How it started
In 2019, Zoe Lowres was deep in a large interior design project - manually updating product specs, vendor details, and pricing across multiple Excel spreadsheets. Every time a client changed their mind about a sofa or a supplier adjusted lead times, she was back in the spreadsheet, re-entering data, re-sending files, and hoping nobody was working from an outdated version.
Traviss Orr watched this play out and saw the same problem repeated across every design studio they knew: talented people spending hours on admin that had nothing to do with design. Together with Claudio Oyarce, who had spent years running Denfair, Australia's largest trade show for architects and designers, they set out to build the tool the industry was missing.
Programa launched during lockdown in 2020. What started as a way to replace spreadsheet chaos became a complete platform for running a design practice - from specifications and procurement to client approvals and studio management. Today, thousands of studios around the world use Programa to spend less time on admin and more time doing what they're actually good at: designing.
