Christian Solorzano [01:04]

Hello, you're listening to Underscore, a show by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I am your host, Christian Solorzano, and on today's episode, I am delighted to share my conversation with the Chicago-based designer Lauren Gallagher and founder of Something Else Studio. And together we explore her journey that began with discovering Photoshop early in life, which sparked her interest in typography, photography, and graphic design. And she speaks about launching her studio just before the pandemic, finding inspiration, and why Chicago's unique creative community has kept her rooted here.

She opens up about managing the challenges of running an independent practice while staying true to her values, which inspired her description of Something Else as a shape-shifting creative studio for like-minded people. If you enjoy these conversations, Please support the show by following us on your preferred podcast platform and leaving us a rating. It really helps us reach more people. It helps us expand our reach, not just in Chicago, but beyond. So as always, thank you so much for tuning in.

Enjoy the conversation and we'll talk soon. Good afternoon, Lauren. It's nice to be speaking with you after, it feels like it's been Many years. I was looking through your personal website and I stumbled upon your Tumblr only a few days ago. You posted something about doing things as an adult that you enjoyed doing as a child, and I would love to hear what some of those things are.

Lauren Gallagher [03:08]

Reconsuming media that I like. A kid. I guess it's a feeling I think about, I don't know, a lot whenever I do that. I mean, it's nothing like crazy. It's like an album or a movie. Or a video game. Yeah. It's just you're always like coming at it with a changed perspective and something you can only kind of like appreciate in hindsight.

Christian Solorzano [03:31]

So you are— so today you are a graphic designer, but I learned that you've been into graphic design Since a very young age, starting with a copy of Photoshop that you had.

Lauren Gallagher [03:46]

Yeah, my dad had a copy of Photoshop, I think 6, already installed on the computer. So I just started messing around with that and I enjoyed all the layering and the blending, the blend modes. Oh yeah, there was kind of like, I liked the collage-ness of it. And yeah, I think also like some of the electives I did in high school were very photography-based, so that lended itself well to Photoshop.

Yeah, I know a lot of people come in with also like an illustration background, and I didn't really have that. I was more type and photography.

Christian Solorzano [04:18]

And do you still have access to any of those early Photoshop things that you made?

Lauren Gallagher [04:25]

They're hopefully still on an external hard drive. Yeah, I haven't checked in a while.

Christian Solorzano [04:30]

I remember I used to like sometimes I would have to upload my image to like a Photobucket account just so that there could be like an image source somewhere. Photobucket, and there was another one that was like TinyPic or something, or TinyURL. It was one of those.

Lauren Gallagher [04:45]

I did try to access my Photobucket account a while ago and I couldn't.

Christian Solorzano [04:50]

Were there any forums that you would visit back then?

Lauren Gallagher [04:53]

I'm trying to remember. I mean, they weren't like super famous or anything. They were all pretty small. I think I did. There was like a ZeldaForums.com, I think, that I worked on. I think that would've been my first one.

Christian Solorzano [05:06]

I want to talk a little bit about everything that's leading up to the stuff that you're doing now. So you're running your own studio, Something Else, and you've had quite a rich experience when it comes to your background. You've worked with— you worked at Cards Against Humanity for quite some time. And a few other places.

So can you walk us kind of through your trajectory, like starting from going to Columbia College here in Chicago and just kind of those, like some of the milestones along the way?

Lauren Gallagher [05:41]

Yeah, I mean, I guess also related to the question you asked before, I knew going into high school that I wanted to go to college for graphic design or at least go to art school. I didn't know if I wanted to do graphic design necessarily, so Loved visiting the city growing up. I grew up in the suburbs, so art school in Chicago seemed like an obvious choice.

And then, yeah, after some of those, high school electives, choosing graphic design also felt— I felt pretty confident in that. I got a lot out of Columbia. I also, I think, put a lot into it so that I would. But yeah, I had like a really good group of friends there, and I still talk to most of them today. And then, yeah, I had a few internships there too.

I interned at Shubas in Lincoln Hall, just, yeah, like making like handbills for the Reader, which like I don't think is a job anymore. Let's see, I had an internship my senior year that I really didn't like, where I was essentially designing in PowerPoint presentations for salespeople at like a marketing company downtown. And I initially took it because it was the only paid internship I could find. It just gave me kind of like— it kind of freaked me out.

