Meet Laura Macaulay | Graphic Designer & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laura Macaulay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laura, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
It was 2008 and one of the worst recessions since the 1980s. I was working in-house as a Graphic Designer for an Interior Architecture company. There were weekly pay cuts as well as the threat of more redundancies. I decided to quit my job as I didn’t have much too loose – I had no job security anyway and I had built up enough industry experience and credentials to make a proper go of working for myself. I wanted to work independently as I felt I could give my clients the same high level of service but be more flexible, affordable, and personal. It was daunting starting out during those gloomy economic times, but I kept my overheads very low to begin with and 14 years later I’m so glad I made leap to start my own Graphic Design business navigatebydesign.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I studied Graphic Design in Dublin, Ireland. It wasn’t an easy start as my portfolio initially got rejected from the National Art College. I took another year to prepare my portfolio, but even with I still didn’t believe that I would get accepted! So my mother personally brought my portfolio up to the college (a four-hour drive away) and submitted it for me. It’s lucky she did as I got accepted the second time. I went on to study Visual Communications and I am pleased to say that 2024 will be my 20th anniversary working as a Graphic Designer.

It’s important to tell this part of my story because it shows when we are starting out we need people to help forge our path for us in the face of rejection. I know the pivotal difference this can make. I’d like to forge that path for someone else now and help them step up when they’ve had a setback.

My design work is very conceptual, bold and immediate. My design aesthetic is strongly influenced by my background in screen-printing. We were fortunate to have cross-disciplinary classes in college, which meant you could use the letterpress and printing presses as well as the computer. I still try to bring this into my commercial design work where I can.

I am most proud of a pro-bono packaging design job I did for Katu Honey. Katu Honey is a social enterprise based in Kampala, Uganda. It focuses on poverty reduction by providing training young disabled women so they can learn about beekeeping as a business, allowing them to be more self-sufficient. It was such a rewarding project to work on knowing that it truly was ‘design for good’ and that it might help improve the lives of the women involved.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am currently living between Dublin and Guernsey in the Channel Islands. So let’s say the weekend was in Guernsey. I’m an outdoor person so I’d tell them to bring their swimming togs and walking shoes! I’d take them for a refreshing sea swim at Port Soif beach in Guernsey followed by a warming local Guernsey ‘bean jar’ in the best Kiosk on the west coast of Guernsey. Then I’d suggest a trip around the island to take in the spectacular cliff paths and visit some of the many German fortifications. On day two we’d do a jaunt into the pretty town of St.Peter Port to visit Victor Hugo’s house. Victor Hugo was a French artist and writer who lived in exile in Guernsey and his house is hugely inspiring to visit – there are tributes to him all over the island. We would finish up the day with a local gin tasting and dinner at Octopus restaurant with views across to some of the other islands that make up the Bailiwick.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to shout out to my brother. He’s always ready to help with advice and words of encouragement. We work in the same industry, so he really understands some of the challenges and subtleties of running a design business. I often run ideas and scenarios past him and I really trust his opinion.

Website: www.navigatebydesign.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navigatebydesign/

Image Credits
Photography courtesy of Daniel Macaulay 2023

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