We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Monahan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.

Heather, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

I started my graphic design career within corporations in Los Angeles. It was good to start within a company and learn the ropes of working with clients and as a team player. It provided me the opportunity to learn how to problem solve diplomatically and work with many different personalities successfully. However, as I started receiving more freelance opportunities it became more and more apparent that the real opportunity, and the scary option, was to exit full time corporate settings and start freelancing. I started my company Cheeky Design to serve my freelance projects and ultimately went full time there.Through this jump my design work was allowed to find a very different path from corporate websites and marketing materials, one that became more focused on utilizing my fine arts background combined with my design background. Clients ranged from entertainment to academic to small business but all of them started seeing the illustrative and hand made quality within my work and requesting it specifically. I have worked with USC illustrating for their campus editorials. I illustrated a training website for UCLA’s medical department on equity and diversity. The Academy of Motion Pictures Museum commissioned me to create a design for the classic film Casablanca that is now sold in their store and featured on a lot of merchandise. I design custom film poster art for Secret Movie Club. It’s helped me hone in on a specific part of my design skills and really create a career in illustration and more fine arts related design work.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Heather Monahan and I am a Illustrator and Graphic Designer. I graduated with a BFA from UCLA, with a focus in Illustration, Painting, and Graphic Design. My work is strongly rooted within the shared space of art and design. I work both digitally and with pen, paint, and paper. My illustrations have made their way to projects ranging from film, editorials, academics, products, and merchandise. I am very proud of my works trajectory, starting with early poster designs for Secret Movie Club that then opened a door to work with the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum and clients like UCLA and USC. My brand and style has become more and more styled with a fine arts and hand made quality.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The more work I receive doing illustration, and highly stylized design, the more I realize my goal is to steer my ship towards the creative, what fuels me and what uniquely I have to offer to the field of design. There are a lot of us out here and it’s very easy to create what is in fashion. But, I’ve learned the bigger value, and the most growth I experience in my own work, is to continue to explore my own voice, listen to that beating within myself that urges me to seek the creative and not necessarily the monetary. That has driven me to more illustrative work, playing with lines and textures, and to step away from too clean and cookie cutter. Ironically, I feel like the world of design, with all of its AI tools and easy platforms for anyone to jump onto, creates a hunger for uniquely styled design, that feels human-made.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

You have to be resilient within the world of design. You start in this field having to create for others, paying your dues, and learning the lessons of how to be a team player, how to give a client what they want while still trying to stay true to your own work. You learn to survive the clients who you knew were red-flag clients going into it, and trusting your gut more, saying no more in order to have integrity with what you’re trying to create. I’ve had plenty of ill-matched experiences, where a client didn’t respect me as a designer and really just wanted me to be a tool for them to act like a designer. You do that a couple of times and you learn, nothing good comes from it. You always have to make sure your design, and you, are respected. The second you start feeling like a cog you need to step out. Always value what you are bringing to the table, your expertise.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cheekydesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheekydesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066921991674
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathermonahan/
• Other: https://academymuseumstore.org/search?type=product&q=cheeky+design