what was DREAMT

on S. BROOK STREET

In 2017, I launched into my career as a fresh college grad at my first full-time design job in Louisville, Kentucky. Meanwhile, despite living the post-grad dream, my heart was pulling me from this path toward a move across the globe to a place deeply rooted in my heart: Athens, Greece.

As I climbed winding stairs and unloaded boxes into my downtown studio apartment on South Brook Street, my dreams began taking a clearer shape. Laying down my first armful of belongings, I knew that this was my opportunity and my space to dream up the business that would carry me across continents and toward the vision stirring in my heart. My modest studio apartment became the inspiration for South Book Studio, a name I scribbled on paper that day and still keep with me now.

A short five months later, I would pack up those same boxes and move to Greece. On my journey there, during a few days’ layover, I launched South Brook Studio at a small café in Dublin, Ireland. For the first time, the dream and the studio became real.

The years since have been a wild adventure, transitioning into another culture and living alongside some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. Alongside running South Brook Studio, I have spent these years living as a caretaker in a safehouse for trafficking survivors and working with displaced individuals and refugee families from the Middle East. The biggest change of all was meeting and marrying the love of my life: my Persian prince, Shamal. Life has been, and continues to be, a tension of the unedited, messy realities of this work, balanced with the edited, composed aesthetics of design; both so respectively meaningful to me.

So now, three years since launching this studio and transitioning to an entirely new life, I have returned to my central dream with renewed clarity and enthusiasm. My desire is to pursue what has hinged together my humanitarian passions and love of design for longer than I had realized: a dedication to crafting refined design for the bold, the purposeful, the modern pioneer. Welcome to South Brook Studio.

​

Claire Mahrefat

SINCE 2014

co-workers turned bffs

turned biz partners

say HEY

to YOUR TEAM

CLAIRE MAHREFAT > founder + designer

Claire is the lead designer and founder of South Brook Studio. She brings eight years of design experience, with three of those years working in the studio alongside over sixty clients to help them achieve their goals with design. She is passionate about how design can be used to evoke emotion, tell a story, and amplify a voice that needs to be heard by the world. A native of the States, she currently lives in an apartment near the sea in Athens, Greece with her husband Shamal, who is from Iran. Work aside, you will find them traveling, exploring new cultures, or trying new recipes together.

ALLISON ANTRAM > copywriter

Allison is a writer and wordsmith who leads communication with creativity, intentionality, and understanding. Her heart is to leverage the power of language to promote empathy and cultivate beauty. Writing aside, she is a journalism nerd and coffee connoisseur, who loves all things cozy and sparking up conversations with strangers. She relishes little delights like wildflower bouquets and eating breakfast with friends. While her roots are in Northeast Ohio, she currently resides in downtown Lexington, Kentucky where she holds down the studio stateside.

STUDIO INSPIRATIONS

Although we could stare at beautiful graphics for days, we draw a lot of inspiration for our work from other disciplines of art and design, as well as everyday objects, feelings, and scenery. Keeping inspiration in the forefront of our attention is a high value of ours, as it keeps us freshly inspired and is an organic way to share the textures, tastes, textiles, moments, views, and objects that inspire our studio's design aesthetic with our clients and potential clients. So, enjoy our inspo finds for the moment, but check back in after a few months to see what is inspiring us in each season!