Anique Mautner on Creativity, Family Influence, and Brand Design Philosophy

Anique Mautner works as a partner at MiresBall, a brand design agency where she helps organizations articulate their identity and purpose with clarity. Her creative journey began in childhood through exposure to her grandparents' diverse artistic practices, including an inventor, a multidisciplinary artist, an untrained painter, and a basket weaver. At age four, she attended pottery and theater camps in Idyllwild, California, developing a lasting fear of acting but fond memories of clay work. Her grandmother Elea taught her pine needle basket weaving near Strawberry Creek, a skill she still values. Mautner finds awe through beauty, unexpected moments, poetry, and laughter with her children. She reframes regrets as lessons and now approaches heartbreak by embracing vulnerability rather than armoring herself. Raised with a Christian narrative of heaven as a crystal pyramid inside the moon, she later absorbed Buddhist and Shinto beliefs about reincarnation and kami during her time in Asia, leading to comfort with ambiguity. She resists societal messages of inadequacy and values accomplishments that foster positive change, such as creating brands that build community or writing stories that spark new conversations. Her favorite simple meal is Earl Grey tea with milk and a croissant.