Larry Luk Talks Design, Sneakers, and His New Grateful Dead Collection With TGR

Larry Luk showing off the new threads he designed for TGR.

Out of all the zoom interviews I've done the last few months, designer and illustrator Larry Luk takes the coolest home office award. At first glance, it feels like you're at an exhibit about pop culture on display at Atlanta's Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Posters are celebrating the local Atlanta sports teams in one corner of the room, and on the other side of the room, there are all kinds of Grateful Dead memorabilia. There's also Luk’s colorful artwork hung here and there. Oh, not to mention he has an impressive collection of one-of-a-kind sneakers, too. This all matters because it says a lot about Luk's unique artistic style. It draws inspiration from pop culture, and he has a knack for blending streetwear fashion with an Andy Warhol aesthetic. As someone who's handled branding and marketing for all kinds of brands, Luk knows a thing or two about what makes a design sing. Hence why we're so fired up to be working with him.

His "neon process" style is especially evident in his recent Teton Gravity Research x Grateful Dead apparel collection. Inspired by his dream summer vacation—a road trip to Wyoming with good friends—Luk designed a collection of shirts that feel plucked right from a Dead and Company festival show. The art exudes nostalgia for summer evenings spent listening to live music and having a good adventure with your closest friends. We could all use a little bit of this energy right now, amirite?

Click Here to Shop the Collection

We sat down with the man himself to nerd out about design, Grateful Dead, and hear his thoughts about sneakers. Here's what he had to say:

Can you start by telling me a bit about yourself and your background?

Larry Luk: Yeah, where to start. I grew up in Texas and then I came to Atlanta to attend Emory University. I had a great college experience, but I was always into the arts and ended up getting a Liberal Arts Degree. From there, I got a job at a print shop that did large and small format advertisements for big brands in town—like Coca-cola.

I was the kid in the back, cutting out the brochures or operating machines that cut a thousand sheets of paper at once. Right away, I started thinking, 'I'm getting to see all this stuff I want to work on, but how do I get on the other side of this?' I wanted to be the one designing the graphics. One of my co-workers suggested I go to design school, and I ended up studying at a design school called The Portfolio Center. From there, I stayed plugged in with the design scene, and I still work as a graphic designer at my day job.

In addition to his work as a designer, Luk loves to create screen printed posters like this one.

But you're not just a graphic designer; you also do a lot with streetwear, correct?

LL: Yeah, while I was at Portfolio Center, my friends and I decided to get really into streetwear because we've always been interested in art and skateboard culture. So streetwear felt natural to us, and we decided to make our own t-shirts and baseball caps—we called it We Are the Process. This side passion was how I connected with TGR's Brian Francis.

We called the brand; We Are the Process because I didn't know how to create a brand. So we were figuring out as we went along. The name is also a reference to printing processes like CMYK color. In printing, if you combine Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and black, they can make other colors. That's always kind of stuck with me. I love combining those pure process colors, and I drew some inspiration from it for this collection I did for TGR. It's also a common theme you see in a lot of my work too. I love seeing how bright reds, magentas, and blues can overlap and create new colors.

Yeah, the collection you created for TGR has an Andy Warhol vibe to it. Are there other artists you draw inspiration from?

LL: Yeah, Warhol is a big inspiration. I was also a huge Picasso fan when I was a kid. A Picasso exhibit came through town when I was younger, and I guess that's what stuck with me when I was a young kid. I'm also inspired by the eighties and nineties pop culture nostalgia.

For example, I'm a huge fan of Atlanta because that's where I live. I think it's crazy that we hosted the Olympics here in '96. You wouldn't consider an event that would take place in Atlanta; you would think a city like LA, Chicago, or New York would have hosted it. So I think it's pretty cool. It puts Atlanta on the stage where we were the focus of the world for a few weeks in 1996. I'm proud of that., I collect a lot of stuff from that Olympics, specifically ticket stubs from the USA gold medal basketball game. I'm obsessed that Atlanta was the focus of the world for a moment, and I love to celebrate this city in my work. It's why I support all of our teams, artists, and anything coming out of Atlanta. I'm proud of how we show up on the world stage.

It wouldn't be a Larry Luk design without a little neon.

It's cool to think about how design and art are connected with things like sports.

LL: Totally. Yeah, I have a hard time talking to people that say, 'Oh, I don't like sports because I'm more focused on creative things,' or vice versa. You don't need to be a jock to appreciate sports. The world has them blending. For example, I can't watch a soccer game and not pay attention to the uniforms and the design of even the ads that go by on the screen. I think all of that is built into being able to participate in the broader sense of culture. I don't know how to separate the two, and they're all just totally infused.

Yeah. I think that's especially true with sports like skiing, snowboarding, surfing, etc. There's this huge cultural identity component to it.

LL: Yeah. You can be a great surfer skater, but I think style matters a lot. People remember style. That blends over to the graphics, you know, the boards or shorts an athlete uses; it's all about how an athlete wears it. It's all designed. It's all there.

I talked to a client the other day about how, I guess we were talking about skateboarding specifically—but skating, surfing, snowboarding, and skiing feel like these cool kids, and whatever they're doing is always a few years ahead of the rest of mainstream culture. It always takes them a few years to catch up. By then, these sports are onto something else.

Tell me about your passion for sneakers.

