There is an incredible metamorphosis happening every week on Main Street in Elkton – an ever-changing multimedia kaleidoscope of ideas layered with fonts and colors and photographs and images and designs – that pour from the creative flow of Grunge Muffin Designs.

For the past decade, those ideas have been coming from the husband and wife team of Meredith and Brandon Boas who, according to their website, “are a team of happy designers who live and work by a policy of do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and the diversity of their client list is a testament to that mission: Businesses. Schools. Arts, culture and entertainment. Restaurants. Towns and municipalities. Book covers for authors. Police departments. Cecil County government. And the list goes on.

“During our initial conversations with our clients, Brandon and I determine the parameters of the project, because you can very easily in this line of work move from one thing to the next thing,” Meredith said. “We determine a clearly defined budget and a chosen chunk of time. People will call us for a logo and want to move directly to business cards and print materials and a web design. Each of those items needs to be its own project, so that we are able to give our clients exactly what they themselves have imagined.” 

Grunge Muffin Designs offers a variety of services that can often solidify the look, the personality and the “story” that a client wishes to achieve, through graphic design, photography, social media, video production and web design. Their inspiration to mold a branding message comes from everywhere. 

“Meredith and I see the world as a walking canvas,” Brandon said. “We are constantly taking in information from all of the places we go to and if we like something, we take mental notes and photographs. We look at the whole world, so to speak.”

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Their company name comes from the Boas’ love of the grunge musical movement that reached its zenith in the 1990s on the backs of bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots. By the time they met at Cecil College – and transferred together to the University of Baltimore in the early 2000s - the music formed the soundtrack to their creative journeys.

“The name became a term of endearment, and my friends and I wanted to turn something that may have a negative connotation and turn it into a positive,” Meredith said. “When we were opening the business, we wanted to have our name be memorable but also mean something personal, so we went with ‘Grunge Muffin Designs.’

“Brandon also identifies as being a grunge muffin as well, and now that we have our son Ollie, whom we call our ‘mini muffin,’ the joke keeps getting better.”

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Every successful partnership is emboldened from the realization that each individual brings certain talents to the collective whole – a paradigm that forms a through line to Grunge Muffin Designs. While Meredith - a graphic designer, web developer and illustrator - trains her creative eye on the visual component of a project, Brandon’s expertise is in the areas of technology, specifically programming, coding, video editing and production. 

“We are a multimedia design studio, but everything we do starts with the logo, because that is the cornerstone of our clients’ branding,” Meredith said. “We are focused on the storytelling aspect of what our clients wish to tell. Everything from the font to the colors to the narrative plays a part in weeding out the personalities of the people we work with. 

“Essentially, what Brandon and I do is to help tell their stories.” 

Grunge Muffin Designs is located at 215 West Main Street in Elkton. To learn more, visit www.grungemuffindesigns.com. Available by appointment only.