An interview with Laura Hurst, a co-worker at The Whisky Bond’s Distillery.

Can you give a quick rundown about who you are and what you do?

I am self employed and I run what I call my one woman creative studio; Paper Arcade. I do print and editorial design and art and illustration. People still say “print is dying”, but I don’t find that’s the case, there is still a place for it. The tactile nature of print really suits me down to the ground.

 

Do you have a stand out project you’ve worked on?

There is a magazine I do regularly called Greater Govanhill. I do the design of that every quarter and I really love it because they just let me do what I want. I love being able to mix illustration and typography, that’s my favourite kind of project.

Fave colour combo?

I love this question- because I have a new colour combo; teal and yellow and maybe a bit of blue.

 

Before I came up with the Paper Arcade it was all black and white because I was just too afraid to commit to a colour and then I just saw this electric blue one day. 

 

Do you know what it was? I remembered when you used to get that nail polish in the 90s. It was a brand called Spectacular and it was a really cheap nail polish. The first one I had was this electric blue and it was my favourite colour and I was like that’s going to be my brand colour. I was just down in London meeting clients and I bought an electric blue polish for it, to make sure I was on-brand.

 

How are you finding working at The Distillery at The Whisky Bond?

I think it was just before Christmas I realised I’d hit a wall with working from home. I just couldn’t do it, so I was really determined to find somewhere.

 

I found The Distillery at The Whisky Bond. I came and tried it and I was like, this is ideal for what I need. The space just provides me with the perfect balance of being in amongst people but also being able to concentrate. I find with being a creative business, getting into the flow is really important  and that can be really hard to do at home. There is laundry to do, there are cats bothering you or someone needing something. I find it easier to get in the zone here. I didn’t realise how much I needed that.

 

It’s helping with being able to switch off when going home, I actually have a home life now. Even when you turn your computer off at the end of the day when you work from home, you don’t have that mental break between the two, working and home life. So yeah coming and going from here has really helped.

 

Everyone is just so nice and there are dogs! Eilidh (another co-worker) has given me tons of advice about project management and stuff like that. Just getting that input from other people, I forgot how valuable that was. 

A must try restaurant or cafe near TWB…

Falafel to Go – life changing falafel 

 

If there was a TV show made about you, what song would be the theme tune?

Cosmic Sans by Cory Wong and Tom Misch.

Apart from the fact that it’s a play on a font name it’s just dead funky and a super happy tune.

 

Laura’s website:  https://www.paperarcade.co.uk/

Laura’s Instagram: @heylaurabelle