Let me introduce myself. I’m Lauren Rogers the face behind Lauren Rogers Design and I thought I’d kick off my blog with a little introduction and some background of what I do, what I have done, what makes me tick and why I am so passionate about design.
In 2006 I was fumbling through life, working a hospitality job and wondering what on earth do I want to do for the rest of my life. I knew for sure it wasn’t making coffee’s and serving drinks at the casino and I needed something else. Throughout my life I have always been passionate about art and design, in primary school I won prizes for creating crafts and submitting drawings, my work books were lined with colourful borders and drawings in-between the actual work. When I moved to high school I did the maximum amount of art and design subjects I was allowed to do and loved high school I believe for this reason. I got to make sculptures, paint artwork and do cross section drawings (yes, it was something that I found fun). My fondest memory was designing a huge dress made entirely out of marshmallows, I am forever grateful of the creative outlet high school gave me and it really did help pave my path. After school I took a couple of years off and for some reason couldn’t see that design or art was my calling, until one day I saw an ad in the paper that was for the College of Art with Communication Design courses starting the next semester. Instantly I had a feeling and knew this is something I had to do to move on from hospo life.
I signed up to uni and off I went, moving from the Gold Coast to Brisbane to begin my new career. I delved into the world of fine art in the first year and learning the basics of art history and a few Adobe programs. Moving onto more specialised subjects was alot of fun and I decided to specialise in digital design which included motion graphics and website design (using Flash!!) little did I know in a few years Flash would be obsolete and everything I learned pretty much useless – the core programming skills have helped me a long way however. We did alot of hands on design skills which was really enjoyable and made me realise design is not just computer based but can be super creative and hands on, I created things like this magazine cover using ink and Banksy was an inspiration so created these grunge layouts. Yeah it’s not easy on the eye but it was experimental and sooo 90’s.
From that day I haven’t looked back, in 2009 I graduated from The Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Communication Design and a specialisation in digital design. I have worked in fast-paced design studios in Brisbane and in 2016 I moved to London to travel and work as a freelance designer. My experiences really paved my love for packaging and brand identity design beginning with my in-house job at The Body Shop London headquarters. It was here I delved deep into the world of packaging, working alongside the sales team and designing a range of packaging which went into the “mock shop” for testing. I remember spending days creating carefully crafted mock-ups and feeling so proud seeing the finished product. I think the thing I love about packaging is that final 3D piece that you can hold in your hands. As a freelancer I also worked for a range of other design agencies across London specialising in a range of areas learning alot along the way.
On my return to Australia I moved to Melbourne and freelanced for another short stint before heading on back to my home state of Queensland. I worked in a local Brisbane design studio before settling on the idea of working for my own clients and creating my studio based in Paddington. It has been a journey to say the least but I have absolutely loved the journey of working directly with clients to achieve their dreams in their businesses through design. The satisfaction of creating a stand-out project and working one-on-one with passionate business owners has been amazing and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Every business I work with feels like an extension of my own and I really do pride myself in only sending out the best design work that sells products.
So I thank you for reading and coming on this journey with me, I’ll be posting more blog articles in the future so sign-up to my newsletter if you’re interested in what I have to contribute to this vast world of the internet. I will be focussing on brand identity design, packaging design, running a business and tips and techniques to launch your product into the world – from a designers perspective. I’ve learnt so much along the way and I’d love to share my knowledge with you.
Til next time.
Lauren
