A design firm working across architecture, interiors, brand, and product to create experiences that feel unmistakably grounded in their place and purpose.
We combine design intuition with emerging forms of digital and physical intelligence to explore further, resolve ideas earlier, and bring greater clarity to the path from concept to reality.
work.
about.
FRAYM works at the edge of what design is becoming.
We uncover new possibilities and shorten the distance between ideation and construction, connecting human judgment with new forms of intelligence to create work that could not have been conceived, or realized, in quite the same way before.
mike mcelderry
aia, leed ap bd+c
founder / creative director
Mike McElderry is the founder and creative director of FRAYM, an interdisciplinary practice working across the expanding field of design.
Before founding FRAYM, Mike was a managing director and design executive within several of the world’s leading multidisciplinary studios, including Henning Larsen, Perkins&Will, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He has spent his career translating ambitious ideas across creative, technical, financial, and physical realities. He also served on the Perkins&Will Research Board, advancing experimentation within design practice.
At FRAYM, Mike is redefining creative practice for the age of intelligence. His field is the continuum connecting architecture, environments, products, identity, digital systems, and physical production. Artificial intelligence allows FRAYM to explore more directions, resolve complexity earlier, and connect specialized knowledge without the layers and overhead of a conventional firm.
The result is a more direct form of consultation and creation, one that can move from a precise strategic intervention to the conception and realization of an entirely new world. For Mike, greater ambition should not require greater friction; intelligence should make design more imaginative, more exacting, and more efficient.
perspectives.
“Mike has a rare ability to look beyond the problem in front of him, connect ideas and disciplines, and see the larger forces shaping the work.”
Tim Wolfe / Principal, Firmwide Interior Design Director, Perkins&Will
“An alchemist of sorts… transforming complex ideas into the reality of built form and places.”
Andrew Cleary / Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)
“Mike makes everyone around him better. He is creative, strategic, kind, and exceptionally good at navigating complexity.”
Lindsey Peckinpaugh / President, Perkins&Will
contact.
+1 (646) 288-2811