Laura’s first foray into product design was with Hasbro. When they decided to refresh the classic Parcheesi board game, a design that had remained unchanged since the turn of the last century, Hasbro turned to Laura. The challenge was to create a design that would highlight the game’s origins in India and make it appeal to kids today. “It was the perfect job for me: I remembered my brother and I opening up that dog-eared game board at the kitchen table when we were kids; and I loved researching the beautiful motifs and exotic animals, the Taj Mahal, the significance of lotus blossoms. It was definitely an assignment where work seemed like play.” In working on Parcheesi, she discovered a love for designing products that can connect with people every day.

Since then, Laura’s gift bag, wrap and greeting designs for Marcel Schurman/Papyrus have appeared on store shelves. She recently collaborated with Hallmark on two collections of humor cards to be sold in Wal Mart stores later this year. To introduce her art to an even wider array of products, Laura is making her debut this year as an exhibitor at Surtex, an art-licensing showcase held every May in New York City.

To fuel her enthusiasm for design and drawing, Laura works in a studio overflowing with books on everything from Saul Steinberg, to Mary Blair, Calder and Miro, Adrian gowns and Japanese schoolgirl fashions, world maps and Cliff Notes on The Odyssey and a few Hello Kitty toys. “It helps to have a place where I can immerse myself in the things that really inspire me. I’ll listen to The Jazz Messengers or some Bossa Nova, and I'm in my element with an old Thin Man movie playing in the background so I can see Myrna Loy shaking a cocktail in some lavish Art Deco hotel suite." 

Laura grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned her BFA from Auburn University, and spent a summer semester painting and studying art history in Cortona, Italy. She started her freelance career living in the East Village in New York City, dropping her portfolios off with art directors while working part time as an assistant to renowned jazz photographer Jimmy Katz. Laura now lives back in her hometown with her husband Clayton, an architect, in their 1950’s ranch house which they renovated together. It is a work in progress meaning this year, they hope to hang the closet doors.