A Day In The Life - Echo Wu

This month we asked Echo Wu the co-founder of 1413 Magazine.

9:20 am - Still in bed, feeling guilty and grumpy. I’ve been awake for an hour, just scrolling on my phone. I’m addicted to Xiaohongshu. By now, I’ve watched at least three full length unboxing videos and 30 animal clips. At this point, it’s too late to make breakfast, coffee, or do any sort of skincare routine. Last night before bed, I promised myself a slow morning, but now I’ve used up all my time and have to hurry to work. Yet I’m still in bed.

10:55am - Aside from making a magazine. I am a full time graphic designer at an agency called FOOD. When I arrived work my boss was already there, looking handsome and optimistic as always. I am watching Industry season 3 ep1 in the minimized window while making logos for a crypto company and posting on instagram. When it comes to logo design, my boss always tells me to “turn off your brain and just play.” I think I’m doing that. Sometimes I get way too invested in the plot and forget I’m working, but since Industry is kind of dry, I am able to focus on both at the same time.

2:02PM - Going out for lunch with my studio mate Greg. Today is Chinese New Year and our studio is in Chinatown. The air smelled like celebration, a mix of ribbon spray, baby's tears, a 1000 million down coats and used firecrackers. It takes us 2 hours to find a place and eat lunch. I bought this balloon on the street for good luck. It's the Wealth God riding a horse. In Chinese it means becoming rich immediately. I think it’s kinda cute. I texted it to my friend. He said this is AI art.

5:20pm - I made it to USPS 10mins before they close, I dropped off my magazines and my depop order. Made 89 dollars in total but later spent all of them on dinner. 

9:07pm - Walking around in Chinatown with Happy and Tammy then went back home. There was a ridiculous amount of people and confetti everywhere. I don’t quite understand the connection between Chinese New Year and confetti. At least growing up in China, we never used confetti to celebrate New Year. But I guess people just love to blow things up when it comes to holiday, or literally any day, people just love to blow things up.

12:05am - My friend Emil is having a party at Bacaro in the Lower East Side. It's a 2mins walk from me, I went after my nail polish dried, the shade is called Pacific Peace. A lot of art people were there, celebrating Emil and Jess leaving NYC and moving to London. I don’t want Emil to leave, but he seems really happy. He showed me images of their new “flat.” I was half looking at the photos and half looking at my glamorous blue toe, shining quietly like the peaceful Pacific Ocean. I got a martini at the open bar, then went back home and had a red Stripe lager in the shower. Went to bed kind of drunk around 1am. 

Good night, and Happy New Year to you.