Meet Meg Venkatesh: Freelance Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Meg Venkatesh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Meg, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Defining (and redefining) myself – in all my accomplishments, faults, and quirks – and building a brand off of that is where I know my success comes from. The most important factor behind my success is establishing the fullness of who I am and what I can offer, and staying true to that as I grow my business. I am finally at the point in my career where clients come to me for the specific design and feel I create… and also for my ability to deliver on more than just one thing. The biggest thing is to not shy away from myself, or get lost in the trends. I simply take what I like and leave the rest. Time and time again, past clients tell me that one thing they love about working with me is how true and authentic both the work and the play are. Building confidence has definitely taken time, though. I didn’t just come out of the gate feeling like I do now, with the network and the base of projects. I used to think that pursuing many things, instead of focusing on just one, was a setback. At the time I was bouncing from interior design to social media marketing to showing up on the set of any photoshoot I could. I would tell myself then, in the midst of “always saying yes” to any opportunity, that if I would have just chosen one thing and really focused in on that, I’d probably be a lot more successful than I am now. But the grass is always greener on the other side, and the truth is the very thing I thought was my biggest downfall turned out to be the thing, in the end, that gives me the edge over others in the industry. The success of my brand comes from being a “jane-of-all-trades”, working in a multitude of forms within the design industry, and most importantly owning it. From designing interiors, to designing sets of movies and TV, to art directing photoshoots and concepting brand campaigns… it all falls under the same umbrella for me. They all involve me at my best — cultivating intentional beauty in everything I create, taking things that exist and forming them into something new. The key factor to my success is remaining confident in my designs and projects across all mediums, and in all of the different things I can do. And I’m not going to let up on any of it. 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart in my design is my ability to execute across multiple forms and mediums, i.e. moving from interior design into graphic design into floral styling and even creative marketing. Each design project is a curated process, moving beyond its ordinary realm and into a world I’ve created, an intentional piece of work to connect with. Interior design isn’t just in its name — it’s crafting a curated space that includes the flowers and tablescapes I’ve styled, the holistic experience I’ve created within the room. What I’m most proud of is the movie I recently worked on as Production Designer. It was truly an incredibly challenging, yet rewarding, experience that drew on every piece of past experience I’ve had, while also leaving room for lots of new creative battles to conquer. Throughout the project, from preproduction to the moment we wrapped, I felt so sure of the position I was in, the work I was doing, and how proud I was of myself to do it. The place I’m in today was not easy to get to. I fought tooth and nail for some of the things that led me to where I am. To anyone that has a dream: you have to go after it. You have to seek it out while leaving room for the unexpected. And don’t be afraid of hard work. When I moved to New York I was 18 years old. I knew what my dreams were, and I wanted them badly. So I went to college, but I also started working. My first year into school I was taking the types of internships other people got after they graduated from a four-year university in the suburbs. I met people, I talked to people, and I tried to put myself in places I thought fit the jobs and the work that I wanted. I didn’t wait for things to line up, I just went after it. I started taking all of my classes online, on the weekends, or at night, and at 20 years old I was telling employers I was older. (LOL) So I’d go to work most days of the week from 9 to 5, then rush down to school on the subway. It was really hard, but it is exactly what I wanted. What I want the world to know about me and my brand is that it was built from that hard work, meeting a few of the right people along the way, holding tight to my dreams, and finding out who I am in the process. Growing up, I never found what I wanted to be. It didn’t exist. So I just paved my own way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It’s my fifth year here in New York and I still get giddy about it. Over the years I’ve racked up my personal list of neighborhood favorites. My itinerary for a perfect weekend starts with a coffee from the place down the street from my apartment, then jumping on the subway and heading up to Central Park for a morning stroll. Of course we’ll check out a few rooms at The Met (even though I could spend all day there), then head downtown to SoHo for a dreamy lunch at Cafe Altro Paradiso, a favorite spot. We’d likely skip through the cobblestone streets of SoHo after, and I can’t let anyone pass Byredo without convincing them to stop in and pick up a candle (my all-time favorite!). From there we would head to the High Line and take a walk to watch the sun go down. Maybe dinner at Don Angie (also a long-time favorite of mine), and of course we end the night dancing through the streets of the West Village, probably stopping for aperitifs along the way. When friends are here longer than a weekend, I love showing them the everyday things, like taking long bike rides through Brooklyn, picking essentials up at the farmers’ market, or heading to a new exhibit or gallery opening in the evenings.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I know that I would not be where I am without the people in my life. There are so many people I would love to shout out specifically, but I want to overall thank every person that’s ever taken a chance on me. So many of the opportunities I have been given came from people who believed in me before I was able to believe in myself. People who pushed me into areas I wouldn’t have walked into willingly. Opportunities that came without experience. People who said yes to me when they could have chosen someone else. Every employer and past client, and the present clients, too. But if there’s one person I absolutely need to mention, it’s my bo$$ sister, Alexandra Ramirez. She’s the Brand Marketing Director at Ellevest, and she’s who I want to be like. She gives insanely good money and career advice, but beyond that she knows me well enough to give me what I need to keep going. To tough it out in the storms, and to celebrate the wins. She’s the one who struck the personal and professional confidence within me.

Website: www.megvenkatesh.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghana_v/
Other: Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/megvenkatesh/

Image Credits
Joshua McHugh Photography Brooke Bell