Say Hello to Anabelle Roeser, Marketing Designer

What do you do?

I like to say I make things thoughtfully beautiful. As a marketing designer at Instacart, I design customer-facing marketing materials, from digital ads to social media content, emails, and print advertising, and a lot of stuff in between. We have an in-house photography studio here at Instacart as well, so I also do photography and styling for many of these assets, channeling a vision for the final piece from beginning to end.

How did you get into design?

I spent my whole life making art but when it came to college I went “practical” with a major in Anthropology. As I was finishing up college, I realized design was actually something you could have a career in and set about teaching myself, reading design books and learning all the technical aspects.

What makes everything worth it?

Making the work perfect, then seeing it in the world.

What advice would you give to a designer just starting out?

Make time to get away from the pixels and do something tactile. I personally get a lot of renewed energy and inspiration from cooking and styling food. It grounds me in the three-dimensional, textural, sensory nature of food and I can then bring that perspective and depth to my photography and design work. For you it might be sculpture or painting, or even knitting or basketball. I think it is just important to do something where you’re moving and touching and interacting with the world around you, so when you come back to your Adobe suite you’ve increased context and understanding.

Where do you find inspiration?

I get a lot of inspiration from recipes, food writing and food photography. A lot of that comes from my Instagram feed, which is an endless scroll of beautiful food shots from publications like Bon Appetit, NYT Cooking, and Saveur, as well as talented food photographers. I also have a cookbook buying problem (it’s OK if it’s inspiration, right?). I’m currently obsessed with Alison Roman’s Dining In (the recipes, the photography, Alison’s no-nonsense voice) as well as Molly on the Range by Molly Yeh (her simple colorful aesthetic, the fun illustrations, the unexpected recipes). I’m always flipping through a used copy of I Know How To Cook by Ginette Mathiot, which is an English translation of a classic French cookbook from the 1930s. It is as thick as my arm and full of delightful illustrations and canapés for days.

Working on various projects at Instacart, which one was the most challenging and exciting for you?

Designing our new in-store marketing assets has been an adventure and a challenge in many ways, but the experience of developing the photography style we are using for it and executing those photoshoots was incredible and very creatively rejuvenating.

Where did you grow up and what made it special?

I am a born and bred Bay Area kid, living most of my life in Berkeley, Oakland, and Marin. I tried to leave the Bay once — it didn’t last long. I can’t articulate one specific thing that makes it special but if you’ve been here, you know.

What was the first thing you ever designed?

Hand-lettered chalkboard signs for the coffee shop I worked at in College.

What is something you’re most proud of in your life/career?

In terms of design, I’m self taught, so I’m especially proud to have gotten where I am in my career despite not having a design degree. In that same vein, I’m proud to have put in my time learning and gaining experience along the way. I worked in retail through college while beginning to freelance as a designer. Later, I got a job doing design for a catering company, where it was also my responsibility to fix the computers, copyedit new menus, and go buy extra produce for the kitchen when something was short. Working at Instacart today is a product of these early jobs which gave me breadth, as well as patience, that has served me well.

What is something non-design related that you’ve brought into your design work?

My love of food and cooking heavily informs my designs. I’ve always designed for food-related companies so the two things are intertwined in my experience. Design can involve a lot of the same aspects as cooking. You base your initial framework on a recipe (grid, design system, content requirements, etc.) and from there you start evolving the dish based on your knowledge and experience. Add a little of this, a pinch of that, you taste, you revise, add some more salt. Tweak the layout, try a garnish, and then maybe decide it doesn’t need it because it’s perfect as-is.

Come build with Anabelle.

If you’re excited about defining the future of a one trillion dollar industry, building an ad-serving network for groceries, scaling the world’s most extensive grocery catalog, perfecting a real-time on-demand logistics chain, all while simultaneously designing the future of food for millions of people, you should take a look at the available opportunities or reach out to someone from the team.

Instacart

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.