Questions, answered.

Unusual Assembly is a Los Angeles tech studio that builds apps and platforms for arts and creative organizations: music and art education nonprofits, artist residencies, studios, galleries, independent music venues, artist teams, fashion brands, and independent artists. We build native apps for iPhone, Android and Mac, plus web platforms, on one secure backend.

It depends on how many platforms and roles you need, so we don't publish a price list. Every project starts with a short paid discovery that ends in a written scope, a fixed price and a launch date. The build is then paid in milestone payments tied to real progress, with an exit clause, so you only pay for milestones reached. After launch, an optional monthly care plan covers hosting, updates and small changes.

Plan on about three months from signing the contract to full implementation. That includes discovery, design, development, testing, staff onboarding and training, and launch. Your team sees working software early and reviews progress with us every week, so onboarding is part of the build rather than something added at the end.

Yes. We're based in Los Angeles and work remotely with organizations anywhere in the US. Discovery, weekly check-ins and staff training all happen online, with an in-person visit around launch when it helps.

You do. Apps are published under your organization's own Apple and Google developer accounts, and your organization owns its data and can export or delete it at any time. We keep the right to show the project in our portfolio, and we walk you through the account setup. Read more about our data privacy approach.

Usually we don't need to. We build around the systems you already rely on, like your ticketing provider or Stripe, and link to them instead of replacing them. When a project does handle payments, that part gets its own security review before any real money moves.

For programs that serve minors, access rules are enforced on the server, not just in the app. Each role (student, family, teacher, admin) sees only what it should, sign-up is by invitation only, and families only see their own student's work.

Yes. We work in English and Spanish, and can build bilingual apps for your community.

Yes, carefully. We work with AI coding agents under strict human review and automated tests, and no personal data is ever supplied to those agents. This lets a small studio ship in weeks instead of months without cutting corners on quality or privacy. See our full privacy commitments.

Email [email protected] and tell us about your organization and what your staff does by hand today. We'll reply with questions first, then a first take on scope.