Vedros Studio on working remotely, globally, and the abundant creative inspiration of travelling

No other studio embraces remote work the way Vedros Studio does. Helmed by Meryl Vedros, the award-winning branding studio lives and breathes the eye-opening insights that come with living globally. In conversation, Meryl and Samihan Shani tell us about working as a team, and how their unique set-up has shaped their creative practice.

PT Hi Meryl and Samihan! For those unaware, can you tell us a bit about Vedros Studio and what inspired your decision to (formally) launch your own practice whilst in Berlin? 

MV Vedros Studio is a brand design studio located in sunny Los Angeles. We create idea-driven, thought-provoking brands that are inspired by the world – not the internet. Our commitment to a thorough research process often sees us travelling across the world to meet clients and study cultures to inspire a brand. So we are a very remote studio, quite literally always with a bag ready.

My decision to launch my own practice was driven by a deep frustration towards the 9-5 grind where I only got two weeks vacation a year and felt like I was chasing someone else’s dream. I wanted to start something and own it. I had never been to Berlin and didn’t know anyone but I liked the idea of starting fresh in a place that had good design history, a funny language, and was apparently very cheap. Before Berlin, I had lived nomadically in Asia for several months figuring it out as an independent designer and it was pretty sustainable. I was so inspired by the world around me and it was having a great effect on my design work. Life felt so raw and authentic. Different from the Japan I had seen on Pinterest, different from the Thai flavours I tasted back home, and more colourful than the Vietnam I imagined. 

But Rigo Cold Brew set the stage for Vedros Studio. The client was in Colombia, I was in Berlin. The task was to design a brand and packaging for a single-origin cold brew coffee. I found myself completely uninspired and offended by the idea of culturally appropriating a Colombian coffee brand while sitting in Berlin just scrolling through Pinterest. I spent the rest of the day calculating costs for a trip to Colombia and then pitching it to the client. The next week I was in South America. This project made Vedros Studio a reality. I could travel for clients, work remotely, use my skills as a photographer, and design on the road. Since that trip, I’ve said that our work is, ‘inspired by the world – not the internet.’ It still rings true.

We are a very remote studio, quite literally always with a bag ready.

PT Can you tell us about how the two of you first met? 

SS It was 2019 and I was a young strategist working at a design agency in NYC. I was attending design talks/events every week as a way to network and build a community. I came across a design talk on ‘Typographic Voices of Women’ at the Type Directors Club in NYC. Meryl was one of the speakers and we briefly met after the talk ended. I strongly aligned with Meryl’s philosophies in the world of design and as a female business owner running a design practice in a male-dominated industry. It was inspiring to see a young woman, not much older than me, on the stage alongside other older women and talk about her excitement on design, typography and her perspective on social activism. That was also the first time I learned how she started her practice in Berlin, travelled the world for her clients and her snapshots of independent design projects alongside her nomadic journey motivated me to stay in touch. Fast forward eight months, we met for a coffee chat and decided to give a shot at working together for a month while Meryl was still living in Brooklyn, before her big move to the west coast. It was like we were preparing for a long-distance relationship. We’re now close to four years of working together and it’s become a sisterhood where we can work together, respect each other’s ideas, different views and also share life stories and experiences. 

PT What were been the biggest challenges when Vedros was starting out? How did you overcome them?

MV The lack of support from agencies with things like contracts, pricing and negotiating. I don’t think I’m alone in this but sole entrepreneurs really struggle with where to go for support in starting out. I have had to do all my own research in areas like contract negotiation and pitch strategy. It sucks. I find myself mentoring so many young people but have yet to find my own mentor which can feel really isolating.

I also struggle with how little positive return we get in this world and more specifically as a business owner. For years I’ve kept folders on my phone and computer called ‘life hugs.’ I keep screenshots of emails, texts, photos of letters that provide me with motivation to keep going. Compliments from years ago that are so minuscule, but at least something when I’m doubting myself. In our industry, ‘no news is good news’ from clients. We rarely hear what we did right so these folders are my little treasure chests when I am feeling down as a founder. 

PT What were you like prior to travelling nomadically? How do you think you have changed? 

MV I was always on the move. When I was 19 I moved to NYC and switched my first name from Christine to my middle name, Meryl. It’s been in me for a long time to relish in the idea of change and being a foreigner in new places. 

When I was 9-5 I couldn’t sit still. My ADHD defined me in negative ways. So prior to going out on my own I always thought something was wrong with me. It took me a while to find my confidence and see the positives in things that I used to get scolded for. I think my time in Asia taught me that. I was alone there for three months and it gave me a lot (too much) time to reflect on who I was and who I wanted to be more of. By the time I broke the mould and trusted who I was, the happier and better my work became. I 1000% believe that if you take a moment to look at who you are, shift your mindset, and make appropriate adjustments the better your life will be. So much of life is self-reflection and self-work.

PT In your newspaper, you note that “creatives need to come out of their shell more, get uncomfortable in new places, and talk to other walks of life.” Were there any particular experiences or observations that inspired this viewpoint? 

