To kick off our series on creative duos, we asked Robert & Christina of New Darlings—one of our go-to resources for fashion, travel and home inspiration—to share their story with us. Below, our full Q&A and some favorite #whereONAgoes shots.
Names: Robert & Christina Martinez
Hometowns: Born and raised in Long Island, New York.
Go-to gear: Canon 5D Mark IV, 35mm 1.4 lens, 24-70mm 2.8 lens.
ONAs you carry: The Leather Brixton & the Hudson Backpack.
On the day you met… We were on a double date, but not intended for us. We were unaware of the setup, and just immediately hit it off. We made plans to see each other the next day and have pretty much been inseparable ever since.
Robert carries the The Leather Brixton
How long have you worked together creatively? We’ve worked together pretty much since October of 2014 when we decided to give our Instagram the name, New Darlings. We’ve been doing it full time since 2015.
How do you divide creative responsibilities? We literally just divide them up on our calendar. Over the years, we’ve learned what our strengths and weaknesses are and have delegated our tasks based on that. I take most of the photos, and Christina will edit them, for blog posts, we usually both write a different version and then mash them together, when we travel I plan out where we’ll go and Christina will plan our photoshoots based on the locations I choose. We definitely compliment each other’s skills which makes working together very efficient.
Do you share a similar aesthetic or have different styles? I’d say at this point in our lives, our aesthetic is incredibly similar. We’ve been together for fourteen years, and we’re typically exposed to the same things and experiences, so we are pretty much the same person at this point. Ha! Our aesthetic has changes over the years, but we tend to stick together on how we want things to look and feel.
Advice for other creative duos? Try to find a balance. Having balance in your personal life and work life is a struggle, but if you can find something that works, stick with it. Also, a balance of work tasks is so important too. Knowing what you’re not good at is just as crucial as knowing what you are. Divide up projects between each other in a way that allows you to carry out your end of the tasks before handing it over to be finished. That’s what has worked for us!
Favorite place to photograph: Paris. It’s the most beautiful city in the world. You can be anywhere in the city and find something or somewhere to shoot. Ah, now we want to go back!
Bucket List destinations: We still haven’t been to Greece, so we’d really love to spend some time in Mykonos or Santorini. The other two places high on our list would be Havana, Cuba where my parents are from and Sicily in Italy where Christina’s dad was born. To visit those cities with our families would be a dream!
Biggest creative influences: We are heavily influenced by older movies or celebrities. Jane Birkin is a constant influence for us. Every photo of her is dreamy and beautiful, and we always look to her when we’re in a rut.
Biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge will always be the balance between being co-workers and being married. It’s definitely hard to know when we’re working or just enjoying quality time together. The lines are often blurred as we cover our real lives on our blog and social media, so it’s tough to shut off work-mode and switch to married mode and vice versa. Luckily, our jobs have lead to incredible experiences that have shaped our marriage, so we can’t complain.
One thing most people wouldn’t expect about you: We’re not sure if this comes through on social media or not, but we are very quiet people. We often keep to ourselves and are not the most outgoing. We have a great group of close friends that we can open up to and let loose with, but typically we are pretty mellow and low-key.
Mistake you’ve learned from: We learned very early on that working from home does not mean getting up whenever and working at random hours. It just didn’t work for us. We work best on a tight schedule, so we still get up early, get a work out in, get ready for our day, and get to our work calendar.
Work you are most proud of: Our favorite projects are the personal ones. We can’t necessarily point to an individual post or assignment, but giving our readers a look into our home and marriage is something we’re so grateful to do and the fact that we get to do that for a living is extremely rewarding.
Most recent “a-ha” moment: We recently acknowledged that we can’t do everything on our own. We’ve learned to delegate tasks that we either can’t do ourselves or just simply don’t have time for. We’ve noticed a huge increase in productivity by giving up some control of our day-to-day tasks.
Robert carries the Hudson Backpack
Dream project: We’ve very thankfully worked on many projects that we would call dream projects, but working on our home and designing livable spaces is where we find the most joy. Our dream would be to work on different homes either to rent or to sell. You might be seeing that from us in the near future. We’ll see!
Goals for this year: Our biggest goal for 2018 is to finish our home renovations. We have pretty much been working on home projects since we moved in to our house back in November of 2016, and we’re really hoping to wrap that up by the fall of this year. The excitement is through the roof and we can’t wait to see the finished product and enjoy the space.
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