LL: I've just always been into sneakers. It was kind of a way to be literally and figuratively in the shoes of my idols. I've always been a massive fan of Andre Agassi. He was a great tennis player, but what he was wearing was boundary-pushing. He would break the dress code every time he showed up, and shoes were just one way of me being able to say, 'Hey, mom and dad, I want to dress like Andre Agassi.' So I guess that's where it started for me.

The entire collection from Larry Luk.

There's almost an interesting parallel with the outdoor world because we're such gear nerds. You know, and I think a lot of that's driven by seeing what athletes are wearing or using. So in a way, it's all the same, but just through different mediums.

LL: Yeah. It's kind of like looking at someone who's fantastic at what they do and trying to pick out their style's nuance. I think that part of it comes down to how they dress.

How did your love of sneakers blend into your art?

LL: I mean, I look at sneakers as if they're works of art. I'm fascinated by the design and the decision making that goes into it. A lot of times, the most boundary-pushing or genre-pushing sneaker silhouettes are what catch my eye. If it's something I've never seen before, then I want to study it. I like to look at the form, understand it more, and draw it; it helps me know what that designer thought when they designed the shoe.

Can you tell me about the work you do now at Son and Sons?

LL: Yeah, I'm the principal designer at an agency called Son and Sons. I like being able to have so much brain space dedicated to helping clients that want to make the world a better place. One of our biggest clients right now is in the solar energy space. I love the fact that all this work I'm doing is going to help the world. When I'm not designing for Son and Sons, I like to dedicate the rest of my time to doing weird projects for myself that don't necessarily need to make money or don't necessarily need to get individual impressions on social media or whatever. It's just to make myself happy.

Yeah. That balance is essential. Your design portfolio has a lot of really different stuff. What do you think makes a compelling design or an exciting brand?

LL: Oh man, I guess a compelling brand needs to communicate effectively and very quickly. Sometimes you might be able to notice a color or shape and understand that's the brand. You know, you don't even see the logo, but you come across a secondary brand element, and you can make connections back to it. For example, if you showed me like a turtle and a rainbow, I'd be like, Oh, that's probably the Grateful Dead. Oh. I think that's what makes the Grateful Dead so attractive because their visual catalog is so robust.

What's your favorite: Black or white? And if you can't decide, you can always get both.

That's a great segue because you did this huge Grateful Dead collaboration with TGR, and what was the catalyst behind the work?

LL: Obviously, it was a lot harder to travel this year, and one of my biggest regrets is I didn't get to see the band on tour this year. So if I had my ideal situation, I'd love to go on a road trip to Wyoming and catch the band. That was the basis for the project, and I just started dreaming, what would happen along the way? We'd probably stay at a motel. We probably go hiking. We probably, you know, somebody would get a little bit too twisted to take care of them. So there's a little bit of storytelling with all the small icons I drew.

Yeah. The pieces have a lot of energy and feel like something you would get at a show. I love that you brought in classic kinds of Wyoming themes to it, too as well.

LL: Yeah. I wanted the art to draw inspiration from the Tetons. So it's a blend of western nostalgia and my style, which is more pop art inspired.

You're a huge fan of The Dead. How did you discover them, and why do they mean so much to like yourself and your work?

LL: Yeah, I guess you would call me a newer fan. I've been into them for about four years, which isn't typical for most Dead fans. I think many people grow up with the music because their parents listened to them and it's like passed down. I had always seen the imagery around cause it's everywhere. So on top of the music, I was trying to understand why it connected with people so much. I've never had a bad interaction with someone from the Grateful Dead community.

The music is also so inviting. I've been to the Dead and Company shows, of course, and people will be so willing to hang out with you, walk through the Shakedown Street with you, or share old stories about when they saw the band on tour in the seventies and eighties. It just feels like there's no gate-keeping with it. It's a free world to explore and discover on your own, and that's what I've done. I just kind of dove in headfirst and found out that so many of my friends are also into it.

It's the little details like this that make Luk's collection unique.

Yeah, it's interesting because everyone I've talked to about The Dead, the vibe and culture feel inclusive. Which I think is refreshing compared to a lot of things.

LL: Yeah. You could say—especially in the last four years of the world—many things feel divisive. Whereas being a member of the dead community is one of the most inclusive things you can do.

Once you dip your toe in and learn about the music, it opens up a million other doors, and then you're immersed in it, And then you find, like ten different people that want to tell you more or want to share more with you. There's no gate-keeping, which I keep saying it's so refreshing. I love it.

I heard you listened to a handful of past Grateful Dead shows while designing this collection. Which shows spoke to you and why?

LL: I mostly listened to the seventies shows because I gravitated towards their sound during that era. There were also a few shows from Atlanta, which I wanted to hear because I'm just kind of interested in what happened here in Atlanta before I lived here. I thought that was a cool way of connecting with that moment in time. For example, one of the shows was in 1969 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Apparently, it was like some impromptu show that just happened. I don't think they even played like a full set. It was like they drove their van up, unloaded some speakers and just started playing. It's fun to read recounts from people who were there. They'll say things like, 'I just hopped in a van with some friends, and we showed up at the park, and it turns out there were all these other people there to see the band.'

I don't know the music influenced the work directly, but they were the– shows that felt the likeliest to induce creativity. I just had those on a big loop while I was drawing and working on the designs.

About The Author

Follow

stash member Katie Lozancich

TGR Staff Writer and photographer. Fond of bikes, pow, and dogs. Originally from Northern CA, home for me has ranged from the PNW to a teepee in Grand Teton National Park.