Louise Beach, Owner of Lou Beach Design

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Resident of Yarraville, History buff

I am possibly the only graphic designer who doesn’t have a website. It sounds nuts, but I have never needed one as I’ve had a lot of repeat work over the years. In fact, my first employer (as a designer) Liberation Records is still one of my current clients. I’ve collaborated with many companies from a diverse range of industries over the years, including music, theatre, education and corporate and a result of sticking my fingers in a lot of pies, I consider myself a multi-disciplinary designer. Next year I will finally be launching my website so watch this space!

I first explored the Inner West in 1997, while looking for a property to purchase and get out of the rental game. I had been renting in South Melbourne and Albert Park for almost 10 years and wanted to buy but couldn’t afford to in that area. I remember when I first heard of Seddon, I asked myself “Where’s Seddon?” I couldn’t believe it was only eight minutes up Footscray Road. By 2000 I had bought my current home in Yarraville (at a very dramatic auction with Jas Stephens – all the best things have happened to me in serious hail!).

Dad and Mum are from the north of England. My Dad was disapproving of me buying in Yarraville back then. “You can’t buy in Yarraville! It stinks!” One day, there was this scratchy 1960s black and white footage of Nelson Mandela on TV. I turned to him and said, “Dad do you realise your attitude towards Yarraville is about as old as this footage?” In recent years, he’s very pleased that I never listened to him!

I’ve been here for 17 years, I grew up in the East but I love this community and I really cannot imagine living anywhere else. I’ve made good efforts to be a part of out community including volunteering for the Yarraville Festival for a few years, meeting many new people along the way.

Buying my home in Yarraville meant I needed another job on top of my own graphic design business as I was still only starting up. I had made friends with Michael Smith – owner of the Sun Theatre – previously and he learnt I had worked at Palace Cinemas in a part-time capacity.

He asked me if I wanted to work at the Sun Theatre as it was about to be reopened. I accepted the offer and was there when it reopened in 2002. The opening night, all the celebrities were there. The people I worked with then are all still my friends, some are incredibly close to me. I love them to bits.

The big change in my life occurred in 2006. My mum was terminally ill. In October 2006, I went to a party at the gospel church along Somerville Road. Half of Yarraville was there! I was there with the Sun Theatre crew and a lot of local friends. Joe – the person who lived next to the church – had invited a guy by the name of Simon, over to meet some “Western suburbs chicks” (as he put it!) as he was single. During the party, Joe asked me to come next door to his place for an impromptu dinner.

There were about ten of us and there seem to be a bit of a theme. My mum had brain cancer, and Joe’s dad was also struggling with cancer. During dinner, I learnt that Simon’s mum had just passed away from cancer. I started seeing Simon not long after. My mum passed away three weeks after I met him.
In December, Simon turned to me and says ‘Let’s go away.’ I was thinking luxury hotel, towels and linen and he said ‘Confest!’. It was a ‘Tree-hugging, Hippie-Nudie Fest’ and didn’t want to go. Not that I’m opposed to that – I just needed some pampering not dirt under my fingernails!

However, I saw how important it was to him and was interested to know what it was all about. My friend Marita – who used to own Marita’s of Yarraville – and the other girls were putting bets on how long it would be before I took my clothes off!

Fortunately, Confest wasn’t anything like what I expected it to be (most people were clothed.. or at least partially)! It was very healing, and it was the first time we probably relaxed for a long time. As a result of that, I discovered I was pregnant. Edie was born in 2007, just short of a year after meeting Simon. 2006 saw us lose two very important and incredible women – our Mums, and in 2007 we were truly blessed to welcome a new life into the world.

I used to look out the window through my studio and watch the pram brigade go past. Now, I’m very much part of the community. If it wasn’t for the coming to Yarraville and working at the Sun Theatre, I wouldn’t have met Simon and Edie wouldn’t have been born. She is a Bambini del Sole!

In 1991, after my first year working in design, I was nominated and won an ARIA for the album ‘Tribal Voice’ by Yothu Yindi.

In 1992, I was nominated once again, for ‘Marvin the Album’ by Frenté!. I was very lucky to be working for Mushroom Records as my first job and I truly appreciate that time in my life. It was an extraordinary and exciting time and it gave me the opportunity to be very versatile as a designer.

My next position was in a completely different capacity as the corporate designer for RMIT University for two years. I made friends with so many people there but hit a ceiling. I then worked briefly for a film company designing film posters and promotional materials.

It was during this time I thought to myself “That’s it, I’m going on my own!” That was in 1997. Ever since then I’ve been working for myself. I’ve also continued to work with people back from the early days – some of my clients have now been with me for 10 – 20 years. I’ve got a wide spectrum of clientele and I find being able to understand the psychology of each client, define their needs and then producing successful solutions extremely rewarding. I just enjoy making people happy.

Our home in Yarraville has a lot of history. When we renovated, the things I found under the house and in the walls are exciting and fascinating. There were little inkwells dating back to about the 1880s, heaps of beer bottles, a rabbit trap, milk bottles and the odd shoe (why is that? Why is there ever only one?). I found part of an old hand-painted Fanta sign in the wall. There was also a much older sign where it still read ‘Walter Under’ and part of an old phone number.

I looked it up on Google and it came up on Trove as ‘Walter A.Warne Undertakers’, which was formally on Somerville Road. I believe they had salvaged the bricks to erect the front of my house, and the sign was used to hold the wall together. The owners of long-past’s nifty ways meant that I was able to discover more about the history of my home!

A number of years ago, there was a right of carriageway at the end of my block, and in order to understand my property more, I began looking for the earliest title. I discovered how old this area is and so this is what started the ball rolling for my interest in our local history. The oldest title I found was from 1887, and the name on the title is ‘Edwin Lee formally of Moray Street, Emerald Hill’. Here’s the amazing part – when I was living in South Melbourne (formerly Emerald Hill), I was on Moray Street! It’s fate! How’s that?

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