Podcast Culture

Katie Longmyer: Design Tangents Episode Sixteen

We sit down with the misfit-magnet and cultural pioneer to discuss community, human connection and more

Josh Rubin, Evan Orensten

17 April 2024

With a high-energy presence that pulls in everyone around her, Katie Longmyer is a self-proclaimed misfit, as well as a misfit-magnet who has built cultural experiences that so many others cherish. Her array of professional accolades—from chief of staff to one of the founders of WeWork to managing director of acclaimed creative agency Mother’s New York office to co-founder and CEO of the footwear startup Proto, which she just left—are rivaled only by her creation of one of NYC’s most successful parties at The Standard High Line’s rooftop, Le Bain, and the founding of the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival. For this episode of Design Tangents, we spoke with Longmyer about her career arc, the peaceful power of Shibari, collaboration, connection, AI and more.

For Longmyer, community began in nightclubs. “I often say that nightclubs saved my life,” Longmyer shares. “In New York, I found clubs and people and I was surrounded by creatives. We were always just sitting in a club and someone would have an idea and we’d all pile onto it. A week or two later, a project would emerge. That manifested into so many things.” Simultaneously, she began to work in the music industry by day, and paired this corporate path with the people she met and skills she acquired through nightlife. This led to the creation of Good Peoples, an organization that launched careers (and marriages) and encouraged a mission to foster a collective, creative community.

One of the threads of Longmyer’s path is about connection. “My creativity expression is people. I am painting with the people,” she says, acknowledging that she thinks about community every day. It’s also about addressing communities in flux. “A lot of people talk about culture from the nascent communities that it comes out of and wanting to keep it small and, you know, ‘don’t sell out.’ What is better than everyone consuming what you made? I want people to feel it and be impacted by it. The way you do that is execution.”

Nightclubs continue to inform the way she problem solves and engages with others. “I will forever be a club kid. I am always looking for my community there,” she adds. “It’s something I will never put down.” Longmyer is not only seeking out community, she is forging it to develop safe spaces for other misfits. Tune in to Design Tangents to learn more about the development of Proto, the importance of her Gel-X stiletto nails, social media as a tool for connection and more.

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Design Tangents is presented by Genesis and produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group. Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte and Rachel Senatore and to Amber Lin for creating our show art.