Shop Friends: Meghan Dorrian

Features

November 15, 2024

"I love studying how materials come together, at any scale. I have had a slightly non-traditional architectural path in working at metal fabrication shops before starting YAC. This heavily influenced my creative thinking process, studying just one material at a time and understanding there are a thousand ways to execute a single joint."

Our longtime friend Meghan Dorrian is a designer and architect based in Oakland, CA. She’s the co-founder of Young America Creative, an architecture firm focusing primarily on single family residences and small business buildouts. She’s been a close friend of ILE since our early days, and owns bags from various eras of the brand as well as some unique experimental pieces. We recently visited Meghan at one of her jobsites to learn more about her backstory and creative process, and see some pieces from her famed ILE collection. Check out our interview below:

Meghan, tell us a bit about yourself and what you do for a living.

Hi - I'm Meghan Dorrian - I am a designer based in Oakland, California and the co-founder of Young America Creative (YAC). We are a small firm started by two friends; we grew up together in Santa Cruz and both went to college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. We primarily focus on single family residential architecture and restaurant / coffee shop buildouts. We also design & foil press posters - we have three designs out currently on a variety of paper types.

What does your creative process look like? What are some current projects you're working on?

I love studying how materials come together, at any scale. I have had a slightly non-traditional architectural path in working at metal fabrication shops before starting YAC. This heavily influenced my creative thinking process, studying just one material at a time and understanding there are a thousand ways to execute a single joint. I try not to get overwhelmed by the options out there practicing architecture and keep it simple and focus on the quality of crafts(wo)manship. Easier said than done.

At the moment we are very fortunate to be building several ground up residences which will be completed in 2024 and 2025. Our dream projects endeavor to create spaces which bring people closer to their outdoor environment. We would love to build infrastructure that coaxes us all to explore the edges of land/water - a floating pool in the Bay, anyone?

What ILE pieces are you carrying? How do they complement your daily life?

ILE4LYFE - Informally Eric and I trade design ideas for bags; i.e. design layout & reconfiguration of the store / workshop for experimental bags. I feel like I have the advantage here on the product receiving side of this relationship and my contribution to him typically means more work for him!

My everyday carry is a one-of-a-kind ILE backpack that is all black, the way architects like it, a mix of black waxed canvas and black XPAC. It was designed to be a super slim, sleek bag for carrying my iPad, drawing implements, keys, and phone. It has a hard handle and the most minimal backpack straps. About half the time I carry it by the handle and the other half over my shoulders. I cram way more things in there than intended by the design. I love this bag and urge ILE to make it part of the line!

Additionally I have a Minimal Tote in MultiCam Black X50 XPAC that I love, it fits everything you could physically carry in a bag. A very early Apex in White VX21 XPAC that has been all around the world, still holding up, despite its distance traveled and a raccoon invasion in search of some hiking snacks.

I also have quite a few other custom / one-off weird bags. The most unique being a bag designed to carry our booth display on an airplane that looks quite a bit like a ski bag or golf club bag, and I check it as such on most trips. Still waiting on a soccer cleat bag though - the fans are waiting!