Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Dibb.
Hi Lauren, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m Lauren, a freelance graphic designer working out of Durban, South Africa, under the name Pook & Poodle.
I came into design sideways. My background is in Fashion Design and Merchandise Buying, which taught me to read a colour palette, a texture, a trend and more usefully, to notice why one thing on a rail catches the eye and the thing next to it doesn’t. That instinct never really left. It just found a new outlet. Seven years into the industry and six of those running my own freelance business, I’ve realised the job has always been the same: figure out what something wants to say, then make people feel it before they’ve read a word.
Lately that conversation has moved off the page entirely. Textile design and wallpaper have pulled me back towards where I started, and there’s something very satisfying about a pattern you can live inside, a print that ends up on a cushion, a length of fabric, a wall in someone’s home rather than a screen they’ll scroll past. It’s the fashion training resurfacing, I think. Repeat, scale, drape, the way a colour behaves in daylight.
Working for myself has meant sitting close to my clients. Small brands, restaurants, startups basically people building something out of nothing. You learn quickly that a logo is rarely just a logo. It’s someone’s savings, their name, the thing they’ll be explaining to their family at Christmas. That keeps me honest, and it keeps the work personal.
Good design blends creativity and strategy: the idea has to be beautiful, but it also has to do a job. Six years on my own has been a long lesson in holding both at once. And if there’s a thread running through all of it, it’s a refusal to play it safe.
My zest for life shows up in my “out-the-box” thinking and quirky approach to my work. Bold colour, unexpected details, a bit of humour where nobody expects it. I’d rather make something that makes you look twice than something that quietly blends in.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not smooth! I don’t think it ever is when you’re building something on your own.
The first big hurdle was changing lanes. I trained in fashion design and worked in merchandise buying, so when I moved into graphic design I was essentially starting from zero credibility. No design degree, no agency name behind me. I had to build a portfolio and a reputation at the same time, which meant taking on work that was underpaid and over-scoped for longer than I’d like to admit.
Then there’s the freelance reality: you’re not just the designer, you’re also the salesperson, the accountant, the account manager and the person chasing invoices. Six years in and the feast-or-famine cycle still catches me. Learning to charge properly and to say no took years of practice! Haha!
The current challenge is the newest one: transitioning Pook & Poodle from a service studio into a product brand. Client work pays the bills, so I’m building the brand in the gaps between deadlines. Balancing the two is genuinely the hardest thing I’ve done, but it’s also the most exciting.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
On paper I’m a graphic designer (brand identity, packaging, print, illustration you name it) but in practice I do a lot more than logos. I take brands from the strategy and naming stage right through to how they show up on a shelf and on a feed.
I specialise in brands with personality. A lot of my work sits in food, drink and hospitality: restaurant groups, wellness brands, venue’s and events brands. Those clients need identity work that’s loud enough to compete but still smart, and that’s the space I love.
What sets me apart is probably my background. I trained in fashion design and worked in merchandise buying before I ever opened Illustrator, so I think about pattern, colour and texture first. That’s why I’ve moved into textile and wallpaper design alongside graphics. I don’t really see the disciplines as separate. I’m also unashamedly maximalist. If you want minimal and monochrome, I’m not your person.
The thing I’m most proud of is Pook & Poodle becoming a brand in its own right, not just a service. I’m currently developing a home collection built around childhood memory and the feeling of being filmed on a family camcorder. Building it in the gaps between client deadlines is hard, but seeing my own prints on actual product is the most satisfying thing I’ve done.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Charge properly from day one. I spent my first couple of years pricing off what I thought people would say yes to instead of what the work was actually worth, and all that does is attract clients who want cheap. Raising rates loses you the wrong clients and almost never the right ones.
Get it in writing. A deposit up front, a clear scope, a set number of revisions. Almost every bad job I’ve had wasn’t a bad client, it was a project where nobody agreed what “done” looked like. That’s on the designer to define.
The one I wish someone had told me: consistency beats talent. There are more talented designers than me who don’t work because they’re unreliable. Reply to emails, hit deadlines, communicate when you’re behind. That’s most of it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pook.and.poodle?igsh=eGVxbzZxajhuODZ1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BccYTyjAB/?mibextid=wwXIfr
