Custom Designed Tiles

Material Culture · Los Angeles

A Family Name Cast in Concrete: Touring Arto Brick

The name isn't an acronym. It isn't a brand strategy. It's a father's first name — a man born in Alexandria, Egypt, whose family survived the Armenian Genocide before finding their way to Venice, California by way of Beirut, Houston, New York, and British Columbia. Arto Alajian delivered milk in the mornings and studied aircraft mechanics at night. He met a woman who painted murals, noticed the clay brick veneer framing her work, and started selling it on his milk route. Then he started making it. Then he started a company.

That company is Arto Brick — now run by his sons Armen and Mutter — and I recently had the chance to tour their production facility. What I found was an operation with real depth: concrete and clay tile made to order, with a level of customization that matters to architects working on one-of-a-kind projects.

Armen Alajian on the founding of Arto Brick — a family story worth hearing

Custom Work, From the Mold Up

The factory tour made clear what the website can only suggest: Arto is genuinely set up for custom work. Not custom colorway selection from a swatch book, but custom geometry — 2D surface patterns and 3D relief tiles produced to your specifications. Seeing the process in person is essential. There are real constraints around draft angles, minimum relief depth, and edge conditions that only become apparent when you're standing in the production space watching a form get pressed.

For a project where the tile is the ornament — where pattern and surface carry the architectural idea — that conversation with the fabricator has to happen early. The constraints are the design opportunity. I'm looking forward to working with Arto to develop a repeating field pattern for an upcoming project; the kind of thing that can only come from this kind of shop.

Arto Brick Compass pattern, Early Gray concrete tile

Compass — Early Gray / concrete relief tile

Arto Brick Compton pattern, Natural Gray concrete tile

Compton — Natural Gray / concrete relief tile

Arto Brick Compass pattern 18, Natural Gray concrete tile

Compass No. 18 — Natural Gray / concrete relief tile

"It's for our dad's name. It's our personal why."
— Armen Alajian, Arto Brick

There's something worth noting about a material company whose founding story runs through the Armenian Genocide, the shoe factories of Alexandria, the nightlife of Beirut, and a milk route in Venice. That history is in the name on every tile. When ornament carries that kind of weight, it's not decoration — it's identity cast in concrete.

American Artisan Tiles · Making Concrete Tiles · Making Concrete Furniture

ARCHITECTOID