Lauren Martin
Illustration by: Lauren Martin
“…I need to keep reminding myself that in my work and world anything can be any color, things can exist outside of the plane of correct perspective, inanimate objects can have personalities and emotions and there are no ‘rules’”
A NYC-based creative, illustrator, designer, animator, synth player, classically-trained artist, and most of all, dream weaver. When you study Lauren Martin’s vibrant and playful work you are immediately transported back to childhood. Each piece she creates is an extension of her own world, filled with euphoric expression, eternal happiness and soothing colors and familiarity. If there’s such thing as a utopian world, Lauren Martin would draw it.
Where are you from?
New York City
What got you into illustration?
I've always been obsessed with drawing but I was more focused on fine art for a long time. I studied portrait painting and textile design but wasn't super inspired to pursue a career in either of those fields. It wasn't until I started making merch and posters for my band that I really discovered illustrating as a passion.
What is your design process like and where do you pull ideas from?
I get my ideas from all over! Conversations, TV, looking out of the window -- basically anything is fair game! Often an idea will pop into my head, like a lightbulb turning on, and I'll go sketch it immediately but sometimes I just doodle and a concept emerges. A lot of my recent work has been made from just doodling and seeing where I ended up. The food drawings I do are usually just long-form doodles that I keep going back to as I come up with more stuff to add to them.
You incorporate a lot of organic shapes and an array of gradients throughout your work - how would you describe this style?
It's hard to describe because I'm not sure if it's really my style but more of a way of experimenting with color and texture for fun. I gravitate more naturally to drawing things from reality but I like the idea of occasionally bending reality to be stranger than it actually is -- at least visually!
Illustration by: Lauren Martin
Dream Garden - Illustration by: Lauren Martin
Tour Poster - Illustration & Design by: Lauren Martin
How do you go about choosing colors for your designs? Do you stick with a specific color palette?
I sometimes try to stick to a color palette but more often than not I just wing it and see how it goes. I love when colors vibrate so I try to use a lot of bright complementary colors. I do like it when I have an opportunity to work in a limited palette -- like when making something that will be screen printed or riso printed. It's a fun challenge to recolor things in unrealistic ways that still convey the object with accuracy.
It's fun to see the combinations of textures in some of your work, such as the ‘Visit Denmark’ design where you incorporate both illustration and photography. What provoked this style?
I was on tour at the time and was having a hard time drawing in the back of the car because the road was too bumpy -- so I had this idea of taking photos of the food that I ate on tour and reworking it to look like old travel posters. It was a way I could keep drawing without having to actually draw that much. The first one I did was of a canelé I ate at a rest-stop in France and it was so fun that I just kept taking photos of things I ate and trying to come up with funny ways to make them into natural scenes.
Visit Denmark Poster - Illustration & Design by: Lauren Martin
My creativity totally comes from my inner child. I would say that nearly 100% of my childhood entertainment was drawing and creating.
Calendar - Illustration by: Lauren Martin
What was your experience like supporting the Australian brushfire with a t-shirt you designed? We couldn’t help but notice a spider illustration similar to the one you drew when you were younger. Was that intentional or just a coincidence?
It was a great experience! I was able to raise over $1000 AUD for bushfire charities! It felt great that so many people were happy to support my art and a cause that was important to me. And it's funny that you mention that spider! It was a total coincidence but I have always been intrigued/terrified by spiders. It's a love/hate relationship :)
Your use of never-ending pedestals that extend into clouds with floating objects that take shape in the form of a face or expression is very dream-like. Where does your mind go when you start to create?
Haha! I go to another planet! But I'm really inspired by classical art so columns, clouds, and magic are always in my mind when I'm creating but I also am always reminding myself to break the rules when I'm drawing. Because of my background in classical portraiture I find sometimes that I am/was very rule-based so I need to keep reminding myself that in my work and world anything can be any color, things can exist outside of the plane of correct perspective, inanimate objects can have personalities and emotions and there are no "rules"
How much of your creativity do you owe to your inner child? Your works are like the covers to imaginary children’s books, and you offer a coloring book!
My creativity totally comes from my inner child. I would say that nearly 100% of my childhood entertainment was drawing and creating. I was never very stimulated by toys or games but I could draw and be in my imagination all day. I'm still very much like that and I find it really easy to day dream for hours on end. I feel that I still maintain a very child-like excitement for creating and observing the world and It's really helped me always find the humor in things.
Name 3 of your favorite bands.
ABBA
Shintaro Sakamoto
StereolaB
... but the list goes on and on!
What’s been the best part about “staying in” for you?
As a huge introvert I've found staying in has allowed me to do a big recharge! The absence of social pressure has really given me some space that I felt I had been needing. Of course, I don't mean to say I don't miss my friends and family, I just mean that having the space to fully exist in my own mind for a while has been a silver lining to what has been an overall not very silver lined experience.
Illustrating, design, animation, making pants and earrings, and DJ‘ing on KPISS.fm - what’s something you haven’t done that you want to try?
I've had plans to make a clock for a while I'm just not sure how yet! I'd also love to make furniture and learn more about carpentry.
You also play the Synth & Guitar in Frankie Cosmos, tell us about it!
It wasn't something I had ever planned on doing -- It sort of just happened! I always dabbled in music for fun and I never thought of myself as a musician at all but when Greta asked me to join FC in 2015 I couldn't say no! It's not everyday that you get the chance to tour the world. I didn't really know how to play synth or guitar that well so I had to work pretty hard to get to a level where I felt OK playing on stage.
What's your typical Sunday like?
Well in pre-quarantine times my typical Sunday was walking around my neighborhood in Brooklyn with my boyfriend and heading uptown to my parent's house for dinner -- I love routine so doing the same thing on Sunday gave some structure to my otherwise unstructured schedule.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
COFFEE!
Still life - Illustration by: Lauren Martin