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.

One of our Forest Fables artist, Kristina Collantes is one amazingly talented artist whom we’ve admired for a long time. So when she emailed us last fall, we jumped at the chance to work with her. We love her beautiful landscape and fantastical landscapes she created for us in the wallets and mousepad.

For our Illustrated Interview series, We asked her a several questions and asked her to illustrate the answers and we got some interesting answers. See if you can figure out for yourself.

Check out her work for Poketo here.
Find out more about Kristina here.

We love this illustrated interview with artist, Andrea Kang. It perfectly wraps up her cute style. If you don’t know, the original artwork of the Poketo wallet and mousepad are skilled, intricate cutouts from paper. Andrea’s art is part of The Forest Fables series, full of whimsy, nature, and mystery. Why are Andrea’s girls dancing in a circle together? What are they celebrating? How do they get along so well with wolves? All I know is that I want to be in their world.

Check out Andrea Kang’s wallet and the entire Forest Fables series here.
Click here to see Andrea’s Poketo mousepad.
More from Andrea Kang at AndreaKang.com.

Sometimes, we like to break it up a bit and introduce our artists in the form of as illustrated interviews, illustrated by the talented artists themselves!

First up in our Forest Fables series is Glaswegian artist, Lesley Barnes. When Lesley reached out to collaborate with Poketo, we couldn’t have been more thrilled!

Check out the Lesley’s Poketo wallet here. And, her mousepad for Poketo here.
More from Lesley Barnes here!

Meet Lesley!