The LA Design Festival has come and gone this year. But, over the next few weeks and months, you will be hearing the conversations that were recorded live in the Convo By Design Audio Design Lab as well as panel conversations from the main stage at the event. Design really is for everyone, Haily Zaki, founder of the LA Design Festival is a believer and practitioner of that very concept. Following is a conversation with Haily that was recorded during this year’s event.
For me, the main take-away from this years event, same as last year’s, I learn so much from creatives in other disciplines. The artists, graphic designers, wood workers, product developers and others leave me with a strong desire to see how I can incorporate new ideas into the construction and recording of audio for memorable on-demand experience. You will be seeing some new elements in the weeks and months to come, so look out for that. Enjoy this conversation with the LA Design Festivals Haily Zaki. And if you do, please, head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star rating and a review, it is greatly appreciated and it helps others find the show.
You have heard from set decorators on the podcast before. I enjoy speaking to set decorators for a number of reasons not the least of which is their MacGyver like skills. The great ones possess a superpower for turning one thing into something else for the sake of the script. Another skill is looking at a page of text and creating a designed space based on nothing but that. Designers and architects do this every day by channeling and deciphering the needs and wishes of clients, now imagine there is now conversation, only the printed page. In contrast, there is also no actual homeowner, chef owner or client complaining that the cerulean just isn’t the “right” shade, that is true. You have heard from William DeBiasio before but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to sit together for a loner conversation. One specifically about the business and dressing a set for imaginary people. DeBiasio has been a set decorator for some time and you have seen his work on Pretty Little Liars, Famous In Love, Crank, Ray Donovan, Melrose Place, Gossip Girl and Skyscraper.
Decorating a set is not that different from designing a home. I find it really interesting in the process that many set decorators use to build characters for which to design. It is very similar to the process many of the world’s most successful designers deconstruct their clients in order to design for them. Enjoy this episode of Convo By Design with Set Decorator, William DeBiasio.
If you like what you hear, and I hope you do. Please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a note and a 5 star rating. It helps new listeners find the podcast.
Design and food go hand in glove, the similarities are too numerous to mention all but consider texture, color and the connections we make with food, as we do with design that remind us of moments in time and places that make us happy. I had the opportunity to catch up with Steve Samson, a cornerstone of the Southern California culinary community. Samson is the chef and owner of not one but two Los Angeles restaurants on note, Sotto and Rossoblu. Steve has mastered the art of Italian cuisine and there is a very good reason for that, he has always had one foot firmly planted in Southern California and the other in Northern Italy, Bologna to be exact. You will hear Steve tell the story, and he can explain it far better than I can. But visiting his Bolognese family each year as he grew up allowed him to develop a feel for the Bolognese style of cooking, he was immersed in it and that is why he has focused his culinary career on Italian cooking. Samson has been recognized by Jonathan Gold, the LA Times, LA Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Eater LA the Robb Report and others for his accomplishments as culinary star. As you will hear, Steve doesn’t really pay attention to that because he just wants to cook, for you.
Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, and I hope you do. Please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a note and a 5 star rating. It helps new listeners find the podcast. Enjoy this episode with chef and owner of LA’s Sotto and Rossoblu, Steve Samson.
I am happiest at work when I am surrounded by creative types and talking about creative endeavors. The LA Design Festival has come and gone, but for the past few weeks, I have been culling throughout the content from the event and putting it together in ways that I want you to hear and see it. Sometimes, that means changing the order and this is one of those times. Following is a conversation for anyone who considers themselves a “creative”, an artist, designer, architect or any other title that says, “I engage in creative endeavors.” The following conversation was held at the LA Design Festival and focuses on the origins and process behind creative thinking by four decorated practitioners of the art… Participants include; Liam Young, the Australian born architect, founder of Tommorow’s Thoughts Today, a think tank that explores imaginary urbanisms. Young has taught at Princeton, currently at Sci-Arc. David Charles is a creative director and filmmaker. He has worked on 72andSunny, he’s the ECD of the LA office for Dutch shop KasselSkramer and he is a Sundance New Frontiers. Kerri Elsmly is the Chief Creative Officer for experiential design studio, Second Story and Toby Past, the award-winning Group Creative Director at Sapient Razorfish. Toby’s brand creative work is extensive and includes work for Acura, AT&T, Disney Entertainment among others.
