potters who had settled in North Carolina, creating rugged utilitarian pieces. He apprenticed with the legendary potter Mark Hewitt. In 2009 he bought a piece of land that was once home to an old tobacco farm in Asheville, North Carolina, and set about starting his own practice as a potter. “I didn’t really know what it was going to be,” he says. “But I had this feeling that if I tucked myself away in the mountains for a little bit, I’d figure it out.”
And he did. He met his wife, Connie, and another potter, John Vigeland. The three of them, still in their twenties, decided to launch East Fork in 2009. Over the next few years, they developed a unique look for their pottery, inspired by the heavyweight, wood-fired aesthetic of North Carolina potters but also blended with a minimalism that would appeal to millennials. They sold their plates, serving dishes, and mugs directly to customers through their website, and spread the word through Instagram.
Over the past decade, East Fork has thrived. The company now has a team of more than 100 people at its headquarters in Asheville, where there is a large factory. The company also has physical stores in Asheville, Atlanta, and Brooklyn. The pottery has become iconic, particularly among millennials. It’s common for couples to put East Fork’s dishes on their wedding registries.
Many consumers don’t know, or care, that it is made by the great-grandson of a famous French painter. In many ways, Alex did what he set out to do: He created his own artistic legacy that had nothing to do with his ancestors. “We’re not trying to play in the art world,” he says. “Its proper pottery. We sell beautiful objects that are functional, durable, useful.”
But then something interesting happened. Alex felt a shift inside himself; he wanted to reconnect with his heritage. He wanted to somehow find a way to nod to Henri’s most beloved paintings through his work at East Fork. He is doing so for the first time with this collection.
[Photo: East Fork]
Matisse motifs
Alex chose the motifs for the Matisse Collection very carefully. He wanted them to be recognizable but also blend in perfectly with the East Fork aesthetic. “We thought really hard about how to pay homage to his work in an honest, complete presentation, without distorting it or cutting it up,” he says.
Henri’s best-known portraits are very spare; just thick black lines made in aquatint, a printmaking technique. Some of his most famous ones are Nadia au regard sérieux (Nadia With a Serious Look) and Bédouine au grand voile (Bedouin With Headscarf). In this collection, East Fork has captured these portraits on plates.
Henri is also famous for his Nu Bleu (Blue Nude) series, which features blue paper cutouts on canvas designed to reflect the human form. In the East Fork collection, thes images are rendered on plates and mugs. “We just went through everything,” Alex says. “We kept trying different paintings until we found ones that fit perfectly wrapped around the mug.”
In some Nu Bleu paintings there are also images of palm fronds. In the East Fork collection, this motif is isolated and displayed on cake plates. On one serving platter, there is a large image of a tree taken from La Platane (The Plane Tree), which is made up of thick black strokes.
[Photo: East Fork]
An homage to family lineage in an East Fork line
For Alex, it felt like a serious responsibility to identify and incorporate these motifs. This is partly because the Matisse family has been very judicious about licensing Henri’s art to create products, which is quite different from other well-known artists, like Vincent Van Gogh. This year, much of Henri’s art enters the public domain, which allows companies to use it without having to pay fees. (Some of the earlier work is already in the public domain.) Alex wants to make sure Henri’s work is represented in the very best way through this collection. “It was a moment where we felt we could shepherd Henri’s work into the world in a thoughtful way,” Alex says.
The East Fork team worked hard to render the images perfectly on the pottery. In the end, it was easiest to put them on as decals. They found a company in France that was able to translate the images into decals, and then East Fork applied them to the pottery and finished it off with a glaze.
[Photo: East Fork]
This collection is the first in what Alex wants to be an ongoing part of the East Fork line. Over time, the company will introduce different aspects of Henri’s work onto pottery, finding ways to draw new attention to the Matisse heritage. But in an interesting twist of fate, Alex believes there are some customers who are East Fork purists and who only want the brand’s minimal pieces that aren’t adorned with Henri’s work.
“We have tried very hard to make this collection very aesthetically similar to what we already make, so our existing customers will be intrigued by it,” he says of East Forks Matisse wares. “But there are others who won’t care about this collection. And that’s fine too.”
A strong résumé can make all the difference. It demonstrates to hiring managers that you’re the best person for the job by summarizing your career highlights and accomplishments.
