A visit to Burninglights is like beingon a path to peace in itself. DesignerMar isa Burn has set up shop in an idyllic little courtyard in the heart of Zurich. Water splashes from the fountain, while the lush bamboo invites any visitor to breathe deep and relax. Marisa’s journey here was not without its detours. Ten years ago, she launched HopeHope, Switzerland’s first online magazine. Her ambitions were high, as was her drive, and she proved a trail-blazer in presenting and illustrating brands. “At some point, though,” she recalls, “I just felt the work no longer had any depth.”

Her final photo appeared on her HopeHope blog on 17 July 2013. It showed Marisa making the peace sign – and unwittingly signalling what horizons her journey would lead her to next.The birth of her children gave Marisa an almost two year break. It was in this time, and with her own renewed spirit, that her Burninglights project took shape. “I wanted to combine lifestyle, hand­craft and spirituality,” she recalls today. One day she drew up her business plan and got down to brass tacks. With her keen intuition, she started developing products that heighten our apprecia­tion of a slower pace of life. Cleaning items, sta­tionery, teas. Marisa’s philosophy flowed into the products’ manufacture, too: The blossoms for the teas are hand­picked in central Switzerland and dried in the sun before Marisa personally blends and packages them.

Design as a door opener
Presentation is vital, too. “An attractive packaging is a door opener that should help people feel more comfortable addressing the whole issue of spiritu­ality,” says Marisa. “Silver Morning” is the tea she makes to help get the day going, while “Find Me in the Flower Fields” is an incense blend that trans­mits a sense of ease and well­being. “I want to create brief moments that give us a timeout from daily life with its rapid pace,” she explains. “Holy Mountain Surface Cleaner”, her organic cleaning product with essential stone pine, incense and cinnamon oils, is so beautifully packaged that it could be a kitchen ornament.

So even cleaning can provide a mental break.“What’s important,” Marisa emphasises, “is that this awareness doesn’t become a mission in itself. That you don’t get into some yoga­like obsession of rising above every problem. We’re in life, not above it. We need to accept that there will be some times that are stressful and others when we can con­sciously take a timeout.” There’s no office in Mar­isa’s home: That’s a place of daily family life. “I see nothing wrong in answering an e­mail three days after receiving it,” says the mother of two. “There isn’t always room for everything in a single day.”

Fine lines and mindfulness
In an age in which everything is digital, Marisa Burn opts to write artistically with brush and ink, making posters with messages of peace, balance or abundance with all her intuitive flair: moments of memory to hang above the desk or the bed. A passionate doer, Marisa addresses life’s more serious issues, too. She has founded the Peace Club with her husband, the artist Gigi Burn. To­gether they organise concerts at which total strangers can meet and leave as friends. “People yearn for genuine contacts in today’s virtual world,” Marisa explains. She makes the space for those contacts to happen, and, in doing so, she finds herself once again in the right place and at the right time: in the here and now.