Marco Suarez is the co-founder and creative director of Methodical, a coffee roaster, and multi-location café business based in Greenville, South Carolina. Methodical is known for its high-quality coffee products and its adaptation to selling coffee beans and products online as changing consumer habits and pandemic constraints created business opportunities.

Marco is also a versatile product designer with extensive experience as both a consultant and a team leader in major companies. Since 2019, he’s run his consulting practice, shaping visual language and user experience across companies like Facebook, Toast, and Bookshop.org. Previously, Suarez was a Staff Product Designer at Etsy, where he spearheaded the development of design systems, enhancing user flows and creating cohesive branding across digital and offline spaces. His leadership on design systems continued at InVision, where he implemented frameworks for consistency, accessibility, and quality in design processes.

From this lecture I really understood that the most important thing for the designer is to consider various options at every moment. This will allow me as a designer to find an ideal solution even when I encounter a very weird situation, just like when Marco sold coffee through the internet during COVID. — Jang Won Lee

From Marco’s lecture, I really appreciated the challenge of how he balanced consistency with flexibility, while the most rewarding aspect was witnessing how a well-crafted design system can streamline processes and enhance user experiences. — Sooyoung Yang (Class of 2026)