Sarah Collins
Partner, Lure DesignPeople who do things are important to a community, but so are people who make things. The visual aspects of a community are as important to reinforcing its personality as the policies – they literally set the tone. Designer and screenprinter Sarah Collins has been in most Orlandoans' peripheral vision for 15 years now, whether they realize it or not.
In 2001, after graduating from school in Knoxville, she moved to Orlando on a whim. She was immediately drawn to Lure Design, the award-winning firm founded by Jeff Matz and Paul Mastriani, and in 2002, she landed a job there.
"When I started working at Lure, the first thing I started doing was making posters for [Jim] Faherty," Collins recalls. "We would make posters for shows at the Social – the Sapphire, it was then – and go down and sit at the shows and sell them. It was a part of Orlando I didn't know existed."
Until that point, she hadn't clicked with the city. "I hated it," she laughs. "Only one independent coffee place! It didn't make sense to me. But once I started going to shows and getting to know people ... I get mad at people now when they try to bash us. I'm like, you know, we're doing pretty well for ourselves." She sees beauty all over the city. "I love the Publix on Edgewater, the Orlando Public Library, the Kress and Rogers buildings. And signage including Lightstyles, LaBelle Furs, Wally's, Fairfield Chapel ... and Kraft Azalea Garden. And I just did a poster for Dickson Azalea Park."
So falling in love with the music scene was just the first step in falling in love with the city; now she's inextricably intertwined. After 10 years with Lure, she became a partner, and along the way, her practice has diversified to include corporate and nonprofit clients: Collins has created work for Disney, the Fringe Festival, UCF, Enzian Theater and the Florida Film Festival, the YMCA, and several bars and restaurants. (Current biggie on the books: the rebranding of the Ravenous Pig and the launch of the Polite Pig, both from Orlando resto moguls James and Julie Petrakis.) Collins says, "Working on the Enzian Cult Classics posters is the most enjoyable to me – my favorites being Mallrats and The Life Aquatic, two films I heart." A high point this year was when her poster for Wilco was chosen as the cover of the new book about the band, Beyond the Fleeting Moment: Wilco.
That dichotomy between corporate design work and screenprinted passion projects is what makes the partners call Lure "Jekyll and Hyde" sometimes. But chances are if you've partaken in Orlando's cultural life, Lure has been there, making it look cool.
