TANIA MARIA  ROULSTON

Founder, Co-Creator

Specialties: Creative Direction, Ideation, Print, Branding, Web
Quirks: easily excited, connoisseur of fine cats, guzzler of monster energy, literally always skips breakfast, more happy accident than pixel perfect, pathologically driven by visions of better worlds
#aries vibes #enneagram4 #chaoticgood #eldermillenial

Picture a small town punk with blue hair, patches sewn on their jacket, and holes in their jeans. They go to three-person protests, play guitar in their room, listen to The Pixies on their Walkman*, and collage posters for local shows. Yeah… that’s me at 17 in little ‘ol Yakima, Washington. I was rebellious, anti-authoritarian, and hell-bent on forging my own path. Repelled by the idea of going to college, I dropped out of high school. That’s how the man gets ya, you know. My plan? Work at a thrift store for the rest of my life and not let school taint my art.

That path? Fortuitously detoured by the jobs section of my local newspaper**. “Wanted: Screen Printer with Experience”. Experience? None of that. Moxie? A lot of that. I rang them up***, “Hi, I’m Tania. I saw your ad in the paper. If I’ve never screen printed, how do I get experience in screen printing?” The receptionist, “Nobody has ever called and asked that question, can you come in for an interview tomorrow?” Job landed. Experience gained. 

When I wasn’t burning screens, mixing inks, and printing they let me experiment with the computer. I got my first glimpse of a road out of Yakima by learning to design t-shirts for local bands I liked. Graphic design was a way to talk to the world about things that mattered. I didn’t know how I was going to get there but I knew where I was going. Maybe college wasn't such a bad idea.

I wound my way through a design degree, chasing down an internship in NY, turning that into my first “grown-up” job. I traveled from coast to coast working dream design jobs before leaping into the business I dreamed up in college, a small creative studio named Brilliant so Brilliant. 24 years after I started rebelling, 19 years after I ran into that newspaper ad, and 15 years after I walked through the doors of my first design job, I’ve arrived carrying everything I’ve picked up along the way to help people talk about what matters in a cohesive, compelling, and creative way.

* a portable CD player    ** the printed one that used to arrive on one’s doorstep every morning   *** on a landline

mary margaret morgan

Co-Creator

Specialties: Social Media Design and Marketing
Quirks: funny noises, needs pictures of your pets, have it will craft it, literally never skips breakfast, nail polish color theorist, brain never stops,
#enneagram5 #artschoolnerd #big3scorpiolibraleo

Mary Margaret, how do we describe thee? We've got writer's block coming up with the perfect way to sum up such a unique and creative being. BRB, y'all!

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BRILLIANT
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LET's GET BRILLIANT
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READY TO SHINE?
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LET'S GET BRILLIANT
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READY TO SHINE?
Pink retro flower icon.
LET'S GET BRILLIANT
Orange retro flower icon.
READY TO SHINE?
Burnt orange flower icon.
LET'S GET BRILLIANT
Green retro flower icon.
READY TO SHINE?
Green retro flower icon.
LET's GET BRILLIANT
Mustard retro flower icon.
READY TO SHINE?
Pink retro flower icon.
LET'S GET BRILLIANT
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READY TO TALK ABOUT YOUR BRIGHT IDEA?
Burnt orange flower icon.
LET'S GET BRILLIANT
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Clients