We know its important to customize your résumé for each job you apply to, and to ensure that youre including quantitative accomplishments whenever possible, to show the impact youve had. But despite the amount of time we all spend writing and refining our résumés when job searching, theres still a fair amount of debate about the ideal format.
One common question is whether or not to include an objective statement at the top of your résumé in order to provide a snapshot of the type of position you hope to acquire. Does it help you stand out to recruiters or does it look dated? We asked four career experts what they recommend:
When it makes sense to skip an objective statement
Objective statements can come off as generic and full of tired clichés, says Amanda Augustine, a résumé writer, career expert at résumé.io, and Fast Company contributor.
Including a career objective on your résumé can actually hurt, more than help, your candidacy, she says. The statement may date you: Hiring managers instantly recognize it as an old-school practice, she says. At one time, it was common advice to put a career objective at the top of your résumé, but if youre still following that advice, its time to update your approach, says Augustine.
Even though an objective shares what youre hoping your next career move will be, some job experts say adding the statement states the obvious and your employment history should speak for itself.
What to focus on instead
Highlight your qualifications instead, says Stacie Haller, chief career adviser at ResumeBuilder, as those are more relevant to companies looking for a strong candidate. The focus has become more on what the candidate’s qualifications are rather than what [the candidate] wants, Haller explains.
After all, you only have a few seconds to capture a recruiter or hiring manager’s attention, Haller notes, and the top of your résumé is prime real estate. Use the top of your résumé to capture a recruiters attention, says Haller. This concise segment should highlight your most relevant skills and accomplishments that align with the job youre applying for. It is not a place for stating career objectives; rather, it’s an opportunity to showcase why the candidate is the ideal fit for the role.
Another tip is to tailor the top section for a specific position, so hiring managers will want to delve deeper into your résumé. Create a summary thats impactful, succinct and directly related to the job youre applying to.
For example, she says, if you were applying for an accounting job, yours might say: Detail-oriented and results-driven accountant with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and CPA certification. Skilled in financial reporting, budgeting, and compliance, with proven success in managing audits and streamlining accounting processes to improve accuracy and efficiency. Adept at using QuickBooks, Excel, and ERP systems to analyze data and support sound financial decision-making. Committed to delivering value to organizations through accurate financial stewardship and strategic insights.
Why keywords matter more than ever
Instead of including a tired objective statement packed with clichés, use the space on your résumé to include keyword-rich words to match a job description, says Jasmine Escalera, career expert at LiveCareer.
Tech-savvy job seekers know that companies are using AI in the recruitment process, and according to a MyPerfectResume report, 39% of HR professionals now use AI for résumé screening and analysis.
Résumés have to be optimized to show how they match the role, says Escalera. A vague objective about what you want wont help you get through the AI screening, but she insists a targeted professional summary with the skills, keywords, and achievements that match the job sure will.
When an objective statement makes sense
If youre a recent college graduate, adding a career objective is acceptable, says Haller with ResumeBuilder. College grads are an exception to this as they do not typically have as much direct experience to highlight, she says. But Haller thinks even entry-level applicants should still make sure to demonstrate when their skills align with the job description.
But when they do include an objective or statement, Haller emphasizes it should not just be “seeking an opportunity to learn and grow with an organization,” but more focused on what the job is and what they can offer.
Likewise, Jill Chapman, director of early talent programs at Insperity, agrees that including a career objective or mission statement on your résumé can be a smart move, especially for new graduates or those pivoting into a new industry. This is especially valuable because many candidates, particularly recent graduates, may not check every traditional box on a job description, Chapman explains. Hiring managers are looking for people who are coachable, motivated, and aligned with their mission. A strong objective signals all of that, right from the start.
She says this type of objective statement includes your intended career direction, a glimpse of what drives you, and how you can contribute. Keep it under 50 words and use it to connect the dots between who you are and the opportunity in front of you, she recommends.
Over the last century of glorious, tragic, turbulent, and innovative human endeavour, the cover of the New Yorker magazine has used only the illustrated image to communicate talking points of Americanand specifically New York Citylife and culture.
