Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Stanley & Rome Lima-Stanley
Hi Daniel & Rome, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Our design journey began shortly after we married when we both decided to pivot our careers towards our shared passion for art and design. This led us to the New York Institute of Art and Design, where Rome focused on interior design, and I, Daniel, specialized in landscape design. Rome’s vision was to create a comprehensive design service that would address our clients’ entire built environment.
While our creative skills flourished, we quickly realized that running a multi-disciplinary design studio required business acumen we hadn’t yet developed. Despite Rome’s background in business administration and economics, we faced a steep learning curve in managing our fledgling company.
Recognizing this challenge early on, we committed to ongoing education and professional coaching. This dedication to learning and growth has been instrumental in our success and continues to shape our business approach.
We officially launched our company in 2018, transitioning to full-time operations in 2020. Currently, we’re undergoing an exciting rebrand that will enable us to expand into new markets, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Rome was born and raised.
This expansion goes beyond geography. We’ve evolved into a true multi-disciplinary studio, offering a range of services from interior and landscape design to interior architectural design and full architectural landscape design. This comprehensive approach allows us to provide our clients with seamless project execution, regardless of scale.
Our journey from 2018 to now reflects our commitment to growth, both in our skills and our service offerings. We’re dedicated to creating cohesive, beautiful spaces that truly reflect our clients’ visions, and we’re excited about the future possibilities our expanded services will bring.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Entrepreneurship, in our experience, is indeed a roller coaster ride. We firmly believe that success hinges not just on skill, but on cultivating the right mindset to navigate the inevitable ups and downs. While the journey does become smoother over time, challenges remain a constant companion in running and growing a business.
Our path hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and we don’t expect it to be in the future. Early on, we encountered unexpected hurdles in aligning our visions for the business and our brand identity. This realization was somewhat surprising, but it led us to seek guidance from professional coaches who helped us refine our business strategy and craft a clear, cohesive message.
Agreeing on our core message was, fortunately, the easy part. We recognized a universal truth: everyone experiences stress, anxiety, and burnout to varying degrees in their daily lives – ourselves included. This insight sparked our mission to leverage our design expertise to reshape our clients’ built environments, creating spaces that offer support during moments of distress.
As Rome often points out, we spend 90% of our lives in our personal spaces. While these environments must meet basic needs like shelter, water, food, and rest, we believe they should go further – actively supporting and enhancing overall well-being. This philosophy crystallized into our company’s guiding principle: “Elevating your well-being through design.”
By intertwining our professional skills with a deep understanding of human needs, we’ve created a unique approach to design that goes beyond aesthetics to truly impact our clients’ quality of life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Avesso Studio stands at the forefront of innovative design, offering a multi-disciplinary approach that prioritizes our clients’ well-being through thoughtful transformation of both interior and exterior spaces.
We recognize that people spend 90% of their lives in personal environments. While these spaces must fulfill basic needs such as shelter, sustenance, and rest, we believe they should do much more. Our guiding principle, “Elevating your well-being through design,” reflects our commitment to creating environments that actively support and enhance the overall quality of life.
Our unique methodology places the client at the heart of the design process. We delve deep into understanding not just how clients interact with their spaces, but how they navigate their daily lives both inside and outside the home. This comprehensive approach allows us to identify sources of stress, anxiety, and burnout, informing design choices that directly address these challenges.
By gathering insights into our clients’ lifestyles and careers, we craft spaces that go beyond mere functionality or aesthetics. We implement design elements that support well-being and help regulate stress levels – whether it’s maximizing natural light exposure or creating outdoor sanctuaries for relaxation.
The recent global pandemic has underscored the critical importance of home environments in supporting mental and emotional health. This shift has amplified the need for spaces that not only shelter us but also nurture our well-being, allowing us to perform at our best in all aspects of life.
At Avesso Studio, we blend our professional expertise with a nuanced understanding of human needs. Our designs don’t just look good; they function as supportive ecosystems, actively contributing to our client’s overall well-being and life satisfaction.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Rome’s background is a captivating blend of creativity and analytical thinking, rooted in the vibrant culture of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His upbringing in this picturesque landscape served as an early source of inspiration, nurturing his innate creative spirit.
Growing up in a household that celebrated creativity, Rome was surrounded by artistic influences. His father’s passion for home design and remodeling, his mother’s talent in painting, and his grandmother’s expertise in fashion design all contributed to an environment where creativity was not just encouraged, but ingrained in daily life.
Music became Rome’s first creative outlet, with the guitar as his instrument of choice. His eclectic taste, spanning from grunge rock to house dance music, reflects his openness to diverse forms of artistic expression.
Parallel to his artistic inclinations, Rome’s family instilled in him a deep appreciation for education and analytical thinking. His father’s career in the Brazilian Stock Exchange and his mother’s legal profession emphasized the importance of a well-rounded intellect. This influence led Rome to pursue studies in economics and business, cultivating a growth mindset that continues to drive his personal and professional development.
This unique duality – the marriage of creative passion and analytical acumen – has become Rome’s signature strength. It’s this balanced perspective that has been instrumental in propelling Avesso Studio to its current success. Rome’s ability to blend artistic vision with business savvy creates a distinctive approach to design that is both innovative and pragmatic.
Rome’s journey from the inspiring landscapes of Rio to the helm of a thriving design studio showcases how a rich cultural background, combined with a commitment to continuous learning, can shape a truly exceptional professional path.
Daniel’s journey from a small town in Fort Worth, Texas, to becoming a co-founder of Avesso Studio is a testament to his diverse interests and unwavering curiosity. Encouraged by his family to pursue his passions wholeheartedly, Daniel embraced a wide array of experiences from an early age.
His childhood was characterized by an insatiable appetite for new challenges and experiences. From sports to art, design to horticulture, Daniel’s curiosity knew no bounds. This diverse range of interests would later prove instrumental in shaping his unique approach to design.
As he grew, Daniel found himself particularly drawn to sports and music. His dedication to percussion and involvement in numerous athletic pursuits showcased his ability to commit fully to his chosen activities. However, even as he excelled in these areas, his love for design and the outdoors continued to flourish.
In moments of quiet, Daniel would often retreat to the backyard, sketching redesigns of outdoor spaces. These paper drawings, later transformed into digital renderings, were more than just idle doodles – they were the early expressions of a budding designer. For Daniel, these creative exercises represented the liberating power of art, allowing him to transcend boundaries and bring imaginative concepts to life.
This passion for design initially led Daniel to the architecture program at Texas Tech University. However, he soon realized that his true calling lay in outdoor spaces. This epiphany guided him to complete his education at The New York Institute of Art and Design, where he honed his skills in landscape design.
Daniel’s journey illustrates how a breadth of experiences can converge into a focused passion. His background in sports, music, and various forms of design gives him a unique perspective in his work at Avesso Studio. It allows him to approach landscape design not just as an aesthetic exercise, but as a multisensory experience that can enhance people’s lives.
This rich tapestry of interests and experiences, combined with his formal education, enables Daniel to create outdoor spaces that are not only visually appealing but also functional and deeply connected to the natural environment. His work at Avesso Studio continues to be informed by the curiosity and creativity that have been hallmarks of his life since childhood.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.avessostudio.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/avesso_dallas
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/avessodallas
Image Credits
Garrett Mullin Photography
