PM—Hey Abraham, how’s it going? How’s LA? 

AC—Hey guys, thanks for having me. All is well here in Los Angeles, it’s currently raining which used to be rare but it’s been one of the wettest years I’ve experienced since moving here in 2017. 

PM—I’ve been following Mouthwash for a while and want to say you guys do some fresh work. How and why did you start Mouthwash? 

AC—Very much started organically, we were all friends before we decided to run a business together. It first started out as us doing a podcast and a magazine together driven by storytelling but since then it’s transitioned into a design studio. Both vehicles of expression that have allowed us to ultimately do creative work. 

We actually won’t be doing the podcast or magazine anymore. While they served a great purpose for us, our creative interests have changed and grown as we have.  

PM—Who works at Mouthwash, and who does what? 

AC—We’re a partner-led studio composed of 4 partners (myself, Alex, Ben and Mackenzie) and 10 full-time employees. We have strategists, copywriters, art-directors, designers, motion-designers, producers, and a head of operations. By design we prefer to stay small as we believe the best work comes from close collaboration, but it’s important to note our work would not be possible without the support of our collaborators.

PM—What advice do you have for designers looking to get a position in the creative industry? What’s your take on internships? 

MF—My advice to designers just starting out would be to focus less on putting everything you’ve ever made into your portfolio, and focus on the very best work you have. Keep it concise, presented cleanly, and cut the frills. I’d also say to reach out to designers you look up to and admire, and see if they will review your portfolio with you before sending out to apply for jobs. The more feedback you can get on your work, resume, and portfolio (no matter how scary that may feel) the more equipped you will be. 

AC—We view our internships as a paid apprenticeship program within the studio. Generally at least 6 months in duration where interns get to an up close view on our process and approach to work. There’s a lot of learning and real life applications that colleges and universities don’t quite give people so we really like to use this time to give people an opportunity and ultimately see how well they complement within our team. If all goes well, the end goal is to promote them to a full-time position.

PM—Where do you get your inspiration?  

AC—Never from one place. Inspiration to me has always been more of a verb than it is a noun. I’ve never found it to be this romanticised thing that just falls on our lap. It’s more so an accumulation of time spent being tuned in and searching for things that we find to contain beauty. It's an active state, so much so that I personally try to carve out at least half an hour a day with the sole intention to research outside of an algorithmic feed.

It’s a very precious time in the day for me but I attribute that small, daily window of time for most of the things which spark inspiration later when it’s time to connect into something new. Again, a short period of time, but practised every day, it compounds.

There’s a quote that says “the person who consumes from better sources, gets better thoughts” – and I tend to think this applies to ideas and inspiration in general. One of the worst things we can do as creatives is depend on algorithms to feed us inspiration. We have to self regulate our consumption habits to generate more personal and cultural thoughts. 

PM—The work you did for Air Company was so clean. How did you land that project? Who was behind the campaign imagery?

AC—They originally reachout out to us while they were pitching around agencies, we definitely were the smallest of the bunch but ultimately I think our phased approached along with the collaborators brought on were right for what they were looking for.

We worked with our good friends Services Généraux on developing campaign imagery for the launch of their Sustainable Aviation Fuel and AIR Eau de Parfum. 

PM—How do you go about creating a good culture in a studio environment?

AC—Hard to answer this one simply but I think the easiest way I’d answer this would be to point someone to our studio culture manual. For those that don’t want to go through a notion doc, I’d say it should be an environment made up of a diverse group of people working together, that complement one another, aligned on a mission, and all enjoy coming into work every day.

PM—What interests do you have outside the industry? 

AC—Big fan of sports, pretty much played them all throughout grade school. As far as to watch though soccer’s probably my favourite, huge Real Madrid fan. Also really into Formula 1 as of late, been hooked on the Netflix Formula 1: Drive to Survive series.

PM—What tunes are you currently bumping in the studio?

AC—We have an iPad that connects to our speaker which everyone has access to so things can vary but generally a lot of ambient essentials and morning jazz. If someone wants to get a better idea of what we’re vibing on we have Mouthwash Radio where we all contribute playlists from time to time.

PM—Vodka or Gin?

AC—Gin

PM—Do you have a creative process for big and small projects?

AC—We treat all our projects the same, always an element of strategy, design, and direction.

PM—Dream client/project? 

AC—I’d say any client that allows for holistic work, has a strong purpose, values beauty and people is always a dream to work with. That will pull the best out of us.

PM—What is one lesson you've learnt running a design studio?

AC—Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. 

PM—If you could change anything about our industry, what would it be? 

AC—Too much direct referencing or imitation within the industry creates work that all look like things we’ve already seen or done before. This goes against the core of artistry and creativity in the sense that it lacks personality. This issue can visually appear when that perspective is applied in both the making and sharing of the work. Ultimately both instances contribute to the failure of bringing something new into existence that wasn’t there before. So the change in mind would be for our industry to infuse more personality into our work, and hence that will create a whole movement of new designs. 

PM—How do you go about finding new opportunities that align with your studio’s purpose? 

AC—Do interesting things. Share them publicly. Like-minded clients will come to you. We don’t do any outbound marketing, so a lot of it is really whatever inquiries come to us. From there I’d say we take on less than 10% of them. It’s a very “Apple-esque” type approach. Where we believe in saying no so we can focus on the things that are important and meaningful to us, as well as our belief in holistic work.  

PM—Well, thanks so much for taking the time to chat today. Is there anything you would like to shout out?

AC—Just to say thanks for having me and for supporting us since the beginning. It truly means alot to myself and the rest of the team. We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of those who have been following us since the early days.