{"product_id":"to-be-issue-10","title":"To Be Issue 10","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt all started with the mood board. That curious InDesign file or Google document we put together to present and gather references when attempting to articulate our ideas. I was trying to wrap my head around its purpose and why or how it became so integral to creative practice. Who told us that “we need to look back in order to move forward”? Some light digging into the origins of this gridded layout revealed that the mood board dates back to the early twentieth century and is closely linked to designers such as Herbert Baker, who created physical collages of books, photographs and fabrics to communicate design visions to his clients. It wasn’t only used as a practical tool for organising material but also as a way of translating abstract thoughts into something tangible. By the 1980s, the mood board was used to curate images, play with typography and textures, and clearly define a visual identity. And with the advent of digital technology in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as the proliferation of platforms like Pinterest and Tumblr, the mood board became a reflection of the end of the content tunnel, the finish line after what could be a day-long fossick through material. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet for all their advantages, we can’t dismiss the slight limitation of the mood board. They can fix us to existing references, making it harder to move beyond them. When creating, there is sometimes a hesitation to depart and a tendency to reproduce rather than reinterpret. Originality may already be a fragile concept, but our reliance on pre-existing work arguably makes it even more so. Or does it?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter working on our tenth issue, I have come to see the mood board, and research more broadly, as an accelerant rather than a restraint. It fuels the creative process, giving ideas direction and momentum. It is the gas to our creative flames. For no one is this more true than our cover star. The Dare, real name Harrison Patrick Smith, draws on music of the past in the hope that his own might carry a similar resonance today. “I have a constant awareness of what came before, what used to exist in a particular place. Being immersed in that makes me more drawn to the music.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere, we hear from practitioners and artists and their ever- evolving relationship with research. Archivist Sanam Sindhi sits down with Edie Hopgood to discuss the South Asia Archive, a rich and expansive collection of material from the Global South. German photographer Thomas Ruff reflects on seriality, documentary practice and the search for truth, looking back across his unparalleled body of work. Rhiannon Yarrow and Dean Podmore collate ten books they continually return to in their pursuit of inspiration; while Joe Silveira, behind the Instagram account @sportsmanparadise, spotlights the fashion imagery he revisits time and again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe digital archive emerges as a key throughline. Nina Waszak considers Molly Soda’s internet-age artwork, which, through its humour, wit and integrity, has “helped shape how our generation sees the internet today”. Maia Wyman reflects on desire and decision- making in the digital age, tracing her ongoing search for the perfect sofa and vase. Sitting down with Phil Bicker, Jason Nocito also takes us through his recent excavation of his iCloud library, a personal archive comprising hundreds of thousands of images spanning 2011 to 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAkinola Davies Jr., interviewed in this issue by director James J. Robinson and photographed by Aria Shahrokhshahi, recently accepted his BAFTA award for My Father’s Shadow. In his speech he left the audience with the sentiment, “Archive your family, archive your dreams.” While there is a strong emphasis on looking back through history, he reminds us that our immediate environment is just as worthy of our attention. Not only that, but our future. What do we want to create beyond today, and what do we need to search for to get there?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo Be Magazine, 2026 \u003cbr\u003eSoftcover, 224pp  \u003cbr\u003e280 x 220 \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tenderbooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57362116673913,"sku":null,"price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0488\/8029\/files\/Tenderbooks_3992c2d3-4247-4792-88f0-f703042292c7.jpg?v=1780324375","url":"https:\/\/tenderbooks.co.uk\/products\/to-be-issue-10","provider":"Tenderbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}