Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Sant.
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Like a lot of creative people I’ve had quite a meandering path to what I’m currently doing now. I studied design at VCU and my first job out of college was as a graphic designer at a small marketing firm. In retrospect, I was lucky to be in a place where I had good mentorship and got a ton of hands-on experience very quickly — with things like handling clients, working with printers, and overseeing photo shoots. But at the time I felt very unhappy in a typical office environment, creatively unfulfilled by the work, and longed to move to a bigger city.
I was very into baking and had always dreamed of going to pastry school, and so in 2009 I quit that job and enrolled in a baking and pastry program in Chicago, a city I’d only visited a handful of times. It was quite an adventure and I adored getting to explore a new place and dive so deeply into a subject. I completed a certificate program there and then worked as a pastry cook for several years in a few different restaurants and bakeries around the city.
Food blogs were really taking off at the time so I started one of my own. It was a chance to chronicle what I was learning in school as well as serve as an outlet for a few other loves of mine: writing, photography, and web design.
In 2012, via a combination of a cold email, a lucky Chicago connection, and the aforementioned food blog, I managed to get myself an internship at Saveur magazine, working on the website with the editorial team. It was unpaid and required moving to New York, which is an absolutely insane decision in retrospect, but it all worked out because they hired me on as a staff editor a few months later.
I loved New York even more than Chicago and I loved working at a food magazine. It was a punishing schedule and stressful in many ways but also exactly as fun as it sounds.
I left to go freelance around the same time that I started dating my now-husband, who lived in Richmond, and in 2016 I moved back down here and started my business. At first I did a wide mix of food writing, design work, photo editing, and illustration, but as the years have gone by I have gradually niched down and these days I specialize in food and beverage illustration and design — more specifically, editorial illustration, restaurant and product branding, and illustrated culinary maps.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all! My career path to where I am today makes sense now looking back on it, but while I was living it things felt very chaotic and uncertain. I worked for free quite a lot in order to gain experience and get my foot in the door at several places — which I recognize is not possible for everyone. I managed to make it work with a combination of working second jobs, getting help from family, and taking on debt, but it’s a financial risk I certainly wouldn’t be able to take now that I am in my forties and have a family.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an illustrator and designer that specializes in food and beverage illustration. I do a lot of editorial illustration for books and magazines; brand illustration and design for restaurants and small food businesses; and illustrated culinary maps. I also license my artwork for use on greeting cards, paper goods, and products like puzzles.
My illustration style is playful and bright and combines hand-drawn elements with clean typography and a solid foundation in design — I like to think I have a designer’s nitpicky eye for spacing and composition.
I think my background in food is what really sets me apart — I’ve worked in restaurants; I’ve written about food; I’ve spent half my career devoted to the world of food and food publishing. I’ve always considered food people to be my people. So it feels like a very full circle moment to get the chance to use my design degree and art skills to to help people get more eyes on their restaurants and small businesses, to tell stories about food, and to celebrate the act of cooking and the people who do it.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I lived in Belgium briefly after college, studying French and completing a graphic design internship in Brussels. It’s where I first fell in love with beer and why I still consider myself more of a beer person than a wine person!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mizsant.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mizsant/
