MIRELLA
ARAPIAN
Mirella Arapian (she/her) is an Armenian-Australian designer. She is the founder and creative director at Mek, a purpose driven design studio building future-ready brands with social and environmental impact. Working across branding, design, and strategy, Mek disrupts the norm and challenges convention to help brands tell their story to raise awareness, attention, and action. Mirella is the founder and director of Womentor, a global mentorship program for women in graphic design that exists to improve gender equality in the design industry. She is also an animal rights activist and volunteers for various organisations across social justice, animal welfare, and human rights.
Mirella has worked across Australia and North America with leading brands and organisations including Sea Shepherd, PETA, WWF, Museums Victoria, Environmental Film Festival Australia, RMIT University, and Veganuary. She has spoken at design festivals, industry events, and educational institutions around Australia; her work has won awards, been published in international books and magazines, and exhibited in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Romania. As a woman in design leadership and child of immigrants, Mirella is an advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion in design, using her business and creativity as a platform for activism and positive change.
What is one thing you would change/create to make the world a better place for women?
Dismantle the existing system and rebuild it for the modern world with the foundation of promoting cultural and social norms that enforce the view that all genders are equal, and use those norms to inform education, policies, and laws that end discrimination while ensuring fair and inclusive treatment across education, the workplace, and the home.
