Laura Stein, Chief Creative Officer at Bruce Mau, On Designing for Leading Organizations
Laura Stein leverages her design skills for good causes. Images courtesy of Stein. Header image design by Julianna Collares.
Laura Stein is at the forefront of several high-profile projects with leading organizations across Canada. From leading the rebrand for the National Ballet of Canada, to designing signage for the Montreal Holocaust Museum, to developing the visual identity for Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Stein’s ongoing projects reflect her passion for using visual articulation to communicate the culture and history of place.
Today, as chief creative officer at Bruce Mau Design, Stein likes to operate without a rigid structure and follows the ethos that there is no “right way” when it comes to creativity. Here, Stein shares how she works, including her dream of working in an old Toronto row house; how adding one word to her mantra would change the whole meaning of it; and the advice from Bruce Mau that led her to rethink her approach to design.
This Anthony Burrill quote informs Stein’s attitude about keeping possibility alive.
1. Rise and Shine
I’m an extreme morning person. I love it when it is quiet and no one else is up, so I get up extra early, make a coffee, and sit down to do my thinking work. In the winter it is under a blanket. In the summer the birds are chirping. Both are good. On my happiest days, I then go for a quick run to the lake and circle back to pick up my dog for her run. Watching Fig play with other dogs is that extra dopamine injection I need. That is a lot for the morning but truly it is my favorite time of day for all those things, so I try to pack it all in.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my team is in the studio, so I’ll grab the streetcar and head across the city. Otherwise, I set up in our guest room/library/recording studio/office/Lego shrine.
2. Work Uniform
… not yet happening. I would love an actual uniform, but for now, I generally wear interchangeable pants, button up shirts, and sneakers. I had a friend (an architect) who once told me she dressed so that if she needed to scale a building, she could. I feel like I fall into the same category.
3. How I Structure My Day
Besides my early morning focus time, there is no structure. Mostly I’m meeting with design teams or clients throughout the day on different projects. We’re a pretty collaborative studio and about 10 projects are happening at any given moment. In the last few years, we have been doing a lot of work with clients in different time zones so there are occasional meetings in the evening.
Sterolab and Stein used to play together back in the day.
4. Playlist Favorites
I get on long jags of listening to one album constantly for a while I work, then eventually moving on to another. It’s like serial monogamy. My focus music right now is Stereolab’s Sound-Dust. Many years ago, I was in a band that played with them, cementing my love for their music forever.
5. Tools of the Trade
These days, the tools I use most often are Miro and Keynote. I probably use Keynote the most — I do lots of presentations but I also use it to do super fast, crappy collages and sketches that can help me explain initial ideas or feedback to my team. I also use it as a personal scratch pad. I have a very long document that I keep adding to called “thinking.key.” It is not elegant or sophisticated but it works and I can grab a screenshot and send it to someone if I need to. I also have a physical unlined notebook, but I usually use that for quiet times away from the computer. I’m not a Moleskine person — I feel like my sketches need a humbler home.
6. Dream Studio
I’ve always wanted a storefront studio right on the street. I love the accessibility of the ground floor and a big storefront window (ideally there is a tree in front). I also love the feeling of being embedded in the city, near a coffee shop, laundromat, that kind of thing. In my mind, the street is a typical Toronto “High Street” with two-story, turn-of-the-century row houses. The door stays propped open in the summer, inviting people in for a chat. I like being in obviously re-used spaces, creating a new space in an old space. It feels like a possibility.
7. One Unique Thing About My Work Process…
My design journey started in art school, not design school. I loved conceptual art and installations bringing ideas to physical space. How I got to design is a whole other story. However, once when I had started many years ago as a designer at BMD, I was struggling to set up a book that I was designing in what I thought was “the right way” — setting up grids and type styles — and it was just not a very interesting book. My boss at the time, Bruce Mau, said to me, “You’re thinking about this like a designer, try thinking about it like an artist.” That unlocked everything for me. Suddenly I wasn’t following the rules of book design, I was making a more disruptive book. I try to keep alive that idea of thinking about things differently, though it can be hard with ever-tightening deadlines.
After her morning run, Stein’s dog, Fig, joins her outside.
8. Mantra
I don’t have a mantra but I do have a screen-printed poster defining the attitude I try to have. It hangs behind me in my office. It’s by Anthony Burrill. It reads “I like it. What is it?” Someone I know kept mis-quoting it, adding a ‘but’ (“I like it, but what is it”) which is very different.
Recently I saw the new Eno doc and in this version they describe him as someone who keeps possibility alive. I think that’s really critical to creative work.
9. My Brightest Idea that Never Saw the Light of Day
I have lots of ideas that never see the light of day. But speaking of my home office/Lego shrine, I’ve been thinking about a way to recycle Lego sets in a way that’s fun and community-building. I’ve also been thinking about designing a recycled Lego set packaging system. Lego, if you want to talk, I’m here!
10. To-Do List Item that Keeps Me Up at Night
I have a very specific bedtime ritual designed to banish all thoughts as I drift off. No to-do item keeps me up!
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