Isaac Popoca Maravillo

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is Isaac Popoca Maravillo, and I am the creative director and co-founder of Bradner Maravillo, a design studio focused on bringing ideas to life in ways that feel natural to the people experiencing them and unmistakably true to the brand behind them. Being a graphic designer has always been a dream of mine, and it's something I am fortunate enough to do for a living.

I'm a Mexican-American designer, originally from Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles and moved to San Diego to pursue a dream. It was here in San Diego that I made that dream a reality, met my co-founder, and eventually started my own practice.

Outside of design, I'm still very much the same kid from South Central who grew up with a big imagination and a long list of interests. I've always been drawn to storytelling, whether that's through Marvel and DC comic books, movies, photography, or the music I listen to. I'm particularly fond of indie and alternative music, and I enjoy finding inspiration in places that have little to do with design. I think those interests have shaped the way I see the world, keeping me curious, imaginative, and always looking for the next thing that catches my attention.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

Aside from the sunsets, I absolutely love the creative community San Diego has to offer. During my time here, I've met some of the most talented and passionate creatives, artists, and founders who constantly push the boundaries of design. It's a very supportive community, one that will always take the time to advocate for design, art, and any type of creativity.

I've also met many of my mentors here, people who genuinely inspired me to continue my creative journey and have offered guidance and support through their own firsthand experiences and challenges. I honestly hope to do the same for younger creatives once Bradner Maravillo becomes more established. I want to give other creatives the opportunity to bring their visions and craft to life.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

The idea for Bradner Maravillo first came to me about five years ago. Throughout much of my twenties, I worked as an assistant for different business owners in Los Angeles, where I gradually learned the ins and outs of running a small business. I always knew I wanted to become a graphic designer, but the bigger dream was to eventually build a creative studio of my own. I spent much of my time at San Diego State University working toward making that seemingly impossible dream a reality. It was there that I met Sonny Bradner, an aspiring designer who shared many of the same ambitions. We connected over our goals, creative interests, and outlook on design. When I eventually shared my vision for a studio with him, he brought the same enthusiasm and ambition to the table. What started as my pipe dream quickly became something we could build together. We began developing the name, direction, and strategy behind BMD, and eventually took the leap to make it official.

One of the first things Sonny and I agreed on was the kind of studio we wanted to build. We didn't want to chase trends, recycle the same visual formulas, or make design decisions simply because they were popular at the time. We wanted authenticity to come first. Every brand has its own personality, audience, and story, and we believe its visual identity should reflect that. From typography and color to imagery, illustration, and interaction, every decision should have a purpose and contribute to something bigger. We want our clients to receive more than something that simply looks good; we want to create work that feels genuinely connected to their brand and resonates with the people they're trying to reach.

At BMD, we also believe that great creative work comes from people who care about the process. Technology and AI can certainly be useful tools, but they shouldn't replace the thought, craftsmanship, and creative direction that go into building something meaningful. We want our clients to know that there's a real person behind every idea, someone who takes the time to understand their vision and cares about getting the details right. Ultimately, we started Bradner Maravillo because we wanted to create the kind of studio we would have wanted to work with ourselves: thoughtful, collaborative, versatile, and genuinely invested in bringing people's ideas to life.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

The best advice I can give someone starting any kind of business or following any goal is to remember why they started. I strongly believe every decision you make in your business should support your goal. If you set out to do something, to prove something or to create something unique, don’t let the world distract you from it. I’ve met a lot of business owners who followed money and status and forgot what made their business special in the first place. It was never about the number, but rather the passion behind everything that you do.

