LAURA COX,
DESIGNER & MAKER

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I spent my childhood playing with paint, building with tape and cardboard, always making something new. After taking those skills to college in sunny Richmond, VA to study graphic design at VCUarts, I'm still playing, building, and always making. As a designer, this is the basis of my ideation process. When I'm not in the studio, you can probably find me thrift shopping, playings with dogs, or admiring mechanical keyboards. I also enjoy simulation video games, artisanal cheese plates, funky socks, and a good fantasy book.

MY WORK

As a hand crafter at heart, I fell in love with traditional methods and tools of design: the precision of cut and paste, rubylith masks and letraset sheets, ink filled markers and ruling pens. It's no wonder that I always begin my process surrounded by mark making tools and a fresh sheet of paper. I love to experiment with materials, try different approaches, use tools in new ways, and set creative constraints.

I've found different types of sketchbooks and notepads can lead my process in separate directions. I often keep several ongoing at one time, and one project's notes can span over a couple or even all of them. Though this switching can be somewhat disorganized, it also becomes a tool for fueling or focusing my process. Some books I've stuck to, like the legal pads, but most of the time when I finish a sketchbook I'll find something new.

But it can be hard to find just the right sketchbook–the perfect size with the best paper and thickness–so instead I sat down and designed my own. Hand bound with all my favorite papers in a soft and colorful leather, it also includes color coded tabs for better organization. It's an ideal space for me to create in and certainly the most used sketchbook of my collection.