You're deciding whether to hand strangers your client relationships. So here are the names and faces.
A small senior studio of five, fully remote, working under other firms' brands and directly for homeowners and business owners. The one thing we can't be is anonymous.
How we got started
We're Michelle and Austin, we're married, and we started Astratto together in 2016.
Before that, I worked for an architect and an interior designer in Florida. We hardly ever met in person, because we did everything remotely. That's when it clicked: I could design for anyone, anywhere. I could be in Spain or traveling in Arizona and still be designing for clients.
I could also do something most designers couldn't yet: photorealistic 3D. Designers were dying for it.
We knew it worked when we built Austin's parents' home in 3D while it was still under construction, just the skeleton. Walking through the model, the two of us felt like little characters in a video game, inside a house we had built, only virtually. Like the Sims. That's when we said: yep, it's time to start this business and help homeowners, designers and architects. That's how Astratto was born.
We did everything remotely before it was even cool, back when it seemed weird and scary to everyone else. Not to us. By the time COVID came along, working remotely was old news for us.
But we saw something brewing. It works, it helps so many designers and architects, and that's what it has been about since the beginning.
Austin took on the business side, so I could stay on the design. That's still how we work: he runs the studio, I make sure every drawing and rendering is right.
Michelle Brewer
I still read every inquiry myself, and nothing goes out before I've had a good look at it. I have an interior design degree and a kitchen and bath certificate, because those are the rooms where a pretty plan falls apart fastest.
At school they weren't ready for 3D yet. They wanted everything drawn by hand. I said no thanks, took the lower grade, and taught myself 3D modeling and photorealistic rendering. Hardly anyone could do it back then.
I got ahead by asking "why do we do it this way?" a lot. It still works. These days I get to design for people all over the world, with every kind of taste, without leaving home.
We've never lost that habit. New ideas, new ways of working, so you never fall behind either. We're after the best design for you, not the one protocol calls for.
I'm who you talk to: a designer who has drawn the millwork, not an account manager.
The team
Five people. Michelle on design, Austin on the business. Breiner, Alejandro and Marioxy are the architects, and Marioxy is also Michelle’s design assistant.
Breiner has been here almost from the start, Alejandro and Marioxy five years or more. Everybody knows how the others draw.
It runs like a mom and pop shop, and that's a compliment.
Michelle Brewer
Co-founder and lead designer
Since 2016
Austin
Co-founder, runs the business side
Since 2016
Breiner
Architect
Almost from the beginning
Alejandro
Architect
Five years and counting
Marioxy
Architect, and interior design assistant
Five years and counting
Astratto
Italianadjectiveabstract
Why Astratto Design
Most people shorten it to Astratto, and so do we. We chose an Italian word for two reasons, and only one is high-minded.
The first one is just accurate.
Every project begins in somebody’s head: a feeling about a room, a color, a shape they can't draw. That's abstract in the literal sense. Turning it into a plan, a rendering and a priced list is the whole job.
Italian · adjectiveThe second one is less noble.
Italy has spent centuries teaching everyone that Italian design is the good version. We chose the word knowing what it borrows: the expensive choice that turns out to be the safe one.
Chosen, not inheritedWhich reads as vain. It is.
But the ambition is about what we hand over. We want it to be the thing people show off, the kitchen your friend photographs before she sits down. Braggable is a ridiculous word, and it's still the target.
Yes, we know how it soundsThe only house style is taste
Astratto is a look, not a style. Nothing leaves the studio without good taste in it.
Wabi sabi, Japandi, retro, modern, minimalism, maximalism. We can vibe with any of them, and combinations.
The trick isn't matching colors but complementing them.
Name yours. We'd rather find your version than sell you ours.
Pictures via Pinterest, from our board
How we think about AI
We use whatever tools produce the best result. What we don't do is hand you something no one has checked. A named human answers for every project.
Where we work
Everywhere. Fully remote since 2016, with clients across the US and a growing cluster in Texas.
White-label means white-label
Your client never sees our name. Across 60+ projects with one firm, we never contacted their end client. Read that case study →
Founded
2016
Remote from day one
Years of practice
10+
Interior and exterior
One firm, one run
60+
Projects delivered
Final review
1
Head designer, every project