Interview with Brent Couchman of Moniker
Today we are excited to finally showcase the work and words of a good friend of ours, who just so happens to be an extremely talented designer and illustrator. We sent over some burning questions we had for Brent Couchman about his San Francisco-based design studio, Moniker. Take a look at what he had to say.Moniker may be a young company, but the man behind it is a seasoned designer with surplus of knowledge and industry experience. You can always spot a piece done by Moniker by the bold shapes and colors, but most importantly the amount of restraint shown in the design. The focus on the forms gives the work a strong, timeless feel.Q: Your work truly does have a feeling of timelessness. In your opinion, what makes a design timeless?A: I think there's a larger discussion about timelessness in design in regards to form and communication, but as far as my work goes, I think it comes down to visual simplicity.
Q: What can Moniker do, as a small studio, that other, larger studios, cannot?A: The level of collaboration we can reach with clients is probably the biggest difference between us and larger studios or agencies. More and more businesses are recognizing that it doesn't take an army to get good work done, that a smaller team can achieve more focus and move and adapt quicker. We really enjoy that aspect of running a studio, getting to work directly with decision makers and smart people doing interesting work.
Q: How was Moniker formed?A: I had been freelancing on nights and weekends for most of my career, and after being in SF for a few years I had more work on my own than at my day job and I knew it was time to go out on my own. I started out working with a few clients on larger projects and supplemented that with work for different studios and agencies around town. After a while I was strictly on client work and knew Moniker could sustain itself. Lindsey joined full-time early last year and we have a consistent group of freelancers working with us on most projects.
Q: To someone trying to start their own creative studio, what would be the single most important advice you could share with them?A: I think Anthony Burril's "WORK HARD AND BE NICE TO PEOPLE" piece sums it up well. The work hard part is easy to understand. Working for yourself has its advantages and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it's a non-stop, constant hustle. The BE NICE TO PEOPLE part I think is also easy, but for me its also about relationships. I don't see it as networking, I just enjoy meeting people who are doing interesting stuff and would be fun to work with. Most of our bigger and more interesting projects have come from having a good network of friends and collaborators who've recommended us for work.
Q: What are your big picture goals for the studio? What are you doing now to help you achieve that?A: Our goals are pretty simple, we want to work with nice people on good projects. We're open to where that leads us, but specifically we're interested in how identity projects can take us outside of normal graphic design areas such as interiors, environmental, online experiences, etc.We also really enjoy working with people who are doing good in the world. It's very rewarding to know that you're helping make someones life better even if it's just a small contribution through design.As far as achieving those goals, we've found that keeping an eye out for opportunities is the best way to make them happen. We talk to our clients about things that could help them or things we're interested in working with them on and a lot of times that leads to actual projects. We also reach out to a lot of people we think are doing interesting things, just to meet and get to know them.You can find more information on Moniker and their work at Moniker.sf.com. And you can follow them on Twitter or Facebook.