Today we’d like to introduce you to Petre Spassov Avo Adourian.
Hi Petre and Avo, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We, (Petre Spassov and Avo Adourian) met in the summer of 2014 at a coworking space called Batch in downtown Santa Ana. Batch was a vibrant hub of creative energy, where cross-pollination between designers, developers, and illustrators was commonplace. We both came out of the design program at Cal State Fullerton and worked in-house and at agencies for a few years before launching our own practices. We are both of Eastern European descent and immigrated to the U.S. as children, and as luck would have it, our design sensibilities of clean and minimal type and modernism aligned well.
For about five years we worked independently, occasionally collaborating when projects called for extra hands. A few years in we started talks together with another colleague about the idea of forming an agency to take on larger projects. As talks were intensifying, so was the rainfall in Southern California, which caused the ceiling to collapse in the office of our century-old building. This sudden jolt focused our efforts, and we found a space of our own down the street and decided to take the leap.
Over the next year we slowly dipped our toes in running a three-person studio while maintaining our independent practices. We gained some traction and landed our first branding project with the Capital Group, only to be derailed soon after by the COVID shutdown. Remote work and market uncertainty slowed our momentum, though we used the downtime to build our foundation: website, case studies, decks, and brand materials.
As restrictions eased, we secured our first retainer client, Omaha Productions, led by Peyton Manning, which felt like our reentry into a more “normal” pace of work.
In the summer of 2023, our third partner decided to pursue a different career path, leaving us to rethink what Reform’s next chapter would look like. We decided to look for a new space and use the opportunity as a fresh start. We landed in historic downtown Orange, where we have been ever since.
That change turned out to be the spark we needed. One project led to another, and we began working with a broader range of clients, locally, nationally, and internationally.
And that brings us to today.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As our project load grew, delegation became essential. But as hands-on designers, our first instinct is to jump in and do the work ourselves. Learning to step back and give our team the space to create has been a learning curve for both of us, but we’ve made steady progress—and we’re so grateful for our team of talented, patient, and gracious individuals.
When it comes to our partnership, the bigger challenge wasn’t creative alignment—it was more process-related. We’ve always been open to critique for the betterment of the work. The harder part was merging habits: mundane things like how we organize files, project management, and present work without stepping on each other’s toes.
We’ve been impressed with Reform Studio, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are is an independent design studio based in California. We create meaningful brands and websites for good people. Our approach to design and strategy centers on genuine conversations between people, filled with honest opinions, lots of listening, learning and trust.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
At our core, we’re fairly risk-averse — that being said, taking the leap to start a studio, and choosing to scale it, has been the biggest leap we’ve ever taken. It wasn’t easy to step away from established individual practices and go all in on a joint venture. But we quickly realized that to give Reform its best shot, we couldn’t keep one foot in both worlds.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://helloreform.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/helloreform
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/helloreform
Image Credits
Photography: Nicole Caldwell
