This North County home design company blurs the boundary between product and art for a distinctly joyful design portfolio

Quietly ambitious. Functionally hip. No product personifies Upton quite like the “Now Playing” LP stand. “A lot of it comes from things we want for our own home,” says founder and artist Michael Upton, who grew up in Leucadia and resides on a sprawling live-work compound in Vista. “Why can’t it be beautiful, functional, and integrated into everyday life?”

The Upton portfolio is a study in this philosophy — from come-hither wall hooks in matte hues to biomorphic wine racks. Established in 2018 with his wife, Mariel Upton, the brand produces work at the intersection of art, design, and life at home. It launched with Michael screen-printing his abstract paintings on canvas as an accessible approach to wall art. Lately, he’s dabbling on a larger scale with organic satin as the medium. “It has this airy quality,” he says of the four-foot artwork draped from custom rods. “Each design is a truly unique statement piece.” 

Today, the line is sold at design-savvy boutiques from Japan to Brooklyn, and stocked at the UK’s legendary Rough Trade Records. It’s also available at Nordstrom. Glowing brand moments include Upton art gracing the windows of Herman Miller’s flagship in New York City, and a commission from the Whitney Museum. 

While at San Dieguito Academy, Michael fell in love with screen printing, later attending FIDM where he studied apparel manufacturing. “When everyone was surfing and going to the beach, I was always in my house making art,” he recalls. His childhood home was an incubator of craftsmanship; his father is a custom builder whose handmade creations took shape around him. 

“The role of art and objects in the home should not be simply to be acquired and viewed from a distance, but rather to inspire this joyful, creative, thoughtful approach to life,” Michael says. 

After college, Michael landed his dream gig with Brixton, then a scrappy O’side hat purveyor. Fun fact: He was the first employee alongside the brand’s three founders, later becoming design director. For 11 years during the company’s evolution to a global apparel titan, Michael led product design, quality control, marketing, and art direction, useful skills when he successfully launched his own company. 

On an old avocado grove in Vista, the magic happens. Or more accurately, artistic freedom. This is where he and his namesake father, Michael Upton, designed and built a live/work studio for his wife, two children, and their growing brand. Here on a half acre, he experiments, dreaming up the next product and dabbling in color swatches. A dalliance of hues are enlisted for art and powder-coated products like LP holders available in seven magnificently muted shades like canary yellow and collegiate burgundy.

“A lot of it comes from play,” he says. “If I have an idea, I’ll make a prototype in cardboard. We wanted a wine rack, so I designed one. We were redoing our house plants, and I couldn’t find a good plant stand…“ 

An artist’s work is never done.