This conversation is being presented to you before you hear the their panel on the subject of Design Thinking. The panel conversation was great and we will be presenting that, soon. But this conversation is about the process that goes into the creative thought process. Issues that you deal with every day from ideating an issue, trouble shooting, problem solving, falling in love with your own ideas versus letting them go and dealing with creative block. If you are a creative thinker, you deal with these issues daily. This is how some of the best in the business from different disciplines approach those very same issues. #design #Art #creativethinking #LADesignFestival
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Music provided by Electric Sol Artist: Electric Sol Song: Your Love Makes Me High www.electricsolmusic.com
Convo By Design is presented by Snyder Diamond, always first with what’s next in the kitchen and bath. Snyder Diamond is a family owned and operated company that serves the Southern California design and architecture community as well as discriminating homeowners through remarkable customer service and a curated offering of kitchen and bath appliances, fixtures and finishes. The products at Snyder Diamond include the industry’s best, like the full line of Miele appliances. Miele is a family owned and operated company offering industry leading products since 1899. This includes a full line of refrigerators, ovens, steamers, cook tops, wine units, coffee machines, dish washers, ventilation hoods, washers and dryers. All of these products are made using the highest standards in manufacturing and industry leading technology to provide a superior class of appliance. Form, function and future, that’s Miele. Pair that with the standard-bearer when it comes to customer service and Snyder Diamond delivers dreamy kitchens that exceed expectation. If that is not enough, right now and for a limited time, Miele is offering some amazing and generous rebates and offers. For details on these and to see the full line of Miele products visit any of the three Southern California Snyder Diamond locations or visit online at Snyder Diamond dot com.
This June seventh through tenth, Convo By Design will be back at the LA Design Festival. Last year, we covered the event as a media partner. We brought you coverage from some amazing events and conversations. This year, we are going back and in addition to covering all the activities from the event at ROW Downtown LA, Convo By Design will be hosting the Audio Design Lab, an experimental space dedicated to the craft of audio design. We will be hosting conversations, testing new equipment and techniques in audio design and inviting those of you with a design story to tell to come in and tell it. If you have a design related story to tell and plan on attending the LA Design Festival, tweet @ConvoByDesign #OpenMicLADF and we will send you you time slot, you could hear your story here or on Design, Etc. the official podcast of the LA Design Festival. It is hosted by LA Design Festival co-founder, Haily Zaki and produced by yours truly and Convo By Design Studios.
Following is a conversation from the 2017 LA Design Festival called Food and Design. It covers the crossover and intersection where food and design meet and crossover. Publisher’s note: You have probably noticed that I have been shying away from panel conversations here on the podcast. That is by design and for a very good reason. My goal is for everything you hear on Convo By Design to have meaning, purpose and ultimately, to be viewed, by you as a really good use of your time. So every conversation you hear on the show is evaluated with that in mind. This conversation was both important and valuable for a number of reasons. Food, restaurant and food packaging is as important to those designers as furniture, lighting and textiles are to an interior designer. The business decisions of restauranteurs, food packaging designers and chefs is of equal importance to that of furniture manufacturers, architects and showroom operators. With that in mind, following is Food and Design.
This conversation is moderated by AIGA board member Patrick Fredericton AIGA.Org and features:
Brothecary – http://www.Brothecary.US
Take Flight Coffee – http://www.TakeFlightCoffee.com
Soylent – http://www.Soylent.com
Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, and I hope you do. Please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a note and a 5 star rating. It helps new listeners find the podcast. Enjoy this episode called Food and Design from the LA Design Festival.
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#ConvoByDesign
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Miele USA – http://www.MieleUSA.com
Vondom USA – http://www.Vondom.com
Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
This past weekend (5/20/18) marked the closing of the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. And it coincides with the end of our coverage as well. Following are our final three conversations. I think you will enjoy them. But first, a little bit more about the Pasadena area that you might not be aware of and how this region of Southern California has shaped the way we live and design and it’s probably not what you might be expecting. Pasadena is rich with tradition from the Tournament of Roses parade, it’s 1915 Beaux Arts City Hall and the pomp and grandeur of Colorado Boulevard. But there is a fork in the road in Pasadena. Literally, a giant fork in the road at the intersection of Pasadena and St. John Avenues. Why, who knows. It was erected by two locals with a sense of humor and sticktoitiveness when it was taken down. They got the blessing of the city, bought the insurance, paid for the permits and there it is. From a big fork in the road to living in a bubble. There is the Bubble House. Probably one of the most simple architectural masterpieces anywhere. It’s not exotic, beautiful or remarkable in any way other than in it’s ingenuity. Post World War II, returning GI’s, a blossoming economy and booming society led to a housing shortage, sound familiar? So Wallace Neff came up with an idea. Neff inflated a giant rubber balloon, covered it with wire and gunnite and removed the balloon. What remained, essentially, is an upside down swimming pool. Neff believed he had the solution to the housing crisis at the time, and planned on building over 400,000 bubble houses. Short of 3,000 ever made it and the final one resides in Pasadena. The Bubble House was home to Neff until his death in 1982. I would like to think that this idea still has merit today. An 18 foot high fork in the road and a bubble house in historical Pasadena. Who knew. Know you do.