I was like, is this what I've been spending 4 years working for? So I really, I don't know, overextended myself a bit to make sure I was happy with my portfolio that I was going to graduate with and do a lot of cold emailing and reaching out for jobs. Yeah, I actually knew a friend of a friend that worked at Cards. So that's how I saw the job listing for that. It was like the exact opposite of the internship I was doing.

In every way. So I remember applying to that and then being told basically I had like 24 hours before my interview. I was like, you can come in tomorrow, essentially. And I felt very nervous, so I made a presentation for it. They didn't ask me to do that, but I wanted to like go in with a script. And talked about why, I would be a good fit and walked them through work. Ultimately, they ended up hiring Amy Schwartz, who I think you also know.

I had also met with Amy at one point, but they decided that they liked me anyway and wanted to bring me on as a junior designer on contract. So that was awesome. That's what I did. And I was eventually brought on full-time and promoted to lead. And I mean, I think that job— really shaped a lot of the way I approach my work now, for better or worse, because it is— it was such a unique job and company still.

The office itself at the time was such a huge coworking space. All of those people are like still some of my best friends today. And that was so beneficial in being able to talk to people that weren't just graphic designers, especially right out of school, and people that were also self-employed and successfully so. And all these different, game design and software development and all these other different things. So that really, opened my eyes to that world.

Christian Solorzano [08:45]

Yeah, I remember Cards Against Humanity at some point, it was like a very— it had like a strong creative presence in the city. And I remember touring it as a student and they had— I don't know if they— do they still have their theater?

Lauren Gallagher [08:58]

No, I sold the building actually. It was a really cool space. I think I was encouraged to take a lot of risks and there are so many, unique projects with all their Black Friday stunts and various expansion pack promotions that I did kind of gather a wide set of skills within a short period of time. Yeah, like conference signage, things like that. Yeah, but it was still an in-house job.

I did kind of feel like I was sort of repeating the same process in a way where I wasn't learning as much as I wanted to. And that's why I left, essentially. Yeah, and then I started at Verrier. I was one of the first employees there. That was a small studio founded by, of like the longtime Pitchfork, longtime employees there who essentially, I think, started the music festival, Mike and Chris.

And that was another learning curve because I think everybody, it was like a team of 5 or so running a small agency and nobody had any agency experience really. That was interesting. I'm really grateful for all the projects I got to work on there.

A lot of them suited my personality and yeah, just gave me something different to work on. Yeah, I did kind of feel like there were too many cooks pretty often. I think at a certain point I was just growing frustrated and left and freelanced with Eileen at Other for a little bit and just, I think I will commit to trying this.

Christian Solorzano [10:27]

So what was every— what was the one catalyst that kind of launched you to just do your own studio and I'm assuming it sounds like a pretty scary thing to do, but what was your experience and what has that been like, especially doing it right before the world got very crazy in 2020?

Lauren Gallagher [10:51]

I mean, I'd kind of already been doing it for a couple months, just freelance on the side. Yeah, if it weren't for all my friends working for themselves, I think I would've felt like it was a much more daunting task, but I had an idea of like, okay, like here's how I like form an LLC and here's like a contract example. Yeah, I think I was also lucky that like at the time social media wasn't as like torched as it is now.

And it was easy to meet other designers in other cities through like Twitter, basically.

Like at Cards, I had hired Allright to do a couple websites when they had just become a company for our studio. Ian of Gardner had been working there for a long time, and he was really helpful with all the logistics of setting up a studio. And he's pretty transparent about all that stuff. He has yearly reports on his website. And so seeing, I guess, all these examples of independently owned creative studios, it didn't feel too freaky.

And I knew if it didn't work out, I could surely just find a job again. Did not know upon forming it that there would be a global pandemic one month later.

Christian Solorzano [12:03]

And did that impact— did that impact what you were trying to do?

Lauren Gallagher [12:07]

I was kind of already like, there's no— I can only go up at this point. There's no— I have nothing to lose, essentially. So a month in, I think everyone kind of had the rug pulled out from underneath them and I already didn't have the rug, so I felt maybe like it was a little more like of an even playing field. That's not really the way I want to say that, but it's more like we're all just kind of like charting into this unknown world.

