meet rachel, magazine and publication designer based in brisbane. rachel is the founder of paper and desk, a graphic design studio with artistic flair and technical strength. we caught up with rachel to find out what makes her tick.

 

if you weren’t in graphic design, what would you be doing?

if i weren’t doing graphic design, i’d probably be working in fashion! i used to do some behind-the-scenes work in clothing production, like hunting down patterns for the fabric cutters and seamstresses, or checking samples against spec sheets, which was fun as it got me out of the office and on my feet a lot.

when i'm not at paper and desk, you can find me doing some sort of outdoor activity. one of my favourite things to do is heading up to a beach along the sunshine coast for a swim. otherwise, you’ll find me browsing the shops… most likely in the homewares section! (disclosure: i’m a big ikea fan)]

i love wearing loose-fit culottes and free-flowing dresses. even in winter! i like seeing fabric hanging loosely off the body, and love being able to relax in a piece of clothing. it makes a big difference in helping me to feel better when i’m having a rough day.

 

do you have any mentors/muses that inspire your work?

i sure do! i’m a big fan of jasmine dowling’s design and photography work (@jasminedowling). as most of my work is in magazine and publication design, my muses are often the creative houses that produce some of the magazines i collect for inspo – like the design team behind jones (by david jones) and lunch lady magazine.

 

 

what would we find on your playlist?

a whole heap of reggaeton! (ever heard of ‘gasolina’ by daddy yankee? that falls under the reggaeton style of music) i tend to listen to upbeat latin american music or r&b when i’m designing. when i really need to focus – i mean really concentrate on meeting a deadline – i’ll put on old school britney spears and paris hilton. don’t know why, but it works!

 

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