Notes from the studio.

Alike is the design and experience studio of Graham “Guramji” Slick, founded in Portland, Oregon in 2026. We design products, lead design teams, shape user experiences and make physical spaces that bring people together: the screens people use and the rooms they remember.

Graham spent thirteen years as a creative director, UX designer and product designer at agencies in New York and Portland, and since 2019 has led sound ceremonies as Aloka. Alike is where those two careers meet: design led by presence, connected to the heart.

This journal is where we think out loud. Expect notes on the work, the people and places behind it, and the ideas we keep coming back to.

Alike is Aloka with two letters changed: an i for the o, and an e for the a. Aloka is the sound bath practice Graham founded in 2019, and the studio grew out of the same way of working, so the name keeps the family resemblance.

It also names an idea. Whatever we are designing, the people on the other side of it want the same things we do: to be welcomed, to be understood, to feel at home. We're all alike. Good design starts there.

The waving cat on our pages is a maneki-neko, the beckoning cat that sits by the door of shops and restaurants across Japan, raised paw inviting people in. Ours waves hello at the top of the homepage and again at the bottom, which is exactly where a greeting belongs.

We chose it because it says what we want every project to say: come in, you're welcome here. Good design is a kind of hospitality, and the cat is our reminder to make the first moment a warm one.