And it was honestly a great time to try running a business for the first time. It was a lot of people figuring out a lot of things for the first time. Logistically, it was good for me. A lot of businesses realized the value of having a good website. So I got hit up for that. Websites, branding. Yeah, I think at that time, I think a few months after that is when I got connected with Metric Coffee. They said they were like looking for part-time help.

And I just messaged them and said like, hey, I'll, you could just like pay me like a freelancer or whatever. And then after a couple of months, we just like had a great working relationship that they approached me with doing like an entire rebrand. So that's how that got started.

Christian Solorzano [13:31]

And how did you go about defining your studio and maybe differentiating it in a world like in a city where there's just so many other studios. I really love your statement on your website that says, a shape-shifting creative studio for like-minded people. Walk us through the process of kind of branding yourself, identifying who you are. And I'm assuming it's just this constant work in progress where you're learning newer things, new things about yourself and adapting.

Lauren Gallagher [14:02]

But I'm constantly revising it. The shape-shifting thing term I think I came up with Wow. Playing WoW recently. But I, yeah, I mean, essentially that just means like, I like taking on clients I think I'll align with in terms of just values, especially with like picking on clients that are like-minded, meaning that they align with the same like values I have in terms of just like work-life balance and taking the work seriously without taking themselves seriously and shape-shifting in that. It's not like a traditional studio.

It's mostly just me bringing on different contractors based on the project and based on their skill set. So if someone needs like a 3D flower illustration, that's like at the bottom of my website. I'm like, oh, I know just the guy for that. My friend Trek makes amazing 3D flowers.

She does that for fun. And it just, after working so long and having the fortunate work background that I've had here in Chicago, I'm just I feel pretty well connected with everyone. So I wanted to use that to my advantage. The name Something Else, that is from, that's basically named after my grandfather. He would always say I'm something else. Old Jewish man being like, oh, Lauren, you're something else. Yeah. And he had passed away about a year prior to me starting this.

So it was pretty like someone I was thinking about every day.

Christian Solorzano [15:37]

Still do. Yeah.

Lauren Gallagher [15:38]

I had like a really good, close relationship with him growing up.

Christian Solorzano [15:41]

Yeah. And it's such a good name because, I mean, it feels so conversational. Let's do something else. And always something else being something better, something more creative. Just like anything but this. Let's do something else. So it's a very nice and simple way to—

Lauren Gallagher [15:59]

Yeah, thanks.

Christian Solorzano [16:01]

To be Something Else.

Lauren Gallagher [16:03]

Yeah, I really do want it to lead toward more unconventional projects at some point. Yeah, it gets people to kind of take a step back and hopefully be a little more open-minded to a new process or a new idea when approaching me with a project.

Christian Solorzano [16:19]

So right now, is your team, or is it mostly just you and then collaborators on a need-to basis?

Lauren Gallagher [16:25]

Yeah, that's how it's been. My tryout I'm having a friend do the more business lead project management stuff this year. See how that goes. Yeah, but I am intentionally trying to grow as slowly as possible, if at all. I'm terrified to hire someone and be responsible for their well-being. It's so scary.

Christian Solorzano [16:46]

It's a big responsibility. I mean, it's hard enough to take care of yourself, let alone have someone else to take care of. I think sometimes, as you, as I'm sure you know this, good work draws good people. And I think that that'll just come with time and it's been coming and all that kind of stuff. So you mentioned doing work that aligns with people that are, or with organizations and companies that share the same values as you.

Are there any like red flags or like how do you identify someone that you definitely don't want to work with? Because I think as designers, like we often run into the, Into the situation where we say yes to something, it becomes something totally unexpected. How do your antenna work and how do they pick up on—

Lauren Gallagher [17:36]

This is a good question. It's hard. I'm also, I've been fortunate to really only make this mistake truly like once. There's one project in particular where I feel like there really was a misalignment. I think that was because the client couldn't really decide what they wanted. Despite coming in like pretty confidently with a clear ask.

They just kept like changing their mind and that's always a red flag. And yeah, that just like dragged down a little longer than it should have. Yeah, someone who doesn't know what they want, usually a red flag. Someone who has maybe too clear of an idea of what they want and like doesn't want my input, also a red flag. It is often just like getting on a call with someone and like kind of sussing out the vibe.

The way you would do like a job interview, you'd be like, oh, would I be a good fit at this company? It's a pretty similar process in that way.

