The Hollywood Bowl is probably one of my favorite places in Los Angeles – music, nature, creativity swirling outdoors under the stars – who wouldn’t love it?! You can imagine how thrilled I was when the Hollywood Bowl asked me to design the derivative products for the 2023 Jazz Festival!!! It was a dream collaboration. I was so inspired that I immediately started drawing with a black Sharpie. Although I was never afraid of color, I first wanted to conceptualize the designs in black and white to see what appealed to me graphically. I wanted to include elements that represented the music, artists, audiences, and iconography of Los Angeles to give the designs a sense of place. Here are some of my first sketches.
We ultimately went with these (below) and added other elements and lots of bright, fun colors to make the designs pop! My designs were inspired by the free, improvisational nature of jazz music and the natural elements that symbolize Los Angeles and the Hollywood Bowl, including palm trees, the sun, shells and stars. I wanted the art to represent not only the music and the musicians, but also the community. The dots sticking out of the Hollywood Bowl shell represent the audience. The call and response between the audience and the musicians explodes into a magical spectacle. The hand-drawn letters, geometric shapes and spirals recall the Art Deco style that was prevalent during the era of the rise of jazz. And the good, funky, fun vibes that emanate from the art – well, that’s the “Justina spice” that I can’t help but sprinkle into everything I do! I hope this makes you want to dance!
The Hollywood Bowl team (shout out to Janice Bartczak and Melissa Achten!!) – just like our team at Jungalow – is small but mighty. It was so cool to work with a team as nimble as ours and iterate on designs as we went along. Janice and Melissa even came to the Jungalow Pop Up launch party (more on that in the next blog post!) and invited us to the Jazz Festival a few days later. I’m so grateful to be cultivating a more creative community!
It was such a trip to see so many beautiful people walking around with the merch! It felt like art and creativity connected us all to each other. The Hollywood Bowl team also had the brilliant idea of adding BUCKET HATS to the merchandise line! How cute are they?!?! PS They were sold in 4 hours!!! 
It was so surreal to see my designs IRL in an iconic Los Angeles landmark. Still floating on cloud nine after all this experience!!!
Thank you so much to the Hollywood Bowl for this opportunity and for inviting me and my family to this year’s Jazz Festival! Discover the entire collection here.