MV Design can be exhausting especially if you are trying to find creativity between four walls. The work can start to look stagnant when designing in a shell. It typically becomes reliant on the internet. We’re in the business of creating unique moments to help brands stand apart in highly competitive industries and look to the world to inspire us. It’s almost necessary to get out of that shell and meet people, be adventurous and have a fresh perspective. 

For Deep Roots, a female-owned skincare and wellness brand we were tasked to design a brand identity that was inspired by nature and artful forms. After spending two weeks designing in our studio in NY and not reaching a substantial conclusion we were motivated to take a road trip to the Southwest, spend our nights in colourful trailers down in Marfa, and design at sunsets in New Mexico to bring a fresh flow of energy to the project. The result was a beautiful brand that celebrates organic form and artful expression with a packaging system that keeps the southwestern spirit alive.  

PT As you also say, “travel broadens our horizons,” which country or location has had the biggest impact on your perception of the world? 

SS When I moved to the states in 2014, the US felt limited to NYC, Boston, California, Miami, you know the big cities. My husband got a job in Dallas in 2017 and that meant that it was time to explore the unknown. Dallas was unfamiliar to me. I had never been. It was scary to leave the bustle of big cities because it’s hard to leave familiar places but there is something surreal about pushing yourself into the unknown. It opened my eyes to the America that I had never seen. Moving in and out of places made me comfortable taking risks in life. Not too long ago I moved to Toronto and currently, I am in between Toronto and Dallas.  

PT Where would you like to explore next? 

SS Greece is next! I am excited to visit Meryl’s homeland.

MV I want to drive across Africa and eat my way across Korea with Samihan. 

Our studio prioritises mental health, friend, and family time to an extreme degree.

PT With regards to logistics, do you have a favourite work set-up? 

SS Every day is a new day and all days look different from one another. I enjoy working some days from cafés. On other days we work together on Zoom and get a lot accomplished in a three-hour window. I like that each day is different, keeps the moment going without making our schedule feel monotonous. 

MV My sunroom in LA or the window seat on an international flight. I get insane amounts of work done in these two places. 

PT What office tools or equipment benefit you on a daily basis? 

SS We’ve gone from trying all fancy tools like Asana and Calendly but Slack and Google Docs have stayed top on our lists. Dropbox is great to collaborate with clients and other creatives. 

MV My 32oz mason jars of water. I drink about a gallon of water a day and it’s a supercharger for me. I have a deep need for a certain equilibrium with my physical and mental self so I can be sharp. I’ve designed from parking lots, airport hallways, waiting rooms, you name it. I don’t need much. But if a designer is asking, my LG monitor and Wacom tablet are luxuries I love to have when I’m cranking on a design.

PT Do you have set office hours? What is an average day like for you? How do you like to map out your time?

MV Nope. We work less than 30 hours a week and it’s surprisingly very efficient. My mom used to let my brother and I take mental health days as kids. This really stuck with me as an adult. Our studio prioritises mental health, friend, and family time to an extreme degree. We always get our work done and have never missed a deadline. 

We thrive off kindness, radical communication, and trust in our process.

PT At the start of a new project, what do you do to ensure you and your client are 100% on the same page?

MV It’s important for us to be on the same page with clients at the start of a project. We ask a lot of questions in understanding their vision and goals with the project and also explain our process in detail to see if it’s a fit. However, it’s not always that the client is always 100% on the same page. We find deep value in educating our clients along the way on the importance of designs and decisions we make in building a brand. We have been in many instances where the client ‘knows’ they want a logo. Then we guide them through the pros of building an ecosystem instead of just designing a cool logo. That goes a long way in building memorable brands from the ground up.

Relationships work best when there are expectations upfront. We ask the client what their three biggest needs are. We tell the client ours: we thrive off kindness, radical communication, and trust in our process. I used to do this before moving in with roommates and it’s a surprisingly great exercise. 

I’ve also learned to recap. It’s important to simply summarise feedback/next steps after a long meeting. Both sides appreciate it with how much we all are juggling. 

PT Both design and travel are about “seeking the unknown” and taking risks. Which of Vedros’ projects do you think best embodies that ethos? 

MV Travel teaches me a lot of things, it gives me confidence, it gets me out of my head, it shows me who I am when things go wrong. Seeking the unknowns is a really magical experience in that we are all living a new day, minute by minute and we can literally do whatever we want. Design can have that same magic. When we landed the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures as a client I had all the confidence in the world that we would do an amazing job. If we needed to call in help we would. We just needed to show up and give it our best. That project was the adventure of a lifetime and we made it just that. When areas of the project started to wrap, we started pitching more, and more, and more. We had nothing to lose. This goes back to designers getting out of their shells more. In our industry we can’t just be designers, we have to be in the art of sales, we need to be thinking strategy, the art of timing, and to a certain extent be actors as well when we go to present our work. This gives life to our work and a larger amount of trust to our clients.

PT Outside of client work, how do you like to spend your free time? 

MV Samihan enjoys cooking in her free time and finds that it helps her stay creative. She is also a fitness enthusiast and more recently has been putting her physical well-being as a priority with high-intensity training in the evenings.

For me, hiking, travelling, and cooking. Recently though, I’ve been playing Donkey Kong on N64 after work. When I’m feeling low I like to go to the Korean spa and just zone out for a couple of hours.

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