Inside the Industry: Jay Li
Graphic designer Jay Li fuses his love of art and food in the popular L.A. supper club he founded

Photos courtesy of Jay Li
Inside the Industry
Graphic designer Jay Li fuses his love of art and food in the popular L.A. supper club he founded
Jay Li grew up watching his parents run a small jewelry store in the Atlanta suburbs. The idea of becoming an artist and eventually creating, marketing, and selling his own work did not seem reachable to him.
But today Li (’21, COM’21) is doing just that—and infusing his art with the hospitality he witnessed every day in his parents’ shop. In January 2023, Li—a foodie and home cook who shadowed Chef Kevin Finch at Salt Lake City pop-up restaurant Arthur—launched DOUBLES, a word-of-mouth supper club in Los Angeles featuring elevated cuisine, music, and design. Li calls DOUBLES, which he hosts at his apartment, a “proof-of-concept communal art project.”
“The food scene here is super diverse and robust,” Li says of L.A. “But I want to have these experiences where people can enjoy themselves and not break the bank to spend time with one another.”



Jay Li is a graphic designer for chili crisp company Fly By Jing. He also hosts a supper club, DOUBLES, which combines elevated cuisine, music, and design.
Li’s day job since 2022 is working as a graphic designer at L.A.- based Fly By Jing, a startup chili crisp company. There, he designs packaging, ads, and emails and works on product launches. For a year after graduating, Li lived in Salt Lake City and was a graphic designer for the NBA’s Utah Jazz. In each of these roles, Li says the brand had an established identity, requiring him to adjust his own design to fit within a larger strategy. “For early-career designers, that’s a learning curve to not take it so personally,” he says. “If an idea gets shut down, it’s not always a reflection on your style. Digest your manager’s feedback and direction, and then within that have open dialogue to understand the strategic arm.”
Creatively, DOUBLES is where Li gets to play. A DOUBLES supper starts with a menu, which comes from Li or one of his many collaborators. In December 2023, he hosted two seatings of a tennis-themed supper featuring five Korean-inspired courses (he called “sets,” of course). Li announced the dinners on Instagram, asking those interested in attending to message him for more information. Attendees paid a minimum sliding scale of $55 to $100, all of which was donated (after food costs) to humanitarian agencies assisting Palestinian families affected by war. Li can comfortably seat up to a dozen or so around tables in his small apartment. When folks walk in, they’ll see elaborate table settings, flowers, and printed menus of the night’s offerings. It all plays into an environment Li strives to make both experiential and collaborative. The DOUBLES name refers to Li’s hope that both his vision and that of his guests and collaborators show up in every supper.
“I have a couple friends who do work as professional chefs, and I tell them, ‘This supper club is for you to have a low-stakes environment to test any crazy ideas you have,’” Li says. “Even if a workshop, lecture, or event doesn’t center on food, how can food be in partnership with whatever vision you have—a communal experience?”