The folks at Lumi are opening up their warehouse and sharing the secrets behind Lumi.com. It will also be a chance to meet fellow Angelinos and hear the story of UX designer turned leatherworker, Mike Macadaan, founder of This Is Ground. There will also be hands-on printmaking with designs by LA Dribbbler Ricky Linn, and plenty of coffee to get your weekend started on the right foot.
Head over to Lumi on Saturday February 27th at 10:30am. Talks and activities start at 11:00am. And make sure to RSVP!
In advance of the meetup, Co-founder and Head of Design at Lumi Stephan Ango gave us a tour of the Los Angeles design scene.
Tell us what you love about Los Angeles.
What I love most about Los Angeles is its diversity and sense of optimism. Los Angeles is way more than Hollywood! We have thriving communities in almost every field you can think of. I find it incredibly empowering to have all that expertise at my fingertips. At Lumi I am constantly relying on experts in the world of packaging and manufacturing, but also creative folks across all disciplines.
Having spent time in many cities around the world, I’ve never found one as optimistic as LA. In most places your crazy idea is met with a raised eyebrow and a “Why? Why would you do that?” whereas in Los Angeles the answer is always an enthusiastic “Why not!”
Tell us where you work.
Lumi is helping designers and entrepreneurs make custom-branded supplies. We’re located just a few blocks south of downtown Los Angeles, at the edge of a neighborhood called the Arts District. It’s a wonderful area filled with old warehouses that has become the epicenter for a burgeoning community of creative entrepreneurs. Over the past few years we have seen an explosion of beautiful coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques and design studios. It’s been a joy to see so much creativity develop in such a small area. It’s become one of the most walkable neighborhoods in all of LA.
Tell us about the Los Angeles design scene.
Because Los Angeles has such diverse creative cultures and is so spread out geographically, I’ve found that our community doesn’t get together in person as much as it could. As Lumi has grown, we’ve started to feel a responsibility to solve that – that’s what this Dribbble Meetup is all about! It will be the first in what we hope to be a recurring series of design events happening at Lumi HQ.
Jon Setzen and the folks at Creative Mornings deserve to be mentioned for the work they have done rallying the community. It has been exciting to participate in their events and see it grow. It’s one of the biggest chapters worldwide.
In recent years, we’ve also seen major tech companies and investors start to take Los Angeles much more seriously as a hub outside of Silicon Valley. Some of our big startups like Space X, Oculus, Snapchat and Tinder, as well as established companies like Google have brought a lot more software engineering and UI design to the city.
Finally, I’ll add that Los Angeles has been home to great design for many many decades. The Eames Office stands out as a significant touchstone that had a huge influence on the world design from the 1940s through the 80s. Art Center College of Design is an incredible institution that has produced some of our most famous industrial designers (and I went there too). There are countless architectural wonders by Richard Neutra, John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright and classic buildings from the Art Deco era. I find that legacy tremendously inspirational as a designer today.
Choose three shots from Los Angeles Dribbblers you admire, and tell us what you like about each one.
L.A. by Ricky Linn, above left.
It’s almost impossible for me to pick just one design by Ricky Linn because all his work is so refreshing, colorful and unique – I picked this Los Angeles design just because, well, it seemed appropriate.
I’ve known Ricky since his early days on Dribbble and had the pleasure of working with him on several projects. There’s so much enthusiasm and drama in everything he creates. I just love getting lost in the intricate patterns he creates. He also deserves a shout-out for creating some special designs for the Lumi meetup that everyone will have a chance to print using rubber stamps.
Blue Ribbon by Neil Hubert, above center.
Neil Hubert is probably one of the most underrated designers on Dribbble. He has such a great eye for the classic American design aesthetic that you might recognize from folks like Aaron Draplin. This shot is a perfect example.
In the past few years Neil has been practicing the craft of sign painting, and has become very adept at it. There’s something about learning that skill that seems to inform his digital designs more and more. I think it has made him a much stronger designer overall, and I really admire that.
Holiday Envelopes by Carmel Type Co., above right.
People are likely to be familiar with Drew Melton’s work as he’s become one of the most talented letterers on Dribbble, but his new project Carmel Type is even more exciting to me.
Drew and his partner Jason Carne have been putting out some beautiful fonts, that aren’t afraid to be expressive. It feels to me like the design industry has enjoyed the comfort of modernist, minimal design for a few years, but Drew and Jason are thinking about what is next and creating letters with a lot of character (see what I did there?). It’s been a lot of fun seeing how they have taken the tools we make at Lumi and using them to bring their type into the physical world.
Can’t make it on Saturday, February 27th? Find Lumi on Dribbble and Twitter and at www.lumi.com.
Enjoy reading about the Los Angeles design scene? Check out Lviv and Boston, then go meet designers from your own great city at the next meetup.
Meetups
The following Dribbble Meetups are happening soon. For the full list of upcoming meetups, visit our Meetups page.
Find more Meetups stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
