This week on Creative Loves we travel Down Under to Sydney and speak to the lovely Lara of La Rara… Lara designs a fantastic range of stationery. She screen prints her designs on to cards, notebooks, gift tags etc and has recently started digitally printing some items such as postcards and calendars. Originally from London Lara went to Sydney for three months but five years on she still hasn't left… Welcome Lara!
Can you tell me about your work space? I work from home and since having a baby last year, my studio has had to turn into a nursery! So for now I am making do with the kitchen table and living room. So there are a lot of boxes and there isn’t much room to spread out so I have to be incredibly tidy. But I am lucky to live in a flat with lots of light and a lovely view of the beach so it is a great place to spend time working. I have BBC radio on in the background.
Have you always been creatively driven? I worked as a press officer for galleries and museums in London and theatres in Sydney. I was so lucky with the places I worked and I loved it. However, I decided to have a break from that and see whether I could turn my hand to something more practically creative. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and making things so I did a graphic design course, bought some screen printing equipment and so it begun…I got a stall at Bondi market and it slowly grew to being a proper online business and I haven’t looked back.
What inspires you, where do you go for ideas? I get my inspiration from lots of places. I love kikki.K, anthropologie, Liberty. Sydney has so many amazing independent shops. I love clicking through blogs and often find ones which I can never find again. If I find a particularly lovely or inspiring image then I save them on my posterous. And then everywhere from antique books to side street galleries to Japanese paper shops and Scandinavian design blogs.
Please tell us about your current Creative Loves…
Photography – Martin Parr & Julia Mortimore
Illustration – Tabitha Emma
Magazines – Real Living & Inside Out
What is a typical work day for you? I am lucky not to have one. It could be anything from sourcing new materials, designing future prints, screen printing or delivering cards to a stockist. However, I seem to be forever going to the post office, that remains constant!
What projects are you working on at the moment? I just reopened my online store after maternity leave and a break from printing and so I am busy creating everything that I have been thinking about and planning over the last year. My two 2012 calendars are out, tote bags, notebooks and even screen printed hankies! I am also now concentrating on the bespoke side of the business and launching lots of new designs for wedding invitations and birth announcement cards.
What has been the most interesting or exciting project you've worked on and why? I am always really excited about Finders Keepers. Running a business online means that you never come face to face with your customers so for a queue of them to be standing in front of you is just brilliant.
In terms of your work what couldn't you live without? My Mac and my gocco screen printer.
What do you love most about what you do? I love the calm and satisfaction you get from an afternoon screen printing. Also the validation you get when you see your own cards in shops. The whole philosophy of ‘if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work’ thing.
What do you want to do in the future? I’d love to carry on building up La Rara so that my products are sold in shops around the world!
Where are you happiest? Anywhere with my new little family.
Thanks Lara!
1 comments:
Oh, what a beautiful shop. Definitely going to be making some purchases!
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