Christian Solorzano [18:25]

Because I ask this because our listeners tend to, we have listeners that range from, people that are just early into their career, some of them still in college, all the way up to people that have been doing this for decades. And one of the questions that we often get from younger people is like, how do you, how do you, how do you learn to like trust your instinct and be able to identify those moments where you might be getting taken advantage of or icky situations?

I feel like that you kind of have to— has to happen to you a few times in order to—

Lauren Gallagher [19:05]

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Christian Solorzano [19:08]

It's—

Lauren Gallagher [19:09]

You really only learn with like time and experience. And I think if you're adamant about just getting as much experience and as much variety of experience as you can, and you're good at reflecting on those and noticing patterns within them, or like, okay, I tend to act this way with these types of projects, or like, I respond in this way.

Taking moments to reflect on your own performance, 'cause I mean, no one else— yeah, there's like job reviews or whatever, but no one's really gonna be like reflecting on it in terms of— no one's gonna ask you like, oh, are you like growing and learning from this job?

Christian Solorzano [19:43]

Yeah.

Lauren Gallagher [19:43]

Unless they're like an awesome supervisor, which in that case, maybe stay there forever. Though it's so rare. So you do have to make sure to like ask those questions to yourself. Yeah. I mean, it just takes—

Christian Solorzano [19:54]

And you've been in and you've obviously like you grew up in the suburbs and you've been in Chicago for quite some time now. It's— I mean, right now we're living like it's a very cold period right now in Chicago. And I feel like you did an interview a while back and you were talking about how sometimes people from Chicago they will, once they get to a certain point in their career, like they'll either go to New York or LA or they'll just like leave Chicago.

But you've established yourself here and it doesn't seem like you plan on going anywhere anytime soon. So what do you see about Chicago that's special? You did a lot of research.

Lauren Gallagher [20:34]

I don't even know when I said that. I believe that I did.

Christian Solorzano [20:36]

You did. You said it in 2022.

Lauren Gallagher [20:38]

Okay. Pretty recently. Honestly, at this point, I'm probably the most open to not living here just because I have my whole life. But I am not. I have no plans on leaving. I enjoy it here a lot. Yeah, I guess for me personally, I just— it doesn't appeal to me to live in New York or LA or San Francisco. I could see— I don't know, I could see going somewhere for like a short project or like residency or something. That sounds really appealing to me.

I like it here. I like the change in seasons. If it isn't super windy, I don't mind how cold it is. The summers here are awesome because the winters here are so cold. Yeah, it encompasses a lot of interests that I like. I like biking. I like going to concerts. I like video games. There's a huge game industry, indie game scene here.

And now I feel like I've been here so long, I do kind of— it feels like a small town in a way, even though it's like an enormous city.

Christian Solorzano [21:40]

Yeah. And especially I feel like the design community is kind of like everyone knows each other or knows someone that knows someone that, which is, which I think is like super exciting. And I've been to other big cities and come to the conclusion that there is no place like Chicago. Yeah.

Lauren Gallagher [21:57]

Yeah. A lot of people who do move will like then come back and say like, it's not like that there. Chicago is unique in this kind of like community sense.

Christian Solorzano [22:06]

Yeah. And then I'm like, well, why'd you move then?

Lauren Gallagher [22:08]

Well, I kind of get it. There's like bigger opportunities or whatever, but I don't know, especially like I've always considered myself pretty like internet savvy and I don't feel like I'm necessarily like limited in projects by staying here. But I can see if you're like trying to work at different agencies or like bigger agencies, then yeah, you like inevitably do have to move.

Christian Solorzano [22:31]

And what have been some of the biggest like growing pains From running your own studio now for 5 years, for almost 5 years?

Lauren Gallagher [22:40]

That's a good question.

Christian Solorzano [22:41]

Because so many people want to do that. I feel like that's like the dream for people is I want to be my own boss and do what I want and not listen to anyone else, which you do as a— I mean, you're always going to listen to someone else.

Lauren Gallagher [22:55]

But yeah, I think we all have the stories of having like working with people that we just don't really agree with and I mean, the biggest learning curve for me has been like just dealing with slow periods and not making money for months on end and having to remind myself that that's what comes with freelancing and working for yourself, especially if you are just like a one-person studio or practice or whatever.

That's, I mean, that's probably been the biggest learning curve, but I don't know, I feel pretty fortunate that I'm pretty, Decent at managing my time. I don't mind doing a lot of the project management tasks. That gives my brain a break from doing creative stuff, and it feels kind of balanced in that way.

