“You can’t panic when you’re doing something fun,” Anne Laughlin, Dillie co-founder, smiled at Jacobo Lumbreras, her co-founder and business partner, through the screen. They’re both working from home during the pandemic, trying to help brands and creatives make their mark in the ever-competitive product sphere.
Fun is what they want for themselves, for their clients, for their clients’ customers. It’s why they named it Dillie in the first place. Laughlin and Lumbreras were poolside in Los Angeles with friends when Lumbreras, a native of Spain, heard Laughlin use the phrase “dilly dally” and asked her what it meant. The product engineer and ever-curious LA transplant loved hearing American phrases and searching for a translation in his native tongue. By the time Laughlin was finished explaining, they knew they were onto something.
Dillie, their current brainchild, is the second brainchild for Lumbreras. He previously co-founded the company Catalog after a decade in the tech world. Catalog is where he met Anne, who’d just moved to San Francisco from New York City, where she’d worked for iconic brands like Estee Lauder and Ralph Lauren. Wherein Catalog set out to create a platform that helped brands commission low-cost, quick photo production, Dillie is perhaps the precocious younger sibling that doesn’t just want things quickly and cost-effectively — but glittering and precise. It’s the perfect service.
At Catalog, Lumbreras and Laughlin realized how many e-commerce brands needed a way to create commercial photoshoots without all of the old-school hubbub around what a “production” entails. Laughlin, after years of being backstage at New York Fashion Week (happily, might I add — when you meet her, you can tell right away she’s the type that can hack it with a smile on her face) knows what an all-out production looks like in fashion and beauty.
“It’s chaotic, it’s overwhelming, it’s everything you could imagine,” she’s saying when Lumbreras jumps in. “With Anne, she looks at chaos and sees a perfect path that pleases everyone. It’s seamless, it’s simple… she’s the hardest worker I know.”
It’s the chaos they want to simplify for their brands. When they meet with brands, they’re up front about what they provide. It’s a way for companies to outsource innovative commercial production, without relinquishing control over to a creative agency that wants to turn ideas upside down and into their own.
Their client list boasts big league LVMH and Proctor and Gamble brands, like Kat Von D (now KVD Vegan Beauty) and Native. The shots are crisp, clear and “clean” — just like the brands. They’re also exactly what the brand wanted. Dillie’s large network of vetted creatives are prepared to do everything from directing to styling to lighting, and brands get exactly what they pay for. “We’re not here to tell a creative director what to do… they know what they’re doing, and what they want. We’re here to give it to them,” Laughlin said. “We build a shot list with the client and put the best possible creatives to work on their behalf.”
The pandemic has added a whole new layer to the importance of their work. With the initial shutdown, productions halted, shoots stopped altogether, and it shook the industry in a way they’d never seen before. Many creatives were out of work — many of their friends. “It was terrifying,” Lumbreras said, “but I was also excited that Dillie could be an outlet for jobs that creatives might not have had the chance at otherwise.” Laughlin has worked closely with vetting more creatives to work, figuring out which photographer might also be able to direct and light, and ultimately have the least amount of people on set. “Now we are able to assign ways to style photos and relax without such a big group on set… it’s a less glamorous way of hosting a photo shoot, but it’s a way for us to move forward without putting people at risk.”
To apply, creatives send in still-life photos of everything from chrome caps, to wine bottles, to mirrors, which, Laughlin adds, are some of the most challenging shots to get right lighting-wise. She knows the product the brand hands over is already beautifully branded, but she wants to see that the photographer can create beauty out of the ordinary too.
While the pandemic has proved interestingly positive for them, Lumbreras still talked openly about missing the synchronicity in the office, though he admits he’s surprised how much he missed it. “No one in my family [in Spain] ever had a traditional job — we were in many industries spanning from fish oil and wine to cars. I was taught to build my own reality in the most unconventional way possible.”
But his hands-on nature for developing sterling products is best suited to a collaborative environment, one where his surroundings inspire his design. “I sit at the crossroads of technology, design, and creativity, and it helps if I’m actually sitting there,” he joked. Anne, ever steady, assured him they’ll be back soon enough.
Interviewed by Julianne Lewis
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