Most people see the finished product. The photo. The unboxing. The reaction. What they don’t see is everything that happens before that moment.

Here’s what actually goes into a custom order at Studio 35.

It starts with the inquiry. Someone reaches out with an idea, sometimes it’s detailed, sometimes it’s just a vibe and a color. Either way the first step is understanding exactly what they need and making sure we can deliver it the right way.

Once the details are confirmed and the booking fee is paid, design begins. Every piece starts in Canva where the layout, colors, fonts, and photos come together into a proof. This part takes longer than people expect because getting it right matters more than getting it done fast.

The proof goes to the client for approval. This is where most of the back and forth happens — a name spelled differently, a color adjusted, a layout shifted. We don’t move to production until the client is fully happy with what they’re seeing.

Then production begins. Depending on the product that means printing on the Epson, cutting on the Cameo, engraving on the laser, or pressing transfers. Sometimes it’s all four in the same order.

Final assembly, quality check, packaging. Every order gets looked at before it goes out. Not just for accuracy but for how it feels to open it.

Then it ships or gets picked up and somewhere on the other end someone’s face does the thing that made all of it worth it.

That’s a custom order at Studio 35. Every single time.

Ready to start yours? Shop the studio or submit a custom inquiry through the contact form.

Graduation season has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute you’re watching them walk across the stage in your head and the next minute the ceremony is two weeks away and you still don’t have a gift.

Here’s the thing about graduation gifts. Most of them end up in a box. The generic ones, the cash stuffed in a card, the gift cards to stores they never go to. They’re appreciated in the moment and forgotten by fall.

The gifts that last are the ones that were made for that specific person. With their name on it. Their face on it. Their school colors, their year, their story.

Here are some of our most meaningful graduation pieces at Studio 35.

The Custom Graduation Gift Bag

Designed with their name, photo, and school. Not a plain bag wit tissue paper, a fully custom piece that becomes part of the gift itself.

The Graduation Keepsake Pillowcase

One side carries a custom diploma design with their name and school. The other side is a senior portrait collage. Something they will actually keep.

Custom Favor Sets

If you’re hosting a graduation party, custom favors make every guest feel like they were part of the moment. Chip bags, candy bars, gable boxes, all designed around your graduate.

Acrylic Keychains

Small, personal, and useful. A custom acrylic keychain with their name or photo goes everywhere with them after graduation day.

One of the first acrylic graduation plaques I made was for my own daughter. Watching her hold it in her cap and gown knowing I made that is exactly why this studio exists. Every parent deserves that feeling for their graduate.

The best time to order is at least two months before the ceremony. Custom works takes time and the closer you get to graduation season the more backed up makers become. Orders placed last minute are never as stress free as orders placed early.

If your graduate has a big moment coming, start here.

Every piece is made to order. No two are exactly alike.

When someone you loves dies, people bring food. They send flowers. They say the right things for a little while and then life moves on for everyone except you.

What stays is the stuff. The physical things that hold the memory of a person when your own memory starts to feel unreliable. A photo. A piece of jewelry. Something that was made specifically for them and exists nowhere else in the world.

That’s what a memorial keepsake is. Not a decoration. Not a sympathy gift. A physical anchor for a grief that doesn’t have anywhere else to go.

At Studio 35 we make memorial pieces because we understand that need personally. Custom photo charms you can carry with you. Engraved keepsakes made to last. Pieces designed around the person, their name, their image, their story.

There is no right time to order a memorial keepsake. Some people order them immediately. Some wait years. Both are right. Grief doesn’t have a timeline and neither does honoring someone you loved.

If you’re looking for something made specifically for the person you lost, not something pulled off a shelf, that’s what we do.

Every piece we make for a memorial order gets the same care we would want for our own.

Some businesses start with a business plan. Studio 35 started with grief.

In 2024 I lost my brother Jamal Doaty at 35 years old. He was a light in every room he walked into and his absence left a silence that I didn’t know how to fill. So I made things. I designed and cut and printed and built until the silence had something in it again.

The name Studio 35 is for him. The 35 in our logo sits over the D in STUDIO as a quiet nod to his last name. Most people will never notice it. That’s ok. It’s not for most people. It’s for me and for him and for every person who has ever made something beautiful out of something painful.

This studio exists to make pieces that hold the weight of real moments. Graduations. Weddings. Memorials. Birthdays. The moments that matter so much you want something physical to prove they happened.

Every order that comes through Studio 35 gets the same intention behind it. Not because it’s good business. Because Jamal deserved that kind of care and so does every person we make something for.

That’s why Studio 35 exists.

If you found us because you’re looking for something meaningful, you’re in the right place.