Sights & Sounds: Taya Francis
Common Discourse is a project designed to help others (and ourselves) think through creativity, focus, and intentional work—from Alex Tan & Alice Otieno.
Every Tuesday we share words from a few ideas, a quote from somebody else, and links worth sharing. On Fridays we invite a guest to share images from their camera roll and a sound that resonates with them. Words from the journal will come at least twice a month.
Taya Francis is a model, knitwear and textile designer based in Nottingham.
Founded in 2019, her brand and practice, Knit & Ting, is an exploration into Taya’s British upbringing and West Indian heritage. The garments serve as a memorabilia into what it means to co-exist within two cultures from distant lands. Through playful and contemporary designs, she places a keen focus on documenting Jamaica’s rich culture, its diverse musical landscape and her own familial history.
You can find her latest capsule collection on APOC store.
Taya and I met in late 2018 while modelling for the brand Marques Almeida. Though we hadn’t spoken in a while, it was nice to catch up through this exercise. Her contribution made it all the more evident why this platform exists, and continues to be such a nourishing space to pour into, and make room for others to pour into also.
Here’s what she shared with us this week.
— Alice
Sights —
I was kinda excited to share some imagery on this platform, it feels very freeing not having a brief. I’ve been reflecting and journaling more than usual recently — a lot of life changes have prompted my new habits. I always feel a little disappointed in myself that I only do this when I’m going through something, but I really enjoy reading back and examining how far I’ve come from my initial feelings and surprised at how differently I see things after some time has passed.
An opportunity like this, to visually express myself, has all the feels and memories flooding in — scrolling through so much imagery definitely bought back many different emotions. It took me a while to gather just 10 images. I won’t caption them, but each one brings me joy or a lovely memory in their own right.
From my first selfie, to exploring my practice.
I hope you enjoy, Tay x
Sounds —
I LOVE love songs, like I thrive in ‘sad girl’ & ‘in my feels’ tracks and this has been on repeat for so long lol. The EP it belongs to, Getaway, is 10/10.
Thanks for consuming!
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