Studio Visit | Slowdown Studio, Los Angeles
We first became aware of Slowdown Studio when we were approaching painter Jonathan Ryan Storm to work on a collaborative print edition together and noticed he had worked with Slowdown to produce a killer blanket from one of his trippy, black and white designs (it has long since sold out, woomp woomp). When we headed to their Highland Park studio recently and after we had played the obligatory, Australian who-do-you-know-in-common game, founder Marc Hendrick shared with us the story behind how they got started and what’s coming next.
Marc has a background in architecture, graphic design, web design, branding, you name it and basically knows good looking work when he sees it. He launched Slowdown with the format of inviting artists and designer he admired to partner on pieces for a range of blankets (which is steadily growing to include more and home and soft furnishings). Artists not only sharing in a portion of sales but having their work exposed to a crazy broad audience that Slowdown has built up around the world. Marc also had the genius idea a few years ago to start #slowdownartcomp through IG, where emerging artists can enter their designs for the chance at future collaborations. As of writing, there are over 10K tagged photos on that hashtag and there are some truly gorgeous submissions, a handful of which Slowdown has included in their range.
Up next is an expansion to their gorgeous floor rug range, some brand new designs for their staple woven blankets and since Marc recently became a dad, I imagine some additions to their adorable kid’s range too. Thanks for having us, Marc!
