Inspiring Conversations with Andrew Braswell of Know App

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Braswell.

Hi Andrew, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a true product of California Counterculture. Raised in Northern California in subcultures like Skateboarding, Art and Music I found my true love for design. I’ve always been fascinated by art. Primarily how it was used for propaganda and advertising. So, I taught myself Adobe Creative Suite then began designing concert posters for friends and slowly began to transform into a self-made “Graphic Designer”. At the time, I had no clue that it could be a real career. I did it purely out of passion and grew that into a real love for designing cool things. After a few years of designing for friends and making no money at all, I decided to make it official and give Design School a try. I enrolled at the California Art Institute and two years later, I met a guy in a bar in San Francisco, CA and everything changed. That guy ended up being the Creative Director of a large Marketing firm and he hired me as a Jr. Graphic Designer on the spot. They needed me full-time and I made the tough decision to leave school to pursue a career in design by experience. My natural instinct has always been to “learn by experience”. For me, it has always proven to produce the most reward. I worked for that firm for 3.5yrs and learned a ton. Since then, I’ve transformed as a Designer many times over the years having worked across multiple disciplines such as Marketing, Experiential Design, Advertising, Branding and UI/UX. I intentionally set out to be a multidisciplinary designer. My strategy was to make myself as valuable as possible.

Fast forward to today and I’ve evolved my passion for design into the digital era. Over the last 10yrs I’ve designed Websites and Mobile Apps for companies such as Google Inc., Beats By Dre., Apple Inc, and a handful of others. Today, I work closely with startups and even have one of my own (knowapp.com). It’s an iOS App that allows you to send video invites directly to your fans. Our mission is to simplify the “event promotion” cycle for artists, musicians and creators. We aim to reduce FOMO when it comes to experiences and create more inclusitivioty and certainty for hosts and fans.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It’s been a wild ride. Full of highs, lows, and a ton of uncertainty. The most difficult part for me is that being a multidisciplinary designer, I tend to not identify as one particular type of designer. There is no one title for me because design is infinite to me. Companies like to put you in a box and that has always been tough for me to accept. I strive to be diverse in design because I believe that diversity is the opportunity.

As you know, we’re big fans of Know App. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Know App is a brand new iOS App. We just went live a few weeks ago. It’s a mobile app that allows creators of any kind to host experiences and reach their fans 100% of the time by sharing personalized video invites. We hated all the event apps out there and felt they weren’t doing enough. So we decided to make something that spoke more to artists, musicians and creators. We thought that invitations should be a “content-type”. There is so much FOMO and uncertainty out there surrounding experiences and we all just want to be included. So we basically made a video calendar that keeps you in the loop and notifies you when your favorite creators host experiences in your area.

I just wanted to build something useful for people. Now, more than ever, we need more tools that bring us closer together vs farther apart.

Contact Info:

• Email: andrew@knowapp.com
• Website: knowapp.com
• Instagram: skandrew

Image Credits:
Hayley Hill Brian Tran