Design Destinations | 251 | The Beautiful Year That Was

2019 was an amazing year for me personally and professionally. A breakthrough year, really. Convo By Design was recorded from the home studio, sure, but we were on the road as well. These design road trips took me, and you all over Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. We started with a trip to Las Vegas for the 2019 edition of KBIS. If you haven’t been to KBIS before, a word of advice, wear comfortable shoes. This is one of the biggest design focused events I have attended. I must have walked 4 miles a day and seen every new kitchen and bath product known to man. I talked to so many amazing people. I wanted to share my chat with Billy Peele with Mockett. This is a small Southern California company with some creative architectural solutions for age old design challenges. I thought you might enjoy hearing about this… 1. Billy Peele of Mockett From Vegas, it was off to Modernism Week in Palm Springs. I had the chance to catch up with a ton of remarkable and creative people and this year, I had the honor of recording from the SIA (Save Iconic Architecture) Party at the Cary Grant Estate. Catching up with some old friends and making some new ones. Here’s what that sounded like. First with long time friend of the show, Patrick Dragonette. Patrick was the president of the LaCienega Design Quarter and owner of Dragonette, LTD. His showroom in said design district. We covered a lot of ground here, 2. Patrick Dragonette Next was a fun chat with Ron Woodson and Jamie Rummerfield, the creative and intellectual force behind Woodson & Rummerfeilds House of Design and co-founders of SIA. 3. and 4. Ron Woodson and Jamie Rummerfield 2 If that wasn’t enough, I had the chance to catch up with Peter Gurski, interior designer and set decorator, responsible for the look of Will & Grace. 5. Peter Gurski Finally, it was off to El Paseo for an amazing afternoon at the Cambria Surfaces showroom. Here are a few of the highlights including; 6. Adele Cygelman talking about her book about noted designer, Arthur Elrod. 7. Dann Foley Before I left Modernism Week, I had to make a stop by the Christopher Kennedy Compound. I spoke with Christopher about the project this year. 8. Christopher Kennedy This was so much fun and was the very first Design Influencer Group meeting. The Design Influencer & Innovator Group as its now known is series of events that include designers, architects and others from the design and architecture space for the purpose of networking in a meaningful way, sharing information and helping each other do better work while making more for that work. A novel concept, right? Since that first gathering in Palm Springs last January, over 70 creatives have participated and shared their expertise. This is Kristi Nelson from an event at the Tidelli showroom in the pacific Design Center 9. Kristi Nelson 10. Micehelle Salz-Smith 11. Gary Gibson These DIG events are so much fun, and incredibly rewarding… Speaking of rewarding, the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts was fantastic this year. This was my third year covering the Pasadena Showcase, here is a clip. 12. Robert Frank The LaCienega Design Quarter’s LEGENDS event was blast this year. I had the chance to interview 38 of the 43 designers who crafted some of the astounding showroom windows. I actually rode my bike between LaCienega from Santa Monica Blvd to Melrose by the PDC, almost got hit about 5 times and covered about 80 miles during the week. Earlier in this episode, you heard Patrick Dragonette mention some of the amazing designers, here they are… 13. Alex Papachristidis 14. Jeff Andrews 15. Peti Lau 16.