LILI LAKICH HAS WORKED IN DESIGN-RELATED FIELDS for over four decades. A graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and the London School of Film Technique in London, England she began her career designing film posters, brochures and entertainment advertising at Seiniger Advertising in Los Angeles in 1974.
In 1981, she left Seiniger to form a partnership with two other agency alums, Sharon Calko and Jeff Kerns. Together they created key art and advertising for Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures,
The Samuel Goldwyn Company and International Creative Management.
The partnership continued as Calko and Lakich for eight years until Sharon Calko decided to become an attorney and Lili seized an opportunity to exhibit her neon sculpture in Tokyo, Japan and was awarded a public art commssion for California Plaza. The 75-foot L.A. Angel was dedicated in 1992.
Concurrently, in 1981 Lakich founded the Museum of Neon Art and served as its founding director for several years. She supervised the restoration of 22 of the Museum's large-scale vintage signs for longterm display at Universal CityWalk and created the 30-ft. graphic of Mona for the Museum's facade. She also negotiated free rent and build-out for the Museum at CityWalk and again with the Community Redevelopment Agency which persuaded the Museum to move back downtown.
In 1995, Lakich began working for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the nation's largest provider of healthcare services for people living with HIV and AIDS, as a designer of their brand identity and marketing materials. She created advocacy and fund raising materials, brochures and annual reports and designed the signage and facades for 26 of their Out of the Closet stores in Southern and Northern California. Revenues for the organization increased from 28 million dollars in 1998 to 92 million dollars when she left in 2003.
Lili Lakich has created logos, identity, brochures and annual reports, signage, packaging, websites and fundraising campaigns for corporations, nonprofits and individuals. Recently she designed the 12-ft double-sided blade sign for the Gold Line’s South Pasadena station and two14-ft. Deco-styled neon signs for A&I Digital & Photographic lab in Hollywood.
Her 114-ft. long public art commission, Flyaway, funded by Los Angeles World Airports for their FlyAway terminal in Van Nuys, California was completed in 2009.
