Made in Austin

It’s getting pretty hard to find a product that’s truly local. Most of the clothes you find in larger chain stores are made in China, Mexico, or Bangladesh. While it might seem cheaper to import clothes, food, or even furniture, you can be sure that the ways companies are cutting costs will add up somewhere else, be it in carbon footprint, paying workers below a living wage, or shoddy workmanship. At OES, we are proud to use local materials and native plants in our Austin-based fabrication and design studio. We have skilled craftsmen on our team who understand that high end design results in a high end product. We never cut corners when building your fence, furniture, deck, or steel planters. We take the time to get it right and make every job we’re working on our priority.

Matt and I have culled an intelligent team to bring our designs to fruition. We want to keep the members of our build team around as long as possible, so you won’t be seeing day labor brought in to rush through any aspect of your project, who may or may not have experience in the types of design strategies we implement. That means you are paying for experience and confidence. We know our finished product is going to shock you with how much your yard has transformed, but be exactly what you expected because of our design renderings.

In addition to having strong fabrication skills, we as designers are present through every step of the project. Matt and I work on your design together, bouncing ideas off one another like we did while in college at the University of Texas at Austin. We truly enjoy working together and respect the other’s design intuitions. Once we present our ideas and you, the client, give us the go-ahead, we don’t merely hand off our documents to some contractor, hoping that they would make the same aesthetic or functional choices if a question arises during the installation. I am on site frequently, confirming that the vegetative and soft-scape elements are coming along as anticipated and documenting each project on our OES social media pages. I personally pick out plants and place them on site (and that is why there are so few pictures of me in each project album). Matt and Damon design in the office and verify the design on site with our project managers: Shawn and Grant.

You can rest assured that our materials are sourced with a sensitivity to proximity as well as durability. We collaborate with other local studios, purchase materials from Austin-based small businesses, and source our seeds and plants from central Texas growers. That means you won’t find annuals or exotic plants from big chain hardware stores in our projects. We also use the healthiest soils as well as cleanest mulches and aggregates from suppliers closest to each project.