Today we’d like to introduce you to Luis Zurita, Samy Ventura, and Brianda Rincon.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Luis, Samy, and Brianda. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Once upon a time in LA traffic, Luis and Samy were driving home from their 9-5 talking about usual nonsense and how they needed a hobby that didn’t include food and drinks (thats literally all we ever did). We are both graphic designers by trade and have always been creative people and wanted to find a creative project outside of the office. We decided to go to our third designer friend (this is where Brianda comes in) who we knew was just as crazy as us and ready to embark on this creative journey.
We knew we wanted to do something with our hands that took us out of the office environment. We decided to work with cement, we loved the idea of taking something industrial and rough and turning it into something beautiful. We started off by making cement planters using found objects, handmade molds and various supplies we had to lie around. After some trial and error and lots of late nights we had our first set of planters and knew we had something special. Thats when what started off as a hobby quickly became Unneeded Home Goods.
Why Unneeded Home Goods? You know when you are at the store and see something that catches your eye but you know you don’t really need it, but secretly you know you have to have it and will most likely walk out the store with it? Thats exactly what our goal was, we wanted to create home good items that were so cute you couldn’t resist.
We created our instagram account (@unneededco in case you want to follow) and started sharing photos of our product. We didn’t fully know what our plan from this point but we started immediately receiving a lot of positive feedback and excitement for our brand. A few weeks after we were contacted by an upcoming art fair who asked if we would like to be a part of their first ever LA holiday market. Although we had a small amount of inventory we ambitiously said yes and got to work. We had only 2 weeks to prep which included many long nights in the cold and lots of caffeine! The market was a huge success and we sold out..this reinforced our belief that Unneeded Home Goods was something special.
After that we hit the ground running and started developing our brand, working on new items and applying to various upcoming fairs. Before we knew it we had something planned every month and started getting contacted for bulk and custom orders. We have been so fortunate to have gotten such a great response and love for our brand and are so excited to continue growing and see where things go from here.
Has it been a smooth road?
Our biggest challenge has been a work-work-life balance. We are all still juggling our 9-5 jobs during the week, spending evenings and weekends working on Unneeded and trying to juggle a personal life. Luis decided to add the extra stress of planning his wedding on top of all that. We have been so lucky to have so much early success and sometimes finding the time to do all that we want to do has been difficult.
Our other challenge which we never saw coming in LA has been all the rain we’ve been getting. Since we mainly work outdoors it’s been difficult to find enough production days. And then, of course, we all get hangry which is never fun to deal with so we started stocking up on all the snacks.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Unneeded Home Goods offers 100% hand-crafted and homemade items. We specialize in cement products with a modern twist. We make things such as planters, photo clips, candle holders to name a few. While we mainly work with cement we have started to introduce other hand crafted items like tote bags, wooden displays and soon to be released pins and notebooks. Our most popular item would definitely be our mini planters, they always get the best reaction. They are small planters with baby succulents offered in a variety of shapes and colors.
We are most proud of being able to offer quality hand crafted items at an affordable price. We want to give our customers the opportunity to have some cool and unique one of a kind items. We are also proud that all our items are literally made by the three of us…if you buy our product you know that we created the items ourselves in our backyard and that each item is unique.
I think what sets us apart from others is the designer lens we put on all our products. We pride ourselves in having a product that is versatile and could be aesthetically pleasing to anyone. We use our backgrounds as graphic designers to choose patterns, colors and details that add a high-end and modern touch to all our items.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We love LA! We feel like there is such an appreciation for unique hand-crafted items here. Artisan fairs seem to be popping up more and more often and its such a growing community that the appeal for artisanal items is in high-demand.
We feel like people in LA are wanting to know where their products are coming from, who is making them and how are they made and we are able to offer that to them. We think LA is a great place for someone to start out because there are so many opportunities to share your product directly with your consumer… you can find a craft fair, flea market, farmers market, etc pretty much every weekend in LA.
Pricing:
- Mini Planter w/ Plant (various shapes and colors) – $8.00 – $9.00 Each
- Medium Planter w/Plant (various colors) – $12.00 – $15.00 Each
- Paw Print Photo Holder (perfect for pet photos) – $5.00 Each
- Tote Bag (various designs) – $10.00 Each
Contact Info:
- Phone: 323-612-5225
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unneededco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unneededco/
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/unneededCo
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
