About this project

Letters to a Young Creator is a collection of honest perspectives on what it takes to make something great, written by people who have done it before. 

The series features contributions from notable figures across business, design, technology, and the arts, written in response to questions posed by past and present SJA Fellows. The title is a nod to Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet—one of Steve’s favorites—and to Steve’s own practice of exchanging ideas as a path toward clarity.

Our full contributor list features Tadao Ando, Paola Antonelli, Mario Bellini, Larry Brilliant, Anders Byriel, Ed Catmull, Jon M. Chu, Lee Clow, Tim Cook, Brunello Cucinelli, Es Devlin, Pete Docter, Mickey Drexler, Lord Norman Foster, Davis Guggenheim, Jenny Holzer, Bob Iger, Jimmy Iovine, Jony Ive, Rashid Johnson, Alan Kay, David Kelley, Marc Newson, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ben Okri, Dieter Rams, Alice Rawsthorn, Arthur Rock, Ruth Rogers, Samuel Ross, Cindy Sherman, Mona Simpson, and Anna Deavere Smith, as well as an introduction from Laurene Powell Jobs.

We first released these letters as small-press-edition books to our wider community in 2024 and 2025, and we’re delighted to finally share them with you today. What began as printed matter is evolving into a broader platform for conversation about what it means to live a creative life. We look forward to adding to this conversation and extending it into new spaces in the near future.

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To help mark the launch of this project, artist, stage designer and Letters contributor Es Devlin will join us on Wednesday, March 4 for a Zoom conversation about her letter and her creative life.

Spots are limited and will be available on a first come, first served basis. Click here to register.