Who the hell is Eva Munday?

We’re a group of creatives who are serious about changing the world for the better. Introducing the people of DixonBaxi; get to know some of the brilliant minds behind our work as we dive into all things professional and personal. We hung out with Eva, our brand writer, and talked about good books and unused degrees. Here’s the full conversation:

Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Eva – a laid-back creative from Seattle who wears a lot of black. I’m the brand writer at DB, so I build written identities for brands and define the way they speak. My role is half strategy, half creative and not as helpful with Wordle as you’d think.

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What’s your story?
I’ve always loved writing and drawing, so I studied both at university. I ended up working as a photographer for a while and even got my master’s in it, which really solidified the fact that I wanted to do something else professionally. That ended up being writing. Turns out I’m pretty good at it.

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What are you working on right now?
A few different brand voices, some guidelines, press releases and a lot of example copy. I can’t really say more than that.

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“Good design makes life better for the people who use it, without making life harder for anyone else.”

Describe your working style in 3 words.
Considered, creative and fast. The first two are by nature, the last one is necessity.

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Tell us about some of your interests – what are you into?
Working out – my whole life used to be rowing – but I don’t do it as much as I should. I grew up outdoors a lot, at practice and in the mountains with my family. As a kid I couldn’t wait to move to a big city and have a glamorous life but, as an adult (whatever that is), I really miss the wilderness. America is built different.

I find everything interesting, really. I love reading books about things I know nothing about for that very reason. I’ve almost finished Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life, an introduction to fungi and the way they rule our world, and it’s absolutely mind-blowing. Before that was Katie Mack’s The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking). Really put things in perspective on the morning commute.  

Also: ancient art, makeup, hair training, matching sweatsuits, tattoos, platform shoes, David Rose, beaches, intersectional feminism, skincare, piano, Catan, seaside carnivals, singing in the car, iced coffee, frozen cocktails, people watching and Mexican food, which I miss. A lot.  

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
In good ways and bad ways, yeah. I think great design made by empathetic people can change it for the better – that’s the standard we work to every day.

Everything we experience on a daily basis has been designed: products, processes, places, you name it. And most of it – from pharmaceuticals to public toilets – is built for cisgender, heterosexual, white, able-bodied men. That’s starting to change, albeit very slowly and with a lot of backlash, but it is and it’s changing the world for the better by acknowledging and accommodating everyone else in it.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
No more war. More specifically, I’d change people’s ability to listen to each other. We share our own opinions endlessly, but it’s a lot harder to listen to a different one and really hear it. I think it would help people understand other perspectives and maybe change their minds about some things.

What’s the last song you listened to?
Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix. It’s on my Main Character Complex playlist.

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
There are a lot of different ways I could answer this.

Not everyone has the privilege of doing a job that they enjoy – I do and, even when things are difficult, there isn’t a single second that I’m not incredibly grateful for that. My role is really challenging creatively, which means there are plenty of opportunities to sharpen my skills and develop new ones, and I think that’s a huge part of professional fulfillment. It’s also very hard to spend time around the people I work with and not feel inspired.

On a more serious note, I think businesses need to change the way they speak to consumers and, altruistic though it may be, any chance I get to not only point that out, but help fix it, feels really worthwhile.

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What’s your definition of good design?
Good design makes life better for the people who use it, without making life harder for anyone else.