MORE THAN DESIGN,
NOT JUST CONSULTING
An interview with Great Monday partners
Josh Levine and Audrey Kallander
by Amos Klausner
Sit down with Josh Levine and Audrey Kallander and you’ll immediately feel the contagious energy they’re known for, and you’ll see why they came together in the first place. It’s a working relationship that immediately clicks and it must be something about that chemistry that enables them to do what they do. Being with them is, well, great.
Josh told me that the idea for Great Monday hit them pretty quickly. “Audrey and I were having a drink after work and we agreed that companies are struggling to figure out what’s next, grappling to find the next sustainable competitive advantage, and making every effort to communicate the value they’ll bring with honesty and punch. We realized that we have a unique way of approaching strategy and communications and we have the business experience to help.”
Before their paths crossed in San Francisco, Josh and Audrey started in very different places. Audrey earned a Philosophy degree from the University of Rochester, and eventually found her way west to help establish Pottery Barn Kids. After completing a degree in graphic design she helped innovation firm IDEO design strategic presentations and environments for global brands like Pepsi and Marriott. Armed with that experience, she joined up with executive agency Stone Yamashita Partners to facilitate user experience workshops for Nike, Target, and Johnson & Johnson.
If Audrey found design along the way, Josh knew his destiny from the start. His first degree was a BS in Engineering Psychology from Tufts University—a course of study that concentrated on the design of human and machine interaction. He went on to earn a BFA in Graphic Design and worked at renowned identity firms such as Landor, and VSA before joining the San Francisco brand consultancy Neutron. As creative director and brand coach at Neutron, Josh was able to bring his full set of skills to bare, leading workshops and brand programs for clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Herman Miller.
Behind their combined experience is a right-brain approach to solving left-brain problems with a focus on culture.
So how does that help their clients? Josh put it this way, “We’re helping business’ get traction again. It’s good that companies are customer-focused, but today that’s just the ante. To make a difference, a company’s brand strategy not only has to demonstrate the unique value they bring, but put the tools to understand that value in the customers’ hands and then let them decide.” That’s where culture comes in.
“We create brand-progams that enable companies to communicate with the highest-fidelity. You have to trust that people will understand they’re being given an option, and the choice is theirs to make. Regardless of the decision, you’ll gain their trust—it’s anti-advertising. As a business, your job is to know yourself and communicate that as authentically as you can.” Josh said, adding that, “In the end that’s what Great Monday is about.”
Audrey and Josh see their job as simple, but far from easy: help clients envision, build, and realize culture-driven brand programs so customers can make the best decisions.