Beyond the masthead and issue date, no set typography has ever been allowed, maintaining a unique wordless space in magazine publishing where only an image connotes the idea. The absence of copy is arresting, the silent core of what the solely visual can communicate. Though notably, the majority of weekly sales are by subscription, not impulse buys.
There are few of the New Yorkers 1925 newsstand contemporaries left. Meanwhile, publications like Time, Newsweek, and Fortune have not resisted the dominant orthodoxy of photography with multiple cover lines to gain sales.
While photography delivers celebrity and the spectacle of modern life, the New Yorker has maintained a belief in visualizing without written explanation to reach those readers who seek something more. But how can a magazine whose survival depends on sales maintain appeal with such apparently humble graphic means?
The New Yorker, February 21st, 1925. [Image: Rea Irvin]
The magazines strategy for success has been to employ a succession of brilliant art editors (just four in 100 yearssomewhat unique in magazine publishing) who understand how illustration, in the right hands, can offer appeal, surprise, entertainment and imaginative freedom to invent what French poster artist Cassandre called a visual incident.
Posters and magazine covers have a similar task: both vie to grab the attention of a public subjected to evermore intrusive image assault. From simple street hoardings and news vendors in 1925, to broadcast then digital media today, the changes over the last 100 years have been immense and profound.
This audio-visual bombardment of words, images, sound and movement simply did not exist back then. This golden age of the printed poster and magazine cover appears now to belong another worldso how can preservation of these ideals be viable in a 21st century weekly magazine?
Illustration and its reinvention as an agile alternative to the over-saturation of audio-visual and written media is one key. The choice of illustration as communication remains underrepresented. Other than courtroom reporting, there have been few front pages that have used a drawing, but its popular appeal evidences a relevance to complex modern lives.
As a discipline, illustration is closely related to the cartoon and its sequential form, the comic strip. Many New Yorker cover artists operate across these practices, demonstrating the common ground of drawing.
Illustrations are used for associative valuethey conjure up an expressive or reflective mood, provide a seasoned commentary, or capture concisely a cultural moment. In the context of fake news, illustrations dont purport to be objectivethey best work through a coherent convincing visual language that offers more than words.
For the majority of the New Yorkers audience, illustration has an affectionate, unsophisticated association with successive stages of development, starting in childhood. From early picture books to comics, graphic novels, music and lifestyle, illustrated communication allows interpretation and relatability.
Illustration can be successful in performing the elusive act of being inclusive and appealingly anonymous. The New Yorker recognizes that diversity in content is reliant on the real-life experience of its artists. Since the 1930s when most journalists and illustrators were male and white, the magazine has sought to make a weekly visual statement of the contemporary by prioritising images that represent the diversity of New York.
There is a disposable deal in buying a magazineit is not designed to be a keeper. Certain images of a moment can later become the visual signature of an age, though it may not always be apparent at the time.
The early consistency of New Yorker art deco covers expressed both wonderful visual ideas and a graphic language for modernity. The skyscrapers, bridges and lights of the quintessential modern metropolis are beautifully shown in Adolph Kronengolds cover from March 1938.
The New Yorker, July 21, 2008. [Image: The Politics of Fear, by Barry Blitt]
Barry Blitts 2008 politics of fear cover, showing Barack Obama in Muslim clothing and Michelle Obama in combats with a gun slung over her back, expressed much more than portraits in an American presidential campaign. It provocatively articulated media exaggeration and control, forces that dominate today.
And then there are the images that transcend a stylistic era and which are elevated above beyond specific facts in a way that helps us see the world in a new way, like Saul Steinbergs view of the world from 9th Avenue cover from 1976.
The viewpoint is literally floating above the street, not so high that local details are unrecognisable, yet just beyond the Hudson are diminishing deserts and prairies and over the Pacific ocean you can see Japan.
A wonderful satire on the attitude of global centrality and specifically a New Yorkers idea of their own importance, the image has been copied and referenced ever since its publication.
The completely black cover by Art Spiegelman and New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly for September 24 2001 achieved the impossible task of visualising the feeling of loss following the world trade centre attacks. Mouly has been the art director since 1993 and possesses a supreme visual intelligence that has driven the success of the pictorial cover for more than three decades.
She maintains that artists are able to say new things about the same themes year after yearsomething AI cannot do as it refers only to the past. The present, however, is elusive and the province of the artist gathering energy like a lightning conductor. Plus, crucially, AI doesnt doodle.
