Mark Forscher
Mark Forscher is Founder and Creative Director of Under After, a creative studio in New York. Under After focuses on brand identity, strategy, and design for early-stage businesses.
Mark worked as Creative Director at Code and Theory, Newsweek, and ABC News from 2006 to 2011. He founded Under After in 2008 and, after ABC News, ran the studio full-time until 2019, building brands for venture-backed founders. During this period, Mark named Aura, the award-winning digital picture frame, and created the visual identity for Rubicon, a cloud-based waste and recycling technology company that went public in 2022.
In 2019, Mark joined the leadership team of a small blockchain infrastructure startup with less than 10 employeess. He led brand and design at Bison Trails, helping to scale the company from launch to $30 billion in staked assets on the platform before Bison Trails was acquired by Coinbase in 2021. After the acquisition, Mark served as Design Lead at Coinbase Cloud, growing the design team and helping shepherd the integration of the Bison Trails platform into Coinbase's suite of developer-focused products.
From 2022 to 2024, Mark worked as Chief Marketing Officer at Alluvial. He led the launch and growth of Liquid Collective, an institional-focused staking protocol, from zero to $374 million in ETH staked (as of Nov 2024). This role deepend his experience across product marketing, content strategy, event activations, executive and corporate communications, team building, and board reporting.
Mark returned to Under After in 2024, bringing five years of operational startup experience back to client work. He now combines years of brand building with hands-on experience as a marketing leader at venture-backed companies. This combination gives founders and CMOs a creative partner who understands both craft and operations.
“From the first naming session to final execution, Mark was instrumental in shaping the Alluvial brand. His strategic vision and creative execution helped bring our company to life, making an immediate impact with partners, media, and customers.”
Approach
Mark uses Under After as a creative umbrella to explore branded apparel, creative coding, AI, art and illustration, and more. He holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and a BA in Music with Honors from Wesleyan University. His background in music, design, and creative work shapes how the studio approaches brand projects and collaboration.
Under After operates as a focused solo practice. Mark works directly with clients as a creative collaborator, brand designer and strategist, and marketing consultant on operations, content strategy, and executive communications.
This solo structure creates an advantage for clients. Founders and CMOs get direct access to the strategist, designer, and executor. No account managers or extra communication layers. This means clearer decisions, tighter collaboration, and more focused execution during critical phases like product launches, rebrands, and market positioning shifts.
Mark treats brand and marketing work like product development. He solves complex problems through collaboration and precision while measuring results. The studio's client work spans venture-backed startups, established B2B technology companies, and more.
Why Work with Under After
Working with Under After means working with someone who has both built brands from the ground up and led marketing teams inside fast-growth companies. Mark brings the strategic perspective of a CMO with the hands-on craft of a designer and creative director. This combination is rare.
“Mark is the best, from creative to execution. He built Bison Trails into one of the strongest brands in crypto. A fantastic creative partner for any founder. Highly recommend.”
Clients get access to someone who has done the operational work. Mark has named companies, created visual identities, launched products, managed budgets, hired teams, worked with sales, hosted branded events, navigated acquisitions, and reported to boards. He understands the constraints and pressures that founders and CMOs face because he has held those roles. This experience shapes how Under After approaches brand work: strategic, measurable, and built for the long term.
Education
- MFA, Design & Technology, Parsons School of Design
- BA, Music with Honors, Wesleyan University
Recognition
Mark is a TechCrunch Verified Expert Brand Designer. He works with early-stage companies and venture firms on brand strategy and creative direction.
“I've had the pleasure of knowing Mark for more than a decade, and I've always admired his work and recommended him to portfolio company founders (who also love him). So when we finally got the chance to work with him directly on Asylum, we jumped at the chance. Mark took the existing v0 of the Asylum brand and pushed it forward in ways that feel both true to our original spirit and fresh for what's ahead. The new wordmark and identity are sharper, clearer, and more memorable. And the entire brand serves as important foundation for all the other iterations and experiments we plan to do together in the future. Finally, Mark is a true professional, highly communicative, opinionated when it matters, responsive and timely, and just a real pleasure to work with and learn from.”
Experience
- 2024–Present: Founder and Creative Director, Under After
- 2022–2024: Chief Marketing Officer, Alluvial (Liquid Collective)
- 2021–2022: Design Lead, Coinbase Cloud
- 2019–2021: Head of Brand & Design, Bison Trails (acquired by Coinbase)
- 2008–2019: Principal, Under After
- 2017–2018: Interim Product Director, Fatherly
- 2009–2011: Creative Director, Digital, ABC News
- 2008–2009: Creative Director, Digital, Newsweek
- 2006–2008: Creative Director, Code and Theory
Brand Portfolio
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Bison Trails
Brand identity, design, marketing, web development, and more for Bison Trails, an infrastructure-as-a-service company acquired by Coinbase 2021 with $30b+ assets staked (2019).
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Alluvial
Naming, brand identity, design, web development, and more for Alluvial, an enterprise-grade staking software company (2023).
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Liquid Collective
Naming, brand identity, design, web development, and more for Liquid Collective, an institutional-focused liquid staking protocol (2023) w/ $1.669b TVL staked as of Sep 2025.
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NORS
Naming, brand identity, design, web development, and more for NORS, an Ethereum node operator risk standard collectively and collaboratively defined by industry experts (2024).
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Rubicon
Brand identity for Rubicon, a provider of sustainable waste and recycling solutions (2015). IPO on NYSE in 2022.
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Asylum
Brand identity, design, and website development for Asylum, a venture firm dedicated to the creative act of building companies (2025).
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And many more...
Select Work
- Temporal 2025
- Asylum 2025
- Laminated Labs 2025
- Arwen 2019
- NYC Cannabis Parade 2019
- Extra Crunch 2018
- Scout 2018
- Fatherly 2018
- Depthkit 2017
- Beam 2017
- Fabric 2016
- Aura 2015
- Rubicon 2015
- Keeper 2015
- Picnic 2015
- Respera 2013
- Data & Society 2013
- Poncho 2013
Start a Conversation
If you're a founder or marketing leader building something intentional, Under After can help. The studio works on brand strategy, identity, and communications that support your vision.
Contact Under After · studio@underafter.com