Interview with Monolith Design Collective

Very recently, our incredibly talented friends decided to make the leap from day-jobs to working for themselves full-time and created Monolith Design Collective. Monolith is comprised of Marshall Meier, Ruba Tadros, and Jesse Lee. Despite being a new design company, they are definitely not new to design, all being veterans in the field. They have always been such an inspiration to us and great teachers on how to get local clients just by being locals. Their work can be seen all over Southern California in restaurants, bars, and other local businesses. Being the stellar people they are, they took time out of their busy schedules to answer some questions we had about their work and their process. Check out what they had to say:1. You guys do a lot of branding work for restaurants; what entices you most about these types of jobs?It's pretty simple. We like eating and drinking. And we especially like pairing great food with great design.2. It is impressive how many local clients you keep. How have your local clients compared to your non-local clients? Is there any difference in the working relationship, positive or negative?It's certainly easier with local clients, mainly because we like to take them to the restaurants we've worked on, treat them to a beer, and allow them to experience our work first hand.  3. What are some of your tips for finding local work?Being a regular and being memorable. 90% of our projects have been word of mouth referrals, so we can't emphasize enough how important it is to get out there and meet new people. Everyone always knows someone who is looking for designers.4. Monolith Collective is a new entity, full of veteran creatives. How do you balance your daily creative decisions and tasks between the collective?We always brainstorm and sketch at the beginning of a project together. Naturally, based on our individual skill sets, one of us will take the lead. However, the other is there to bounce ideas off of and let you know if your work looks like shit.  5. Leaving your day jobs and forming Monolith had to be a big decision. What helped you make that jump? Do you have any words of advice for others thinking of doing the same thing?It was something that we had always talked about doing "one day." Then, one day was tomorrow—or something clever like that. We figured if all else fails we could always bartend at one of our friend's restaurants (right, Leonard?)As far as advice goes, have a solid local network. Use local printers, eat at local restaurants and befriend your barista. It's amazing how many friends have become clients, and vice versa.6. What would be your dream job, or your dream client?Our dream job would be us doing what we're currently doing, but maybe on a balcony in some far away land over looking the ocean. And so, whoever wants to pay us enough to do that, they'd be our dream client.But seriously, we haven't given too, too much thought to that since we've been having fun with our current projects and things have been moving so quickly. We'd love to diversify, though, and maybe one day collaborate with a brewer on the recipe for a delicious saison that we've designed the packaging for.  7. What are you guys reading?Currently, we've got "Lella and Massimo Vignelli: Design is One" on the coffee table in our office—thanks, Mom! Aside from having killer work and being the basis of our education back in school, it's always good to get advice from the original power couple of design.