We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rudy Manning a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rudy, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I didn’t set out to build a mission-driven agency. I set out to build a good one—thoughtful, creative, intentional. An agency rooted in design excellence, not ego. A place where work mattered. And along the way, it became clear: the work that meant the most was the work that helped people.

Today, Pastilla is a purpose-driven creative agency grounded in the belief that design and strategy can elevate communities. That belief didn’t come from a textbook—it came from lived experience, both personal and professional.

In 2015, we took on our first public sector project with the Pasadena Public Health Department. It was a modest HIV awareness campaign, but it was a turning point. We realized that applying high-level creative thinking to government and nonprofit initiatives could do more than generate good design—it could generate real impact. That’s when our mission began to take shape.

Since then, Pastilla has grown into a trusted partner for cities, transit agencies, health departments, clean energy providers, libraries, and community-based nonprofits. Our work has touched everything from emergency communications and homelessness outreach to climate education and mental health campaigns. Time and time again, we’ve seen how the right creative strategy—grounded in empathy, clarity, and authenticity—can connect people to vital resources, services, and each other.

But our mission took on an even deeper meaning after the Eaton Fires.

In the span of a few hours, my family lost everything. Our home in Altadena was destroyed, along with years of memories—photos, keepsakes, drawings from our kids, hard drives full of creative work. In those first few days, everything felt overwhelming. But what stood out wasn’t the devastation. What stayed with me was how people showed up.

Neighbors. City workers. Emergency crews. Quiet helpers behind the scenes. The kind of people who hold communities together, often without recognition. I had worked alongside people like this for years—but now I was experiencing their impact in a very personal way.

That moment didn’t just reaffirm our mission. It made it personal.

At Pastilla, we often say our job is to help public agencies and nonprofits do their best work—and to be seen for it. Public service is hard. It’s often underfunded, thankless, and constantly shifting. But it’s essential. These are the people rebuilding infrastructure, fighting wildfires, keeping buses running, supporting foster youth, and literally keeping the lights on.

These are the people we choose to serve.

Designing for the public sector means understanding the complexity of civic systems. It means translating policy into public-facing campaigns that are clear, accessible, and emotionally resonant. It means working with clients who are accountable not to shareholders, but to entire communities—many of them marginalized, underserved, or in crisis.

That level of responsibility matters to us. We’re not here to make things “look good.” We’re here to solve real problems. To build trust. To increase understanding. To create a connection.

I’m proud of the work we’ve done—from Clean Power Alliance to LA Recs & Parks, from the City of Pasadena to the Sacramento Public Library. I’m proud of our partnerships with nonprofits like Black Girls Code, California CASA, and Art Division. And I’m incredibly proud of our team—creative professionals who could easily chase shinier titles in private tech, but instead choose to build work that serves the public good.

At Pastilla, our mission isn’t a tagline. It’s a filter. It shapes who we work with, how we show up, and why we say yes to one project and no to another. It’s why we build multi-disciplinary teams that blend branding, strategy, content, and campaign execution—not just to win awards, but to move communities forward.

When people ask what sets us apart, I usually say this: we care about outcomes. Not just for our clients, but for the people they serve. Because we’re those people too. We ride the trains. We rely on clean water. We want our kids to grow up in communities that are safe, vibrant, and equitable.

That’s the “why” behind our mission.
It’s not about being the loudest voice in the room.
It’s about being the most useful one.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For those who don’t know me yet, my name is Rudy Manning. I’m the founder and president of Pastilla, a creative agency based in Southern California—specifically Pasadena and Altadena—where we specialize in helping mission-driven organizations tell their story, connect with communities, and make real impact through branding, campaigns, and digital strategy.

But that’s the short version.

The longer version is more personal—and in many ways, more important to who we are.

I grew up in a creative household, raised by Latin American parents who taught me how to work with my hands and build things with intention. That upbringing gave me a lifelong appreciation for craft and detail, which ultimately led me to design. I went to ArtCenter College of Design, and from the beginning, I was obsessed not just with making things look good, but with making them work for people.

Early in my career, I worked across a lot of industries: entertainment, luxury, and tech. But I always felt a disconnect between the work I was doing and the world I wanted to help shape. That all changed in 2015 when Pastilla landed its first civic project.

That was the beginning of a shift. Over time, we leaned harder into the public sector than the nonprofit world. Today, nearly all of Pastilla’s work focuses on community and public impact. We help cities, agencies, and nonprofits build brands, launch campaigns, and connect with people in powerful, meaningful ways.

Our services span brand strategy, identity design, campaign development, public awareness work, digital platforms, and content production. But really, what we do is help clients bridge the gap between their mission and the communities they serve.

