qqq Fifteen years ago, Costa and Veronica started Gabriel Saunders from Costa's front room with a shared vision: to bring tactility and feeling to architectural visualisation. As part of our GS15 celebrations, the team submitted questions for Costa and Veronica to answer in an interview with each other. Today, we're sharing insights from that conversation about our journey and the values that continue to drive us forward.
“Do you think the industry has evolved?”
Costa: What I've seen is growth in two areas: the celebration and importance of interior designers. When we started, interior design was secondary to architecture. Now I think it's possibly more celebrated than architecture. And the growth of landscape architecture - it's absolutely not secondary anymore. The landscape team are also vital to these meetings, their opinion and design thinking is equally as strong as everyone else's.
Veronica: When we began the company I was concerned about the lack of tactility and feeling in visualisations that were in the Australian market at this time. They felt instructional. Now visualizations are an excellent opportunity for interior design teams to see how amazing their work can be. We have worked really hard to devise a similar workflow to align with photographers whose expertise and collaboration elevates our final visualization quality.
“How have you grown as individuals and as business partners over these 15 years?”
Costa: II don't think I'm at all the same person I was 15 years ago when we started. I was purely fueled by intense anxiety, barely sleeping, working all the time. Creating our personal values was a massive, transformative moment for us, it helped frame what was important, what to focus on and what mattered. I just feel this immense safety now.
Veronica: Our values were a massive eye opener. It put things in place that we were a combined vision that everyone that's part of the company could relate to. And took the emotion out of such a personal thing - having a company. There's something unique about our business relationship - that whole yin and yang thing. We can pick each other up, but there's also security and support having a business partner to go through life with as well. Someone that believes in you - like I believe in Costa.
Costa: Studio culture is critical. That's the number one thing that all businesses globally struggle with. Can businesses get lots of work? Yes. Can they make profits? Yes. How long do they last? It's driven by the culture. For you and I, this is about the long game. We've always had the long game in mind.
“You have both reflected on the last 15 years - what's in store for the next 15 years?"
Costa: The industry has had some interesting years, yet there are many exciting areas of visualisation. We have always had a long-term vision and surround ourselves with talented thinkers in our studio, and also align ourselves with clients that have a vision too. It's refreshing to have clients that trust, value and know we have the best vision for their projects. The relationships we have with our clients are invaluable.
Veronica: We're looking at expanding our creative platform beyond visualisation. There are so many ways to celebrate how spaces can be experienced. Having this incredible team and the industry relationships we've built gives us the foundation to explore those possibilities.
“Do you have any go-to tricks or rituals that help recharge your creative batteries?”
Both: Travel. Costa calls it "the ultimate shortcut to creativity" - we get to step away and reframe/recharge. We also laugh a lot together and find the silly in the very serious or stressful.
Costa: Mindfulness and exercise are so important for me.
Veronica: Breathing, and being near water. Alone time is important for recharging too.
“What was the lowest point/challenging time you've ever faced business-wise, and how did you get over it?"
Veronica: Probably the lowest was in the early days working out the disparity in our roles. Costa would be on the computers until 3 in the morning, and I would be navigating the rollercoaster of life at that time. We had to realise that we are both very different and keep our expectations of each other open and constantly communicate and most of all let each other make mistakes and grow.
Costa: had no idea what I was doing in the beginning. I genuinely thought we were going to make money in the first year - how naive! I had this completely stupid approach where I was like "if I do 6 hours, and you do 4 hours, we both need to do 6 hours." It was complete bullshit. What I've learned is that each person offers value in a very different way. Some contributions are measurable on a spreadsheet, some are not - and both are equally important.
“If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice on the day the company started, what would it be?"
Costa: I wouldn't tell myself anything, because if I told myself something I wouldn't have learned it. I think you have to experience life to learn. Maybe I could tell myself "Costa, relax. Everything's gonna be fine." But then maybe that wouldn't have given me that absolute grit to power through.
Veronica: I learned from you about 5 years in, when you were like "it's okay to make mistakes. You are allowed to make mistakes. I will still care for you." Now I'm kind of at the other end where I'm like, let's make heaps of mistakes. Mistakes are amazing. To be uncomfortable means the world's telling me something.
I remember a meeting where you were having anxiety about our work, and I rang and said "It's not worth it. Your health is more important to me." I called the meeting and pulled out, and yes, the client was disappointed, but I wasn't because you are more important than this whole thing. I think we still live by this - it's important that our team that has grown knows that our health - mental and physical - is important and to take stock every now and then.
Fifteen years in, what stands out most is how the fundamentals haven't changed. Gabriel Saunders remains focused on what actually matters: relationships, values, and culture. The growth has been immense - not just in scale, but in understanding that sustainable success comes from looking after your team, thinking long-term, and never compromising on the work that defines you.
Here's to the next 15 years.