And I guess for me, knowing all of those moving pieces, like the timeline or when this meeting is or whatever, it just helps give me more peace of mind when I am focused on the creative work itself.

Christian Solorzano [23:57]

So what does Lauren do when there's a should we subscribe to World of Warcraft?

Lauren Gallagher [24:03]

That's what I did lately because it's freezing outside. But I will, I'll try and do things that I normally wouldn't do or try and learn a new skill just to kind of get my opportunity. It's an opportunity for my brain to start working a little differently. I took a metalsmithing class. I did a workshop called Crazy Stool Workshop. I think that's by Little Craft Studio. So I'll give them a plug because that was really fun. I'm gonna have to look that up.

And yeah, I don't really— other than college, I haven't, explored any artistic practice. And to get any break from the computer is always welcome. Last year I started learning bass a little bit because I haven't played any music in a long time and I have really small hands. So I figured bass, we can do it. So when it's slow, I'll try and, learn something new. That's pretty much what I'm trying to say.

Christian Solorzano [24:57]

That's awesome. I feel like there's been so many— like, at the moment, I'm trying to teach myself Processing. Oh, fun.

Lauren Gallagher [25:06]

I did that in college for a little bit.

Christian Solorzano [25:07]

Yeah, I dabbled in it for a while, like years ago, but I've forgotten everything. And if you don't practice consistently, you kind of forget everything.

Lauren Gallagher [25:20]

Right. It's cool though.

Christian Solorzano [25:22]

Yeah, it is. Like the stuff that you can do, I mean, it's amazing. And I think it pairs nicely with making your own websites. Yeah. So what are some of the projects that you've worked on over the last 5 years? And is there anything that is not published that you can talk about?

Lauren Gallagher [25:44]

Well, hang on, let me look at my own website really quickly. Some of the work I love— well, I love all of my projects and clients. Yeah, Metric was so fun just because I got along with both those guys so well.

And we both are a little scrappy in our processes a little bit, and it complemented each other well in that way. So yeah, it was just like a really positive working relationship. I mean, working with Annapurna was cool and like working with different indie game developers and making logos for their games. Yeah, that's always interesting because all of them have their own different ways of working and their own approaches and their own visions for what they want.

It wasn't public for a while only because I took forever to document it, but I did just upload some documentation from the Blaseball online browser game that was very popular during COVID. And they had reached out to me during COVID to design like the mobile version essentially and do a little like brand update.

And I'm not much of a product designer, so I brought on a product designer for that. And that was such a huge learning opportunity for me and just about like game mechanics, but also just UI and UX design and really exciting. That was really cool. That game, they had to shut it down because running a live service game isn't the most cost-effective.

Christian Solorzano [27:19]

Oh, really?

Lauren Gallagher [27:20]

Thing to do. Yeah, I hope it comes back one day. It was very unique. It was so like a lot of the gameplay was very like crowdsourced through a Discord. A lot of the rules were very democratic and like players would vote on them. There's several articles about it if you Google it that can explain it better than I can.

Christian Solorzano [27:41]

So it was a baseball simulation horror game?

Lauren Gallagher [27:43]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [27:45]

I cannot imagine what that— what that is.

Lauren Gallagher [27:48]

It's all like text-based. And you play by like placing bets on these fake games, essentially.

And the games, of course, are like— they start going crazy with like different weather patterns, and some of them are really fantastical and, it's not like the players are necessarily human, like that kind of thing. So it was very silly and absurd too. Projects I don't have? I mean, I'm working on a Microsoft project right now that sounds cooler already than it is, I think, because it's just like an internal kind of like image bank for them to use in their like interdepartment communications or whatever.

And it's still cool, like getting to work with them and learn more about them. But the work itself isn't super crazy. I'm just making some static images for them. That's not on my website.

Christian Solorzano [28:41]

Sometimes I sometimes see the studio websites, well, they'll have the big names like Microsoft or Google or— But then it's like the work that they did was something not that big or not that yeah. Glamorous. That's pretty common. I've done, I've done some work for, I think it was Microsoft a few years ago, and it was literally putting together like 3 slides for like a presentation that probably like no one saw.

Lauren Gallagher [29:12]

But, you did it, so now you get to put it on your website.

