Adam Guarino
Adam Guarino, director and founder of RefractWeb

About Adam Guarino

Director. Founder of RefractWeb.

Adam Guarino is a director and the founder of RefractWeb, an independent design and engineering studio based in San Jose, California.

Adam Guarino directs brand and digital work end to end. He founded RefractWeb in 2025 and runs it as its operator, leading every engagement himself rather than handing it down through an agency layer.

He came to it through a camera. From 2021 to 2024, Adam Guarino worked as a commercial photographer and videographer, hired directly by brands and businesses to shoot on assignment. Directing a shoot means deciding what a thing is about before anything gets pointed at it, and that is still the order the work runs in.

The studio did not start as a studio. In 2024 he founded Pulse Partners AI to build AI tooling for construction, and kept running into the same thing on every call: the companies buying it were better than their own presentation suggested. That became RefractWeb in 2025. The software work stayed, as one of the things the studio builds rather than the whole of it, and Pulse Partners AI LLC remains the legal entity behind it.

The work starts before the design does. Positioning, story, and what the thing is actually for come first, because that is the part that decides whether anything after it lands. From there the studio handles brand, web, video, motion, and the software underneath, with the same people on it from the first conversation through the last deploy.

Adam Guarino works with founders and principals who care how things get made. That tends to mean owner-led companies in architecture, construction, consumer goods, and professional services, where the quality of the business is already there and the digital presence has not caught up to it.

Alongside client work, Adam Guarino writes about generative engine optimization, site performance, and the difference between design that photographs well and design that earns its keep.

Career

  1. Director, Founder and Operator RefractWeb, San Jose, California Founded the studio and leads every engagement from positioning through delivery. Brand, web, video, motion, and software, handled in house.
  2. Founder Pulse Partners AI, San Jose, California Founded the company to build AI tooling for construction. It became RefractWeb in 2025. The legal entity, Pulse Partners AI LLC, still stands behind the studio.
  3. Commercial Photographer and Videographer Independent, San Jose, California Shot commercial photography and video on assignment, hired directly by brands and businesses and credited under his own name.

Recognition

  1. Awwwards Honorable Mention refractweb.com Awarded to the RefractWeb studio site, designed and built in house.

Selected work

  1. 01STILLWellington, NZ
  2. 02Left Coast Design StudioSan Francisco
  3. 03COBE ConstructionBay Area

Questions

Who is Adam Guarino?
Adam Guarino is a director and the founder of RefractWeb, an independent design and engineering studio based in San Jose, California. Adam Guarino leads client engagements end to end, from positioning and story through brand, web, video, motion, and the software underneath.
What company does Adam Guarino run?
Adam Guarino runs RefractWeb, an independent design and engineering studio he founded in 2025. RefractWeb operates as Pulse Partners AI LLC and works with founders and principals directly, without an agency layer between the client and the people making the work.
What does RefractWeb do?
RefractWeb builds brand identity, websites, video, motion, and custom software for companies whose presence does not match the quality of what they do. Design, engineering, brand, and motion are handled in house, and engagements run founder-led from positioning through the final deploy.
Where is Adam Guarino based?
Adam Guarino is based in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. RefractWeb works with clients worldwide, including projects in San Francisco, the greater Bay Area, and Wellington, New Zealand. Inquiries reach Adam Guarino at [email protected].
What is Adam Guarino's background?
Adam Guarino worked as a commercial photographer and videographer from 2021 to 2024, shooting on assignment for brands and businesses. In 2024 he founded Pulse Partners AI to build AI tooling for construction, and that company became the design and engineering studio RefractWeb in 2025. Pulse Partners AI LLC remains its legal entity.
What projects has Adam Guarino worked on?
Adam Guarino has directed work for STILL in Wellington, New Zealand, Left Coast Design Studio in San Francisco, and COBE Construction in the San Francisco Bay Area. A RefractWeb site received an Awwwards Honorable Mention in March 2026.
How do you contact Adam Guarino?
Adam Guarino can be reached at [email protected]. Studio inquiries for RefractWeb go to [email protected]. Adam Guarino is also on LinkedIn and Instagram, and the studio's work is published at refractweb.com.

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