New Yorker artists are people who can present a dilemma, an issue, a moment or a spectacle visually, not abstracted, but through emotional empathy. The covers are non-linear but require reading. The multiple layers of meaning are often open to interpretion.
The beauty of the New Yorker cover lies in not equating it with a written description, but rather in prompting an emotional response to what it is to be alive in that moment, whether good times or bad. Thats a pretty wonderful objective and guiding principle for a weekly publication.
Geoff Grandfield is an associate professor at the Illustration Animation Department at Kingston University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Picture this: A teenager stares at their phone, paralyzed by headline after headline about the climate crisis, political dysfunction, and societal division. They want to act but feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem. This scene plays out millions of times daily, and it represents a critical challenge for brands: 80% of Gen Z globally report being personally affected by climate change, yet their engagement with sustainable solutions is declining. Looking to the future, many young people are asking, Whats the point?
Instead of feeling empowered to act, young people are becoming paralyzed by anxiety, overwhelmed by complexity, disillusioned by a lack of leadership, and increasingly disconnected from the very solutions they seek. This isn’t just anecdotal. It’s a pattern we’re seeing globally, and it challenges everything we thought we knew about young consumers and sustainability.
The Aspirational Paradox
In 2015, we identified the rise of the Aspirational Consumera youthful, values-driven segment hungry for brands that unite performance, purpose, and new possibilities for the role of business in society. A decade later, many of these Aspirationals are now parents and remain the most committed to sustainable living. In fact, our latest research of over 30,000 consumers across 31 markets shows that they’re significantly more likely to engage in sustainable purchasing behaviors across categories.
But something has shifted with the next generation. Despite feeling the most impacted by climate change and expressing the highest levels of environmental concern, young people today are becoming increasingly disengaged. Around the world, Gen Z is significantly more likely than baby boomers and older to say they’ve been greatly affected by climate change (49% versus 38%, respectively), yet their engagement with sustainable behaviors is declining. The number of Gen Z globally who feel indifferent about sustainability has increased from 22% to 31% since 2021, while enthusiasts have dropped from 30% to 21%.
This isn’t because they don’t care. If anything, they care too much. Consider this: 38% of Gen Z globally say they feel stressed or anxious all or most of the timea full 21 points higher than baby boomers+ (which encompasses baby boomers and everyone older than them). American youth are also more stressed than their global peers (44% versus 38%, respectively). We’re witnessing what happens when awareness meets overwhelm. The generation with the most at stake in a sustainable future is feeling a real lack of agency to shape it.
[Image: courtesy of the authors]
The Hidden Opportunity
Without visible leadership or meaningful opportunities to act, young people are losing faith in the commitment of business and brands to deliver a sustainable future.
But here’s where it gets interesting: While a whopping 77% of Gen Z in the USA currently falls into inactive and indifferent segments, two-thirds of those who didn’t buy sustainable products in the last month say they would have done so if they could have. The desire for better choices exists, but barrierslike price, knowledge, and availabilityblock the path between intention and action.
This represents both a crisis and an opportunity. For brands committed to remaining relevant to the next generation while building resilience for a world in flux, this moment demands a fundamental shift in how we approach sustainability.
[Image: courtesy of the authors]
How to Win Back Gen Z
Drawing on decades of research in psychology and social science, we’ve identified five core principles that transform sustainability from obligation into opportunity. Each principle bridges the gap between intention and impact, helping brands move from incremental progress to transformative change.
1. Lead with Truth
David Bowie was right then, and its still true today: Young people are quite aware of what theyre going through. Sixty percent of Gen Z in the USA feel extremely worried about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.”
Yet, when brands face challenges with radical honesty, they earn respect. According to Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, acknowledging difficulties actually increases optimism and supports resilience. Being honest about challenges helps build trust while illuminating pathways forward.
Companies like Tonys Chocolonely are confronting harsh realities like labor exploitation in their industries by making their supply chains traceable and transparent. Oatlys provocative messaginglike their F*ck Oatly online archive of criticismsacknowledges difficulties while maintaining optimism. Rapanui helps customers see the exact journey of their clothes. And Seventh Generation is honoring the origins of their name and repairing relationships with Indigenous communities by redesigning their corporate foundation to champion community-led philanthropy focused on Indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and environmental protection.
