Article: Meet the Paper Source Specialists: Lauren
Meet the Paper Source Specialists: Lauren
When you talk to Lauren, the first thing you’ll notice is her calming presence. As a Paper Source specialist, she meets with customers virtually from her beautiful apartment in Chicago. While discussing custom wedding invitations or personalized stationery, you might find inspiration in her creative backdrop, perhaps in the indoor garden scaling the window behind her, or from textured art on the wall. It’s easy to see how she would bring a sense of ease to her clients. “Some customers come to their first appointment vibrating at a high frequency and sometimes have concerns about the process. I talk them through it, and often they leave the appointment saying this is so easy. It is, it’s very methodical. When it comes to custom, the options are endless but if you know what you want, we can walk through it together.”
Lauren Sudbrink is a talented multi-disciplinary artist and Paper Source Specialist. She moved to Chicago in 2011 to get her master’s in fine art at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the same year, she joined the Paper Source team at the River North location. After years of working in stores and understanding the Paper Source customer and custom business, she began working as the first specialist in 2019, visiting local Chicago stores and consulting couples and clients alike on creating custom invitations an stationary. She described herself as the guinea pig for the specialist role. "It was very hands-on," she said, "I'd meet with customer and walk them through the physical albums from vendors and look at samples."
As a specialist, Lauren guides customers through design options, assists in selecting matching envelopes and liners, and recommends those special little touches that make your stationery or custom wedding invitations unique to you. During the pandemic the program officially moved online, and now customers all over the country can book a free appointment with Lauren. “When working with a specialist you have the benefit of real people working with you and guiding you through the process from start to finish,” she said.
When it came to her own wedding, she gave her partner the job of designing the invitations and save the dates. “I know too much,” she laughed. “We knew we wanted our wedding to be our vibe, fun and playful. Our dress code was ‘wear your favorite festive attire.’ We thrifted a bunch of vintage tablecloths and bowls, and stuck colorful candles in them from Goodwill. The night ended with a lot of dancing and hours and hours of karaoke.” Her go to karaoke song? “Anything by Stevie or Patti is always good,” she said. If there was one song guaranteed to get her up on the dance floor, she said it would be Dancing on My Own by Robyn.
“When I'm planning a party, I am a go with the flow person, I look to see what I have and go from there.” When she’s attending someone else’s party, she describes herself as the person bringing a dessert, with her go to being a cakey pumpkin bread with apple butter. “I do a lot of canning and always have pickles and different preserves using vegetables from my garden.”
“I have a lot of hobbies, I knit, crochet, and make instruments out of clay. Whistles, flutes, and bells sometimes get incorporated into my designs or projects, or I end up gifting them to friends.”
When she moved to Chicago, she settled in the Pilsen neighborhood and has lived there ever since. Her favorite local spots include Taquerías Atotonilco, the meat pies at Pleasant House Pub, and Qiao Lin hot pot at 88 Marketplace down the road in Chinatown.
If she were planning a perfect day in Chicago, it would include going to an event, venturing down to Promontory Point for an afternoon of eating and chatting with friends, and ending the day with a night cap at Skylark. Lauren shared that the events she frequents are often supporting her friend’s work, “It could be anything from a sound event to a sculpture exhibition or a multimedia installation.”
A multi-disciplinary artist herself, Lauren has had solo exhibitions all around the Chicagoland area. She recently showcased Wind Piece, a project where she created 840 pinwheels and had three movement artists move through the work creating interpretations of wind with their bodies, while musicians live scored the event.
Lauren shared that it is a priority for her to cultivate an inviting atmosphere at her exhibitions. "I try to almost always have participatory moments for the audience. For Wind Piece, I invited guests to walk through the pinwheel paths, listen to the sound, and take pinwheels with them at the end. I like to create works, performances, and installations that intentionally offer points of access and participation. It's important that viewers can find joy in the pieces."
If you want to book an appointment with Lauren to talk about personalized invitations or stationery, click here.
