As well as our popular gallery, Colonnade House also comprises of 10 studio spaces – all of whom work in different areas of the creative industries.
We sat down with our latest studio member, Lorna Allan, to find out a bit more about their creative practice and why they decided to rent a studio here; at Colonnade House;
Lorna is a Photographer and Art Director working with brands and companies delivering creative solutions and visual comms over a breadth of media including printed publications, digital platforms, motion & still editorials, social experiences, and events. Recent projects include, 6 Nations women rugby bullet time photography session, British Fashion awards red carpet shoot for TikTok and Legends of British Industry exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery.
She is passionate about diversity and inclusion within the creative industry and hosts an event and research project Hidden Women of Design. Most recent project is the podcast SquareHole; investigating neurodiversity and employment within the creative industry.
Find out more;
What does your average working day look like?
I guess this is a difficult one as no day is the same for me! It really does depend on what job I am doing at the time but if I am working on an Art Direction project in the studio I normally spend the first part of the morning catching up on emails and working through any correspondence with clients, then I would get down to researching and developing concepts, I leave most of my crafting to the afternoons!
If I have my photography pants on and am working on set this would normally involve a journey to a studio or location, lighting set up and off we go!
If time allows I am now trying to adopt space for playing / testing and experimenting on Fridays so I can develop new ideas, learn new skills and space for my practice to grow.
What inspires you to create?
A lot of stuff really! but I think one of the main ones is observing light, this really ignites the ideas and once I envision an image it will snowball into a whole concept!
What do you like about working at Colonnade House?
Best thing first of all is my walk to the studio……..all by the sea, a truly excellent start to any day! I have not been here long but I am already excited to be in a hub of creative people with various skill sets and have found the other creatives in the building are a really lovely supportive group that want to share connections and encourage each other, which is so vital when working as a freelancer, your community is key!
What equipment could you not do without?
Can you tell us a bit about any upcoming projects?
I have been working on a podcast about neurodiverse creatives and employment in the industry. It has been such an interesting project to work on, we have talked to such incredible creatives about their experience and their practice, it should be out in April so I’m really excited to share it with everyone so look out for it!
What piece of advice helped you on your creative journey?
Be kind to yourself, make space and trust the process!
