Ruby Wants A Word with Luke Hippolyte..

A couple of weeks ago on Friday the 20th I was invited to the jewellery launch of new brand Stooki. One third of the design team is an old school friend of mine, Luke. I decided to grab him afterwards for a quick chat about his new project...

What's your name?

Luke Hippolyte

What do you do?

I'm 1/3 of Stööki which is an independent brand based in Europe, crafting jewellery and t-shirts that combine two design elements into one. I am head of Graphic Design at Stööki (www.stooki.co.uk). I also dj and music produce under the name LUKEY (lukeymusic.tumblr.com)

How did you get in to designing?

I have always had a passion for art and design and studied them throughout school and university. Since graduating I have put my skills into action on live projects. As graphic designer for Stööki I have branded the company and worked with the other members of the collective to visually communicate our ideas.

What are you working on at the moment?

Stööki has just launched its first collection Make Your Mark. The launch event was a major success with the designs being well received and everyone having lots of fun interacting with our installations and dancing to the Stööki sound. (http://www.redbull.co.uk/cs/Satellite/en_UK/Gallery/Stookie-Jewellery-Launch-Party-021243021776936). We have begun work on our second collection and intend to push the boundaries like we did with the mYm Collection. Musically I'm collaborating with Radio 1's steel city badman Toddla T on a track coming out on his new Red Bull mixtape.

How did the setting up of Stooki come about?

Quincey Williams who is Creative Strategist at Stööki is one of my best friends. He approached me to collaborate on a project that involved the fusion of jewellery and clothing, Nadia Abbas was also recruited as Jewellery Technologist and the Stööki collective was born. Stööki is a jewellery brand that combines street wear and art to create a new form of fashion jewellery. It’s a unisex brand that will challenge people's perception of what jewellery is and how it should be worn.

How did you choose the name?

Stööki started off as a pet name Quincey had as a baby and he liked the playful nature of it and applied it to the brand. It’s funny how in a few different countries it means a variety of things. In Jamaica it’s a dance created by a 12 year old called QQ; In Glasgow it means to give someone a head butt and in France it’s a nick name term for band-aid. When I found this out, I loved the random variety and different representations worldwide, which kind of reflects our diversity as a brand.

When designing where do you get your inspiration from?

In terms of Stööki our main source of inspiration is youth culture: our friends and peers, the lifestyles they lead, their characters and the way they express themselves creatively. Especially for our first collection as Make Your Mark is all about self expression and the various ways in which you do that.


Where do you hope Stooki to be in five years time?

I'm really excited for Stööki. It's only the beginning for us and we have so many ideas in terms of future designs, different ways to apply the brand and interesting engagement events. We have done so much in 4 months it's hard to say where we will be in five years. I would like to get our own studio together as a collective and possibly a shop to be part of that five year journey. I also love the idea of collaborating with our favourite artists and brands and look forward to doing so.

When you are not designing what do you spend your free time doing?

I have equal love for design and music. When i'm not designing chances are I'm doing something music related. I music produce/dj and have a radio show on Shoreditch Radio called Superflex (http://shoreditchradio.co.uk/show/superflex/). Other than that I'm spending time with family & friends and enjoying life!

What music are you listening to at the moment?

Night Slugs, Hessle Audio, big fan of Boiler Room at the moment.

Are there any music/club nights that you go to regularly?

The Bang Bang, Hipsters Dont Dance, Living Proof, Work It

And finally tell us three things that you are looking forward to this year?

1) I'm looking forward to all things Stööki
2) This year has already had some great surprises I look forward to a few more.
3) The summer festivals! Catch me at Field Day ;o)

Introducing Ema Wakeford, 23, the clever head behind 'Live Love London'

Ema, describe yourself in no more than 12 words…
Drinker, addictive, thinker, analyser, musician, liker of smart people, ambitious, & alright...

Now tell us a little bit about what Live Love London does...
We are a PR & Events organisation which features contributors of all sorts from within the creative industries. We aim to facilitate showcasing girls and boys who have the talent but don’t necessarily have the funds or resource. For that reason they’re prepared to get stuck in and want to learn and grow from one and other as well as achieving additional exposure and success as a by-product.

Our events are set-up with the mindset of ‘let’s bring everyone backstage’. They recreate the creative process to allow guests to see how everyone is involved in creating the final result. Live photography shoots, on set hair and make-up, green rooms, outtakes, knitting machines, changing rooms, paint, music, wires, art gallery, alcohol, studios warehouses, mistakes exposed.

How did this all come about?
In Hollywood last year working as a writer I got involved with a young PR team whose work ethos I hadn’t worked with or seen before. Proactively giving everyone a leg up, rather than running each other and the competition into the ground, and it worked. Everyone had so many doors being opened for them daily.

I wanted to apply this approach to events once back in London. Bringing people on board to share their talent with everyone, whether matching photographers with models, artists with AV companies, theres the opportunity to help people and be helped in return and ultimately and importantly getting recognition in the press and media, and other faster because of it; big talent, big hearts, big ambitions to round it up.

Tell us bit about some of the other people involved…
I brought on two others to grow Live Love London with me. They both have very different skill sets, one very much business minded, great speaker skills and then miss chatter box and promo genius, but both endlessly creative, and lovers of late nights, wine, and brainstorming....the key. Meet Miss Sandberg & Miss Murdoch.

Our contributors began with those close to us whom we knew, bringing in photographer and digital artist Nathen Atia and graphic design/playboy bunny in training Rose Woodward. From then we enlisted friend and digital web developer Jason Michael whom co-designed and built the website with us. Photographers, hair stylists, make-up artists, stylists, musicians and venues to name a few skills are now in the LLL mix; abstract, amazing, and multi coloured.

In terms of building a business model, was there anyone who helped you get to know the ropes?
Working in and out of events whilst working as a writer, once I had this idea and was back in the UK I worked full time for an events and marketing company to learn the budgeting, P&L, and so other side of coin, so I understood what I was talking about and what others in the industry were advising me! Although my creative ambitions tend to win over my realistic business considerations it’s important to me to have a balance of both.

What's the personal motivation behind this project?
To have a creative family around me; I always want to be inspired and get annoyed at the time I’ve lost being bored and numb. And vitally I want to help, or facilitate artists and talent working together, like producers helped me as a writer by lending days to me as an unknown writer/artist. To be around bloody hard workers and for it to be free and fun for those involved...two things that also majorly motivate me...

What has been the biggest hurdle you've come up against?
Getting people to believe in the idea before I had the website up, it was hard to explain the idea and for people to understand, but now it’s up and it’s growing, and we’ve got a great blog, and twitter thanks to everyone’s daily musings, people are behind the idea. If I am honest I didn’t care that people couldn’t see through the smoke or were overly pessimistic. Other than that, getting sponsorships, funding, its hard work as we are a new company, but there’d be no fun or worthwhile reward in it if it wasn’t.

What's been your proudest moment so far?
Launching the website! It sounds so small, but seeing everything come to life visually and the hours we’d spent pouring pen over paper copywriting to mean something and even make sense to visitors was satisfying! That was February ‘11, and the first week we secured into the thousands of site views.

Each interview and blog shout, or magazine feature for one of our contributors excites me endlessly!

Annnd finally, one year down the line, where do you want Live Love London to be?
Ever stronger; full of vibrant new contributors and have a great team of sponsors and partners for our varying events. I want us to be an up and coming name, and recognised for our business model, super talented girls and boys and innovative, ever so alcohol fuelled, bloody good events.

BIG LOVE to the Live Love London team, crew and contributors and hot ass team at Ruby Pseudo.