Lauren Horner had always been creative and studied fine arts at university—but after graduating, she said goodbye to life as an artist and hello to the world of real estate. Read on to find out how she found her way back to creativity by studying at Shillington!

Before becoming a designer, you worked in varying roles in Real Estate. Did you have any previous design experience before Shillington and why did you decide to take the leap and make the career change?

The short answer is yes, for just a few months maybe?! Though it was completely self-taught, which is largely the reason I chose to study, to fill the many gaps in my knowledge.

The long answer is that I’ve always been creative, always loved to draw, always loved things in some kind of visual order—if that makes sense?!

I actually have a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UNSW Art & Design (in Sydney), which was my first creative pursuit straight out of high school, and it really refined my skills of seeing things differently to other people. I said goodbye to life as an artist and hello to working in real estate and found myself drawn to the marketing side, wanting to put together collateral for agents and campaigns, and then eventually pushing to be the one to create the templates myself. I guess it wasn’t really a hard and fast career change, it was more like several consecutive gear shifts to pick up skills, learn what is possible and move closer towards finding a job that ticked all the boxes, and for me, graphic design is exactly that, it’s research, strategy, communication and visual aesthetic all rolled into one!

Previous to Shillington you also worked for some time as a Junior Graphic Designer for LJ Hooker, did this overlap with your time at Shillington? How did the course build your skillset?

I worked for LJ Hooker’s tech-focused startup called Avnu, which I believe has since rebranded to Atlas, for the majority of the time I studied at Shillington. As I mentioned above, I wanted to fill my knowledge gaps because I had no idea what I didn’t know and that felt quite intimidating while already working in such a fast-paced industry as a junior. I was also the only graphic designer at the time and had a great amount of work and pressure on my shoulders. The course however, was exactly what I needed!

It helped me build confidence in my ideas, refined my skills in layout and typesetting and opened up the world of design, teaching me about branding and illustration which I have a huge passion for.

The foundation of design principles that are taught really helps you to understand why you make the decisions you do as a designer and is also super important when speaking about your designs, especially to clients, or stakeholders. It’s often how you walk them through parts of your process with an explanation of your thinking that helps sell the idea, much more than just the end product. Shillington encourages you to put this into practice early, and this continues to help me with the projects I work on now.

What advice can you offer to someone who wants to transition careers?

In all honesty, it’s tough and it’s a lot of work, but it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. So my advice, in short, is to do it! I can safely say I absolutely love my job, I actually wake up in the morning excited to work and tackle the next brief, and I know not a lot of people out there can say that about what they do. We spend so much of our lives working, and so much of us as people is defined by what we do, so why not spend it doing something you love?

How did you learn about Shillington? What made our design course stand out from the rest?

I looked at almost every possible graphic design course in Sydney, mainly by searching online, and chose Shillington because it not only allowed me to study part-time while I worked full time,

It allowed me to be qualified in just a year and came highly recommended by a UI designer I worked with who raved about his experience 10 years prior. I’ll definitely be raving about my experience in 10 years too! It just seemed like a no-brainer, it was the perfect course for me.

I was also super excited to start the course, I’m a total nerd at heart, I sat right up the front and with every class, the lightbulb in my head just went off over and over again. The course helped me with everything I was doing at work as a junior designer in real estate, it broke it all down into a process I still follow at work now. I also have to mention that my teachers Olivia and Julie were simply amazing. They provided us all with an abundance of knowledge and encouragement.

You recently landed a role as Graphic Designer for Hundredweight, congrats! How did that come about?

Thank you so much! It actually came about through LinkedIn, I had openly shared that I was looking for work and updated my profile with my portfolio website. I also created an Instagram account for me to start sharing my designs.

I believe that putting myself out there as a designer and sharing the work I was creating at Shillington enabled Stephen, the Creative Director to find me and have a look at what I was about before reaching out.

We ended up meeting and talking about what we both do, and after a couple of interviews, it just seemed like a great fit! I’m a big believer in attitude too though, only part of it is your portfolio, the rest of it is how you work, our values of transparency, hard work and open communication align really well!

Can you tell us about any design projects you are working on right now?

I’d love to! At Hundredweight, we do a lot of work in the commercial property space, from complete identity design to creative campaigns. I’ve been working on the research and concepts for a new commercial development called Grace House on Kent Street in Sydney CBD, many years ago it was the old Grace Brothers warehouse, so it’s been really interesting to delve deep into our history with that one!

I’ve also been doing a lot of work for some of our clients in Melbourne CBD. 101 Collins is reopening its wellness and fitness space RISE, and I’ve been working on that launch campaign with my Creative Director and fellow designer. Spring Place is a new brand for a precinct of commercial buildings that I’m currently rolling out all kinds of touchpoints. This has been a great creative challenge for me, finding ways to push the brand in a way that creates lots of flexibility for us to work with as designers while creating assets the client is really happy with. That’s just a few of the exciting things happening at Hundredweight!

I’ve also been doing some freelance branding and campaign design for a business coach and personal trainer. I’ve loved bringing their vision to life!

What made you choose the part-time over the full-time course?

I chose the part-time course because I was working as a Junior designer in real estate at the time, so it enabled me to keep my full-time job while studying at night.

What was your favourite brief you worked on during the course? Tell us your process!

Honesty, I have so many favourite briefs, I wanted to explore them all further in portfolio time! My favourite concept was the record cover I created for an amazing album called Bloom by Rufus Du Sol.

I’ve always had a fascination with paper and I loved being able to combine my love of making things with my hands and my knowledge of design to create this project.

The idea came from the song Innerbloom, where they crafted textural sound using a match fizzle. My process began with research, I listened to interviews and read articles, moved into ideation where I brainstormed while listening to the album or all of the things it made me think and feel, and from there came this idea of burning holes layers of paper and assembling them like a flower. The hardest part was actually burning the paper, my original attempt saw paper go up in flames in seconds, my boyfriend at the ready with a bucket of water! I ended up going to sleep that night feeling like it wasn’t possible and dreaming that I should cut out the circles first and then control the burn-in sections which worked!

What was your biggest challenge during the course? Why?

My biggest challenge was probably my mindset. I needed to trust my gut instinct more, and stop over analysing my every decision. I’ve since found that the more effort spent in research, the easier the rest of the process will be because you’ve created a great foundation to support your rationale and draw from if you get stuck.

What would you say to someone who is skeptical about studying at Shillington? Any tips?

Don’t be skeptical, it’s an amazing course, which will help you be and feel job-ready once you graduate.

My biggest tip for anyone thinking of working and also doing this course, is to take time off work in portfolio time—the more the merrier. It will let you have a chance to explore and develop your portfolio to a place you never thought possible, and your portfolio is what will help you get noticed for that job interview!

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us!

Oooh, great question, I stumbled over this one for a while! Something about me, I actually have this eye condition called coloboma, which has greatly impacted my vision my whole life. To put it really simply, my eyes didn’t quite finish forming in the womb so I have these gaps in my vision, which I find quite extraordinary seeing as I’m a designer, drawn to visual communication, and I so heavily rely on my sight for my work!

Big thanks to Lauren for sharing her creative journey with us! Make sure to check out her website and follow her on Instagram!

Like to follow in Lauren’s footsteps? Learn more about Shillington’s 3 months full-time and 9 month part-time courses Online or on-campus in New York, London, Sydney, or Melbourne.

https://www.shillingtoneducation.com/blog/meet-lauren-horner-shillington-graduate-designer-hundred-weight-design/