When brands are honest about challenges while offering solutions, they build credibility.
2. Make Power Personal
Our beliefs about our own capabilities directly shape our actions. Psychologist Albert Bandura proved that this sense of self-efficacy is the foundation of human agency; when we believe we can meaningfully affect our circumstances, we’re more likely to act.
But theres a crisis of agency among young people: 42% of those aged 1824 globally say they feel individually powerless to do much to save the environment.” We can help transform climate anxiety into creative agency by showing how small actions can spark immediate impact. When consumers feel powerful, theyÙre more likely to transform challenges into choices, repeat sustainable behaviors, and share brands with others.
Companies like Sojo are empowering consumers to help their clothes last longer by making garment repair as convenient as food delivery with on-demand repair and tailoring services. The Ordinary is democratizing high-quality skincare by stripping away the frills to ensure quality products are affordable. Beautycounter’s The Never List turns complex chemistry into clear decisions by providing consumers a list of potentially harmful ingredients that are never in their formulations. And brands like Bower and Trashie make recycling clothing and other everyday items easy and rewarding by providing simple take-back systems paired with incentives from partner brands and charities.
By removing practical barriersbe it price, availability, ambiguity, or simply inconveniencewhile building psychological confidence, brands can help people move from feeling overwhelmed to feeling capable.
3. Create Connection Loops
When anxiety gets in the way of individual action, community creates momentum. Our research reveals a powerful pattern: Young people gravitate toward sustainable behaviors that create connection. In the U.S., Gen Z is significantly more likely than older generations to embrace collective consumption models.
This isn’t just about reducing wasteit’s about building new relationships between people, products, and the planet. When sustainability becomes social, anxiety transforms into shared purpose.
Consider Notpla, whose seaweed-based packaging alternatives aren’t just eliminating plasticthey’re bringing nature-based packaging into large-scale cultural events to promote learning and evangelism. Irelands peer-to-peer clothes-swapping platform Nuw builds local sharing communities by hosting hybrid digital and in-person events. And Back Market celebrates peer relationships and repair culture as the global marketplace for reborn tech.
These brands understand that lasting change happens in community with others. By creating connection loops, they’re helping transform individual eco-anxiety into collective creativityand making sustainable living less about sacrifice and more about belonging to something bigger than ourselves.
4. Invite Joy
When sustainability connects to fundamental human needs for joy, growth, and vitality, it becomes self-sustaining, especially in difficult times.
For psychologist Martin Seligman, the experience of human flourishing requires more than just removing negativesit demands positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. When we focus the benefits of sustainability solely on reducing harm, we miss the opportunity to support genuine well-being.
Our research confirms this insight: More than 75% of Gen Z globally views both healthy and sustainable lifestyles as enjoying the good things in life rather than sacrifice. For them, sustainability isn’t about having lessit’s about living more fully.
Consider Pangaia, a collective of scientists, technologists, and designers using bio-based materials and bright colors for sustainable fashion that feels fresh, smart, and stylish rather than austere. NotCo uses AI to create plant-based alternatives that replicate the flavor and texture of animal products in favorites like mac and cheese, hot dogs, and ice cream. And Who Gives A Crap transforms everyday paper products into playful, design-forward objects of joy while supporting global sanitation efforts.
When sustainability contributes to all dimensions of well-being, it shifts from sacrifice to a source of joy and gives brands new opportunities to increase relevance, differentiation, and loyalty.
5. Weave New Stories
The stories we tell about ourselves and the world become the lenses through which we see reality, notes the philosopher Charles Eisenstein. And when 77% of Gen Z in the U.S. feels disconnected from current sustainability messaging, we need new narratives that reconnect and reengage.
And it is possible: Our data show that despite the challenges young people face every day, they are significantly more optimistic about the future than their elders. Gen Z in the USA is much more likely than baby boomers+ to believe that in 10 years, most people will be driving electric cars (51% versus 21%, respectively), buying secondhand (51% versus 20%), renting items instead of owning them (43% versus 19%), and living waste-free (40% versus 15%).
This is a powerful moment to help young people write a new chapter and to tell stories that help make sense of today while showing whats possible tomorrow.
