Have you met Lauren?
Lauren is our social media maven. You can see her work across our portfolio of clients but we were also lucky enough to showcase her personal art during the Art Call for the Art Crawl.
We always knew she was a talented graphic designer, but wanted you all to get to know her better.
On Brand Iron
During the initial Covid lockdown, Lauren made the bold choice to switch careers. She started as an unpaid intern with Brand Iron but her ability to absorb information and think creatively quickly made her an integral part of the team. She was hired on and our social media presence has never been better.
Our personal rebrand this spring has been one of her favorite projects. “Being able to brand ourselves has been a lot of fun. Seeing the whole process grow from a conversation to what we have today is really cool.”
On Design
Once a tattoo apprentice herself, Lauren still draws inspiration from tattoo and graffiti artists. She follows many artists on Instagram and refers to her feed when she needs a lightning bolt of imagination. Like any true artist, she of course has her fine-art go-tos as well. Dali, Dave Usher, and Manet are all perennial favorites.
On Art
Lauren has been drawing for as long as she can remember. She broke her arm as a five-year-old and instead of focusing on the pain, she was more devastated by the fact that she could not draw. Later in high school, she won a scholarship from the Art Institute of Chicago to attend an oil painting summer course.
While she rarely paints with oils, the techniques and validation from that experience have always stayed with her.
The pieces that Lauren showed on First Friday all started during covid. “I was in quarantine and going insane. I couldn’t find a job so I started painting every day.” The series features surreal-looking animals with bright pops of color in a variety of masks. While lockdown presented the time to paint, Lauren had to find the will to paint on her own.
On A Personal Note
If you look at Lauren’s work, there is no doubt she is talented. But if you take a second to get to know the person, you will see how strong she is. Getting sober and maintaining that sobriety was a huge part of her artistic reawakening. This led to both her job as a graphic designer and this new series.
As she explained it, one of the best parts of being an artist is that when you are creating, it is a reflection of yourself and a connection with your deepest thoughts and feelings. When those thoughts, feelings, and actions are things you don’t want to reckon with, it stunts any desire to create. Much like the pain of not being able to draw from a broken arm, having no inspiration to draw was equally as heartbreaking and a big motivator in staying clean.
Now creating, both for Brand Iron and her paintings, has become a super meditative, rewarding experience and reminder of how far she has come.
To see more of Lauren’s work, along with the rest of our design team, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. You can also browse our Work page here.
CEO | Brand Champion
Michael Doyle has been changing the face of Brand Marketing for over two decades. He built a tech-based advertising agency, DNA Advertising, into a multi-million dollar company. Michael sold the company as part of a national IPO in 2000. Michael founded Brand Iron in 2002 and has since lent his expertise to hundreds of other businesses in dozens of industries around the world.