Christian Solorzano [29:15]

You've earned the logo. Yeah. Well, that's exciting. So do you often get, 'cause like I was mentioning, our listeners tend to be like, we, the Chicago Graphic Design Club, we have like a pretty, robust audience and community members.

But the question that I want to ask you is, when you were a student or you were, just starting your career, what were some of the things that you felt like really worked in your favor in regards to things to differentiate yourself or to just, kind of put yourself out there and, attract opportunities and whatnot? Because I— You mentioned just, cold emailing people, but was there anything in particular that really, you feel like, really made a difference?

Lauren Gallagher [30:02]

This sounds, I guess it sounds obvious, but I needed someone to spell it out for me. To only put the kind of work you want to do in your portfolio. I remember seeing Jeremiah Chu do a lecture in 2012 or '13 or something, and he verbatim said, yeah, if there's a project you didn't like doing, don't put it on your website because you're just going to keep doing more of it.

And then kind of like what we were saying earlier, I was taking a Processing class and I thought, oh, there's probably a way I can overlap this with like a branding project. And I guess that's thinking outside the box, but really just like combining interests. If you are an illustrator and want to keep doing illustrations, then like doing a branding project that involves illustrations, I mean, yeah, it sounds— Yeah, it sounds kind of redundant, but it's true.

I'm trying to even remember what was in my portfolio. I definitely did have a brand identity that used random patterns generated through Processing.

Christian Solorzano [31:02]

Yeah, because I sometimes will see designers share their portfolios and they'll kind of in a very timid way kind of say like, oh, I don't like this project. Or like—

Lauren Gallagher [31:14]

Yeah, don't do that.

Christian Solorzano [31:15]

And I'm like, well, why is it there? It's like, have, I think it's better to have fewer projects that you like than to have more just for the sake of having more.

Lauren Gallagher [31:26]

Yeah. And projects that you feel comfortable walking through. Yeah. Because I guess this is also like, it's common for hiring managers to say this, but I think it's true. I'm paying more attention to the way you think and how you are approaching it rather than like the final outcome. I don't really care what mockup you used as long as I can tell, yeah, this is like supposed to be on a t-shirt or whatever. You can draw with it.

You can draw the t-shirt with the pen tool in Illustrator. I don't care. It doesn't need to be like this realistic mockup, but as long as like whatever helps you present that work in like the clearest and most confident way.

Christian Solorzano [32:06]

And do you have any— like, inspiration is something that always comes up. And inspiration as being something that sometimes influences your work or just whatever. And I'm curious if you have any places that you pull inspiration from and just what your relationship is to inspiration.

Lauren Gallagher [32:29]

Good question. I guess with more experience, I've become a little more critical about other graphic designs. So when I am trying to be inspired, I don't really look at other graphic design. I try to like think about like something I'm reading at the time, or I mean, that's what my Tumblr is for basically. It's just like random, like things that stand out to me, whether it's like a song or a video or a game.

And whether that's like a new like song that dropped last Friday or it's a game from like 20 years ago, like never heard of. I mean, that's just like and I guess instead of like thinking of it as getting inspired, I just try to kind of be present in situations and pay attention to things while I'm like in the moment.

When I do start a project and I'm kind of like looking for a place to start, it helps me like get into a mode of like researching things related to that topic or that industry and seeing ways I can like even go beyond that or like make kind of like free associative connections with what I am researching to something I've read or seen in the past. Does that make sense?

Christian Solorzano [33:42]

Yeah, no, it makes sense. I'm similar as well. And one of the reasons why I asked this is because one of the things that I often see, and especially like I started teaching a few years ago and it's become very common for young designers to kind of just go through Pinterest or to go through like Instagram feeds, gathering inspiration and then just kind of making decisions based off someone else's decisions.

And sure, like you can make pretty cool looking things, but I feel like it's, I don't know, it's— It's not very good.

Lauren Gallagher [34:26]

I think it's usually pretty apparent if someone, if someone's just doing that, I can look at the work and be like, yeah, I know exactly what your mood board looked like.

Christian Solorzano [34:35]

Yeah, exactly. So do you do mood boards?

Lauren Gallagher [34:37]

I will for clients, not really for myself, but for them to kind of understand, a direction. And sometimes that doesn't include, other design pieces. Sometimes that includes maybe, I don't know, even like architecture or like whatever. I'm trying to think of like a more specific example, but I guess like for En Masse, for example, like that included a lot of architecture in the mood board and less just oh, here are like colorful, like cool grids.