Vestiaire Collective understands this, making secondhand fashion feel aspirational and luxurious while building community around preloved style in their peer-to-peer, vintage and designer marketplace. Selena Gomezs Rare Beauty is destigmatizing mental illness and fostering conversations around hope and agency. And Too Good To Go reimagines food waste as an opportunity for daily adventure through deliveries of surprise bags from local cafes, bakeries, or restaurants. These brands aren’t just selling productsthey’re helping people see their role in a better story, one that unites individual well-being with collective flourishing.
By reflecting consumers realities and amplifying their aspirations, brands can weave new stories that shape our identities, build our communities, and shift culture for a more sustainable future.
The Next Frontier: From Insight to Action
The opportunity is clear but challenging. By designing products, services, and experiences that inspire confidence and build momentum toward better living, brands can help transform sustainability from a source of anxiety into a path toward agency, creativity, and joy.
This isn’t just about selling more stuff. It’s about helping people express their values, connect with others, and participate in positive change. It’s about making sustainable choices more affordable, accessible, and rewarding so they feel less like sacrifice and more like possibility. The data show that young people are ready for this shift. They just need the truth, better tools, and a like-minded community to create it.
Young peoples eco-anxiety deserves a sacred space for mourning and fury, rather than dismissing their feelings as weakness or offering empty reassurances that everything will be fine, says Ariana Gomez, the founder and CEO of Technology for Impact. Their deep care about the climate crisis is a powerful fuel for building a better futureyet they can only access this potential when we honor their emotions and support them through the process.”
The time for incremental progresshas passed. The next generation is calling for deeper transformation. Brands that can make sustainable living feel both honest and hopeful, aspirational and accessible, and unite individual well-being with collective flourishing will define the future of consumptionand help design a future with more joy and thriving.
This is about more than market share or brand relevance. It’s about helping an entire generation move from anxiety to agency, from paralysis to purpose, from being overwhelmed to taking action. The tools exist. The demand is clear. The only question is: Who will have the empathy and creativity to lead?
A new auto startup is launching with a made-in-America EV that with federal tax credits will cost just $20,000. Backed by Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, Slate Auto says that affordable price is possible because of its pared-down, basic model that can then be customizedand even transformed from a truck into an SUV.Slate Auto has been in stealth for almost three years, says CEO Chris Barman, who worked as a Chrysler executive until 2017. Based in Michigan, Slate spun out of Re:Build Manufacturing, a company cofounded by Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Amazons worldwide consumer business. Slate purports to be rekindling American industry with a suite of U.S. industrial businesses, from batteries to composite manufacturing. (Barman is employee number two at Slate; the company now has more than 400 employees.)Recently, concept vehicles wrapped in ads for fake businesses began appearing on California streets. The company is officially launching today, with refundable vehicle reservations open now for $50. In recent days, the company has put some of its prototype vehicles on California streets, showcasing the possible configurations that will be available.When baby drives you crazy, we drive them to sleep, read one ad for a faux company called CryShare, wrapped around a two-door, boxy SUV. The included website, rockabyerides.com, went to a sign-up page that read Whats a Slate? Be the first to find out. Another vehicle with a hatchback cap was covered in ads for cat therapy sessions, and a third, a pickup truck, with ads for a fake human taxidermy service.[Photo: Slate]The unique marketing campaign was meant to be unlike any traditional vehicle unveiling. We want to look at things very differently than what traditional automotive has done and what traditional automotive is providing to a consumer, Barman says. That ethos also applies to the design of the Slate Truck, intended as a basic platform that can be accessorized by any customer.