\r\nAiding business companies in their digital transition and rethinking the website no longer as a simple shop window but as an experience. Such is the ambition of Aude Schaff and Nicolas Germeaux, the founders of the Monastudio web design agency. Behind this new Namur based company is hidden the inspiring tale of two journeys, no part of which hinted at any predestination for the web.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\u2018It involves looking to innovate in order to stand out from the crowd, continuing to learn by yourself and acquiring new skills every day,\u2019 he says. \u2018For me, it is offering our clients experiences which they have never come across on the web, which goes beyond what they are accustomed to,\u2019 she outlines. And there we have what inspires the two founders of Monastudio, when we ask them to talk about their agency without using the term \u2018web design.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As was also true for numerous neo-entrepreneurs, it was the health crisis which put into perspective the personal and professional plans of Nicolas and Aude. For his part, after having tried his hand at medicine and the biomedical sciences, Nicolas began to lose confidence in himself, but what stood out above all was that he found very little meaning in his studies. \u2018I ended up studying informatics, and more specifically cybersecurity. But once again, I sensed that I wasn\u2019t totally where I should be. It\u2019s by chance that I discovered web design and the UX and UI approaches.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms readily understood by any Muggle, for these read \u2018User experience\u2019 and \u2018User interface.\u2019 Two expressions to designate the field of web design, which, on the one hand, endeavours to work on the user experience of a website, and, on the other hand, the interface, in other words, the windows, buttons and other textual or visual elements with which the internet user will interact. Nicolas did not emerge unscathed from this encounter with web design. Without knowing anything about it, he landed a work placement at a web agency, where he learned everything as he went along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nwhen COVID struck, we spent our nights learning coding and web design.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Nor did Aude know anything about web design, either. Her career pathway, which she typifies as \u2018classic\u2019, saw her begin studies in the political sciences. A lack of meaning, an absence of the concrete, a 180 degree about-turn. She turned to accounting, with the aim of working in cultural management in order to devote herself to one of her passions, music. \u2018I knew that the creative sector spoke to me, but accounting, I quickly realised that it wouldn\u2019t stimulate me either.\u2019 On an impulse, and right in the middle of the year, she changed direction and opted for the audio-visual and graphic design, a period in her life when she met a certain Nicolas. \u2018I was also drawn to the web. And when COVID struck, we spent our nights learning coding and web design.\u2019 From there, it didn\u2019t take too long before the two entrepreneurs set out on the path towards Monastudio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fledgling Namur company has scarcely celebrated its second birthday but has already been a prize winner at the Awwwards in 2021<\/a> (an organisation which acknowledges the talent of the best developers, designers and web agencies the world over). Recently Nicolas and Aude have for that matter gone to talk about their entrepreneurial adventure in various schools. With humility, they were proud to go over the road they have covered. \u2018Beyond the substance of our presentation on web design, we above all wanted to get a message across to these young people: it doesn\u2019t matter if your journey is a very winding one, that merely brings us a little closer to ourselves.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n