As a creative, I’ve had my doubts, ups and downs, moments where I lost a project and let that outcome determine who I thought I was and what I thought I was worth in that moment. Remembering why I started has always helped me find my way back to that passion and that drive to accomplish what I set out to do. Through the darkest moments of my life on and off that screen, this advice has and will always be my guiding light. I hope this advice genuinely helps.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

I remember the first time a design job came easy for me. At this point in life, I had been pretty hard on myself. I don’t want to say negative, but I was definitely overly “realistic” in what I could do with my style of design. It was at this point that I applied to be a graphic designer for a healthcare provider who focuses on providing cancer care alternatives. I applied expecting not to hear back, and again, I never applied to any project unless I loved what they did or what they stood for. In this case, it was their mission to help cancer patients look for more affordable treatments and guide them through this difficult time in their lives that drew me in. The only problem was that I felt like my design work was very different from their branding. When I heard back a few days later, I received an email from their Chief of Marketing wanting to sit down and conduct an interview with me. I hesitantly agreed.

I started off the interview by being honest and clear about my style being vibrant and playful rather than clean and professional like their website and overall brand. The interviewer explained that she took a look at my work and absolutely loved what she saw. She went into great detail explaining that her line of work tends to be very stressful and heartbreaking for their clients and their families, who spend the majority of their time in and out of cold hospitals. She explained that she wanted to incorporate designs that felt more human, hopeful and playful, that made her clients feel less scared and more optimistic. She told me she saw and felt that through my work. By the end of this interview, she ended up sending me a design contract and I wholeheartedly signed.

I feel like this feedback helped me not just understand what I could do for clients, but understand that sometimes you can be exactly the element that a business needs or is looking for. You need to believe in your capabilities to not completely rebrand something but to add just enough that it completely changes the entire marketing.

Where do you see your company in the future?

My co-founder and I have often looked back at our journey and remembered how excited we were to gain experience. We also remember being passed up for opportunities because we didn’t fit a certain mold of design. I want our studio to grow into a practice willing to take chances on out of the box thinkers and other creatives who have their own niches. When I think of the future, I see our studio filled with different styles of design, different voices ready to be heard by the world.

I want Bradner Maravillo to reach more up-and-coming creatives, through our client work and our online presence. I see our studio being more than just an established business. We want to give internship opportunities to those still learning, and provide the mentorship we once sought ourselves as younger designers.

Most importantly, I see Bradner Maravillo continuing that pursuit of passion, curiosity and innovation for design that started this dream.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

I touched on this a bit earlier, but I think one of the biggest misconceptions about our industry is the idea that AI will eventually replace designers, or that it's somehow more reliable than working with an actual creative professional. I couldn't disagree more. Businesses need designers with taste, ideas, and a point of view developed through experience, not a generated mix of whatever an algorithm has to offer. AI can produce a visual based on a prompt, but it doesn't truly understand the business behind it. Designers take the time to research, communicate, understand what makes a business different, and develop creative solutions that support those goals. There's a lot more to design than generating something that looks good.

At Bradner Maravillo, much like other creative agencies and studios, that's exactly what we do. We look at the bigger picture, identify the problem, understand the brand, and work toward a solution that makes sense for the people behind it and the people it's trying to reach. Our strength is knowing that no two brands should be approached the same way. A clean, minimal identity should feel structured and intentional. A playful, bubbly brand should feel energetic and expressive. A sophisticated identity should feel considered and refined, while a loud, unconventional brand should have the freedom to be just that. We don't believe in forcing every business into the same visual formula, and we certainly don't believe in letting an algorithm decide what makes a brand unique.

I've seen small businesses turn to AI to create their marketing materials, often settling for work that's stale, generic, and, at best, just good enough. And I think that's where we need to challenge ourselves as an industry. As creatives, business owners, and consumers, we should be striving for more than something that simply gets the job done. We should want work that has thought behind it, that connects with people, and that makes someone stop and take notice. There's nothing wrong with using new tools, but we shouldn't confuse convenience with creativity or mistake good enough for extraordinary.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

In my own personal experience, my greatest battle has been with self-doubt amidst doing what others deem impossible. When I first started this journey, I didn't fully believe in myself. I felt outgunned and outmatched by the economic circumstances I grew up in. There were a handful of times when I didn't think I had what it took to carry on. I remember so many moments thinking, “This is it. This is as far as I'll get,” only to turn around and push beyond what I thought I was capable of.

