Talking Shop With Haily Zaki
9.15.2020
Meet Haily Zaki, creator of the LA Design Festival and founder of Secret Agent, a creative communications agency. We spoke with her about the evolution of her career, how she’s pivoted this year’s LA Design Festival in the face of Coronavirus, and her thoughts on the future of the design industry. Read more below, then head over to our IGTV @rowdtla for our 'At Home With' feature with Haily, and see where the magic happens.
ROW: Can you tell us more about what it was like to launch the LA Design Festival in 2011? What was the industry like at that time and how did you recognize the opportunity to create this event?
HZ: When I co-founded the Festival back in 2011 with Michael Sylvester, we were both working with Dwell on Design, which at the time was the largest design show on the West Coast. There was so much happening in LA at the time, and there was a sense of excitement - in the words of the amazing Gere Kavanaugh - “just bubbling up.” I think we recognized that a trade show environment was cost prohibitive to some of the smaller, independent designers and studios, and we weren’t necessarily getting the full picture of LA’s creative scene on the show floor of the convention center. So, as almost more of a social experiment, the LA Design Festival started off small, very crowd-sourced, and more of a calendar aggregator.
ROW: How have you seen LA Design Festival evolve year over year from a grassroots effort into an internationally-recognized design event?
HZ: Over time, it grew organically thanks entirely to LA’s creative communities. We realized that there was a demand, and a need for the LA Design Festival; a collective moment on the calendar. Other cities around the world have design weeks and festivals, LA just really deserved one too! There was just this critical mass of exciting design happening here, and the Festival just seeks to reflect that energy and excitement.
ROW: What is it about LA that makes it such a global design capital?
HZ: Sunshine? Space? I’m kidding. Honestly, I think LA has always been a creative capital. This city has such an amazing design culture. We’ve gone through waves of evolution, I suppose. The difference this time is that the rest of the world is seeing it now. And wants to move here.
ROW: What are some mainstream trends that you can trace back to specific LA designers?
HZ: That’s a hard one to pinpoint. I think the thing that’s amazing about LA is its diversity. I feel like if you pick any one of the design disciplines that make up the creative economy in LA (architecture, graphic design, experiential design, interior design, furniture design, etc.), you can definitely find a few trends that originated here in LA.
ROW: Are there any trends you’ve come across or designers you’ve been working with lately that you are super excited about?
HZ: I love the collaborative nature of LA. And the fact that everyone is a multihyphenate. It’s exciting to see designers integrating technology, exploring new materiality, and the rediscovery of the natural. Our theme this year for the LA Design Festival is Design for the Future, and we are excited to see how the design community interprets this.
ROW: A big topic these days: how do you see the coronavirus affecting the future of design?
HZ: Design is ultimately about problem solving, so I’m sure that we’re going to see innovation coming out of this very difficult and weird time. Several of our talks are focused on these future-forward crystal ball predictions; the Future of Restaurants, the Future of Workplace, the Future of the Music Video, etc.
ROW: LADF will be mostly online this year because of quarantine. Can you tell us more about this year's approach to communicating design without the IRL experience?
HZ: This is uncharted territory for all of us. The beauty of the LA Design Festival is how it brings people together. We’re embracing the virtual and trying to bring people together as best as we can in this new way. Our Design Block Party will be a total social experiment. Installations will be on view IRL at ROW DTLA as vitrines. And our hope is that by hosting talks virtually, this will give people an opportunity to interact more personally with the speakers. Honestly, who knows. This could be amazing and fun, or it could be very weird. You will just have to log on to see what you all think!
ROW: Is there an installation or session that you are MOST excited about this year?
HZ: What is it with all these tough questions? So hard to answer. I’m very excited about the new Out & About tours. Through the magic of video, we’ll get to “hang out” with interesting Angelenos. The conversations will all be fascinating. And I’m so thrilled that we’ll be able to have a physical presence at ROW DTLA with a series of vitrines. But I’m definitely super looking forward to that sound bath on Sunday, because it means I can finally sleep.
ROW: How has it been working from home? How have you designed your space to separate work and home life?
HZ: I’ve worked from home before so it wasn’t such a bad transition. But homeschooling three kids, I’m sorry, doing “distance learning” from home with three kids at the same time, has been pretty brutal. I’ve created a home office of sorts where I sit with the two little ones, while my older son has taken over my old desk. And my private conference room is my bathroom. But thank god for Snap Cam….I never wash my face anymore. Snap Cam does all the hard work for you. :)
ROW: What’s your favorite way to take a break from it all and de-stress?
HZ: Surfing is my meditation.
ROW: Since design and commerce go hand in hand, our last questions are on shopping. What’s your favorite resource for finding affordable, uncompromised design? And, if you had an unlimited budget, which store would you buy everything from?
HZ: DIMS is the BEST for quality, simple furniture. I assembled my stuff at 6am without coffee or instructions. It was that simple and well-designed.If I had an unlimited budget, Roche Bobois, any and all things Italian.