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A Born & Bred Interview: Our Veteran

Thoughts • Culture

It is said that on the morning George and Kyle opened the doors to the first Born & Bred office, Anastasia had already been there, at her desk, working, for 3 hours. Such is the legend of the most senior member of Born & Bred: Anastasia Itkina. Words like: trailblazer, visionary, inspiration get thrown around often, but in the case of Anastasia, and her years and years of dedication to…

Wait how long have you actually been at Born&Bred? 


“A year and a half” 


And you were employee #? 


“1” 


Oh. Well ummm ok so let’s start from the beginning, like...a whole year and a half  ago.


What made you decide to join George and Kyle on this journey? Other than their great hair of course. (Disclaimer: Kyle and George did not tell me to add the hair part) (Disclaimer: To the Disclaimer: they totally did). 


“I was looking for a small studio, I wanted to be able to try things. But, I didn’t realise I was joining a studio THAT small. I found out I would be the first employee at the second interview. That was a deciding factor too, being the first means I’d be able to influence things in a way I wouldn’t be able to at a bigger place.” 


Ok so how many offices have you been at? 


“This is the 5th office. We changed 3 times in the first weWork” 


Wow, that’s a lot, in a very short time #progress #movingonup #blessed.

Which has been your favorite and why? Don’t act like you didn’t like the awesome warmth of the North Beach office, (it was really really cold...Anastasia does not like cold offices). 

“I really like the one we are in now, because I know we will be here for a long time. Since university I’ve carried a bunch of photographs with me for inspiration, I hang them up at every office. I stopped hanging them after our second move. I am glad I can finally hang them again.” 


That’s a vibe. Other than the photographs and Abe (Disclaimer: I had to hit my mentions of Abe quota), what inspires you? 


“When people have skills that I lack, that inspires me to look at things from a different perspective. And looking at the world through my camera...I am a photographer” (and she’s dope, check out her stuff @asyaemjay)


We do have a lot of people with different skills here. 


What would you say has been the biggest change to B&B?


“WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE! And bigger projects. When I started we were doing a lot of quick projects, now we have some that last half a year.” 


Alright, so let’s look into the future for a second (not the one where the robots have taken over), like the near-ish future, where would you like to see Born&Bred? 


“I would love to be an award winning internationally known agency. I would love for us to be doing international work.” 


What a great future! Back to the present. What do you like most about working with George and Kyle? 


“They are really honest and I appreciate that. They also bring a personal attitude to everything they give feedback on” 


Yea yea yea they are great (jk, they really are). But! Give us a juicy story from the old days! 

“In 2018, the World Cup was being played in my home country Russia and I really wanted to watch it, and so did George and Kyle. So we had an extra laptop set up just to watch the games. England made it to the semi final and George really wanted to see that game. (he’s super English, like tea drinking, accent having English) he was sooooo upset when he found out he had a meeting during it. He wanted me to send him updates” 

I don’t blame him! Last question, what is your personal goal for the next year? 


“I am going to try out as many different styles as possible.”


Well, there you have it! Another hard hitting entry in our long running series (this is definitely the first, and possibly the last) 


I’m Remi, this is my third week here...