We’ve worked with organizations like the City of LA, LA Metro, Clean Power Alliance, Santa Clara Valley Water, the City of Pasadena, the Sacramento Public Library, Black Girls Code, and countless others. Sometimes we’re designing a campaign to change behavior or shift public opinion. Sometimes we’re helping to translate complex government initiatives into everyday language. Sometimes we’re simply giving under-recognized organizations the brand presence they deserve.

What sets us apart is that we treat public sector and nonprofit work with the same creative rigor that private companies apply to product launches or ad campaigns. Too often, government communication gets boxed into bureaucracy. We believe it deserves better—more empathy, more clarity, more intention.

Our approach blends design excellence, data-driven strategy, and a deep understanding of people. We think about how messages land across different languages, communities, and cultural contexts. We work closely with clients who often have limited time and even more limited resources. And we care about outcomes. Not just deliverables—but real-world impact. Because that’s the point.

I think what also makes us different is our why. For me, this work became deeply personal after the Eaton Fires in 2025. My family lost our home in Altadena—and with it, years of memories, artwork, photos, and creative archives. But in the aftermath, what struck me most wasn’t the destruction. It was how people showed up.

City workers, emergency responders, quiet helpers—folks who do the hard, unglamorous work of holding communities together. That experience didn’t just reaffirm our mission at Pastilla—it cemented it. I saw, in real time, the power of public servants and the systems they maintain. And I committed even more deeply to using design as a tool to support them.

Today, Pastilla is a team of 30 and growing. We’re now a mostly virtual agency with team members based across the United States, while the majority of our staff remains rooted in Los Angeles, California. We’re targeting long-term partnerships with public agencies and continuing to focus our work across California, while also expanding into other states—bringing the same level of creative rigor and strategic thinking to communities and organizations that can benefit from it.

Outside of work, I’m a father of two young kids and two adult children, and husband to a commercial & film director, and someone who thinks a lot about creativity at all levels. I care deeply about people. I believe in mentorship, in showing up for others, and in creating things that make life better—whether that’s through a brand identity, a public service announcement, or creating better user experiences of digital platforms build for communities.

If there’s one thing I want potential clients and partners to know, it’s this: We don’t take your mission lightly. At Pastilla, we believe in amplifying good work. In helping the helpers. In making the invisible visible. And in building something that lasts—not just creatively, but humanly.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Absolutely. When I graduated from design school, I wanted to work at a place where I could do creative, exciting work—but I also knew I needed some breathing room to grow on my own terms. About a year and a half into my first full-time job, I started getting requests for side projects. Even though I was working full-time, I didn’t say no. I ended up working nights and weekends, and surprisingly, I loved it.

What drew me in was the ability to manage my own clients directly—hearing their challenges firsthand, understanding their goals, pitching ideas myself, and guiding the creative process from start to finish. That kind of direct connection and ownership was something I couldn’t get in a traditional job, and it fueled my desire to keep building something of my own.

For the next six or seven years, I continued working on the side while holding full-time roles. For about three of those years, I freelanced full-time, which gave me the flexibility to grow my network, explore different types of work, and continue developing my own style and business approach.

Eventually, one of the companies I was freelancing for told me that if I ever went out on my own, they’d be interested in hiring me as a vendor. That became my first major client. It was a pivotal moment—one that gave me the confidence to take the leap, go all in, and formally start my own agency.

From that point forward, I made a clear decision: no more in-house freelance roles. I’d only take on work where I could run the project from my own studio or as a direct partner to the client. That choice gave me the clarity and control I needed to grow the business on my own terms.

That side hustle is now Pastilla, a full-service creative & digital agency with a team of 30 and growing—serving mission-driven clients across California and beyond.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

One of the biggest factors that helped me build my reputation early on was a combination of deep passion for design and strong intuition when it came to working with clients. I wasn’t just focused on doing great creative work—I was equally focused on listening, building trust, and truly understanding what my clients needed.

From the beginning, I approached every project with a sense of collaboration and clarity. Clients felt heard. They saw that I wasn’t bringing ego into the room—I was bringing intention. My proposals were thoughtful, my scopes were clear, and everything I delivered was rooted in helping them reach their goals through design.

That foundation of trust—paired with high-quality work—helped me not only land projects, but build lasting relationships. Clients felt confident recommending me to others because they knew I would show up with authenticity, follow through on my word, and take pride in what we created together.

Over time, that consistency became the reputation: someone who does great work, listens deeply, and is easy to collaborate with. And in this industry, that combination goes a long way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pastilla.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rudymvnning/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmanning/