A Kōrero with Mia Walsh

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It doesn’t take long after being briefed on a branding project before we’re dialling 0800 Mia Walsh for help. Mia is a multidisciplinary designer and long-time collaborator with Aye Studios, currently residing in Amsterdam. We sat down with Mia (virtually, unfortunately), to chat about her design inspirations, creative process, struggles, advice for aspiring designers, and what’s in store for 2024 and beyond. 

Swapping out Auckland traffic for canal-side cycling and $5 coffee for €5 coffee, living in a new city on the other side of the world has been Mia’s main inspiration source as of late. “I have recently taken a break from full time design work to focus on navigating living in a new country, so I feel a fresh sense of inspiration now I’m more settled and soaking up this new, crazy city!” she says. 

Having previously worked at a fashion brand in Aotearoa before making the move to Amsterdam, Mia is also heavily influenced and inspired by fashion and style. “I have always wanted to experiment with styling as a possible career path, even though it is such a personal, slightly nerve-racking and tricky industry to break into. Since moving abroad, I decided it was a better time than ever to challenge myself to try it out and it has been super rewarding and fun to experiment with work in that realm.”

When it comes to creative process, Mia starts with the dichotomy between what the client wants vs what she thinks they need. A fine art. Then, she gets to the messy (and fun) part, sourcing inspiration, scribbling drawings and ideas and getting everything down on paper.  “I try to curate some inspiration together and then it usually involves a big messy brain dump with lots of scribbly notes and some terrible drawings.” 

We asked Mia about the struggles she’s facing as a young designer finding her feet in a new country. She explains that a big part of the challenge is figuring out what she wants, and how to get there. The area of design, the type of agencies she wants to work with, and how to balance that with her other passions and interests. 

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“The industry over here has been a lot tougher and more competitive to get into than I expected so I am figuring it out as I go!”

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But with the challenges, comes the satisfaction. Mia explains that her favourite thing about the area of work she does is finally cracking a project. “When you finally crack a project - sometimes it can take way longer than you were expecting and sometimes lead you in circles, but when you finally figure it out, it’s super satisfying. So maybe… my favourite part of my work is the end of the project? Is that bad to say?”

Mia has two pieces of advice for aspiring designers, first, “Remember that trends are trends for a reason, they are ‘cool’ and relevant and you will be enticed by the sexy typeface and colour palette but they may not always be the right route to go down for a project.” And second, “Make stuff! Keep on creating stuff that is only for yourself- not for instagram, not for clients or anyone else. I wish I could be more consistent at this.”  Both such important reminders. 

We got a little geeky and asked Mia about her favourite fonts, colours, types and any branding that had caught her eye lately. She explains that she’s been loving the signage around Amsterdam. 
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 “I also love the work from Tropical Type. They have the most beautiful typefaces and often send out free ones for personal use.  As a brand/ publication - I basically love anything that Numero Magazine does.” 

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To wrap the kōrero, we asked Mia what she's manifesting for 2024 and beyond…

“My mantra for the year is ‘slowly but surely’ - it’s a little cringey but I have found it so useful. I have so many ideas and goals for the future and where I want to go both professionally and personally - it all gets a little overwhelming at times, especially navigating living in a new country, so I find having a mantra like that to remind me that it is not a race and to take the pressure off, allows me to live more in the moment while slowly but surely working towards my goals.” 

Since our first collaboration is early 2022, Mia has worked on various Aye projects, specifically in logo design and illustration.