Katie Brightside
IMAGINEER & ILLUSTRATOR
Welcome to the Brightside, a creative agency, is the brainchild of international illustrator, artist, and designer Katie Brightside. The company is impassioned with a melting pot of creatives from vast spectrums of the arts and delivers unique design and artistic projects. The firm also houses The Digs Collection, a homeware company highlighting illustrated mural scale artwork, wallpaper, and handmade kimonos.
Brightside has secured several public art installations and personally received a WeHo Artist Grant, was an honoree of the Phyllis Morris Women in Leadership Award for Design and Entrepreneurship, and the John Chase accolade for Innovation of Art and Design at West Hollywood’s Creative Business Awards.
Today, Brightside defies creative boundaries as the imagineer, author and illustrator of BBA'S 2024 Regional Cookbook award-winning Once Upon a Cocktail – West Hollywood, a recipe book featuring 54 most cherished venues across the city. Brightside is also a contributing illustrator for Edible LA and heads-up the magazine's cocktail column, “Drink Me” every quarter.
Graduating with a BA in fashion at Kingston University, UK, 2001, Brightside moved to Treviso, Italy, where she worked as a designer at United Colours of Benetton. In 2002 she relocated to Sydney, Australia. In 2012, the aMBUSH Gallery hosted her first of many solo art exhibitions. This successful exhibition inspired a thirst for further education, a MA Fine Art from Central Saint Martin (CSM), London. After graduation Brightside sought advice from a White Witch, asking where she would live happily-ever-after. A week later Katie fulfilled that prophecy by moving to West Hollywood.
Sarah L.M. Mengoni
COCKTAIL CURATOR
A veteran barkeep, Sarah L.M. Mengoni cut her teeth working in Michigan beer dives and shot joints (before the law even allowed her to enjoy them), then moved to Chicago where she discovered and embraced the World of the Cocktail. Her enthusiasm for cocktail culture and gift for crafting unique recipes has earned her industry recognition, such as 50 Women to Watch in Hotel F&B magazine, as well as countless features in publications such as Imbibe, Food and Wine, Vogue, Forbes, GQ, and Time Out LA, to name a few.
Sarah is a graduate of the distinguished BAR 5-DAY program in New York City, which stands as one of the industry’s top mixology certifications.
Currently, Sarah spends time between living in LA and traveling the US with her husband in a van named “Vangoni.” Along the way, she’s working as a bar consultant, spirits and cocktail educator, and is exploring the diverse and fascinating drinking cultures the country has to offer.
You can also find Sarah working on her passion project, Historically Drinking, on her website and YouTube, where she posts short, information-packed episodes on what, when, where, and how people have engaged with alcohol throughout history.