For Louiza Cookson-Rabouhi, design was by no means a profession she merely fell into. It was one thing instinctive that she grew into. “I designed a emblem for my dad’s enterprise after I was eight years previous, and he nonetheless makes use of it to at the present time,” she laughs. “Although I did ultimately improve it from Microsoft Paint to Illustrator.”
That early challenge planted the seed for what would change into a wealthy, winding, inventive journey. Louiza studied on the College of the Arts London earlier than taking an sudden detour into the world of music.
“Being in a band taught me the significance of collaboration and rhythm,” she says. “You feed off one another’s vitality to create one thing larger than you might alone.” It is an strategy that also informs her work at the moment, notably when tackling complicated model identities that want extra than simply aesthetic aptitude.
Louiza’s time in trend pictures sharpened one other talent: storytelling. “It taught me learn how to tune into temper and that means with out counting on phrases,” she explains. “There’s all the time an emotional core I am chasing in my work, not simply surface-level visuals.”
Credit score for all photographs: Nahal Marzban
Pushing boundaries
After years of expertise throughout completely different inventive industries, Louiza’s starvation for development solely intensified. Her transfer from NEXT! Meals, the place she labored carefully with in-house groups, to Magnetic, was pushed by a yearning for selection and problem. “I missed being round sensible folks fixing wildly completely different challenges,” she says.
Now principal designer at Magnetic – a apply that sits someplace between consultancy and inventive company – Louiza works on the intersection of brand name, expertise, service, and techniques design. It is a function that is pushed her to reframe her considering.
“We regularly start with the query behind the transient,” she says. “I’ve needed to unlearn lots – begin from curiosity, not assumption.”
At Magnetic, the inventive course of is much less about leaping to options and extra about immersing in the issue. It is an iterative strategy that blends analysis, workshops, and experimentation. “I am studying to design from perception, not simply intuition,” Louiza notes. “It has been a humbling and thrilling shift.”
Discovering pleasure within the messy center
Louiza describes the guts of her course of because the “messy center”, which you might describe as that chaotic however thrilling part the place stakeholder enter, cultural insights, and inventive sparks start to attach. “It is like fixing a wonderful puzzle,” she says. “You are swimming in all this data, after which out of the blue, it begins to click on.”
One standout challenge has been Magnetic’s work with the Larger Manchester Mixed Authority on the launch of the MBacc, a technical training pathway designed to offer younger folks with significant alternate options to conventional educational routes.
Louiza and her crew led the inventive technique and storytelling for the launch, growing a movie that captured voices from college students, educators, employers, and even Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. “It wasn’t nearly saying a coverage,” she says. “It was about beginning a motion rooted in optimism and alternative.”
For Louiza, it is moments like these that spotlight the true energy of design. “Serving to to inform that story and seeing the response from the younger folks and communities it is designed for was extremely highly effective.”
Designing from the within out
Louiza’s strategy to model technique and visible identification is firmly rooted in depth over ornament. “It is by no means nearly how one thing appears,” she says. “It is about constructing one thing cohesive that lives throughout each interplay.”
She likens brand-building to character growth. “I begin by digging into the ‘why’ – who’re we chatting with, what is the emotional and useful job to be accomplished? From there, it is about constructing from the within out: tone of voice, behaviours, techniques, right through to visible expression.”
Guided by a steadiness of instinct and intention, Louiza blends a human-centred lens with a designer’s intuition for rhythm and composition. “If it would not resonate with folks, what is the level?” she says merely.
Shifting landscapes and new inspirations
Wanting outward, Louiza is worked up by the surge of creativity rising from MENA (Center East and North Africa) nations. “It feels as if, after many years of favouring westernisation, folks from the area are actually reclaiming and celebrating their heritage.”
For Louiza, the graphic design of previous Rai music albums, manufacturers like Nol Collective, and the pictures of Sara Benabdallah are fixed sources of inspiration. She’s energised by the richness and authenticity flowing from these inventive scenes and the way they problem prevailing design narratives.
As for the way forward for design extra broadly, Louiza sees a shift on the horizon. “AI is right here, and it is reshaping workflows, however it may possibly’t substitute human instinct, cultural nuance, or lived expertise,” she says. “I feel we’ll see a return to slower, extra intentional design, the place storytelling and empathy matter much more.”
Past the studio
When Louiza is not working at Magnetic, she’s busy mentoring rising creatives and shaping the way forward for design nearer to residence. Not too long ago appointed to the Northern Design Pageant board, she’s dedicated to elevating voices from outdoors the same old inventive hubs.
“There’s one thing so grounded and experimental about Northern creativity,” she says. “It is uncooked, sincere, and infrequently rooted in group and function.”
Louiza’s recommendation for aspiring designers is simple however potent: “Discover your folks. Search out mentors and collaborators who carry you up. Do not anticipate permission – begin the factor even in case you’re solely 70% prepared. And be type. You by no means know who you may be working with inside 5 years.”
At Magnetic, Louiza is targeted on deepening the studio’s partnerships with forward-thinking organisations and nurturing the following era of inventive leaders. “Jenny, our CEO, has constructed such a values-led surroundings,” she says. “I wish to assist nurture that by championing our crew’s expertise, strengthening our inventive self-discipline, and ensuring we keep curious and brave as we develop.”
