Hi there, we're We Beasties
We Beasties is the design and illustration studio of Silvia Amtmann and Tony Santos, who have four degrees, six career changes, and more than 40 years of experience in design and visual arts between them.
Based in Seattle, the studio’s work is eclectic and multidisciplinary, employing traditional materials, digital technology, and everything in between. We Beasties also brings cheeky humor, bright colors, and the ironic self-awareness of elderly millennials to everything we do.
Check out our latest stickers and prints at store.webeasties.com or follow @webeasties on Instagram or BlueSky to find our which of Seattle’s many craft markets we’ll be vendoring next. You can also take a small-group workshop, take some Design Lessons, or just learn more about how to do design yourself at Not Just Pretty Pictures where we're teaching anyone who wants to learn how to do design.
Interested in custom work? Reach out at workwithus@webeasties.com to commission your next logo, poster, or illustration.
Two people, one cat
Silvia Amtmann
Born in Europe and raised in the USA, Silvia has spent the last twenty years playing at the intersection of technology, design, and cognition. She grew up drawing at the kitchen table with her artist-designer father, then planned to follow the career of her psychometrician mother. Eventually she simply split the difference with a Master’s in human-computer interaction. After a stint designing enterprise software at companies like T-Mobile and Optimizely, she moved into design management at mission-driven organizations like REI and the Mayo Clinic. Now she’s back to illustration and has added print making to her growing list of creative pursuits.
Tony Santos
Tony has been working as a designer since 1999 when he started his first web design company, Flying Monkey Web Design, with a few friends and started being the local "neighbor kids who could build your business a website." Tony is a multi-media designer and educator.Since then he's: dropped out of a Computer Science degree program, graduated with a BFA in Advertising & Graphic Design from the Columbus College of Art & Design, a MS in Human Centered Design and Engineering from the University of Washington, been a design lead at T-Mobile and Microsoft, run design teams at Mozilla and Apple, worked at a bunch of startups and scaleups, and taught design at San Francisco State University. Beyond beng a "lead" or manager, Tony has worked extensively as a Design Engineer and Interactive Art Director (which are sorta the same thing, just a decade and a half apart) focusing on helping non-tech minded folks understand tech and tech minded folks understand design.
Pancake
Pancake is the Chief Nap Officer of We Beasties. While she has no formal design training, she has very strong opinions about pretty much everything. She is often found helping out in meetings by walking in front of the camera to make sure the auto-focus still works, rearranging Tony's desk when he's put too many things near her napping box, and modeling good boundaries and self care by reminding us to take breaks so we have the energy to zoom up and down the stairs at least twice a day.