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PRESS RELEASE · FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GARDENA, Calif. · ARTO, the Los Angeles manufacturer of handcrafted ceramic and concrete hard surfaces since 1966, today announced two new collections designed in collaboration with Gensler, the global design and architecture firm. Nabat brings new glazed brick designs into commercial, hospitality, workplace, and education spaces, while Appri weaves a whimsical tale in handcrafted concrete. Boutique Design New York (BDNY) 2026 (Booth #147) will serve as the setting for the public premiere of these two latest additions to the handcrafted legacy of ARTO.
How It Started
Since 1966, ARTO built its reputation on Spanish and Mediterranean designs for luxury residential spaces across Southern California, with materials often called out on real estate listings as a marker of craft and value. Although the company has long delivered commercial projects as well, in recent years leadership treated commercial design as a deliberate next chapter, actively investing in tools, resources, and a refreshed environmental documentation package aimed at supporting industry-leading architecture and design firms specifying specialty materials for their projects.
When Gensler published GPS 2.0, the framework clarified what Gensler wanted from suppliers. ARTO oriented its sustainability work to that system and reached market differentiator status across its product categories. That clarity also opened a different kind of conversation.
Aaron Dugas, ARTO’s Vice President of Sales, knew Gensler had collaborated on product design before and saw a path for ARTO to evolve deeper into Gensler offices nationwide. He reached out to Helle Hodjat in Gensler’s Los Angeles office, a longtime ARTO supporter, and simply asked whether a collaboration was possible.
“Helle was nice enough to reply with an introduction to Daniel Stromborg and open the door for this collaboration. After my first meeting with Daniel, I knew this was going to be a fun project. Our first meeting felt more like hanging out with a childhood friend than a business meeting. I felt the click immediately, and off we went.”
Why a Maker
The collaboration pairs Gensler’s design authorship with a U.S. factory that still crafts surfaces by hand.
“ARTO remains made in the USA since 1966,” Dugas said. “Our raw materials are almost completely sourced in the Southwestern United States. That gives specifiers and owners peace of mind on availability when a project hits construction, and on property maintenance needs for future generations. Stability in the materials, plus our artisans, combine to create what I call a Willy Wonka style factory of hard surfaces.”
In Dugas’s framing, ARTO’s product catalogue serves less like a closed SKU list and more like a museum of shapes crafted for previous projects. Standard shapes are made to order in a wide range of colors and textures, so designers can specify ARTO across endless projects without repeating the same surface. Beyond made-to-order standards, ARTO runs a true custom bench: Pantone-matched colors for corporate and education needs, or entirely new shapes when a designer arrives with an idea that does not yet exist in the physical world.
“Designers can reach out to ARTO with any inspiration and collaborate to manifest their vision into reality,” Dugas said. “We handcraft what designers can see in their mind, but cannot yet physically touch.”
What Designers Should Walk Away Believing
The working ambition for the program is not a single hero product. It is a reliable place to design from.
“We collaborated on this program to deliver a designer resource that we hope feels like a designer’s sanctuary,” Dugas said. “The ability to pursue almost any vision without having to think about checking all the boxes. We have done the work to answer designer obligations before they even ask: sustainability documentation, including market differentiator status with GPS 2.0, line drawings of all shapes that integrate into design software, domestic supply free from tariff and global sourcing headaches, and beyond. We want to take those distractions away so designers can focus on their craft, in a refuge where they can shed the noise and return to the passion that pulled them into the profession in the first place.”
“What our team enjoyed most about collaborating with ARTO was a shared appreciation for craft and a willingness to experiment,” said Daniel Stromborg, Product Development Design Director at Gensler. “Our collaboration brings Gensler’s design perspective together with ARTO’s storied history and their team’s knowledge of tiles. Together, we’re exploring how traditional techniques combined with contemporary design ideas can open new possibilities for the spaces we design next.”
Nabat
Nabat is the first collection launched by ARTO with Gensler collaborating as product design consultant. Named after the hard candy that originated in Persia and is still popular today throughout Central Asia, the sweet treat is made by boiling sugar syrup and allowing large crystals to form during the cooling process, often captured on a stick or string and paired with tea.
Nabat the glazed brick has a similar construct. Reactive glazes are fired at a porcelain-level temperature to melt the glazes on the brick surface. As the glazes cool and crystallize, unique patterns are formed on the brick surface, with each brick telling its own story never to be duplicated. All of these materials and processes are achieved domestically in the Southwestern United States. Premiering at BDNY 2026 in 24 colors across 2"x8"x5/8" thin brick, 2"x8" thin brick corners, and 4"x8"x4" full brick, Nabat can be utilized for interior, exterior, and structural surfaces.
Crystalline Inspiration: High-fired reactive glazes cool and crystallize across the clay body much like traditional Persian nabat sugar crystals.
Architectural Scale & Surface Depth: Nabat Cypress 2"x8" thin brick installed in a full-height hospitality wall (left) and up close showing porcelain-fired reactive glaze movement (right).
Appri
Appri was inspired by the French word Apprivoiser (ap-pree-vwa-zay). The literal translation means to tame, and is specifically used to describe the process of building mutual trust until the animal no longer fears the human and a bond is formed. Colors are named after animals and shapes are named after the spaces they inhabit. Each combination of color and shape paints a scene in the mind’s eye that embraces the whimsical nature of Appri.
This collection tames the wild medium of concrete as only ARTO can achieve. A departure from ARTO’s typical Rustic Elegance, Appri offers controlled 1/8" grout lines, greater color consistency through factory pre-sealing, and two distinct surface textures: Lisse (smooth) and Tonte (sandblasted). According to ARTO’s Vice President of Sales Aaron Dugas, “Daniel and his team at Gensler saw our concrete from a fresh perspective due to their unique and diverse design background. The result is an abundant selection of new colors, textures, and modular shapes with high customization capability. We believe we have achieved the goal of any collaboration, which is a fresh and exciting offering that could only come to fruition through that unique design collaboration.”
Availability: Through ARTO’s dealer network and direct commercial channels. Samples, line drawings, and environmental documentation are available via arto.com/pages/downloads and ARTO sales.
Media Contact: Aaron Dugas, Vice President of Sales · aaron@arto.com · 310-768-8500
ARTO · Gardena Factory: 15209 S Broadway, Gardena, CA 90248 · Tucson Facility: 3430 E 36th St, Tucson, AZ 85713 · 310.768.8500 · Back to Blog & Media
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