It’s a little bittersweet that this will be the last podcast episode of the 2018 pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. This episode features Benefits Chair, Vikki Sung who is going to share historical reference and the process for participating in the project. After that s a very fun look at the treehouse on the property. You really are going o love this. Finally, we speak with one of my favorite designers, Jeanne Chung. If not familiar with Jeanne, check out her work and listen to her perspective and you’ll see why I’m such a fan. All that is coming up, but first, I want to make sure you know that you can still find all of the videos of the Pasadena Showcase AND we will continue to produce new videos and post them to the YouTube channel @ConvoByDesign, you can also go to www.ConvoByDesign.com and you will find them there as well. If you happen to find yourself on our YouTube channel or our iTunes page, please leave us a review and a 5 star rating. It helps new listeners find the show and it is very much appreciated.
Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
Here at Convo By Design, we are dedicating another week to the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. I have worked with this group going on three years now and they do such good work. Think about this for a moment, over 54 years producing showcase homes and raising over $23 million in the process for youth arts programs. We spoke last week about the architect on this project, Reginald Davis Johnson and the legacy he left behind, dappling Southern California with Spanish Revival projects. The city of Pasadena is a pretty special place, and while I am sure you are already familiar with Pasadena as home to the Tournament of Rose Parade, Rose Bowl, Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology and the Norton Simon Museum, there are a few other things that might interest you.
Pasadena has a rich architectural heritage covering multiple styles by modern masters including the Batchelder House, an American Craftsman masterpiece, built in 1909. Built by Ernest A. Batchelder, known as a trailblazer in the Arts and Crafts movement and his wife, Alice Coleman. Coleman, a musician and local piano teacher. Batchelder was also a filemaker and you can find his homes dotted with his signature tiles. He actually started a factory in his back yard. This is another example of Southern California’s rich architectural heritage and the best part, you can still go see it. As you can with the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. If you are listening to this episode in May of 2018, the house is open until the 20th. After that, as always, please go to convobydesign.com or our YouTube channel to see videos from the house.
This episode features Michael Wrusch of Michael Wrusch Designs in a stunning Family Room dripping with tech. The only room in the house that I noticed with a tv. Next we swing by the Dining Room to visit with Room At The Beach’s, Elizabeth Lamont and finally we check out the Au Pair’s Suite with Rosita Nazarian of RKN Design. Please remember, these interviews were recorded mere days before the showcase open and there is a ton going on in the background. Saws, heavy equipment and more. Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, and I hope you do. Please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a note and a 5 star rating. It helps new listeners find the podcast. Enjoy this episode of Convo By Design from the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts.
Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
This week, we are going back to the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts to visit with three extremely talented designers and highlight the work they did in this years offering. To remind you about the home this year, it’s being called, “The Overlook”, originally built in 1915 for a whopping $14,000, it was home to the widowed sisters, Ruth Hargrove and Mary Emma Baker. and while it’s billed as a Mediterranean, the Spanish Revival elements are unmistakeable. And there is a very good reason for that. “The Overlook” was crafted by master architect, Reginald Davis Johnson. This is one of the architects responsible for Santa Barbara’s trademark Spanish Colonial Revivalist look. Johnson was an interesting guy. MIT educated, son of an Episcopal Bishop, LA’s first actually. He also tried his hand in modernism for a while which showed both creative bravery and laid testament to how versatile an architect he was, Johnson always went back to his trademark Spanish Colonial Revival roots. Which is how we wind up over 113 years later in Pasadena.
First up is the Living Room, designed by Designs of The Interior, Karen Shoener, Genaro Lagdameo and Carla Pardour Wening. Carla joined me in the Living Room to tell me about all three spaces the group designed including the Billiard Room and Petite Lounge. Next, you will hear from Cabana Home’s Steve Thompson in the Mezzanine and finally, from Greg Parker of Parker West Interiors in the Master Suite.
