Get to know the newest member to join the BatesMeron team, Vivienne Apsey! Vivienne is our new Junior Designer bringing fresh ideas, exciting designs and a love of typography to the BatesMeron team.
I interviewed Vivienne as part of our 6 Questions feature: a series of one-on-one interviews with people we work with who make us proud. Sometimes I like to turn the tables and put our own staffers in the hot seat so you not only get to meet them, but also see just how special our team really is.
Probably a different species. It’d be cool to see the world from a totally new perspective. Being the opposite gender wouldn’t be as exciting. I’d just want to try peeing and then think, “Okay, that’s it.” I’d rather see the world from the perspective of something more different, like a bird.
Everything is so accessible! I’m from Detroit, so it’s weird not getting in the car to go places. I have stronger legs now from walking everywhere because everything is at your fingertips here!
I also love the people-watching. On the train, on the beach, everywhere. It’s cool cause people don’t really care about what others think of them here. Everyone just does what they want to do, and you see some interesting stuff because of it.
I love that BatesMeron is a small agency. There’s a perception that when you go into marketing, it’s more common to work at a huge agency with tons of people. My roommate, who’s also a designer, doesn’t even know all of her coworkers. I like that I work at a boutique agency. I learn better in this environment, and smaller groups means nothing is hidden—a pro and a con, but mostly a pro.
I think I’d brand my family. I come from a super Russian and Jewish family, so we’re interesting—very loud and endearing. I’d give us a bright color palette, a really cool, fun typeface and I would design us TONS of swag. They would love that.
When I was really young, I loved astronomy. But I’m terrible at math and science, so that wasn’t going to work out. I also played the oboe and thought about going into musical performance, but I hated that I was practicing all the time. I guess I accidentally found graphic design, and it just stuck with me.
It depends on the day, or even my mood. My favorite classic typeface is called Ogg. It’s so traditionally beautiful. I also love this one display typeface called Trash.
Yeah! I get them for free from other designers. The design community is awesome, everyone shares typefaces with each other. I’ll get emails from designers I haven’t talked to in a while that say “I saw this typeface and thought you’d like it!” It’s the same with the coding community. Everyone helps everyone out.
There’s no way I can narrow it down to one thing. The biggest takeaways off the top of my head are:
How important cultural immersion is when you’re studying something abroad. Learning by being a part of the city is much more valuable than reading a textbook.
How much European countries value design. It’s amazing. They care about careers in design so much, some offer grants to help young designers start their own businesses.
Prototyping! I just wrote my blog on this topic because it changed my life. I realized design doesn’t always have to look beautiful, that function is just as important.