The final countdown is on… Coachella starts this Friday, April 13th… and for the first time in it’s history, will repeat the following weekend on April 20th-April 22nd. Angie and I have had our share of Coachella experiences in the past… an event that needs to be done at least once… or several times in your life.

This years line up includes heavy hitters Radiohead, Black Keys, Bon Iver, The Shins, and some I’d really love to see, like SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, Justice, M.Ward and more, more, more. There is usually a last minute awesome performance from someone huge, who knows?

Nearly every year, we’ve collaborated with the Coachella Boutique to create fresh Poketo designs for one of the biggest music festivals in the world. This year, it’s a cool little notebook to ramble, jot, and draw your experiences, dreams, and hot weather hallucinations… and if you are practical, remember to write down the set lists from each of the shows. Here is a past Coachella shot of Angie figuring out our next move… writing times and sets on paper… proof that this little notebook is going to come in handy.

One thing I love about this book is that the graphics on each side is inverted from the other… so, when you pull out the notebook it’s oriented correctly. All you have to do is decide… Coachella or Dreams? I’m thinking Coachella Dreams.

Above are a few pics from Coachella 2009. That was a great year… we spent the day lounging poolside at the La Quinta, rolled into Coachella at dusk to catch Fleet Foxes and then ended the night with MSTRKRFT.

Below are some of the past Poketo x Coachella designs in years past…

Peskimo x Poketo x Coachella

Ogi x Poketo x Coachella

Heisuke Kitazawa x Poketo x Coachella

Had the pleasure of hearing our friend Sonja Rasula of UniqueLA speak at Creative Mornings Los Angeles this morning. UniqueLA brings together different brands and individual makers together for a weekend shopping event that attracts over 20,000 visitors with an average of $1 million of business transacted in just a weekend. Her goal is to bring locally made products to the masses… and she’s doing it in a big way! So much so that UniqueLA changed its website to, StateOfUnique.com and Sonja has already expanded the Unique concept outside of LA to New York, San Francisco, and now even looking to go international.

The next UniqueLA is May 12 and 13th. More info here.

What I love is seeing speakers at Creative Mornings trace their success and path back to childhood… Sonja took us all the way back to age 11 when she used to draw shopping catalogs. Pretty funny.

Nice to see former Chinatown gallery, The Box, move into the Arts District. Again, more proof that the Arts District of Downtown LA continues to become a destination spot for restaurants, bars, cafes, retail, and of course, art. I popped in and met proprietor, Mara McCarthy. Only a couple weeks old in this new location, The Box has a great music and performance exhibition with the Los Angeles Free Music Society.

The LAFMS has been around since 1973 and from what I gather is a rotating group of musicians that are more like sound and performance artists. When you walk into the space, you’ll find motion triggered sound sculptures, long tables of abandoned toys and junk that have been used as instruments, and walls of photographs and ephemera that documents the Los Angeles Free music Society’s long history.

The Box is planning on monthly exhibitions, and from the looks of this first show at this new space, they are aiming to push alternative forms of art and media. Learn more and check out their schedule here.

Proprietor of The Box, Mara McCarthy

Had the pleasure this morning to meet up with Steven Harrington and Justin Kreitemeyer at the Creative Mornings, Los Angeles talk. No doubt you’ve seen the work both Steven and Justin have done individually as well as for their design firm, National Forest. National Forest works on everything from identity to major advertising campaigns. Today, they went through some of their projects for the likes of Urban Outfitters, Quicksilver, and Target.

Most interesting though was their metaphor of the “spark”. A spark produces a flame which produces a fire, builds community, and spreads. In their case, all of their creativity and art starts with a simple act of doing what they love. The spark is their pure, unadulterated art. Often times, their art, their perspective get fused with commercial work with the potential of spreading like fire to millions. But, it all starts with the spark, being themselves and being free to express themselves through art. It’s how it is and how it should be.

Here is our friend, Jon Setzen, the organizer of Creative Mornings, Los Angeles. He is the one that invited us to our Creative Mornings talk last year at the Herman Miller showroom. Basically, Jon rocks worlds.