Laura Havlin

Editorial, content and strategy

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I lead on content, strategy and editorial for creative, cultural and photographic organisations. I curate archival content, as well as develop and commission new content across media. Roles I’ve held include Head of Content at creative industry organisation D&AD, Senior Editor at photographic agency Magnum Photos, and Acting Editor at cultural video platform NOWNESS. 

 

Development and new launches

 

At D&AD I led the content strategy for reinventing the iconic D&AD Annual as a digital product for the first time in its six-decade-spanning history celebrating creative excellence. Previously, as Senior Editor at Magnum Photos I worked on the development and launch of a new editorial website, building Magnum's reputation as a cultural, media and learning brand.

 

Content and editorial commissioning

 

Providing editorial direction, content curation and creative leadership to a team comprising editors, producers, and social media managers, my output covers: curation, written editorial and reports, video across web and social, photography, and programming events.

 

At D&AD, this included the D&AD Annual and Trend Report; and at Magnum Photos, commissioning Magnum Photographers on new photographic commissions and texts, as well as commissioning new perspectives on the vast historical archive. 

 

Writing & speaking

 

My writing on visual culture has appeared in publications that include: The Financial Times, AnOther Magazine, Dazed, Flaunt Magazine, Design Week, Wallpaper*, The British Journal of Photography, and l'oeil de la photographie. And was recently published by Heni publishing in the book accompanying Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery’s 2025 exhibition ‘The Power and the Glory,’ curated by Connor Hirst.

 

Books that cite my writing include, Time in Fashion, Industrial, Antilinear and Uchronic Temporalities (Bloomsbury), and The DIY Movement in Art, Music and Publishing: Subjugated Knowledges (Routledge).

At D&AD Festival 2024, I hosted graphic design legend Peter Saville on stage at Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank to discuss his influential career.

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