Laura Burns
Photos provided by Laura Burns, credit: Holly Kunze
5(ish) Questions for is a chance to discover and learn about St. Louis Creatives, Community Champions, and, well, just interesting people in and around our city. It's a deep dive into what they love and where their passion lies. It's an opportunity for all of us to see our region from a different perspective. This written interview is a peek into their lives and their outlook on St. Louis.
Laura Burns, a lifelong St. Louisan, artist, and entrepreneur, exemplifies a passion for design through her ventures, including her 30-year old graphic design firm, designlab, inc., a stereotype-busting clothing company Girls Will Be, and the family-friendly restaurant, The Parkmoor Drive-In. With profound loss and love shaping her journey, Laura embodies a unique approach to creativity and life. Let's delve into her world of art, innovation, and resilience.
In front of the mural she designed and painted, Burns works out menu updates for The Parkmoor Drive-In.
Hi, Laura! Tell us a little about yourself…
In the context of “stl.org” – I am a life-long St. Louisan, an artist, a creator, an entrepreneur. I stayed in town for college, and being a WashU grad here in St. Louis has provided many opportunities. I am a collector of experiences, art, hobbies, handmade jewelry, and URLs. Who I am includes being a mom to three amazing young adults – Reid, 21, Clark and Grace, 19 – who inspire me every day to work harder and smarter and show them all that I can do. Profound loss has definitely changed me — losing a younger sister and brother has made me try my best to live every day. Luckily I was here in St. Louis to meet the man that would change my life — pushing me to own who I am, allowing me to be who I am, and filling every single day with love and happiness (thanks for the tune Al Green).
This year marks the 30th anniversary of my founding of designlab, inc. My graphic design practice includes work in education, the service industry, start-ups, and chocolate. I love what I do. In 2013, one of my sisters, my brother and I founded Girls Will Be, a stereotype-busting girl-empowering clothing company. We designed patterns for shirts and shorts that allow girls to be kids and our graphics promote all interests of girls in a full color palette. And most recently, in 2020, my partner in everything, Frank Romano, and I founded The Parkmoor Drive-In here in Webster Groves. A group of our friends supported this dream by also investing in opening a family-friendly restaurant that serves seriously good food. Oh yeah, and we did it during a global pandemic.
How did you get started?
My true start began when my art teacher, Ms. Sonja Huxhold at Oakville High School, casually mentioned I could make a living as an artist. What?! I loved math and science and was applying to engineering schools because that seemed logical. But that conversation opened my brain to feel the true excitement of that opportunity. Then ignoring my high school counselor, whom I won’t name, I applied to Washington University in St. Louis, was accepted, and my journey as a scholar artist began. After graduating and working at two local firms, I founded designlab,inc in 1992.
What are some unique or innovative approaches you take?
The production of my work has gone through pretty substantial changes through the years, while my approach is similar. Luckily, during my education, I learned how to think and draw, finesse typography, grasp color theory and create with my hands. Yes, children, those were the days before Apple computers. I thank Sarah Birdsall, Bill Kohn and Judy Thompson as my biggest influencers, who shared their talents that influence me to this day. I still start each project with sketches, words and lots of ideas from one end of the spectrum to the other and follow a few of my rules — layers and hierarchy, scale and repetition.
Not everyone is in it for awards, accolades or recognition, and I count myself one of those designers. My satisfaction comes from elevating every day for everyone. That’s why I volunteer to create a division logo for our high school, select friends’ paint colors, and certainly why I developed Girls Will Be with my siblings.
I would hope my clients say my approach is thoughtful, thorough and inspired. Everyone is worthy of good design, and there’s no reason to have bad typography, lack of kerning or poor color choices. All decisions are made for some reason – let the reason be rooted in thoughtfulness and excitement. For instance on the sew-in tag of our Girls Will Be t-shirts, besides fabric content and washing instructions it sports the message “BE awesome!”, because why not?!
When starting work with someone I love to dig deep, ask questions, get into their head in ways they may not initially think are relevant. But it all informs the specific language and experience I create for each client. We then work together to help them stay accountable. And we better enjoy ourselves along the way, otherwise, we need a new approach!
Burns, right, with her sister Sharon Choksi in their Girls Will Be pop-up tent in the fan experience zone for the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament. Girls Will Be worked with Concacaf to design three exclusive tees to be sold during the soccer matches in Houston and Los Angeles.
How is your industry evolving?
In an answer to member requests, AIGA, the professional association for design, has created a professional certification. Too many businesses claim they don’t know how to find the right designer for their needs. This new program could help bring design to the executive table and make design a strategic function in organizations.
What are some of your goals for the next year, or the next 5 years?
To keep challenging myself! I am super fortunate right now in my design practice to work with some truly amazing clients that I count as dear friends. Solving their puzzles gets me up every day and I hope to continue that fulfilling work. My five-year goal probably involves taking a few more things off my forever-growing list of ideas and bring them to fruition. Right now I’m working on my kids coloring book and getting ready to launch a line of interactive cards for gift packages.
I also want to continue to educate on a few different levels. Webster Groves High School has an amazing program called Thrive, led by Kara Siebe. I’ve been fortunate to mentor businesses developed by students in this entrepreneurship incubator and to present my branding talk. One of the things I remind them early in the presentation is that they may be doing it all now – naming their business, creating a logo, flushing out their brand – but when they are creating their next businesses it will be time to call in a professional.
What inspires you about St. Louis?
St. Louis is a visually inspiring city! There are countless opportunities to find eye candy in the range of neighborhoods and architecture, the well-curated shops, and the countless museums and galleries. There are more events going on in this town than one person can even attend. And there are people working hard, like those at stl.org, to get us all to meet more local visionaries, makers and doers. Promoting the people of our region makes St. Louis a better place for all.
What do you do in your spare time?
I love starting my day at the gym. There is nothing like lifting weights and pushing your body to do more than you could have imagined to make you feel strong and able to take on anything. I honor my need to recharge with just the right amount of alone time. But most of my spare time revolves around creating things and cultivating friendships. My friends mean so much to me, and it’s important to put in the time every week. The benefits are infinite.
Snapshots from The Parkmoor Drive-In. Burns designed all facets of the business, including the interior and exterior of the restaurant with a custom map mural of Webster Groves in the entry.
Inside the Girls Will Be pop-up tent in the fan experience zone of the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament.
Burns designed a chalkboard for fans to express themselves before entering the Olympic qualifying women’s soccer matches.
About STL.org
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