Meet Colin Lawrence

We had the good fortune of connecting with Colin Lawrence and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Colin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It really was a natural progression as the work evolved and grew. I started needing more space to build and create and I started needing and wanting help from other talented artists to achieve designs. I decided to create an identity that was centered around the work and allowed flexibility in the types of design and art I could do.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Lately, the thing I’ve been most excited about in my work hasn’t been one specific project, but trying to put joy into every design. It’s usually something that surprises me and that thrills the little theatre kid inside of me. If I can find that small gesture or joy within the work, I find it unites and ignites the design. I think scenic design, like life and art, is really about making the best with what you have. Theatre is a hard art form because it is underfunded and undervalued, so you have to do a lot with a little. I’ve tried to make this not a limitation on my work, but simply a shape of the container–and then I design around it. How can you do the impossible with a little? It helps that a theatre is a space of inherent possibility and that is the magic of it. If you can make the best of the limitations, show up ready to work, and try to be the best collaborator you can be, the work (and the business) becomes a lot more enjoyable.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I grew up in the mountains, so one of my favorite things to show people when they visit are the many local hikes that give you great views from mountains to ocean. An afternoon at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena (I always love to see the First Folio on display in the museum portion) followed by a dinner at Joy in Highland Park definitely. A picnic lunch at the Getty (and a chance to see some of the most stunning and intricate inlay work in the period rooms). Grabbing a coffee on a sunny morning and hitting the beach walk. I’m not LA’s most exciting but I do love to appreciate this beautiful place we live in.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This is the perfect opportunity to shoutout my college design professor at the University of Oregon, Jerry Hooker. He is retiring this year and I am so grateful I got to study with him. He was not only a brilliant and highly-skilled designer, but he was also an incredible professor and mentor. Jerry uplifted all of his students and you couldn’t leave any of his classes without feeling understood and inspired. He pushed me to refine an enthusiasm about theatre and stage design into real skills, and as with most of his students, he saw more in me than I knew I had at that age.

I also just want to shoutout all the incredible theatre artists in LA. The theatre scene here obviously isn’t as loud as the other entertainment industries, but it’s full of really powerful and talented artists doing impressive and industry-changing things.

Website: thyr.creative@gmail.com

Instagram: https://thyr.design

Image Credits
Second picture: Francis Gacad

Conceptual Renderings by me.