Marek Partys: A Few Of My Favourite Things

The Spark & Riot director shares the apple, the artefacts and the accessories that help him see things differently.

Marek Partys may have built a career creating bold, playful worlds for brands including IKEA, Telekom, Zalando and McDonald’s, but his workspace favourites are pleasingly low-key.

The Spark & Riot director’s chosen objects include a pencil holder that doesn’t hold pencils, a stress toy he has decided definitely works, and a cleaning cloth that has quietly become essential to his entire existence.

Here, he shares the small, strange and surprisingly useful things that help him shift perspective.

The Bitten Apple

This bitten apple is probably the most important object on my desk.

It’s supposed to be a pencil holder, although I don’t actually use any of the pencils or pens sticking out of it.

My daughter made it for me, so its practical purpose became irrelevant pretty much immediately.

I have three kids, but strangely, I don’t keep photographs of them around my workspace.

Instead, I have this slightly imperfect little apple.

Somehow it does the same job, maybe even better.

Whenever I look at it, there’s an immediate connection to home and to them, especially when I’m away working or completely absorbed in something.

Among all the objects on my desk, it’s probably the least useful and by far the most important.

The Stress-Relief Toy

This stress-relief toy is probably the simplest creative tool I own.

As soon as I start fiddling with it, it feels like my right hemisphere finally clocks in for work.

It feels as if my hands are keeping the rational side occupied while the more intuitive part is free to wander around and make connections.

I use it a lot when I’m writing or trying to solve something creatively, but it’s also become my trusty companion during calls.

If I really need to listen and concentrate, having something in my hands strangely helps me stay focused rather than distracting me.

I’m not sure there’s any science behind it, but at this point I’ve convinced myself it works, which is probably enough.

The Figurine

I inherited this figurine from my grandparents, and over the years it has become something of a family talisman to me.

I don’t even know exactly why I became so attached to it, but there’s something about the way this figure sits there, quietly thinking, completely absorbed in itself, that I find strangely reassuring.

It has been around much longer than most things in my life, and I like the feeling of continuity that comes with that.

It belonged to my grandparents, then somehow found its way to me, and now it is among the chaos of papers, books and unfinished ideas on my desk.

I suppose that’s what makes it a talisman for me.

It doesn’t really do anything, it just sits there and I trust it.

The Book

This is a book that reminds me not to take what we do too seriously.

I first read Journey to Ixtlan as a teenager, when it became something of a little bible to me.

Back then, I probably took every word in it far more seriously than I should have.

I still find myself coming back to it, but for a different reason now.

There’s something in its way of questioning the reality we construct around ourselves that I find very useful creatively.

In our industry, it’s surprisingly easy to become completely consumed by things that, from a little distance, are not quite as important as they seem: a treatment, a frame, a client comment, whether a shot is two seconds too long.

This book reminds me to change perspective once in a while.

To step outside whatever problem I’m obsessing over and remember that there are always other ways of looking at things.

Maybe that’s the part of it that has stayed with me since I was 15: reality becomes a little more interesting when you stop being so certain about it.

The Headlamp

This is my go-to item on weekends when I head to the cottage or go camping, basically whenever I need to disappear for a while and recharge my batteries.

For me, getting away from the city and from screens is often when ideas start moving again.

Walking outside in the dark with just this small circle of light in front of me has a strange effect on my brain.

Everything becomes simpler and more focused.

There’s less visual noise, fewer distractions and somehow more space for thoughts to connect in unexpected ways.

A lot of creative ideas don’t come to me when I’m actively trying to solve something.

They arrive later, when I’m walking through the woods, making a fire or doing something completely unrelated to work.

This little headlamp has become part of that ritual.

The Cleaning Cloth

This little guy has cleaned several generations of my phones and screens, and now that I wear glasses, it has somehow become even more essential.

It started out as a completely practical object, but over the years it has become one of those things I automatically take with me almost everywhere.

It lives somewhere between my laptop, phone and glasses, constantly doing its tiny, unglamorous job.

I suppose there’s something quite appropriate about being so attached to an object whose only purpose is to help me see things more clearly.

So much of my work is about looking, at faces, details, light, frames, and apparently I’m much less tolerant of fingerprints and blurry lenses than I realised.

It’s probably one of the cheapest things I own, but I notice immediately when it’s not there.