Stroll through Echo Park
After settling in to Silver Lake, we met with LA Design Week founder Holland Denvir and toured the Eastside design scene. This is LADW’s third year, and “our goal is really to share with residents and visitors everything that’s local—artist studios, galleries you might not know about, workshops, woodworking shops, welding shops. It’s a really good picture of what’s going on,” Danville said. We only saw a fraction of it, as this year’s event spanned more than 15 communities and involved 130 designers, studios, galleries and brands. It’s not fussy at all. “We believe there won’t be groups because groups prevent you from discovering and progressing — it’s the energy of experts versus newbies, and we don’t want that,” explains LADW co-founder and creative director Meghan McNeer. “We’re in the wild west and we’re the dreamers. So let’s get people out on the street, let’s give them places they already know, but next door, we can discover them in a furniture showroom, a collaborative exhibition with independent makers, and artist Peter Shire , a studio known for boundary-pushing work in fine art, ceramics and industrial design. When asked why he was drawn to bright colors and interesting patterns, he said, “It’s a mystery. You’re doing it and, you know, after a while you do it more and then you become famous for it and people want you to just do it. You’re constantly trying to figure out where it’s coming from…but honestly, it makes me feel good. It’s really that simple.”