Meet Laura Weldon

Laura Weldon teaches our part-time students in Manchester. She’s got ten years of design experience behind her, working for some big-name agencies and on some truly enormous projects—like rebranding Virgin Airlines. 

How did you get into design?
From as early on as I can remember I was always colouring in and creating stuff from anything I could find around the house, and as I got older I realised that being creative was something I could do as a job. I studied design at university and after numerous placements landed my first design job.

Why do you teach?
I teach because I am as passionate about design today as I was first starting out and I love seeing that passion and interest for design in the students. It’s such a great process to be part of—we have students come in that have never used a Mac before, and they graduate with the skills to be a designer. It also keeps me on my toes and gives me a fresh perspective on things as I am surrounded by 22 students that have completely different outlooks. I find this ends up influencing my design work too.

Have you had a favourite project to work on?
I would have to say my favourite project to work on so far is the Virgin Australia re-brand while I was working at Hulsbosch. It was a great experience to be a part of such a huge job and was a steep learning curve in areas of design I had never previously worked in.

We had to ask ourselves questions like, “what are the best materials to used for airport signage that won’t fade in the sun?” or “what’s the easiest way to communicate messages that will be universally understood?” It gave me the opportunity to look at a whole brand and how the different areas of that brand interact with each other internally and externally. It was definitely a job you dream of working on as a designer!

For me design is all about communicating a message and the medium is just the vehicle to get that message across, so I enjoy any outcome. However saying that I do love branding projects!

How do you keep inspired?
As cliche as it sounds, I find inspiration everywhere. For me it’s about keeping your eyes open to the world around you, reading books (not just design ones), TV, travelling, music … The list is endless.