About
Systems forged with the same care as the work they support.
Forge & Ember Studios exists for creators, studios, and independent businesses who have outgrown templates and generic tools. We build platforms and systems the way craft is meant to be built: deliberately, patiently, and with a deep respect for the work they're supporting.
Born from real studios, not theory.
Forge & Ember didn't begin as a software company. It began inside real studios—spaces where light, leather, canvas, and client work come together in ways that don't fit neatly into off-the-shelf systems.
After wrestling with platforms that almost worked but never quite fit, the answer became clear: the systems needed to be forged around the way the work actually happened. Galleries, communication, bookings, delivery, inventory, follow-up— all of it shaped around the way a creator or studio truly operates.
Forge & Ember Studios is the result: a small, focused studio that builds custom tools and platforms to quietly power the businesses behind the craft.
What we actually build
- • Custom studio and business websites
- • Client portals and gallery systems
- • Dashboards and internal tools
- • Assistant-style systems like EmberPDA
- • Automations that understand your work
Every project starts with a specific workflow and set of constraints. The technology is chosen and shaped after that, not before.
How we think about tools.
The right system should feel like it was made for your hands alone. These principles guide everything we design and build.
Crafted, not configured
We don't ask you to bend your work around a template. We start with your process and build the structure to match it, one deliberate decision at a time.
Quietly powerful
The best tools don't shout for attention. They sit in the background, solid and reliable, letting your craft and your client experience stay in the foreground.
Built to last
We design with the assumption that your studio will grow and change. Your systems should be able to evolve with you, not trap you in what worked last year.
From first spark to finished system.
Every engagement is different, but the rhythm is similar: understand the work, design the structure, then forge the right tool for it.
01 — Understand the work
We start with conversations, not features. How do you actually work today? Where does friction live? What needs to feel easier—for you and for your clients?
02 — Shape the system
We map out the structure: what needs to exist, what needs to talk to what, and how it all comes together into a single, coherent experience—for both you and your clients.
03 — Forge & refine
We build in focused passes, checking in along the way. Screens, flows, and automations are adjusted until they feel intuitive and grounded in your day-to-day reality.
04 — Launch with support
Launch isn't a handoff and vanish. We stay close as you move real work and real clients through the system, making adjustments so it feels like it was always meant to be there.
Some projects are focused websites. Others are deeper systems: client portals, internal dashboards, or assistants like EmberPDA. In every case, the goal is the same—to give you tools that feel like they were forged specifically for you.
Have a system you'd like to forge?
Whether you're refining an existing studio or building something new, we can help shape the tools that support it. Tell us where your work is headed, and we'll explore what needs to be built to get you there.