[Image: Slate]A blank slate The Slate Truck will begin as a two-door, two-seat electric pickup, with crank windows and no infotainment system. New cars today can come with lots of built-in featureslarge screens, heated seats, and so onbut to design Slate, Barman says, it was about What are really the essentials that should go into a vehicle in order to bring it down to a price point that is affordable?Customers will be able to be pick from more than 100 accessories to add on for an extra costeverything from cup holders to a center console to a single roof crossbar to power windows. Since many people use their phones for music and navigation, the company eliminated the infotainment system to cut costs. Instead, theres an accompanying app (at no charge) that drivers will be able to use when in the vehicle. If someone wants a radio in their Slate, its been designed so that one could be easily installed.Barman says Slate wants to change the typical process in which a buyer goes to a new- or used-car lot and picks a car, and then has to acceptand pay forall the features it comes with. Weve decoupled that and said to the owner of the vehicle: You choose. You choose if you want a radio. You choose if you want to have heated seats. You choose what you want the color to be, she says. We are putting the power back into the hands of the consumer, so we give them this blank slate, and then they decide. [Image: Slate]The Slate Truck will have exterior panels that are composite, rather than sheet metal. When using sheet metal, companies must have machines that stamp out the pieces; Slates composite panels will be made using injection molds. That means the company doesnt have to invest in a stamping operation or a paint shopwhich can run $400 million or more for automakers, Barman says. It also means the EV isnt limited to a few colorways. Instead, drivers could put a wrap on it in any color they want. Slate envisions offering customers a wrap kit of die-cut pieces as well as instructional videos so they will be able to do it themselves (the Slate Truck was also designed without any external hardware so that wraps can be applied more easily). Or, the company will offer to prewrap the vehicle before delivery; it plans to have a network of partners in neighborhoods across the country that will be able to perform the installation for customers. (The wrapped vehicles that appeared with fake ads were a nod to this customization element.) [Image: Slate]Slate will offer two EV battery options: The standard comes with a range of 150 miles, but customers will be able to upgrade to a battery with an estimated 240 miles of range. The body of the EV will also be alterable, going from a two-door pickup to a five-seat SUV, with upgrades. Barman notes that customers could even do those changes over time, rather than when they first purchase the vehicle.Maybe when [someone] first buys it, theyre single or just married, and after a few years they have a family, they can convert it, she says. And in doing that, it would cost them maybe $5,000 to make that change. But they dont have to sell their vehicle and buy a completely new one. Its a very cost-effective way to allow the vehicle to grow with them as their life changes. [Image: Slate]Offering an affordable EV made in AmericaThose upgrades would add to the EVs price. If a customer wants a longer-range battery, a wrap, and to turn the truck into an SUV, those adjustments would cost roughly $10,000. The basic version of the Slate Truck, after the federal EV tax credits are applied, comes to $20,000. Our passion is this mission to bring an affordable vehicle to the market for the many people who felt that they didnt have an alternative, Barman says. Slate Auto raised at least $111 million in a Series A funding round in 2023 (under the name Re:Car), according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Bezos was among 16 investors in that round, TechCrunch previously reported, adding that Slate closed a Series B funding round last year but has yet to file the paperwork. Slate told Fast Company that the Walter Group, led by Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, is also an investor.The EV tax credits offer a total of $7,500 back for vehicles that meet specific requirements like being manufactured in the U.S. Though President Trump has said he wants to get rid of the EV tax credits, they are currently still in place. Barman says Slate hopes they remain available to allow more individuals access to its EV. But if the federal credits do go away, she says, We have a very affordable vehicle priced in the mid $20,000s, so its attractive and very competitive at that price point. [Image: Slate]The average price of a new car purchased in the U.S. is above $49,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. The average price of a new EV is even higher, at $55,500. While markets like China have been able to build ultra-affordable EVs, some as low as $10,000, those options havent been available for car buyers in the U.S. (though automakers have said that theyre working on affordable options). With a $50,000 new car, consumers can expect a monthly payment of around $900, Barman says. Even used vehicles, at an average $27,000, can come with monthly payments that exceed $500. Consumers should aim to spend no more than 10% of their monthly take-home pay on car expenses, per Market Watch, but for a new $48,000 car, that means making at least $96,000 a year to afford the $800 monthly payment. In 2023, only 40% of U.S. households made more than $100,000. Barman says monthly payments for a Slate Truck will average $300 to $400.[Image: Slate]Slate Auto will build a factory somewhere in the Midwest, in order to be located near the automotive supply center, but its still assessing specific locations. We really are focused on reindustrializing America, Barman says. (Some car parts will still have to be purchased from abroad because they are not made domestically at alllike the manual window cranks.) Slate will sell direct to consumer through its website, and the truck will be delivered near customers homes; the company plans to set up a nationwide service network as well. Slate plans to bring its EV to market and into consumer hands by the fourth quarter of 2026.
