I am a Seattle-based designer and creative director; I specialize in interactive, UI, and UX design and I have done extensive work in brand identity, packaging, and print design.
I was born in Florence, Italy not many decades ago.
After my studies in graphic arts, and several professional experiences with local design firms, in 1994
I eventually moved to the United States and went to work as Senior Designer for Monigle & Associates in Denver. At Monigle I worked on brand and identity development projects for Fortune 100 companies such
as Amgen, Utilicorp United, WorldCom, PepsiCo Food, Bank of America, Rockwell, James River Corp.,
and many others.
Two years later I decided that I was missing my mama’s pasta too much and I moved back to Italy.
Mom's pasta was still excellent, but soon enough I realized that I did not fit in with the tiny Florence design community anymore, so I started to hunt for a job in the UK. As I was inches away from landing a designer position with a major firm in London, completely out of the blue, I received and accepted an offer to join Methodologie in Seattle, who sought my expertise in designing visual identity systems.
Soon after, I had the opportunity to step into web and interactive design, and since then I never looked back.
Along with countless identity systems, I designed dozens web sites; as Interactive Design Director at Methodologie, I worked on high-visibility projects for clients like Boeing, Coca-Cola, Accenture, Unico Properties, Microsoft, BNSF, Starbucks, Washington Athletic Club, AIGA, Sun Microsystems, BRE Properties, EMC, MacArthur Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Onyx, and Washington Mutual.
In February of 2009 I joined Starbucks Coffee as Creative Director of the Global Creative Studio.
In this role I lead and provide creative guidance for a team of about 15 between designers and creative managers, ensuring a cohesive and brand-aligned in-store customer experience.
My work has gained national and international attention with some pretty cool recognitions from I.D. Magazine, The Seattle Show, GD USA, The American Web Marketing Association, and Bardi Web in Italy.
Although my core passion remains design, today I focus equally on crafting the user and brand experience in its entirety at a more strategic level, and the combination of my background in web and brand design, over the years has allowed me to carve the unique niche in which I operate.
My contribution has often been described as “critical” in projects where it was particularly important to create
a brand experience through human/interface interaction.
A PDF of my complete resume is available upon request, or you can simply email me for more info:
d.monti(at)055interactive(dot)com.
