With Emmi Salonen

Date: Thursday 22 January 2026

Location: St Bride Foundation and online via Zoom

In-Person Timings (GMT):
Doors/Bar: 18:15pm
Talk Starts: 19:00pm
Talk Ends: 20:30pm
Networking drinks and book signing: 8:30pm–10pm

In-Person Tickets: £9, £12, £14

Please note: Ticket sales end at 4pm on the day of the talk. If available, tickets purchased in-person on the door will cost £16 per person. Please do call or email us to check if an event has any tickets left as you may not be admitted if we have sold out.

Online Timings (GMT): 19:00pm - 20:30pm

Online Tickets (GMT): £7, £9

Please note: Ticket sales end at 4pm on the day of the talk. You will be emailed the Zoom link for by 6pm on the day of the talk. We will also send the link to all in-person ticket holders in case they are unable to attend and would like to join virtually.

Book tickets HERE

January invites a fresh start. Designer and educator Emmi Salonen introduces Creative Wellbeing Reset: an evening to refuel your practice for the year ahead, anchored in her new book The Creative Wellbeing Handbook. Expect practical tools, honest conversation, and space to reconnect with why you create.

This event is for anyone who’s felt stuck, overwhelmed or in need of a spark – whether you’re a designer, writer, artist, or simply trying to stay inspired while juggling life’s demands. We’ll explore Emmi’s Creative Ecosystem model and how it can help you find focus, calm pressure, and build a sustainable rhythm for making work you’re proud of.

Across a short visual talk, a lively panel, and time to meet others, we will:
• Share ways to sustain creative energy through Creative Ecosystem model's five core areas: Connection, Wonder, Pause, Movement and Joy
• Hear insights on leadership, sustainable careers, culture change and wonder-led practice
• Ask questions, swap notes, and leave with simple habits you can use tomorrow

Come to reconnect, learn, and set a kinder pace for the year ahead. Together.

With:
James Hurst - VP & ECD HelloFresh
Emmi Salonen – Studio Emmi
Emily Forgot – Graphic Artist
Laura Hunter – Founder, The Now Work

Emmi Salonen is a graphic designer, creative director and educator who founded London-based Studio Emmi in 2005. Her work centres on Positive Creativity – the idea that design can connect people, foster wellbeing and support sustainable choices. Emmi developed the Creative Ecosystem model to help reduce stress and burnout. A leading advocate for creative wellbeing, she speaks internationally at academic institutions and conferences. Her insights is grounded in both experience and training, including Yale’s The Science of Well-Being course. She is a Happiness Facilitator, RSA Fellow and has contributed to the AI for Human Flourishing think tank at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

James Hurst is a creative director, writer, and educator exploring how design helps us see the world differently, currently as the HelloFresh VP & Global ECD. He recently spoke at San Francisco Design Week on his philosophy of Weirding the Normal and Normaling the Weird – using curiosity as a tool to shift perspective and spark change. James is the founder of Rogue School, a creative hub exploring the evolving role of design in an AI-driven world and author of Use Design To Design Change, a book about how creative thinking can build better systems. He has led brand design at Google and served as Global Creative Director at Pinterest.

Emily Forgot is a UK based Artist and designer whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses art, design & illustration for a diverse range of international clients such as The V&A, Somerset House, The Mondrian hotel, Selfridges, Herman Miller & Absolut. Emily's first solo show 'Neverland' took place during London Design Festival 2016. It was this exhibition that led to the creation of her celebrated wooden, architectural 'Assemblages'. In her personal work she uses her recognisably playful & graphic visual language to explore her passion for interior spaces, architecture & colour. Since this solo show, collectors, interior designers, stylists and architects have commissioned bespoke pieces for a variety of private and commercial projects. Alongside studio commissions Emily's insatiable curiosity for all things Interiors finds it's home on her curated Newsletter, Soft Fascination — with a focus on three dimensional objects & spaces both past and present she aims to celebrate and share that which inspires her own creative design practice which is beginning to encompass more interior design projects.

Laura Hunter is the founder and CEO of The Now Work, a business whose mission is to make action on sustainability so easy it becomes inevitable. Her clients include FTSE 100 companies and international NGOs. With a career spanning sustainability strategy, communications and entrepreneurship, Laura has supported some of the world’s most influential organisations in tech, fashion, food, and culture to accelerate positive change. She was named as one of Vogue Business Top 100 Innovators for sustainability and has taught at Master’s level at Kingston University and London College of Fashion. She studied illustration in Manchester, animation at the Royal College of Art, then worked in film and television as an art director and graphic artist, joining Peepshow illustration collective in 2003. She has been illustrating, art directing and very occasionally animating ever since. She is able to work across multi-format projects and problem solve creatively along the way.

The following contributors to the book will also be in attendance:
Jenny Bowers
Kangan Arora
June Mineyama-Smithson
Emilie Chen
David Alexander
Lauren Davies
Kibir La Amlak
Lila Hamilton
Dee Vallabh
Radim Malinic

Illustrator Jenny Bowers has been commissioned to create a bespoke backdrop artwork especially for the evening.

Copies of Emmi's book will be on sale at the event. The evening closes with networking drinks and a book signing.

For accessibility information click here.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].