Shownotes
Kristof Devos answered the call from his studio in a small town in rural Belgium, with a cat wandering in and out and his daughter's eighth birthday party happening that same afternoon. It felt like the right way to start a conversation about slowing down.
Kristof Devos is an illustrator, a children's book author, a watch designer for the cult London brand Mr Jones Watches, and an art teacher in Bruges. For tax purposes he has two jobs. For himself, it's all one job.
This one stays gentle the whole way through and still lands somewhere deep. We talked about a watch that tells you to slow down, a car crash that reshaped his entire idea of a life worth living, and why he'd rather write a long newsletter that takes fifteen minutes to read than chase likes on a platform he's come to distrust.
In this episode we talked about:
- "A Perfectly Useless Afternoon" and the watch about doing nothing
- How a ten-minute window of confidence led to Mr Jones Watches
- Leaving art direction for a slower life in rural Belgium
- The car crash that changed everything, and the book that came from it
- Why he takes two years on twelve spreads
- His new book, Big Brother and Little Sister
- Quitting Instagram and building through newsletters
- Why AI might be a gift to human-made art
- What he hopes survives him in a hundred years
Find Kristof here:
Find me here:
If you liked this episode, listen to... Luis Mendo (S02/E29) — Luis appeared on Kristof's podcast, and they share the same instinct: leaving social media behind, building through direct connection, and choosing a slower, more deliberate creative life.
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