Creative report laura slater

CREATIVE REPORT- INTERVIEW WITH LAURA SLATER

WHY LAURA: I chose to talk to Laura Slater as I feel my process overlaps illustration with printed textiles and surface pattern design, and I see my future practice leading towards having my own creative studio. Slater has successfully set up her own label and design studio in Wakefield, which has lead to collaborations with John Lewis, Heals, Harvey Nichols, Wrap Magazine and many more creative companies.

HER CREATIVE STORY: Slater studied her degree at Loughborough University and then continued immediately after to do a Masters degree at the Royal College in London. She felt that she needed more time to develop her practice in the security of education before going out in to the industry.

In hind sight she explained that she wouldn’t recommend going in to a masters degree without having a couple of years in the industry beforehand. However definitely recommends doing a masters degree and said she did a great deal of learning about her practice in this two year course, possibly more than on her degree.

Since then she has opened up her design studio and label. She explained it has taken her eight years of hard work and learning to be at the stage she’s at now where she is making money and at the point of employing other technicians to help her produce her work.

COLLABORATIONS & NETWORKING: Laura explained that her social media presence including her instagram, pinterest & website have been extremely important in getting her name and work out there. These have lead to nearly all of her collaborations and work opportunities. For example her Kin x John Lewis collaboration that goes live in April cam from her pinterest account which shows her work but also shows products she is interested in and her influences. She put real emphasis in our chat about having a smart website that’s easy to navigate and links social media pages, and explained that having clear categories for collections and different projects is really important.

She also really recommended print fairs for creative networking. She said the contacts she has made, such as The Nottingham Contemporary, The Hepworth Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

TEACHING: Laura explained that she went in to teaching as a financial decision however feels that it has really influenced her current practice. She teaches two days a week on the printed textiles degree course at Leeds college of Art and has done for the past two years. She explained that she’s found it has kept her practice really fresh and has brought drawing and designing really heavily back in to her practice. She explained that talking to young designers keeps her inspired and allows her to have feedback in a similar way to working in a collective studio. She enjoys this part of her practice as working solely in a studio alone can mean her work can get a bit stagnant and stuck in her comfortable working processes.

FURTHER ADVICE: Working in London- She said working in Wakefield and being in the North really hasn’t effected her opportunities as so much of her networking is done online. She said that the cost of her practice is so much more manageable where she is, which means her processes aren’t hindered by being as money conscious. She also said that there is a large creative network in Leeds and surrounding areas and possibly wouldn’t have as many contacts and opportunities down in London.

Internships- Laura explained that internships for designers that are keen to work within a larger design company are extremely valuable and can allow a lot of experience and learning. However it’s much more beneficial for designers that want to work on a smaller scale or being their own boss within a design studio, it’s much more beneficial to visit studios and shadow practitioners for a day or so, so that you can take away aspects of their process and their way of running things that work for you in to your own development. She also offered at this stage for me to email her about an opportunity such as this to have a look at her studio.

FURTHER ADVICE: Time management & process- Laura explained that she feels within her practice that she spends more time making and screen printing rather than designing which isn’t the most efficient time management and is working on changing this for the future. She explained that a peer practitioner called Louise Lockhart designs all of her work and selects her process, however arranges other people to produce her final products and outcomes which means she has a larger range of products in her line. This is something Laura wants to work towards and balance more.

Keep making- When I asked Laura for her best piece of advice for a practitioner starting out she explained that it’s so important to just keep making and designing and to never take your foot off the pedal and to never get out of practice. She also explained that taking up part time work is obviously something that nearly every designer starting out has to do to be able to afford studio space and projects, however this shouldn’t mean that you can’t take up work opportunities and try to be as flexible as possible.