Lauren Marriott would love to be a full-time comic artist, but makes do with creating children's cartoons in her spare time. The senior designer at Serato creates myriad freelance projects after work, including illustrating prints for Stolen Girlfriends Club. Her illustrations feature in its latest resort collection, No Aloha.
A children's book, I am Doodle Cat, written by Kat Patrick, is being released by Beatnik Publishing this week. The central character, a lovable red cat created by Marriott, even has his own blog and Facebook page.
"Doodle Cat was inspired by a 9-year-old girl named Molly. She claims to often dream in cat, and she drew an amazing picture of a wobbly cat which really cemented the direction of our children's book," Marriott says.
Marriott studied design, majoring in illustration at Massey University, graduating with first-class honours. She says drawing has always been her passion. "I was never going to be anything else."
She has just moved from a log cabin near Piha to a 1930s villa in Sandringham, where she's relishing the amazing Indian food on her doorstep. She lives with boyfriend Dan, cat Lou Reed, and staffordshire bull terrier Phife Dawg (pictured with Marriott above).
