Principal, Mike Brown is a storyteller - a creative director of live experiences, a designer-artist-architect of immersive environments.
Educated in art history, literature, theater and architecture, Mike launched his professional career as a stage designer for theater in 1996. With impassioned conviction that the live experience of the spaces we observe, engage and interact with is the most compelling design medium, Mike launched Lot71 in 2004.
Mike has since charted a striking career path to designing and producing highly diverse, narrative environments for an esteemed clientele in fashion, luxury and retail - LVMH, Bulgari, Swarovski, Isaac Mizrahi, Uniqlo / Fast Retailing, Diesel, Hugo Boss, Sixty SpA, Target, Thakoon, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas Y-3, EURO RSCG, KCD, Collins and more.
With relentless imagination, unwavering creative integrity, and work anchored in language, story and space, Mike has established a resonant New York presence as Creative Director, Designer and Principal of Lot71.
To capture the span and diversity of Lot71's work, the name references both an empty space as well a work of art up for auction. The environments the group designs are more aptly considered sculptures or interior architecture that transform over time.
Thriving on the catalytic moment of discovering core visual languages of brand-driven design narratives, the group amplifies their resonance through uniquely crafted systems, components and detailing. They employ methods by which a designed space will unfold and reveal itself as the viewer engages.
Untethered by limits of industry or style, the group creates work that deftly opens eyes and provokes conversation - immersive environments that manifest strikingly innovative live experiences and amplify the relationship between people and brands.
Principal Mike Brown has a tireless conviction that there ought to be a vibrant renaissance of design anchored by the live experience between people - in culture, in commerce, in urban life, in the arts, in lifestyle, etc. He brings this sensibility to all of Lot71's work, because physical spaces are rich with potential for story telling and are inherently valuable design media, themselves.
The group's process begins with a consideration of story and the ensuing designed experience, as they aim to discover core narrative languages from where all of the design systems and detailing will emerge. This all originates in great sensitivity to language and space, and how the live presence of people interacting within will ‘complete the picture,’ or ‘cast the experience.’