We had the good fortune of connecting with Nikki McDonald and Sarah Elly and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nikki and Sarah, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
After a few years of working together at different companies, Sarah and I joined forces to create a creative space + agency that felt it reflected who we were as designers. While we are not re-inventing the wheel, we wanted to have an agency that we could run on our own terms that works one on one with cool clients.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We both share a passion for beautiful design and with 10 years of experience, we learned how to create successful brands. From CPG products to large Pop-ups, we like to explore how design can be interacted on all scales. We are excited to continue to work with brands who appreciate the importance of design and the work that we do.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is quite the city to explore. Sarah and I are both westside girls so love a day exploring Venice Beach. We would recommend Gjusta grocer for delicious bites + even yummier packaging inspo. A go-to meeting spot for us to catch up and review rounds of designs would be at our favorite coffee shop, Alana’s Coffee on Venice blvd. We highly recommend the matcha latte with oat milk + the iced vanilla oat latte. To end the night, we head over to el chucho for a pet nat and some creative juice.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are a lot of reasons Sarah and I are the designers we are today. Hello Sunshine + Cravings are large reasons for our success in the design world. They are amazing companies that allowed us the chance to design together and create the amazing working environment that we have together today.

Website: https://www.workwithtastebuds.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tastebudscreative/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tastebuds-creative/?viewAsMember=true

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.