For this month’s designer appreciation, I got the honour to interview Mikkelrev. I want to start off with thanking you for doing this on such short notice, it’s really appreciated! I also want to thank you for letting me interview you so we can get to know you better and also for introducing the Mikkel rev song for all of us! I hope you all enjoy reading this interview.
- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? (age, where you're from, hobbies besides designing, any fun facts about you that you want to share)
Well, my name is Michelle, I go by that and Mikkel for the most part. I’m 20 years old, from Norway, and I spend most of my time designing, playing video games, sewing and doing makeup. Occasionally I draw and paint too. My (apparently confusing to some) username comes from the children song Mikkel rev(Click text to watch video), which just so happens to slide perfectly in with my name too. It is a bop and I recommend everyone to listen to it at least once a day to bring up their spirits.
- Why/How did you start designing for VP?
Really it’s because of gsm, lol. My one goal in life years ago was to become a junior designer there, but the site shut down right after I got good enough to at least be considered for it. So when I found VP and also learned you don’t even have to be badged to design for the site, I got right on it immediately. It took a while to get used to the tiny base but it was worth it, and then I immediately started sending in my designs once I got happy with them.
- How long have you been designing for VP and when did you become a badged designer?
I made my first design very soon after I joined, so early to mid 2018? But I didn’t really start designing until this past fall/late summer when I got active, and I got badged early winter the same year so it moved a lot quicker than I thought it would.
- How long do you approximately spend on designing one set?
Oof, I’m gonna be honest, usually not more than a day. I have a horrible habit of rushing things just a bit too much and end up spending one hour doing something I maybe should have spent two on. The ones I have now vary from 3-4 hours, and then maybe 15 hours straight I spent making the monochromatic red set for males? Yeah, that sounds about right. So it varies a lot.
- How long do you spend on designing on a weekly/monthly basis?
I usually do a couple of hours a day when I’m on a roll, maybe half a normal workweek? Probably way more than any doctor recommends to sit and stare at a screen, but it is what it is. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot less, but I hope to get back into the swing of things very soon.
- Do you have a set that means something special to you or that had a special story behind it when you created it? Can you tell us why / what that story is?
I guess the closest is this one:
Not for any particular reason beyond that, I was so excited to make it. It was a submission for one of ET's design competitions, and I didn’t even know design competitions were a thing. So I hopped right into my drawing program of the day and went to work, so proud before I even finished it. So I guess it has a special place in my heart simply because it was the first time I really got excited about designing and not just interested.
- Where do you get your inspiration?
Honestly, my designs are very self-indulgent. Half the time I make things I really wish I had in real life. A lot of the time I see fabrics or colours I like and I just know what I need to do with them. There are also Pinterest boards and I follow a lot of men’s fashion blogs, sometimes things just stick out and you know you want to make it. Music videos tend to have a lot of interesting fashion choices that are fun to translate onto the VP base. I do tend to go for more "wearable" items though, things you could put on in real life and no one would think it’s the weirdest thing they’d seen all day. I find very little inspiration in fantasy when it comes to VP.
- Show us your first design and your latest design!
This is the earliest one I still have access to:
And this is the latest I’ve finished, wip's excluded:
- What program do you use for designing? And do you use a mouse or a drawing tablet?
I currently use firealpacca exclusively, after some trial and error with other programs, and I have an old banged up intuos pen and touch that’s still clinging to life. I mostly use the tablet, might use the mouse to fix minor things if I’m too lazy to plug in the tablet lol.
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