Originally published in September 2019
Julie Molloy is Block Club’s art director and one of its longest-tenured teammates. She’s also an impossibly talented painter, recovering fretter, and connoisseur of perfectly jammy eggs. In this installment of 37 Questions, a humble nod to Vogue’s 73, she fills us in on her work, sources of inspiration, and the many books occupying her precious free time.
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How long have you worked at Block Club?
Eight years
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How has your job evolved over time?
My job feels more laser focused than ever before. To concentrate so wholly on branding and brand strategy feels luxurious.
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How has Block Club changed for the better?
With every year of shared experience, our expertise as a group grows. Knowing when to trust our collective gut as a team has been a huge transformation in terms of how we work.
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Do you miss anything about the old days?
Only that there was never a line for the bathroom, and there was always room in the fridge.
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Do you have a favorite Block Club memory?
On the wholesome side, I’d say jumping up for a giant group hug when we won Best in Show at the ADDYs for the Unyts “Check Yes” campaign. That felt really good.
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What do you like about your job?
Working every day on creative projects that need creative solutions with some of the brightest creative minds I know, who also happen to be many of my closest friends
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What is challenging about your job?
Sitting down to the blank page
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What are you passionate about?
Honesty, gentleness, and empathy
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Your own or other people’s?
Ideally, there is no line.
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What makes you nervous?
Uncertainty—though, I think I’ve hugely improved in this area this year.
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How so?
I’m a planner. I’ve always liked “knowing” what’s next. Still, I’ve been through a few life shakeups, and I’ve managed to adapt, and I don’t think I’m too worse for the wear. I find myself feeling much more comfortable with uncertainty as I get older—excited, even, when I think of “uncertainty” as just lots of possibilities.
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What keeps you busy outside of work?
Lately, drawing faces and flowers, reading too many books at once, cooking things with eggplant, and late nights on my little porch
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How many books do you have going?
Actually, now that I’m counting, only five. That’s not too bad.
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What are they?
This is an embarrassing psychological assortment: I’m re-reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Alejandro Zambra’s Ways of Going Home, and Bell Hooks’ All About Love. I’ve been slowly working through Jeff Guinn’s Manson for, like, a year, and I just started Edward Said’s memoir Out of Place. Oh, and today I ordered Phillipe Ariès’ Western Attitudes Toward Death. (I’m fine! I just like creepy stuff.)
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What did you do before you joined Block Club?
I was 22 years old, and I was very busy fretting about where I would put all of my love for design.
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Can you pinpoint the moment you fell in love?
I don’t think there was a moment for me. I came to design on accident and very ignorant; I was at square one on day one of design school. But at some point, probably through design history, I began to see graphic design as an intellectual pursuit as much as an arts career, and I think that’s when I fell in.
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What does an ideal day off of work look like?
A direct flight to Paris for dinner
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Where else do you want to go?
Chile, Croatia, New Zealand, the Yukon Territory, every corner of rural America, Hawaii, Tokyo, SPACE. Anywhere, anytime, really—but those places are on my mind.
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What are you proud of?
I am a recovering grade school overachiever. I overthink and over plan. I put a lot of time and mental effort into things, and I tend to overdo it. Being a type A nerd used to embarrass me, but I’m trying to be proud of that drive now and the life I made, experiences I have had, and self-trust I’ve gained because of it.
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What do you do for fun?
I see friends! Everything is fun when your friends are funnier than you are.
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What is the best thing you heard someone say today?
“Should we use pen names?”
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What makes you happy?
Sharing a long meal and winding conversation with a dear friend
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Where is your favorite place in the world?
There is a particular giant rock somewhere out in Joshua Tree that I watched a sunset from this year. I feel so good in the desert, and I have been out that way many times in my life, but man, that rock and that sunset was the one.
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What is your best habit?
I never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink.
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What is your worst habit?
Collecting bad habits
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What words do you live by (or try to)?
Grow old before you grow up.
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Who do you look up to?
Anyone who is still committed to learning and creating very late in life. I so hope to be that!
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What do you want to accomplish?
A name as a painter would be nice someday. Otherwise, just the basics: love, balance, adventure, peace, etc.
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How do you describe your art?
Weird paintings of folks, often screaming
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What inspires you?
- Anyone whose life work comes from a playful mind
- Work that helps others
- People who create because they can’t stop
- An impossibly beautiful, well designed single shot in a film
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Can you give us an example of an impossibly beautiful, well-designed single shot in a film?
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Who’s your favorite living artist?
It’s impossible for me to have a “favorite,” especially with so much access to independent artists. But some folks I love are Adi Goodrich, Stacy Kranitz, Tess Smith-Roberts, José Roda, Liana Finck, Tammy Kanat, Stacey Rozich, Quentin Monge, Kelly Knaga, Sabrina Bosco…I could go on and on. Everyone is so great.
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What did you want to be when you grew up?
Well, I was eight years old when Animal Planet first aired, so I was fully invested in the veterinarian/marine biologist/zookeeper/conservationist narrative of little girls in the mid-1990s. I still love animals! I’d still be a marine biologist!
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What’s the last term you searched on Google?
“Perfect jammy egg.” I can never remember how long to boil for a jammy egg! It’s six and a half minutes, by the way, and now I will never forget.
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How do you want to be remembered?
Honestly. So, I guess as a foul mouth with a sensitive soul.
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What do you want to do more of?
Speak in another language
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What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“Sensitivity is a strength.”