Obvious State

Creative studio & independent press founded by Nichole and Evan Robertson in 2011. After all, beautiful language deserves beautiful treatment.

We make bold, original art and books inspired by the ideas and language that have shaped how we think. Obvious State was Cofounded in 2011 by husband and wife team Nichole and Evan Robertson. We aim to create art and thoughtfully designed gifts that prompt conversations and bring aesthetic joy (and sometimes humor!) to everyday objects. All of our goods are meticulously crafted and printed on the

finest papers and materials. In addition to our own goods and projects, we are thrilled to work with wonderful partners and clients including Penguin Random House, Chronicle Books, Vintage Books, Doubleday, Juniper Books, Andrews McMeel and more.

04/17/2026

🎉 Dostoevsky’s Philosophy released early!   ABOUT THE BOOK  Dostoevsky is as much a philosopher as he is a novelist. But unlike a philosopher, his arguments are developed between the conflicting points of view of his characters.

In this book, you’ll find twelve of Dostoevsky’s most fundamental themes, each containing two powerful quotations and two competing passages from different characters across his major works. The “challenge” presents a provocative point of view, and the “response” counters it with an alternate perspective.

Punctuated with 12 bold illustrations, this unique pocket edition serves as both an introduction and an invitation to one of our most passionate, brilliant, and deeply human authors.

03/30/2026

🤷🏼‍♀️Couldn’t help it

03/29/2026

“We Suffer More Often in Imagination Than in Reality” - Seneca.

I recently noticed something about bad days. If you check all of the items off your to-do list, it makes no difference whether you did so miserably or with equanimity. The report was written, the project was completed, the dishes were done, the mail was dropped off, the trash was taken out. And the things don’t care whether you suffered to do them, or delighted in doing them. The modern version of this is the saying “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice.” This is an excellent example of the kind of actionable wisdom that Seneca and stoicism offer.  
For this illustration for “Letters from a Stoic” I chose a Parisian street as the backdrop, a sunset reflected in the Hausmann windows. A shadow is cast on the memory, transforming the scene into a rainy night, the crown of the man’s head making a second dark sun. Seneca encourages us to accept the difficulties of life with equanimity, and to reject the temptation to dwell on what we can’t control.

03/28/2026

✨Ethereal morning light

03/26/2026

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” - William Shakespeare.

One of Shakespeares notorious troublemakers watched humans stumble through enchanted woods completely unaware they were being played.

We spent some time brainstorming the things that make fools of us. It was a long list. But nothing can compete with the allure of our glowing screens. What a farce it is to stare at our phones, caress the glass, and mistake it for good company.

ABOUT THE ART  In this illustration, windows reveal two isolated figures trapped in tiny, glowing rectangles, all comprised of isolated smart phones. The ground level phones invite you to enter the complex where humans check in but they don’t check out.

03/21/2026

🕊️ A shout to the master on World Poetry Day

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

For this illustration, we used Emily Dickinson’s own words as line elements to create the “thing with feathers” she describes in this extraordinary poem. The source of hope she depicts is a bottomless well of creative inspiration and strength, which for her manifested in poetry. Visually, her handwriting is a remarkable combination of beautiful flourishes and swooshes combined with an almost frantic energy - a pen racing to keep up with a quicksilver mind.

Som #

bookstagram

This lovely song inspired by the poem by

03/20/2026

Happy Spring! Touch grass.

Gibran’s The Prophet is one of the best selling and most translated books of all time. In addition to its positive attitude toward humanity, there is a subtle provocation to reconnect with nature, directly and deeply.   We responded to the quote’s personification of the wind and earth. Rather than centering on a person’s experience of the wind, we wanted to capture the wind’s experience of a person. How does the wind “see” something? How does it caress someone it longs for?

ABOUT THE ART
In our illustration, the wind dresses a human form in its movement, becoming a natural surrogate for clothing.

03/09/2026

I recently noticed something about bad days. If you check all of the items off your to-do list, it makes no difference whether you did so miserably or with equanimity. The report was written, the project was completed, the dishes were done, the mail was dropped off, the trash was taken out. And the things don’t care whether you suffered to do them, or delighted in doing them. The modern version of this is the saying “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice.”   Without getting too self-helpish, I do believe that this is an excellent example of the kind of actionable wisdom that Seneca and Stoicism in general offer. It pairs perfectly with last week’s insight, that the present is really all we have, and how we can completely miss it by engaging in unnecessary suffering, rumination or anxiousness.

For this illustration for “Letters from a Stoic,” I chose a Parisian street as the backdrop, a sunset reflected in the Hausmann windows. A shadow is cast on the memory, transforming the scene into a rainy night, the crown of the man’s head making a second dark sun. Seneca encourages us to accept the difficulties of life with equanimity, and to reject the temptation to dwell on what we can’t control. And my day was more pleasurable for having read him.

- Evan

03/04/2026

“I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way.” - Vita Sackville-West, “The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf”

03/03/2026

WWSD (What Would Seneca Do?)

In the face of an overwhelming, infuriating, almost-paralyzing array of unanswerable philosophical questions, stoicism starts with the most pragmatic one.

What can we actually control? Our judgments, choices, intentions, virtues, efforts, and our focus.

What can’t we control? Bad fortunes, when and where we are born, other people’s opinions and actions, and even how long we live.

The only thing we truly own is our time, and what we attempt to do with it.

In visualizing this artwork from our upcoming book, “Letters From a Stoic,” I wanted to show someone in a vast expanse, exposed to the elements, but calm, and a cowboy came to mind. The desert is the endless expanse of time, and he can explore some but not all of it. Cacti and shrubs demarcate the journey. The clock is ticking - one hand pointing to now, the other to the always-approaching end. And yet, he’s unperturbed. He owns and uses his time. He focuses on what he can control. He is content with the present.

Seneca implores us to use our time well. In fact, he says, it’s not even that life is short, “but that we waste much of it.” I think about that every time I’m scrolling Instagram reels kind-of-laughing-but-kind-of-bored. What could I be doing instead? The world is a big place and there’s so much to explore.

But the clock is ticking. WWSD?

03/02/2026

🦉 “No one was ever wise by chance” - Seneca. From his epistles to Lucilius (Letter 76: On Learning Wisdom in Old Age).  ABOUT THE ART
In this illustration an owl carrying a scroll confronts the viewer with wings unfolded. The wings are “lined” with Latin text from Seneca’s letters rendered in a handwritten style of the period, a challenge and invitation to contend with the writings of this wise and patient philosopher. This artwork is also the cover art for our new edition of “Letters from a Stoic.”
 

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