Like Minds
Amy Pastre and Courtney Rowson build new worlds through SDCO Partners
By Kathryn Davé
Amy Pastre and Courtney Rowson are still sitting beside each other. The creative directors and co-founders of SDCO Partners, a nationally-renowned design studio based in Charleston, South Carolina, first began working from the same desk out of practicality. Fifteen years later, their willingness to continue sharing close quarters says more about their philosophy. The duo has turned their studio into the creative force behind some of the country’s most interesting brands, from Reese Witherspoon’s lifestyle label Draper James to the Cali-cool olive oil producer Brightland.
Pastre and Rowson are the rare business partners who come to collaboration with a common expertise—design—rather than complementary ones. In the early 2000s, they were both working as graphic designers and had been friends in Charleston’s tight-knit creative community for a few years. “There was a lot of synergy in the way we like to work,” says Rowson. “We are very simpatico, and we were at a similar point in our careers in wanting more.” Pastre and Rowson launched their creative studio as Stitch Design Co. in 2009. Their commitment to curiosity, openness, and imagination quickly showed up in the rich, layered brand work they created and began to set Stitch apart.
Amy Pastre (left) and Courtney Rowson (right) are longtime friends and collaborators, as well as the founders of SDCO Partners, a nationally-renowned design studio; portraits by peter frank edwards.
The 17-person firm’s growth has been slow, yet deliberate, adding like minds to the team over time and eventually adopting a new name—SDCO Partners—that captures the collaborative spirit Pastre and Rowson prize. Rather than competing with each other, they sharpen each other. The impossible creative ego is famous for being the price of brilliance, but it doesn’t appear to have a seat at the table in their studio. Everyone else does. And they do mean everyone. Pastre and Rowson expect everyone to shape the ideas in process, from non-creative employees to the clients themselves.
A selection of SDCO’s thoughtful branding and interior design work includes first light books (1), Gardiner House (2), and West Tenth (3, 4); courtesy of SDCO Partners.
“Neither of us has a personality where we need to look at an idea and say ‘it’s mine.’ It’s our studio’s and that’s how we see it,” explains Pastre. “A big part of working here is being open to working that way—and seeing that when you have multiple viewpoints, it can create solutions that have more depth and interest because we all see things differently.” Whether you call it perspective or point of view, vision is a cornerstone of their approach. Drawing inspiration from unlikely sources, SDCO connects the dots to expand possibilities.
SDCO Partners created the identity and store design for the men’s clothing brand T.D. McMurry; courtesy of SDCO Partners.
In their own words, SDCO aims to “find new ways of seeing.” Maybe that sounds lofty for helping businesses brand and market themselves. But when you experience a brand that SDCO has touched—and experience is exactly the right verb, because SDCO designs it to unfold that way—you will feel something different. You will sense a story that started before you arrived. You might find the mundane interrupted by delight. “Our hope is that there’s some sort of enlightenment for the user . . . . that we can help them see a place differently, or experience something differently. The goal is to transform and transcend design,” Rowson says.
SDCO braids story, strategy, and design to build brand experiences that feel like worlds of their own. In practice, that has looked like everything from crafting beautiful logos to curating the interior environments of restaurants and hotels. Known for branding, SDCO has helped launch or elevate hundreds of small businesses across the South, such as Rewined Candles, First Light Books, Post House Inn, and Smithey Ironware. They were early to understand the significance of a brand’s digital expression as part of its identity.
The resulting thoughtful, nuanced work has earned the firm national accolades and attention over the years, along with an impressive roster of clients—and they’ve done it all from Charleston. “The South values a story . . . . And the South is always about multiple things at once,” muses Pastre. “That is very much the way we approach our projects, too.” V
For more about SDCO Partners, go to sdcopartners.com.
This story appears in our Winter 2025 issue.
