92 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM accounts, and Aili Ice Designs was born. She worked around the clock, delivering weekly arrangements to businesses from dentist offices to venture capital firms. “Anyone who wanted to enhance their space with natural materials,” she sums up. “If you walk into an office space for an interview and you look at a floral arrangement, it breaks the ice and puts you at ease. It might start a conversation with the receptionist and then you nail the job.” With the support of her lifelong friend and operations manager Becky Medina, Aili offers a number of group workshops. She leads classes on the art of planter design, terrariums and succulents, to name a few. “It’s fun to watch someone say they are not creative—then uplifting them and watching them feel so empowlifestyles really electrified my senses.” She immersed herself in the culture, traveling through fishing villages and taking long rides on antiquated buses. Those experiences, along with earlier travels to Hawaii, Hong Kong, Costa Rica and Taiwan, served as inspiration for Aili’s floral arrangements. She enjoys the challenge of bringing a client’s vision to life, but admits there are days when the tight timeframe and scale of a project can be intense. “The grandness of an arrangement such as a giant, 15-foot foliage arch made of fall leaves built in two hours can really stretch us,” she acknowledges. “Recently, ered,” notes Aili with a smile. A Peninsula native, Aili grew up in Redwood Shores and Foster City, graduating from San Mateo High. She went on to study art and art history at Cañada College, while working in stage production in San Francisco. It was around this time that Aili started to reevaluate her life when her mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. She decided to join her father and brother sailing down the coast of Mexico. Aili also sailed through the Panama Canal, where she found a sense of healing and inspiration. “On the Atlantic side, there were clusters of little islands and school children getting on boats to go to school,” she says, adding that she also found herself reinvigorated by the area’s art galleries. “Seeing vibrant cultures and unique OPPOSITE (bottom right): For another Bouquets to Art event at the De Young Museum, Aili’s arrangement captures the colors of twilight in Martin Johnson Heade’s Singing Beach, Manchester, 1863 on the wall behind her. PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF AILI ICE DESIGNS
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