We recently connected with Erin Thompson and have shared our conversation below.

Erin , appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Aepret is a portmanteau word blending aesthetic and interpretation. The name stemmed from my objective to gather information about my clients’ aesthetics and then translate their preferences into graphic design. I made a list of words I felt described my brand and used an online word generator to put them together, finally settling on Aepret.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my career working in advertising studios for clients such as Acura, Apple, Patrón, Pepsi, Visa, and Whole Foods Market. My advertising background is in layout design, typography, styling, and handcrafting installation pieces.

I’ve always loved to design anything and everything. In my early 20s, I started creating flower arrangements and bouquets for my friends’ weddings, which quickly turned into an obsession with all things wedding related. Before I knew it, I was helping friends design their entire events, taking engagement photos, designing invitations, and so on. At the time, I wasn’t confident enough to start my own business, so I continued to help friends for fun. I’m divorced now, but when I got married years later, I planned my own wedding. During the process, I used in-depth vision boards to help me edit my ideas and explain them to vendors. Vision boards for weddings weren’t as prevalent then as they are now, and my vendors were thrilled to have them. That’s when I realized how helpful they could be for all types of wedding professionals.

Aepret vision boards are created for wedding and event planners, as well as their vendors. Understanding my clients’ aesthetics allows me to truly reflect their talents through my graphic work. This highly collaborative process starts with a consultation where we discuss their preferences, the finer details of the project, from tonality to location, and their design vision. Afterward, I will develop a collection of images that reflects diligent research and the curation of stylistic inspiration that aligns with their vision in an original way. Imagery, furniture pulls, color stories, cultural references, and more can be pulled for each event/project. We then refine the vision boards together.

These boards can include anything, such as event needs, renderings of invitation suites, and individual branded elements, like crests and stamps, as well as Photoshopped spaces for production, furniture/rental pulls, florals, floor plans, and so on. With an acute attention to detail, I revel in the opportunity to hunt for a location, culture, vendor, product, pattern, or decor for my clients, often sourcing those hard-to-find treasures that make an event truly spectacular.

Lastly, I’d say I’m most proud of being a lesbian in a wedding world that’s mostly hetero. I love seeing the LGBTQIA+ community represented in my field. When creating boards, it is important to me to show diversity and represent all people. Although it’s getting better, weddings are still mostly represented by straight, white couples.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Helping couples bring their big day to life is such a rewarding thing for me. I especially love getting to know people’s preferences and tying their unique stories into their days. Seeing something in my mind and then getting to see the finished product is also incredibly fulfilling.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I started working with In Good Company PR a couple of years ago. Natalie has brought me some of my favorite clients like Christian Oth and Micaela Erlanger. In Good Company works with influential wedding and hospitality brands worldwide. Their team is made up of driven creative marketing professionals who share a commitment to helping creative brands reach their fullest potential. I can’t say enough great things about them. I highly recommend them to anyone in the wedding world that’s trying to expand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aepret.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aepret_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-thompson-ab69bb1a5

Image Credits