Laurie Durante

I went to college for fashion journalism because I grew up obsessed with fashion and wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw - she was a writer who wore all these really cool clothes. After fashion school in New York, I was lucky enough to have some connections there, and a friend who was a photographer was starting a media agency called Social Vandals. He asked for a copywriter, and I had the journalism background, so it just happened to pan out really well. We worked so great together, and from there, their marketing department kind of took me under their wing and taught me everything I ever needed to know. I worked in New York for almost three years doing some really cool stuff with amazing clients that became friends. After that, my approach became more self-taught until 2019, when I started taking courses online and getting certifications. I also have a retail background - I worked in the fashion retail industry as a window display coordinator, building window displays. Now I'm a freelance marketer helping clients do anything from creating and establishing a presence on social media to large-scale out-of-home marketing and everything in between. I can do creative direction for commercials, all sorts of things like that. I'm also co-founder of a multimedia agency where we do everything a business could need - photography, videography, marketing, social media, graphic design, web development. It's kind of a one-stop shop, ultimately taking away that in-house marketing department and lowering costs because it's all in one place. We founded it in 2024, and it's working out great for us right now.