Hi everyone, thank you for the overwhelming, positive responses to our new tea towels, designed in collaboration with the talented illustrator Lisa Congdon! We are so glad that you love them as much as we do.

Today, we’re excited to release another short but inspiring Q&A with Lisa herself, in which she shares about her beautiful new home in Oakland, decorating it and her favorite spaces.

1. Congratulations on your new home in Oakland! What are some things that you love about your new space?

It gets tremendous natural light. I used to live in a really dark apartment in San Francisco. So every day I wake up and my house now is flooded with light. Things look different in light. My animals might even love the sunshine more than I do! I also love the huge outdoor space we have in the back. I can’t wait to begin summer barbeques back there and reading books in the sunshine.

2. What’s your approach to decorating your home?

I am all about creating spaces that are not fussy, spaces that are both relaxed and organized. I am also all about personalizing my spaces. I like clean and minimal, but I also don’t want to feel like I am living or working in a bland hotel room or a room that is generic. I add a lot of personal touches to my home, through my collections, artwork that I’ve purchased over the years, and mementos.

3. What is your favorite room in the home and why?

The dining room! It has a great corner window, and some amazing midcentury furniture. It also includes many of my favorite collections, including my Catherinholm Enamelware collection.

4. Tell us more about decorating your kitchen…what do you enjoy most about it?

The greatest design challenge in my kitchen was the red countertops. When I first heard the countertops were red, I was really worried! But I decided to embrace it, and I went with a theme of red, white and black for the entire space. Now I actually love the red countertops!

Thank you Lisa for sharing your home! For our readers, if you missed our first interview with Lisa and want to see the awesome tea towel collaboration with Poketo, check it out here.

You’ve seen the incredible sculptural pieces by the dream team of Eric Trine and Will Bryant for the Alley-Oop design exhibition at Poketo on February 16. Now, find out more about the collaboration and friendship between this dynamic duo – what inspires them, bringing together their individual aesthetics, infusing humor into design, and what they do when they’re not working on Alley-Oop. They’re two highly creative, energetic personalities and if this interview is anything to go by, the Alley-Oop design exhibition is going to be a ton of fun!

1. What was your vision for Alley-Oop?

E: Fun! But seriously, our plan was to have a good time and get loose. Grad school can be quite the brain drain and we just wanted to shake that out of our systems for a month.

W: I totally agree. Eric thinks through materials and makes a lot of stuff quickly. I’ve been hung up on thinking WAAAAY too much in grad school. This was the perfect situation for me to just crank on stuff without over thinking and just reacting/responding to materials-form-conversations.

2. Can you describe your individual aesthetic and how they came together for Alley-Oop?

E: Geometry, symmetry, simplicity, minimalism.

W: Wiggles, squiggles, giggles, maximalism, energy, color! There’s a good balance in the compositions and form. They play off of one another.

3. If you had to pick a favorite item each from the collaboration, what would it be and why?

E: I think my favorite thing is the Pluraversal Object.

W: For me the cylinder mag horse is my favorite. It’s a great combination of our aesthetics. It was inspired by one of my drawings and fabricated by the E-train.

4. Your motto is “Form follows fun!” – how does Alley-Oop illustrate this?

E: Well, we just tried to have a good time in the process. Our working format was all about fun – so hopefully our pieces are a manifestation of that process. The colors, the scenes we created, were all about experimenting, and being present in the moment, trying different combinations, pushing our intuitive boundaries, and making ourselves laugh.

W: I’m not sure what else to expand on, but making ourselves laugh was achieved during every studio session.

5. You guys clearly have a sense of humor and wit…how does that influence your work?

E: I’d have to say that my sense of humor doesn’t normally translate through the work that I create. My furniture is pretty subdued in comparison to my personality. I make minimalist furniture, but in real life I like to be the life of the party – cracking jokes and being loud, and all that. So this project was really cathartic for me because I got to create something that was more in line with my personality and humor.

W: Hopefully you think so! That’s the driving force behind my work. Commercial or art practice, that’s my voice. It influences every decision I make. Does this feel like me? Is this funny? To quote George Strait, “I ain’t here for a long time, I’m here for a good time.”

6. What are some things you’ve learned about each other through this collaboration?

E: I’ve definitely learned that Will has a much better attitude than I do. If I don’t like the way something looks I get really sad or mad – Will has taught me how to turn that feeling into a learning moment and just go with the flow.

W: I appreciate good craft and skill-sets that aren’t my strong suit so working with other people is a way for to explore/entertain that. The admiration grows with each collaboration I do. People are awesome.

7. Besides creating for Alley-Oop, what else do you guys do together?

E: Uh, I guess we just hang out. Our wives have become friends too, so we all enjoy hanging out together. We don’t have a lot of free time with graduate school and everything, but we try to make time to drink beer, eat pizza and watch Jurassic Park.

W: Agreed. Our couples nights are a really good time! Lots of tasty food and hearty laughs. We hang out like pros!

Poketo presents Alley-Oop with Eric Trine and Will Bryant
Date: Saturday, February 16th
Time: 7-10pm
Location: Poketo Store LA, 820 E. 3rd Street, LA, 90013
(213)537-0751
The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.

This is one of the many upcoming profiles of our neighbors in the Arts District of LA. It’s an area of Downtown LA that has seen a huge explosion of growth recently. Residents, creative business’, artists, designers, and entrepreneurs have been moving into this once sleepy district. Everyone living and working here are naturally bonded, there is a strong sense of ownership, a sense of looking out for each other and supporting each other here to make sure our community thrives. Once an area that was mostly manufacturing and warehousing, it’s now a mix of artist studios, restaurants, coffee roasters, bars, cafes, boutiques, lofts and a renowned architecture school. We are seeing it grow and it’s nothing but exciting.

Poketo has been operating from a loft here since 2007, right before many of the current business’ moved in, right around the time change was happening…and if you may or may not have noticed on our Instagram, Poketo will be opening its first brick and mortar right here in the heart of it all. But, more on that later.

This is Jeremy of District Millworks. He runs a custom fabrication shop here in the Arts District, specializing in acquiring and breathing new life to reclaimed wood from across the country. Whether it’s wood from railroad depots in Alabama, old barn siding, bowling lanes in Nebraska, or old homes that no longer have a life… that wood ends up here at District Millworks. It’s right here in this seemingly cavernous, endless warehouse that he and his team design furniture and objects for homes, retail, restaurants, and commercial properties. Their latest endeavor, that newly opened, much talked about UMAMIcatessen in Downtown LA.

We got a rad tour of District Millworks… or rather, we ended up walking aimlessly and getting lost in the myriad of rooms in this huge space.

A view into the open sky courtyard…

We stumbled into areas most people won’t see. If you do go and visit (and you should), you’ll walk through their storefront showroom and will be instantly surrounded by beautiful, handcrafted furniture, tables, beds, and even a playful swing hung from 20 + foot tall ceilings. District Millworks designs and fabricates all their pieces here. You can pick what you like from their showroom, or you can come in with an idea… they’ll help you envision it… they’ll make it come to life.

More at DistrictMillworks.com.

You’ve seen our awesome Icon watch on Poketo.com. Now, we are introducing the Icon clock in flat black and matte white. With its metal stand, it’s perfect for the office desk or bedside. Beautiful. More details at Poketo.