Visiting Sarah Lawrence’s online portfolio might make you dizzy. I didn’t quite know where to start when it came to her list of many talents: everything from illustration and photography to custom maps and lettering. On paper, she’s a designer—Paste Magazine’s one and only designer, to be exact. But her job is just a fraction of how she spends her time creatively. Sarah is always dreaming up new ways to make art and interact with the public, whether it’s an actual super-sized community painting project or a Tumblr account that proves that the word “shit” can be drawn in (at least) 365 different ways. On top of that, the Atlanta-born artist has fulfilled a bucket list goal of teaching a class on pasta making. And we’re just scratching the surface here with all the projects this designer has in the works.
Here, Lawrence answered some questions for CommonCreativ—and we’re still left wondering how she has time to do it all.
Sarah Lawrence
CommonCreativ: Let’s start with basics: Tell us who you are and what you do.
Sarah Lawrence: I’m an Atlanta native—born and raised in Virginia-Highland. I graduated from Grady High and got my design degree at UGA. In Athens, I was a college radio DJ. These days, I’m a graphic designer, pasta maker and dachshund enthusiast. In reality, I’m really a dizzying mix of things, from installation artist to animal rescuer to party planner and amateur videographer. I do so many things it’s hard to nail who I am down to a single, unifying thing. I’m a person who can’t say no to things that excite me.
CC: What are some of the most fun projects you’ve been involved with at Paste?
SL: One of my favorite parts about being the only designer at Paste is all of the fun creative things come straight to my desk—for example, we produced a follow-up piece to The Evolution of the Hipster, first published in the print issue in 2009. The original piece was showing hipsters from 2000 to 2009 and we came up with hipster styles from 2010 to the present. My style editor and I put together a cast of characters complete with outfits, titles and backgrounds, and then did the shoot in SCAD’s photo lab.
Apart from that, I’ve been able to put together really fun side projects for the site, from a chart showing the degrees of separation of 100-plus indie bands, to a graph showing how much time you’ll spend binge-watching different TV shows.
CC: Tell us a bit about Root City Market and some of your collaborations with them.
SL: My senior thesis project at UGA was where I discovered how much I love creating interactive experiences for the public. I created a large map of Atlanta and at our exit show, I asked people to pin their memories of Atlanta to the spot where they happened. Jen Soong came across this project on my blog, and got in touch—I’m so thrilled she did. We teamed up to create more experiences for the different pop-up markets around the city, from drawing on postcards to coloring in a big drawing of the city.
Interactive art is so great. There’s a one-way quality I don’t like about most forms of art. I find museums boring and art galleries a drain. I want to interact with things, touch them, move them, change them. All people of all walks of life are creative, whether they believe they are or not, and I like giving them a chance to surprise themselves. My most recent project was in collaboration with Creative Mornings—I conducted a large group doodle the morning of the event back in July. I noticed that, once I got people up to the board and made them draw, the most reluctant ended up having the most fun with it.
Collaborative Project at Creative Mornings
CC: What got you in to graphic design? Any designers or artists in your family?
SL: The standard answer here is always, “I’ve been an artist ever since I was a kid.” I hate that answer. Every kid is an artist. The trouble is remaining an artist as you grow up (shout out to Picasso). The truth is, I had an insatiable drive to make things; working with my hands is the only way I can focus. No one else in my family is creatively driven—my mom’s a psychologist, my dad’s an engineer and my brother’s into cars. They didn’t understand (or really approve of) me being a creative type, but pushing yourself to achieve your dreams even though no one really ~*gets you*~ (big air quotes here) is how you become great.
CC: How did the maps come into play?
SL: I discovered my love for maps a few years ago, when a couple of friends asked me to contribute a map to their city guide of Athens, Georgia on Design*Sponge. The thing I loved the most was using illustrative qualities to showcase a firm, measurable piece of data. Maps are basically infographics—they tell a history or change a story based on what you choose to include or leave out. There’s so much more to the concept of mapping than drawing lines for streets.
CC: What do you think it takes to be a really great graphic designer?
SL: The biggest difference between design and art has always been one simple thing: studio art is about expressing yourself, and design is about communicating a message. I don’t really care about expressing my inner, unresolved feelings. The most important thing about being a good designer is your ability to communicate and achieve a goal. What if you design a poster for an event that is so beautiful, but impossible to read? Or you leave off the date? Sure, it’s beautiful, but it’s just piece of art now. No one will come to your event.
CC: Your Draw Shit Everyday project is mesmerizing to scroll through. What has kept you motivated to continue?
SL: It’s not that I wake up every day wanting to do it. This morning I woke up and thought, “Goddammit, why am I not done with this project yet?” I’ve diligently kept it up because of the accountability factor—this blog is public. It’s measured. It has nearly 700 followers on Tumblr, and enough personal friends follow it that they know when I get behind. Also, it’s been covered by several different popular blogs. If I’m good at anything, it’s following through with a promise.
That’s not to say the project isn’t fun—it’s extremely fun! Lately I’ve been working with tactile forms and photographing them, like painting the word on thrift-store paintings or building letterforms out of string and pins. Since I make the rules, it’s always a new exploration. I’m teaching myself and learning new tricks on the computer. I’ll pass a billboard and go, “Damn, that type looks cool. I’m gonna do what I can to figure out how to make that.” And then I don’t quit until I’ve solved it.
When the project concludes, I’m planning on throwing a big art party to celebrate—printing out all 365 pieces and pinning them up, with Mylar letter balloons, shit-shaped confetti, printed books, puzzles, tattoos, the works.
CC: How did you learn to make pasta from scratch, and what inspired you to teach others?
SL: This definitely is another one of those things that’s stuck with me since I was a kid. When I was in summer camp, the kitchen staff referred to me as Noodles, because I’d always come up to them and ask what we were having for dinner. If left to my own devices, I’d literally eat pasta with olive oil for every meal. It’s just so damn delicious.
When I was a sophomore, my roommate came home from the farmer’s market with a pack of handmade black (squid ink) pasta. She presented it to me and my jaw dropped: never before had I considered making it myself. It’d never crossed my mind. What a fool, I thought. I began furiously Googling tips and best practices, and making pasta in my kitchen—I strung yarn from the walls of our apartment and filled the place with dangling pasta. Making pasta is wonderfully creative; I can use different types of foods, from spinach to beets, to make colors, and from those colors I can make different patterns of pasta. I can make those patterns into shapes. I can make black and white striped bowtie pasta. What the hell is cooler than that?
CC: What event do you most look forward to in Atlanta every year?
SL: When I was a kid, I loved the Dogwood Festival because of the free stuff. In college, my favorite event used to be FLUX. These days, it’s Chomp and Stomp! I hung out in Cabbagetown a lot as a teenager, and I live there now. There’s nothing better than kicking back, drinking a beer, and eating chili until you can’t anymore. This year I’m actually the artist coordinator for the Chomp, so if anyone has an artist booth there, you’ll be working with me!
You can see more of Sarah Lawrence’s projects on her portfolio. Follow her Draw Shit Everyday project on Tumblr.