When I began building the foundation for Bradner Maravillo, I often felt like my own biggest critic. I was trying to build something of my own while balancing school, work, internships, and the pursuit of clients. It felt like no matter how much effort I put into one area of my life, I was falling behind in another. For a long time, I measured my progress against everything I hadn't accomplished yet, rather than recognizing how far I'd already come.

A turning point came during my final year of college, when the demands of school and professional design work forced me to grow quickly. I was challenged by the pace, the expectations, and my own tendency to scrutinize every piece of work I produced. But I gradually learned that self-doubt wasn't necessarily a sign that I wasn't capable. Sometimes, it meant I was doing something unfamiliar and had more to learn. I began trusting the process, becoming more confident in my decisions, and treating each challenge as an opportunity to improve rather than evidence that I didn't belong.

By the time I graduated cum laude, I had secured a $15,000 design contract with a healthcare business, gained professional experience working alongside a design-build firm, and developed a much clearer understanding of the kind of designer and business owner I wanted to become. Looking back, I'm proud of those accomplishments, but I'm even more proud of the person I had to become to reach them.

I've come a long way from where I started. In the process, I think I've overcome a lot of struggles, but I've also disproved a few things I once believed about myself. I think there's always going to be a part of us that questions our capacity for greatness and replaces it with the thought, “Maybe I'm not enough.” I've learned that you don't necessarily have to eliminate that doubt before you move forward. Sometimes, you just have to be willing to move forward despite it.

Who was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

I never really had just one favorite artist growing up. I listened to a lot of pop-punk and upbeat alternative music. Bands like Sum 41, Simple Plan, Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys and The Hives were always in rotation. I could easily spend hours getting lost in my playlists, and honestly, not much has changed. I've kept playlists from every year dating back to seventh grade, almost like a little soundtrack of different chapters of my life. I still love discovering new music and adding songs to whatever I'm listening to at the moment. I do have one rule, though: no recycling songs from previous playlists. A song has to be experienced for the first time to earn its place in a new one.

Music has also become a big part of how I experience design. When I share my work, I often pair it with a song that carries a deeper meaning or reflects the subject I'm designing around. I like the idea that music can add another layer to a visual, giving people a different way to connect with what they're seeing. I guess I've always enjoyed finding ways to bring different forms of creativity together.

Any shoutouts you want to make?

First and foremost I’d like to thank my family and friends for their support throughout this journey. I know my life can move pretty fast and I’m grateful to have people that remind me to take a moment to enjoy and cherish every step along the journey. I’ve had so many people come into my life and tell me how much they love what I’m doing and they remind me of how far I’ve come and continue to grow. These thoughtful comments and talks have given me reassurance that I’m on the right path.

I’d like to thank my co-founder Sonny Bradner for believing in the mission we set out to pursue. I can be very ambitious and strong-willed, and having a co-founder and best friend that helps me take a step back from my projects and enjoy all the accomplishments and progress we’ve made is something I will always cherish. Thank you for all the late nights, crash outs, funny side quests and crazy out of the box ideas that continue to inspire me.

Last but definitely not least, a shout out to my mother. Her courage and work ethic are the reason I had the opportunities I did. Her life story inspired me to never give up, to always find a way forward. When life keeps knocking me down, I constantly remember the person who taught me to get up.

Where can our readers learn more about you and your company?

For any projects or ideas, please reach out through our site https://bradnermaravillo.com/. We love to hear from anyone who has a vision they want brought to life. To those of you looking to follow us on our creative journey, you can find our work and adventures at https://www.instagram.com/bradnermaravillo/.

We’re constantly growing and evolving, so if there are any designers, founders or business owners that want to work or collaborate together, we’d love to connect!