What begins as a simple essay about the relationship between art and technology quickly unravels into something more personal — a reckoning with midlife, memory & meaning.
Why This Memoir Exists
When I started my first Substack Publication, The Branding Habit, my intention was to offer a much wider and more generous lens through which to understand branding. I’ve always believed that different people need different aspects of the branding process, depending on where they are in their journey and what stage of growth they’re in. That’s why I broke branding into seven distinct areas — so that anyone, no matter their starting point, could begin from where they are and find a meaningful path forward.
The first series I created was called Tend. It was written for the early, fragile stages of a project — those moments where your idea is still new, still vulnerable, and your inner critic is loud. I wrote about overthinking, self-doubt, and the gentle courage it takes to simply begin.
I wanted to give you a bone-deep kind of permission from my heart to yours.
But something happened after I published that series.
I had given you permission to nurture your idea, but what I didn’t realise was that I was also extending that same permission to myself.
I soon started writing what I thought would be a short essay about the Impressionists, about creativity, and technology and change. But the story grew and became something else entirely.
In April of 2025, I set out to write a simple essay.
But as I wrote, the story wouldn’t stay small. It became a storm, pulling in art history, music, science, philosophy, and the messiness of my own midlife unravelling.
The only way forward was to surrender to the process and write my way through.
This is the story of what happens when you try to write your way out of discomfort, and instead write yourself into transformation.
If you are craving a story where logic and intuition, art and science, order and chaos collide, I hope you’ll join me as I write The Art of Hitting the Wall, chapter by chapter.
by Tara Slade
Brand designer & accidental memoirist.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
