placehold.

a young new york based design practice led by
Amanda Sarantos and Samantha Ong.

us

We’re dedicated to thoughtful investigations with an emphasis on visual representation and idea articulation. With backgrounds in architecture and research, we create work to tell stories and instigate thought about our urban surroundings. Invested in the process from start to finish, we specialize in team-based environments.

we have some time, skills, and love for good work.

you have an idea?

together we can:
take nice photos, fabricate things, laugh, develop a branding system, organize a creative team, art direct a campaign, make a cute infographic, tell a good story, etc.

Now that we’ve got your attention, here’s a little bit about us.

We’re two designers, (average combined height of 5’1”) and we’ve been told that we laugh at the same frequency.

Amanda Sarantos

Amanda is a designer and is currently working on events at Nickelodeon. On Fridays, she goes to Salsa class, but I think this is a lie because she switched to Wednesday classes? Hm. Sounds misleading.

Samantha Ong

Samantha is an architectural designer and is currently freelancing in too many places. She can teach you how to swim, but she hasn’t renewed her teaching licenses in awhile - so would it be illegal? Hm. Sounds suspicious.

Here’s some highlights of our work, our lives, and the overlap:

December 2019

A makes it off the island and we celebrate by cutting paper with our friends.

Look at the mess we made.

November 2019

The book S has been working on, Transient Spaces, finally launches.

The book is published by the Spitzer School of Architecture. Read more about it here.

October 2019

S stops by our favorite book store and finds our first publication appearance in unbag magazine Issue No. 4: In Tension.
If you’re curious, too - take a look.

August 2019

We were feeling kind of lonely, kind of slow, decided to start an online newsletter talking about whatever.
Sign up to receive monthly JANKSPACE updates.

July 2019

Making some use of this studio space, debuted with HOMA studio’s ceramics catalog and their new logo.

March 2019

We host “Warm Studio, Warm Hearts” in celebration of launching our mini-portrait studio.
You can find everyone’s face here.

February 2019

We became the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s Public Access Design Fellows.

Summer 2018

We spend some time at the Rendezvous Dream House.
(and S goes to Indonesia for six months.)

June 2018

We graduate! (yay)
The two of us hold expensive pieces of cardstock now.

2017

S+A enter a bunch of competitions.

We didn’t win anything but, we had a good time.

For the losing entry on the left: This Stacks Vertically

For the losing entry on the right: Ai Goes to C

Summer 2016

We go to Europe together. Looking like hot messes.

Fall 2015

we found each other!

woo thank you for dropping by

Architecture

Narratives

Editorial Design

Art Direction

Photography

Graphic / Identity