I only knew a fragment of Damien Tavella. The design part. But even that small glimpse reshaped how I see creativity, balance and what it means to care deeply about your craft. His influence reached further than I understood at the time and it’s still unfolding.
Damo was a Melbourne-based designer and creative director, best known as the founder of Projektmono. What began as a design studio grew into something larger: a platform, a reference point and for many, a compass in the world of design. Through the @projektmono account¹, he built a following of over 170,000 people, sharing work that championed craft, clarity and conviction.
Massimo Vignelli
His own work spoke that language fluently. Bold type, tight grids, limited palettes. It was stripped back but deliberate; minimal but not sterile. There was influence from the ’90s, from studios like The Designers Republic and from the branding of football clubs he admired. You could sense the resistance too, a fear of what minimalism was becoming and a quiet protest against trend for trend’s sake.
Before Projektmono, Damien had built his career from the ground up. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a creative director. He was generous, calm and empathetic. He listened as much as he spoke and if you knew Damo, you knew he loved to speak. He gave his time freely and shared his thinking openly. I can’t count the number of times a quick chat turned into a 90-minute phone call. It was common practice with Damo.
In a discipline often obsessed with the new, he believed in process, in idea over ornament. Though he would train in the evolving new techniques in design, he held fast to the fundamentals. He understood how to distil a design idea down, why detail matters and how to present with conviction (Presenting is a design skill - Damo taught me this).
He helped build brands across sectors, from hospitality to large corporates. He worked through changes in tools and platforms, through the decline of print and the rise of digital, from the inaccessible aesthetics of computer graphics to the limitless capabilities of sleek MacBooks and their pocketable counterparts. Styles came and went, he stayed grounded. His eye remained relevant not by chasing trends but by stepping back and trusting in the fundamentals.