Illustrator, Teacher & Speaker
Laura Coyle
I’m an illustrator with a passion for teaching, and with 25 years of experience illustrating for major brands, I deeply understand how artists and designers work. Our amazing digital tools are evolving faster than ever, and I’m excited to be a teacher and guide to fellow creatives like you.
Experience
I earned a BFA from Auburn University where I divided my time between painting, printing, the darkroom and the Macintosh lab. I interned for IBM and worked the counter at Kinko’s while launching my illustration business. For over 25 years, I’ve worked my dream job as a freelance illustrator, drawing for magazines, advertisers, and greeting card companies. I bumped into Renee Pearson at Surtex where I was exhibiting my artwork for licensing clients. She asked me to teach Illustrator at her online Photoshop school in 2010, opening up a new passion for teaching skills and contributing to the online community, leading me to become an Adobe Illustrator teacher and speaker with my own online learning community.
Illustration Clients
AAA, AOL, Amazon.com, American Express, AstraZeneca, Better Homes and Gardens, Cingular, Cargill, The Christian Science Monitor, Continental Airlines, Cooking Light Magazine, Delta, Disney, Frommers, Hallmark, Hasbro, Honda, National Geographic Explorer, Neenah Paper, Nickelodeon, PC Magazine, Papyrus, Random House, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Target Tide, UPS, Utne Reader, Visa, The Wall Street Journal, Wal Mart
Speaking & Training Clients
CreativePro, Adobe, Astute Graphics, Pluralsight, Wacom, The Textile Design Lab at Pattern Observer
Highlights
Playing Parcheesi with my nieces on the Parcheesi board and box design I created for Hasbro with a Taj Mahal and animal motifs.
Planning my wedding while working on 14 pages of illustration advertising Target’s Club Wedd in Bride’s magazine.
Creating animated GIF e-cards for Amazon starting in 1999, working with a hilarious in-house Amazon e-card team to illustrate their invented holidays like “Change Your Mind Day.”
Designing birthday paper plates sold in Target stores, and seeing them pop up at all my friends’ birthday parties (they always have my back).
Working with Papyrus to create greeting cards with pop-ups, lights, and even one that played the B-52s “Love Shack.”
In 2017, I presented my first conference session on Adobe Illustrator, and have since presented regularly with CreativePro Week and Adobe MAX. In 2022, I became an Adobe Community Expert and opened my learning community, Laura Coyle Courses, on Circle.
Personal
I started my freelance career living New York City, working part time as an assistant to jazz photographer Jimmy Katz. After moving back to Atlanta, I began to pursue my love of jazz as a singer. I’ve been fortunate to have played with amazing musicians, been a featured performer twice at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, and to have recorded 2 CDs under my name. I live with my husband, Clayton, an architect and guitarist.
