RHYMES WITH LOVE
lon·dubh
noun, pronounced Lon-Dove;
blackbird
the londubh story
Londubh Studio (pronounced Lon-Dove/rhymes with love) was founded in Los Angeles in 2011 by Lisa Donohoe and Brynn Gelbard, two women dedicated to living life on the edge in full color and shimmer and whose art and surface designs are an unapologetic love letter to maximalism and glam. Specializing in the creation of custom art, surface designs and products for residential, commercial, hospitality and experiential spaces, Donohoe and Gelbard are a secret weapon of the design world, with some of the most notable names in the industry seeking them out for their pristine craftsmanship, unparalleled artistry, and boundless creativity.
Their work features painstakingly ornate 2D surfaces that over the years have included everything from building facades to diving boards, large-scale murals to bathtubs and every interior and exterior surface imaginable, each taking 100s of hours of meticulous handwork. “Surfaces are ultimately canvasses for expression,” says Gelbard “and through the convergence of art and design we have the opportunity to transform generic spaces and elevate the human experience.”
Their art has been showcased at national and international design exhibitions including Salone del Mobile in Milan (where Vogue highlighted their group installation as one of the top 8 to see that year), La Cienega Design Quarter LEGENDS and the Wattles Mansion Designer Showcase. Often engaged for specialty projects because of their mastery of material and technique, they are also responsible for facade restorations of the legendary Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles and the reinvigoration of original brick hallways in Frank Wynkoop’s 1951 Butterfly House in Carmel, as designed by Jamie Bush. They regularly collaborate with industry-leading designers like Nicole Hollis, with whom the pair recently completed a project in San Francisco as seen in Architectural Digest.
the duo
Lisa Donohoe, who grew up in Dublin, was an artist before anything else, heavily influenced by the cultural history of Ireland, Celtic and Medieval architecture and the country’s deep connection to the past - Londubh means “blackbird” in Gaelic. After relocating to San Francisco, she worked at Willem Racke Studio, where she learned all of the traditional decorative arts techniques on high-end residential and commercial projects for designers like Ken Fulk, Jay Jeffers and Peter Marino. There she became fascinated by materials like 24- and 23-karat gold leaf, leather, fine plaster work, natural waxes and glazes and how to use them in novel ways.
Brynn Gelbard grew up on the periphery of New York City, which she credits for exposing her to the vast array of art, design, and cultures that inspire her. While studying Environmental Studies and Psychology at Bowdoin College in Maine, she took her first architecture course, which as part of her major, required her to design sustainably. After graduation, she moved to San Francisco where her work in high end restaurants and on various commercial and independent productions honed her sense of design flow and utility. She also immersed herself in the LGBTQ rights movement, ultimately traveling around the US documenting other same-sex binational couples like herself and Lisa who were willing to share their struggle to remain together together in the US with the Defense of Marriage Act in place. It was when the US Supreme Court struck this law down that Gelbard finally began to work with Donohoe and became half of Londubh Studio.
As partners in life and in work, Donohoe and Gelbard ever egg each other on to push the boundaries of their craft. Using their materials in unexpected and pioneering ways to breathe new life into techniques that have been used for hundreds and even thousands of years, they delight in marrying tradition with their unapologetic maximalist style.
