A CREATIVE REPORT By Megan Ojari
I knew I wanted to interview Louise Lockhart for a while, as I find her stance within the creative industry a really unique one, which I would love to aim for. I first met her during a workshop for children whilst working with Anorak, and her love of publications, packaging, home wares and interactive activities really reminded me of my ideal practice. I’m really concerned about how my practice will develop once I leave university, and how I will pay my bills, whilst still wanting to travel and explore. Louise suggested I mix the two, as she began her professional career mainly after studying Illustration at Glasgow University, when she moved to Vancouver and worked in a paper craft shop called Paper-Ya. Whilst there, she realised the opportunity to make and sell her own crafts, and was able to use her contacts to sell work without many of the overhead costs, meaning she could experiment with what sold well.
“My worst nightmare is when people say ‘do whatever you want’. I like to have free reign of what I produce, but I find it easier if it has a clear function, such as a soap wrapper”
Another thing which I am uncertain about is how much I should volunteer and give my time for free. At first she did a lot of work for free, which she doesn’t recommend, but it did give her a lot of experience. Louise also entered a lot of competitions, and says that once she started getting small amounts of work, it quickly grew through recognition of her work. This has made me realise how I can work for free a small amount, but only when it can lead onto other, paid opportunities, such as my work with Anorak and at the Hepworth. One piece of advice she had was to go to fairs and sell anything, as it is difficult to predict what will sell, but if you have some pieces which you really love, other people will too, so just test the waters and see what people buy!
Her inspiration is really similar to mine, as she loves textiles, wrappers and narrative, and whilst I have been struggling on how to combine these, she has taken a really simple but effective approach. Louise makes most of her work through paper cut outs and drawings in Photoshop, which she adds colour and texture to. She also said this was down to drawing well, and focusing on the raw brief, such as drawing a boat when she was making packaging for travel soap. When I talked about my practice, she suggested that one thing which helped her was to pass on responsibility. As although she used to make all her goods herself, now she has a bigger market, she delegates a lot of the production once she has designed.
She also talked about how to create a good work life balance, which is something she used to struggle with. I asked her about how she structures her days and separates work from pleasure. She said she has a timetable throughout the week, and that although it can be difficult knowing when to stop working at night, being your own boss means you have far more freedom. Louise also suggested that I just email people to ask about selling my work, as there is nothing to be scared of, and most of the time, she’s had amazing outcomes from just being brave enough to ask!
“Do what you want to do and people will start giving you similar work”
I found talking to Louise really inspirational, as my practice is currently in between several contexts, and although I think I am beginning to refine my work into a certain ‘style’, it was really comforting to hear about her developing journey through illustration. This has really reaffirmed my intent to focus on creating a range of tangible products, to see what suits me, and what I love to make. I can make these products myself to start with, as an easy and relatively risk free way of starting a business, before slowly building it up as the demand grows.