Matt Schmunk
Matt’s dad was a theater professor, whose focus was stagecraft. Needless to say, Matt pretty handily won most every Halloween costume contest as a kid growing up. In his formative years, he was encouraged to always say “please” and “thank you”, and to exercise his imagination, curiosity and creativity on a daily basis—habits he continues to practice to this day.
Matt’s super power, if you call it that, is his unique ability to turn chaos into calm—something that’s served him well over his 20+ years in the design industry. He tends to come up with the best ideas when balanced between two rolling wheels, and therefore tries to spend as much time in that position as possible.
With a career spanning industrial design, environmental, event, retail, branding, advertising and more for brands like Disney, Nike, LEGO, Adidas and Li-Ning, Matt’s designed everything from theme-park attractions to shoes. Heck, he’s even designed a parade float or two which he’ll be happy to tell you about over the beverage of your choice.
Before forming Monster Robot, Matt applied his unique multi-disciplinary experience and approach working in the agency world for 9+ years for multiple brands like Gatorade, Danone, Pepsi and more across numerous consumer touch points. That’s also the place where the Jay and Matt story began.
Jay Ostby
Pacific Northwest born and raised, on the slopes of Mt. Baker is where he spent most of his days.
At the intersection of Art, Fashion, Sport, and Technology is where Jay thrives as a designer.
At the age of 5, Jay’s family purchased a neighborhood grocery store that was originally founded in 1895. Watching as the store grew over the decades, Jay developed a distinct perspective on product, packaging, environments, branding and business. So many years spent at the store gave Jay an intimate view into the evolution of countless consumer brands.
Before forming Monster Robot, Jay spent 9 years leading the Industrial Design department at Seattle based agency Tether. Jay was responsible for helping to create the ID vision for Gatorade, Pepsi, Tatcha beauty, Bulletproof, Teavana and many more.
With a unique focus on Industrial Design for brand and an expert sense of “design for manufacturing”, Jay creates unique and own-able designs with a hyper focus on producing real world goods.
Jay is a passionate collector. 80s toys, polaroid cameras, neon signs, arcade cabinets, the list goes on and on, as does the need for more space in the basement.
