THE GOOD LIFE
ST YL E
Monika Nessbach
The owner of designbar creates vibrant, edgy commercial spaces with international flair
“MY STYLE IS FUNKY,” says Monika Nessbach, owner of designbar, the commercial interior design firm behind Dilworth Tasting Room, The Vintage Whiskey & Cigar Bar, and several Cantina 1511 locations. “It’s fun, young, and modern—we don’t do a lot of traditional design.” In a city that teems with interior designers who specialize in classic Southern homes, Nessbach is a rarity. A native of the Cologne area in Germany, she says her European roots and extensive travel—she’s been to more than 50 countries—have a big influence on her style. “When I first started, urban design wasn’t quite on the Charlotte scene yet,” she says. “There weren’t a lot of commercial designers out there; it was usually handled by architects, so I think there was a need for a commercial designer.” While residential design emphasizes comfort and personalization of a client’s living space, commercial design focuses on telling the story of the brand to diners, customers, and guests. The choices are bolder, bigger, riskier. Nessbach has incorporated a 70-foot mural of a dragon into her design of a sushi bar and a client’s own tire tread patterns into the flooring of their corporate headquarters. She’s done and seen a
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CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // SEPTEMBER 2021
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“I’ll listen to anything to keep my mind engaged.”
lot, and her history of crossing borders finds its way into the spaces where she works. Design wasn’t her first career, though. Nessbach worked for one year as a flight attendant for Lufthansa before she came to the U.S. in 1999 to pursue her MBA at Pfeiffer University. What was supposed to be “just a bit of foreign experience” led to an internship with Continental Tire, a German auto supply company with North American headquarters in Charlotte. Continental offered Nessbach a full-time job before she graduated, and she worked in various marketing and managerial positions for the next 14 years. She loved living in Charlotte, but she never found a passion for the corporate world. Nessbach, who speaks four languages, always had an interest in design and began taking classes at night, but “it took me a few years to figure out if this is what I wanted to do,” she says. She participated in a designer showhouse through the Symphony Guild of Charlotte to gain some experience, and the CEO of Continental Tire happened to be there and saw her
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RUSTY WILLIAMS
BY TAYLOR BOWLER
