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Lauren Violette’s creative design work has taken her from leading Northeastern’s student-run fashion magazine to a co-op at the Boston Beer Company.
Northeastern University third-year experience design student Lauren Violette has seen her work from a co-op designing merchandise for Boston Beer Company pop up everywhere, from her hometown in southern New Hampshire to the stands of Fenway Park.
“A lot of times graphic designers don’t get to see their physical work,” said Violette, who uses she and they pronouns. “This is a print-heavy job, and we get to see a lot of it, and in the Boston community.”
Violette originally came to Northeastern to study photojournalism. During Violette’s first journalism course, the professor gave the class an assignment: go out and publish an article. Violette joined The Avenue, a student-run fashion magazine, and wrote a story for the publication. She worked her way up to become the creative director at the magazine.
Violette also joined Scout, Northeastern’s student-run design firm, and had an opportunity to work on the materials for the Makerspace in EXP that opened in fall 2023.
Through these different organizations, Violette was able to explore both graphic design and user design (which is designing a user experience). She ended up switching her major to experience design.
“I fell in love with it,” they said. “That’s how I got to access that part of myself. … That pushed me creatively and helped me realize I wanted to do creative direction … (and) made me realize my interest in experience, design, and how that overlaps with graphic design.”
Her co-ops allowed her similar exploration. Violette’s first co-op was with Decker Research and Development, where she worked on the designs for dialysis and mobility products.
For their next co-op, they wanted something more focused on graphic design after the experience in the user design world. A friend on a graphic design and typography-focused Dialogue of Civilizations course held in Basel, Switzerland, recommended that she apply to Boston Beer Company, one of the largest breweries in the United States that’s responsible for brands like Sam Adams.
Later, in the co-op prep class, Violette met her now-manager when he was pitching the company. His description of the culture and the emphasis on mentorship with the co-op sealed the deal.
“I chose this co-op because I wanted to experience the other side of what I study,” they said. “I’m liking this a lot because of the culture here. My manager is fantastic. Everyone’s really prioritizing learning and us having a good experience. I’m really enjoying all those aspects, but I’m also enjoying just getting to fine-tune some of the skills we learn at Northeastern … that are super design-heavy. A lot of those really technical skills are honed on this job, which is nice.”
At Boston Beer Company, Violette mainly designs visuals for sales locations of Boston Beer’s different brands. She is the brains behind designs for bars, grocery stores and even signage at baseball stadiums like Fenway Park, specifically working on Sam Adams, Dogfish Head and Twisted Tea.
Their day-to-day tasks range from editing designs to a specific size to larger-scale projects like preparing wraps for a bus or truck. Violette is also working on redesigning the logo for Women Beer, an internal inclusivity organization. She also had the chance to create some logos for a local brewery.
“It was really fun to get to go through the whole design process from start to finish of something that’s getting put on merchandise, that’s getting used online, and that’s getting used for events,” Violette said.
Beyond just getting hands-on experience, Violette has enjoyed the accessibility to those she works with. She had an opportunity to meet with the company CEO over coffee chats and discuss her thoughts on the brands.
“Everyone here is very open to meeting and talking,” she said. “To me, that has been a highlight of being able to learn from people. … (The CEO) was talking about how he likes having these co-ops because it connects him to the audience that they’re selling to (because) we’re close to the average consumer age. Everyone understands that and appreciates that and takes our opinion a little more seriously.”
As their co-op wraps up, Violette is planning to return to The Avenue as its president, leading a team of more than 200 people. This, plus her co-op experience, has made her consider a career in creative design or direction after graduation.
“What I’ve realized is that a lot of the beginning of my career path is about getting the technical skills and understanding of design work of photography, work of marketing,” they said. “I see this job as an opportunity to do that.”