Think about it like that. And that also comes back to just like being able to explain your work.

Christian Solorzano [35:22]

Yeah, the communication piece I feel like is such a— I don't know, I don't know what your experience was like in college, but it was such a— like, at least for me, being able to present and like articulate choices, but be able to tie them to some like outcome or like, I hate the word business, but like some kind of like business metric is— It's just so it's like it truly is a superpower. I feel like that needs to be overemphasized in design programs.

Lauren Gallagher [35:54]

Yeah, I think that's true. I think there is a little BSing you have to do at times to justify your reasoning, but sometimes you can come up with a pretty business metric style reasoning. Like for choosing a color, if you pull up, I don't know, all the logos from competitors and they're all blue, it's like, obviously you shouldn't be using blue in your logo. With purple or like whatever, I don't know. Yeah.

Then that usually makes them go like, oh yeah, that's so informed and that makes sense. And then that like gains trust for you to do something weirder later. And hopefully, it all depends on the client.

Christian Solorzano [36:35]

So can you walk us through like a typical day in your— because you share a studio with a few other folks that are also like creative people. And community is such a— I feel like community is definitely such a crucial part of the design process. And I think even being a one-person studio, how do you bring in community into what you do? And how do you pull from the people around you and just the city in general?

Lauren Gallagher [37:13]

The coworking space, the studio space I really need, or I'd like feel like I'd be going insane just never leaving my apartment. And that space is also— I don't think I like said this earlier, but that's also like self-employed or remote employees of either like graphic design or web development, usually.

And so basically any opportunity to get my, head out of whatever narrow pathway I'm— it's already going down, I can take a step back and talk, hear about someone else's project and maybe help them out. And then that helps me come back to my stuff with a clear head. But yeah, I mean, doing that. With quite enjoyment doing that in a group chat with all of the self-employed friends from Cards Against Humanity, various like Discord or Slack servers, social media.

If it's still— if you've figured out a way to make it work for you, that's awesome. It's hard. I've given up on Twitter. It's going to take a lot for me to sign up for a new social media these days. I'll just say that.

Christian Solorzano [38:35]

I'd love to hear about your— these will be like just like a series of just rapid-fire questions. And I want to know, what are you listening to at the moment? And what are some of the things that you're reading? And because you're into video games, what games are you playing?

Lauren Gallagher [38:51]

Okay, well, I guess I'm going to start with games because I'm actually in between that right now. My WoW club ended yesterday and I don't want to renew it right now because it's— the new expansion is boring. So I'm going to start playing Metaphor: ReFantazio. And the sequel to Ender Lilies comes out on Friday. I think it's called Ender Magnolia, which is like a Metroidvania game. So those are 2 games.

And then reading, I'm actually reading Berserk right now for the first time, and I'm almost caught up with it.

I understand why people don't like it. I understand why people love it. It's been interesting to read like a manga that's influenced so many things I like, because I can be like, yep, that, that's, this is pretty much Elden Ring, the manga, or like whatever. So I'm reading that. And then I have another book I just got in Praise of Shadows. That's a good one. I've read that one. And then I've got the Rings of Saturn, which is fiction, fictional book. Gonna read that too. Music.

I'm always listening to a ton of music, all kinds. Let's see, let's pull something out. Well, there's a new Ulla Strauss, who's like an ambient artist, just dropped a new album unexpectedly. I've been listening to that and it's been really nice. And actually, I listen to Joy Tactics, the podcast that is just 3 guys, 3 friends chatting, and they're all like Canadians that I met in Chicago, like they're all friends with Sarah Squirm and like that kind of crowd.

Yeah, I'm listening to them twice a week because I'm a patron. But yeah, they're very silly.

Christian Solorzano [40:33]

The other question is, when you're working, what are your studio must-haves? What are your, what are your, what are your essentials?

Lauren Gallagher [40:43]

Coffee, real mouse, not trackpad. Sorry, real mouse. Not Magic Mouse, real mouse. I need a little, toy on my desk. Ideally a monitor. I don't have that at home, but in the studio I have a monitor. Honestly, if there can be a little noise, I don't need it to be absolute silence. I don't mind some background noise. Those are my musts, I suppose.