Another fun trip around this year’s Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. Special thanks to all our designers, and of course Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts for access and all of their support. Congratulations on a wonderful job again this year and for the last 54 years, producing this event and providing over $23 million dollars to fund youth arts programs in Pasadena and surrounding communities. And of course, thank you for listening. Without you, there is no Convo By Design. If you enjoyed this episode, please go to the iTunes ratings and reviews page and leave a nice note and 5 star review. For videos of the Pasadena Showcase or many of the other stories you hear on the show, convo by design dot com is where you will find it. Talk with you next week.
www.ConvoByDesign.com
Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
Grant Kirkpatrick is one of those architects that is actively shaping the way we view Los Angeles. He, through his firm KAA both creates and re-imagines places and spaces. The firm’s mission states a devotion to warm, contemporary design. Providing solutions for modern living and at the same time, he has a love and a sense of duty to protect the structures that Southern California offers the world. Grant and I sat down at the Vondom showroom during West Week at the Pacific Design Center to talk about Southern California architecture, his Marina Del Rey offices that have already lived lives as the original Hobie Catamaran Factory and a warehouse for all of the props and set decor from Cast Away.
**Side note, can you believe that Cast Away was released in the year 2,000? In the following conversation, Grant tells me about the fact that his current offices served as the prop house if you will during filming and I thought it would be fun to reintroduce you to a past guest on Convo By Design from the 2016 WestEdge Design Fair, Rosemary Brandenburg. Brandenburg was the Set Decorator on Cast Away, a Robert Zemekis film starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Peter Von Berg and of course Wilson, the volleyball. It’s one of those Southern California stories that ties architecture and film making, seamlessly.
Back to Grant. Kirkpatrick has published a new book called California Contemporary: The Houses of Grant C. Kirkpatrick. This covers 30 years of architectural mastery in Southern California. These homes possess elements that have come to embody the California lifestyle. Architects from around the world try to emulate elements of the modern style and use of materials, not to mention the seamless flow between indoors and out. Kirkpatrick, as you might imagine, has a solid roster of celerities for whom he has designed home, including; Matt Damon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and of course, of course, Tom Hanks. So the circle is complete. This is KAA Design’s Grant Kirkpatrick. And after Grant, Set Decorator of America member, Rosemary Brandenburg.
Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
This is the first in a series on the Pasadena Showcase House of Design. For those not familiar, Pasadena Showcase is an all volunteer organization that has been producing remarkable showcase houses for over 50 years. This episode was first published in April 2018 and the house is now open for for you to see. If you are in Southern California and happen to be in the Pasadena area, I highly recommend that you take the tour and see this fantastic home. What you will find is a collaborative effort by some of the most amazing and talented designers in the business today. I started showcasing design houses on the podcast a few years ago and what I like best about that is the fact that many of you will be listening to these episodes long after the design house is closed. Should that be the case, please visit our YouTube channel where you can see short segments recorded from the house with the designers themselves.
These interviews were conducted from the house in the last week of design. You are going to hear the buzz of circular saws, hammering dropping of heavy materials. Makes it kind of fun to hear what is going on behind the scenes. Another element to showcasing design houses is to capture, in real time, the essence for how much work really goes into projects like these. If you are a designer who has considered taking part, a potential sponsor looking to get involved or an enthusiast who wants to know what happens behind the scenes, these are true stories from the front lines of design. Major pressure, immovable deadlines and problems…there are always problems. So today, we are speaking with Amy Peltier of Peltier Interiors. Amy designed the Grand Foyer, and it is grand. Amy is a mid-westerner with great taste. When asked what Amy is ‘crushing on’ now, she has some really interesting thoughts on use of color, art and space. Following Amy is Jason Lai of L2 Interiors. L2 took a Spanish Revival guest house and molded the interior into a sleek and stunning Mid-Century Modern inspired refuge. Listen to Jason explain the philosophy behind the design and again, if you want to see it for yourself you can go tour it, or check out the video on YouTube.
I love doing this show for you and I hope you enjoy it, if you do… please go to “Ratings and Reviews” on iTunes, leave us a note and a positive review. Positive ratings helps us attract new listeners to the podcast, and it is very much appreciated. Enjoy this episode of Convo By Design Presented By Snyder Diamond from the Pasadena Showcase House of Design.
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Music provided by Electric Sol
Artist: Electric Sol
Song: Your Love Makes Me High
www.electricsolmusic.com
