Ladders, compasses, flint and flames

By Sarah

We launched Pomegranite in the year that I turned 28. Which means that Pomegranite’s 12th birthday is also my 40th – just three days apart, if you’re counting.

There’s nothing like a milestone birthday to make you think about the ways in which you can spend a life. The writer, Zadie Smith, says, “Time is how you spend your love,”… and I suppose that work is how you spend your passion. Or it can be, if you’re lucky.

It’s interesting to think back, to follow the thread of that passion back through the last decade and a bit. The quality of the feeling has changed more than I would have expected it to, if I had given it much thought.

It started with some kindling, a flint, and careful breaths on lucky sparks, quickly-quickly hands ardently nurturing fledgling flames to life while trying to apply every relevant skill we’d manage to gather in our (not terribly long) careers.

via GIPHY

(Can you tell that this is what I’m picturing? Can you hear Jeff’s voice too? “This is why you never give up on Survivor!”)

We didn’t give up either, Jeff, and over the years, that little scrappy fire slowly morphed into confident flames as we strategically added logs, stepping back every now and then to admire the beautiful blaze that warmed not just me and Liz, but a whole team.

And now? Now I find that the fire of passion has taken on a different quality again – something new. We’re no longer trying to build a bonfire, ambitiously piling logs high, creating flames that lick the sky. The truth is that it doesn’t feel necessary; it doesn’t feel urgent. But not because we’re no longer ambitious. Rather, because the depth and breadth of our experience has given us glowing coals that feel subtly potent. We’re able to approach each project, each piece of work with a depth that’s been slowly earned, producing sites that deliver real impact; sites that make people feel seen.

In the last few weeks alone, we’ve worked on a new website with MSF Sweden, taken an impactful one-pager for a changemaker in the UK live, live-tweeted one of the best literary events in the country, and launched a site for Impact Capital Africa, an organisation that enables the impact investment ecosystem in southern Africa. We’ve spoken to clients sitting at desks in South Africa, Ethiopia, the UK, Zimbabwe, the United States, and Lebanon. We’ve marveled at pictures of the new Pomegranite generation – on a lounge dancefloor showcasing the knee-bend-heavy dance moves unique to a tiny body; on a yellow bicycle, wicker basket proudly holding a llama.

We’ve listened to adventures and dreams turn into plans – with plane tickets; or Swedish lessons.

If you’d shown me this snapshot of a business – of a life – when I was 28, I would probably have been quite taken aback. It’s not what I expected.

It’s better.

Writer and podcaster, Elizabeth Day, says, “There was a time when ambition felt like a ladder: climb, climb, climb. Now it feels more like a compass: still purposeful, but pointing in different directions at different times, all of which have their own place and meaning.”

Not to mix metaphors with too much abandon, but a compass feels like it lives alongside our fire quite neatly (is the Survivor theme tune playing in your head too?).

So where is it pointing to next? While we can never see what’s beyond the horizon, the things within sight are pretty exciting. If there‘s one thing you can say with confidence about the digital landscape it’s that it’s always changing, and we’re having a lot of fun delving into those new developments and blending them into our offering in a way that feels right for Pomegranite: with intentionality.

Exciting use of AI?
Websites powered by renewable energy?

Tune in again soon!

Thank you for being a part of this adventure. We wouldn’t be us if it wasn’t for you.

Photo by Kate Davies