Christian Solorzano [41:08]

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Lauren Gallagher [41:09]

World of Warcraft. I don't like how often that's come out. I feel like I'm talking about that more than I ever have in my life. I am not a hardcore WoW player. By the way, despite being a veteran, I'm a very casual, a few hours a week tops.

Christian Solorzano [41:22]

I used to play Diablo a lot as a kid.

Lauren Gallagher [41:26]

Awesome game.

Christian Solorzano [41:27]

Yeah. And I don't think I've played it in, I don't know, like 15 years or so. But I recently started playing Silent Hill 2, the remaster. I haven't played that in like 20 years since when it first came out. And it's so good. And I can easily like, if I don't have—

Lauren Gallagher [41:47]

Amazing game.

Christian Solorzano [41:48]

Self-control, then I'll just—

Lauren Gallagher [41:50]

Yeah, sink into it.

Christian Solorzano [41:52]

Play for hours. It's so addicting.

Lauren Gallagher [41:53]

Yeah, the remake I think is really good. Also great soundtrack.

Christian Solorzano [41:57]

And then the last question is, what are some of your favorite Chicago spots when you're not working?

Lauren Gallagher [42:05]

Oh man, this kind of draws a fine line between gatekeeping versus wanting Things to not blow up, but I have never had TikTok. Not that I am opposed to it. I don't think this will be an issue is what I'm trying to say. Well, okay. A lot of my favorite spots have also closed or changed ownership in the past few years. So would like to give a rest shout out rest in peace small bar. Despite its the door still being open, it's not the same.

And to me, it's I can no longer. Go there and fully enjoy it the way I used to. But currently open, currently that I like, I love Best Intentions. I love getting their fish sandwich on Fridays. Kind of hard to go there in the winter because it's small and crowded. It's like everyone's favorite bar here. Favorite Chicago smarts, Four Letter Word Coffee, if I can't say Metric because that's biased. Lou was a classic, of course. I'm trying to think of places not necessarily in the neighborhood.

That I love. Man, I don't know. It's hard. I like a lot of places. The Bean. Because I am— because I do lists in my own project managing and whatever, I do have a Chicago map. I'll skim through really quickly. I don't know why I feel like these last questions, I feel like I really gotta answer rapid fire, but that's students like that. That's not the case, obviously, the MCA.

Christian Solorzano [43:35]

And I see that you're also a fan of David Lynch. You've posted 2 things about him recently.

Lauren Gallagher [43:45]

I just listened to the audiobook.

Christian Solorzano [43:47]

Catching the Big Fish. It's a good one.

Lauren Gallagher [43:50]

Yeah, I liked it.

Christian Solorzano [43:50]

Or do you have a meditation practice?

Lauren Gallagher [43:52]

No, but he's really got me thinking about it. Yeah. And I think, coincidentally, a lot of stuff I've been reading has, mentioned, meditating. You should try it. I might give it a shot this year. You should.

Christian Solorzano [44:04]

That'll be on record for everyone to hear.

Lauren Gallagher [44:06]

Oh, good. So I'll hold myself to it.

Christian Solorzano [44:09]

Lauren is going to start to meditate.

Lauren Gallagher [44:12]

You heard it here first. Oh, I'll give a shout out to Vitchcraft because she's my friend. Okay. And that's technically a store, even though they're only open on Sundays. I don't know. There's so many places. What did I say? Best Intentions?

Christian Solorzano [44:28]

Yeah, Best Intentions, Small Bar, the Bean.

Lauren Gallagher [44:31]

That's— yeah, those are panic responses for sure. Oh, I said Lua. Okay, that's pretty regular. I like— yeah, I love going out to eat, so I feel like this should be— but it's hard. It's hard to go wrong in Chicago. I will say that. The Music Box, of course. Smart Bar. This isn't illuminating to anyone.

Christian Solorzano [44:49]

Well, thank you so much for taking the time. It flew by. And I hope that this year we can maybe do something together with the Chicago Graphic Design Club. All right. Well, that is the end of the interview.

Lauren Gallagher [45:04]

All right. The end.

Christian Solorzano [45:06]

Thank you so much for sticking around till the end. If you enjoy this conversation, next time that you see me, tell me so, or give us a rating on your favorite podcast platform. Share with your friends, share on social media, and to learn more, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. Thank you, and we'll talk to you soon. Goodbye.