Melissa Yeo

What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?

Ever since I was little I have always loved to make things. If I ever saw something I liked at a shop and tragically couldn’t convince my parents to buy it for me and had already used up my yearly source of income (aka Birthday money), I would always try and make my own version of it. I would say around 60% of the time this didn’t really turn out too well, but you form a kind of attachment to anything that you make… until around six months later when that fondness turns to disbelief that you could ever make something so ugly.
I never noticed that I was interested in design until High School. I was actually probably the opposite of interested because the only thing I ever did/wanted to do was play sports. I didn’t really pay any of the creative subjects much attention until I was hit with a huge dose of glandular fever that stopped me in my tracks. It was a huge adjustment to suddenly not be playing sport but it turned my attention to Vis Com and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It wasn’t until I actually noticed that I couldn’t help myself from judging books in the library by their cover designs (despite what every adult told me) that I realised design was something I wanted to pursue.

Who are your top five design crushes right now?

My design crushes are constantly on rotation, so this was a little tough but here goes -

What have been your highlights since you started out?

I was lucky enough to be one of the students selected to represent Monash University for the 2015 International Society of Typographic Designers submissions. My project was awarded membership into the ISTD which was really exciting. Since then, as corny as it sounds, I’ve just really loved to see the quality of my work improve. It’s really cool to see that all the hard work can pay off so I’m excited to see where I can push my work to go in the future because I know I still have a ways to go. Being named as a TDK award winner has probably been the biggest highlight and I still think that someone must have made some form of typo (but at the same time my name isn’t the easiest to spell, so if it was, that’s an impressive mistake). But in all honesty, receiving such generous feedback from someone who I really respect in the industry was truly an honour and I am the epitome of chuffed, the only downside is that my Mum is going to be bragging to strangers for at least the next 5–7 years.

What advice would you give students starting out?

1. You’re probably never going to be the best, and it really doesn’t matter.
2. No one is going to care about your work as much as you do, so work your butt off.
3. Constraints will help, not hinder your creativity.
4. Sometimes the best thing you can do for that project that is due soon is to take a step away from it.
5. Constructive criticism will always make your work better.