Meet the Women of CXR.Agency

Here at CXR.Agency, we are grateful to work with a diverse team of people of different backgrounds, genders, and even continents. In recognition of this, we’re highlighting the vital roles and impressive achievements of our female colleagues. We spoke with Mayuri, Min, Neha, and Vidya to explore their work and reflect on their experiences.

What’s your favorite part about the job?

I love that, in my job, every day is a huge learning experience for me. There’s a great work culture, and we all are very supportive of each other. I never feel too much pressure – we have deadlines, of course, but are enjoying working together. Everyone’s creativity and ideas are appreciated – we have a lot of fun with each other.

What would you say are your proudest achievements?

I ranked in the top four in my university class. I have also worked on many special projects here at CXR.Agency in which I’m the only developer on the team.

How do you feel as a woman in your field?

In my team, I’m the only female backend developer, but I never feel alone or set apart. All my colleagues are very supportive. And I think software development is a great field for women.

What advice would you give to other women?

I don’t think it’s male dominated. Maybe it’s actually easier for women – we can write clean code in a hurry! [laughs] But truly, my female coworker and I are very punctual about typing and commenting in code. I definitely encourage women to enter this field. I really enjoy what I do.

What your favorite part about what you do?

I like when I get to take the lead on visual concepts and clients are open-minded. It’s always so exciting to see a project from concept to development – to see the whole process of it. Not a lot of design agencies have their own dev team, so designers aren’t always as involved in the development part as I am. What I like about this role is that I get to see it to completion.

Do you have favorite projects you’ve worked on?

I really enjoyed working on More Than A Vote. The organization is so meaningful and they achieved so much last year… I wanted to carry that visually to the website users. And they had great assets, so it was exciting for me to leverage that.

The Dropbox x The Infatuation microsite was interesting and fun because it was during this pandemic and all about ordering lunchboxes for people working from home. They, too, had really great visual assets and colors and branding, which was great to work with.

What are some of your proudest achievements?

As a female non-American designer, I’m proud of what I’ve done – earning a master’s degree in communication design at Pratt, obtaining a visa and working in this competitive industry.

How do you feel as a woman in your field?

It’s definitely very valuable for our team to have female designers because we have different perspective on things – on everything. Let’s say we’re brainstorming on an online shopping experience, for example. Because I’m more into fashion than other members of the team, I have valuable insight I can add to our discussion.

What advice would you give to other women?

Personally, I like to be very honest about everything, but sometimes women might want to be quiet or seem like they’re not very opinionated. I think being honest to your boss or your client, regardless of your gender, is always helpful, so I would say don’t hesitate to step it up if you feel you should.

What’s your favorite part about your job?

My favorite part is visualizing an idea and then bringing it into reality. Whenever I create story boards, I get the idea of what I’m thinking about. And this first stage is very important because when you have solid design thinking, your concept will not fail. You have to be strong in your design thinking!

Any favorite projects you’ve worked on?

I learned a lot when working on the marketing assets for HBO Max’s Charm City Kings. It was a very different experience for me, but I love exploring different domains such as entertainment. I watched the movie and then helped to create trailers and GIFs. I really enjoyed getting to make the filters and then working with the dev team to create them.

While working on the Pacifico experiences, I was given the freedom of making the experiences more creative, so I came up with idea of frost on the screen. Everyone liked it so we brought it to the client and they loved it, too.

What are your proudest achievements?

At school, I finished first in my discipline of Immersive Media Design and was awarded as a gold medalist in my class. My university has also invited me as a guest lecture, which makes me very proud.

How do you feel as a woman in your field?

I would not want to focus on whether there are fewer women – I would rather invite more women to come and join the field. I like to tell people: design is a big ocean, but you are the one fish!

What advice would you give to other women?

You should be prepared to dive in and take over! And also come to this field with knowledge of tradition and new technology, and how they come together in our work. You can use both and focus on being a game changer.

What do you like most about your job?

When I joined, I didn’t have much professional experience, but my colleagues have given me a lot of support as I’ve come to understand roles and structures. It’s exciting to work on projects with clients – I really enjoy sharing the technical decisions that reveal how we work.

Favorite projects you’ve worked on?

For our work with W Magazine, I was the only woman on the project and played a major role as backend developer. Everyone was very supportive and the project was great for understanding the multisite structure. I learned so much!

What are your proudest achievements?

I am proud to share that I was recently promoted to software developer!

How do you feel as a woman in your field?

Everyone here is very supportive, and I don’t feel any barriers to success. Last year, we celebrated Women’s Day in our office, and I missed the celebration this year. I am proud to be one of the women at CXR.Agency and look forward to future opportunities in this role.

What advice would you give to other women?

I definitely encourage other women to go into this field. When I joined CXR.Agency, there were only three women and now there are a number of women on the team. It’s great to see and work with them – we’re giving 100% to the organization.

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