Mohamad
Fardous
"Everything I do comes back to one idea — do good, give without expectation, and it comes back. That's not a slogan. It's how I've built everything."
A philosophy of transparency.
Applied to finance.
Before the art, before the agency—Mohamad was the finance guy. Today, he operates as an independent mortgage broker sponsored by West Capital Lending — with access to 170+ lenders and zero loyalty to any of them.
The instinct that drives everything else he does — take care of people, be straight with them, don't put your interests before theirs — runs the mortgage practice. No bait-and-switch. No product quotas. No overhead requiring you to overpay for the rate you get.
If another lender has the best deal for your situation, he'll tell you. If he can beat it, he will. The goal isn't to close every loan — it's to close the right ones, the right way, with people who walk away feeling like they got exactly what they were promised.
That approach is why the referrals keep coming. People trust him with their finances because the intention behind the work is obvious.
The numbers guy
who painted in secret.
Most people who've worked with Mohamad in finance have no idea he's an artist. Most people who've collected his art have no idea he spent years as a Director of Finance at one of the largest mortgage companies in the country. That gap — the number-cruncher with paint on his hands — is where the whole story begins.
Art started as a private thing. Late nights after long corporate days, a creative outlet with no audience and no agenda. He'd give pieces away to friends and family, and when they'd try to pay him, his answer was always the same: "If you really want to support me, donate to a charity instead."
That instinct — give before you take, create with intention, let good come back around — didn't just shape an art career. It became the name of an entire ecosystem. Karma by Design. House of Karma. Studio Escrow. Every business he's built carries that same philosophy in its DNA.
Today Mohamad runs four interconnected ventures from Detroit and operates nationally. Over the lifetime of Karma by Design—and we're still new—upwards of $60,000 has been made in charitable contributions. Not because it's a marketing strategy, but because that's simply how he's always operated.
"Karma representing the good energy that comes from giving without expectation. By design symbolizing that everything we create has intention and purpose behind it."
The word karma appears in every business Mohamad has built — not by accident, but by conviction. He believes the way you treat people, the way you build, the way you give, comes back to you. Not always immediately. Not always in the form you expect. But it comes back.
In a world of transactional business, that philosophy is a differentiator. Clients feel it. Artists feel it. Borrowers feel it. It's why referrals drive the practice — people trust someone who's operating from a place of genuine intention.
From the corporate world
to everything else.
The corporate life he left behind
Before Karma by Design, before House of Karma, before any of it — Mohamad was the finance guy. A Director of Finance at one of the largest mortgage companies in the country, wearing a suit, running numbers, building a career that looked from the outside like the definition of stability.
The art was a secret. Late-night work, kept mostly to himself, given away freely to the people around him. When it started reaching strangers online — people who didn't know him, asking for custom pieces — something shifted.
He left the six-figure job. Took everything he'd learned about finance, marketing, and systems, and applied it to something he actually loved.
The hardest four months
The transition wasn't smooth. He'll be the first to tell you that. He went from a paycheck and a team to doing everything himself — the marketing, the packaging, the production, the shipping — while trying to still be an artist through it all.
Then came the diagnosis: severe carpal tunnel in both hands. Surgery on both. For an artist, losing the use of your hands isn't just a physical setback — it's an existential one. Four months away from creating, completely. Trusting that it would come back when he healed. Testing everything — patience, faith, the belief that the right move had been made.
It did come back. And every challenge in that period pushed him to build smarter — to create systems, to scale with intention, to think about what this thing could become beyond just him creating pieces alone.
The ecosystem he built
The corporate finance background didn't disappear — it came back as infrastructure. The same discipline that ran mortgage operations became the engine behind Karma by Design's e-commerce platform, marketing system, and community of artists.
Today Karma by Design hosts over 700 curated artworks, provides access to an influencer network with 3M+ monthly impressions to help market brands, and functions as a platform for artists beyond just Mohamad — giving other creators the tools, the reach, and the structure to turn passion into a living.
The corporate world also never fully let go. The mortgage advisory practice — now operating as an independent broker backed by West Capital Lending's 170+ lender network — runs alongside everything else. Two worlds that most people would never put together, unified by the same operating principle: do the work right, take care of people, and it comes back.
A timeline of building.
Corporate Ascent
Director of Finance at a major mortgage company. The suit, the numbers, the stability. Building a deep understanding of financial systems and high-level operations that would later become the foundation for everything else.
The Secret Studio
Painting late at night as a creative outlet. Giving art away to friends and family, and asking them to donate to charity instead of paying him. The earliest seeds of the 'Karma by Design' philosophy.
Leaving Security
Walking away from the six-figure corporate world to pursue art and entrepreneurship full-time. Taking the systems knowledge from finance and applying it to creativity and brand building.
Forced Stillness
Diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel resulting in surgery on both hands. Four months of forced stillness away from painting, leading to a new strategic vision for how to scale beyond just his own two hands.
The Ecosystem Forms
Launching House of Karma for brand strategy, and re-entering the mortgage space on his own terms as an independent broker with West Capital Lending. Building a multi-disciplinary network.
Platform for Change
Scaling Studio Escrow for CRM automation and expanding the Karma by Design platform to empower emerging artists to make a living while giving back to the community.
Art with a purpose.
Not just something to hang.
Karma by Design isn't a gallery. It's not a shop. It's a platform — one that uses art as a vehicle for meaning, connection, and charitable impact.
Every piece tells a story. Every sale moves something forward. A portion of every purchase goes to charitable causes and community programs — not as an afterthought, but as the founding principle of why any of this exists.
More than just a gallery, Karma by Design is evolving into a platform for change. We actively encourage other artists to join the platform, giving creators who have the talent—but perhaps not the infrastructure—the tools to market, sell, and scale their work while making a positive impact.
The same systems built for Karma by Design are being extended outward to empower the creative community. That's what Art with a Purpose means at scale.
Giving isn't a strategy.
It's just how this works.
Before Karma by Design was a brand, before it had a name or a business plan, it had a rule: if someone wanted to pay Mohamad for a piece, he'd redirect them to donate to a charity instead. That instinct predates everything.
The charitable giving embedded in every part of this ecosystem isn't a marketing tactic or a tax strategy. It's the original intention — the thing that was true before there was anything to gain from it being true.
Every sale on karmaxdesign.com contributes to charitable causes and community programs. Art events are structured around giving. A portion of exhibit proceeds go directly to organizations doing meaningful work.
Mohamad believes — and has built his entire life around the idea — that when you operate from a place of genuine generosity, it comes back. Not always the way you expect. But it comes back. The word karma is in the name of everything he does for a reason.
The story, in his own words.
Meet Mohamad Fardous of Karma by Design
"Karma by Design started pretty unintentionally. I was just creating art for fun — painting and making pieces for friends and family, never thinking it would turn into a business. I'd tell people, 'If you really want to support me, donate to a charity instead.' That mindset of giving before gaining kind of shaped everything that came after."
"A lot of people — even some of my closest friends and family — were shocked to find out I do art. For most of my life, I was known as the business and finance guy. No one ever pictured me covered in paint instead of wearing a suit."
Read the full interviewEverything he's built.
One philosophy behind all of it.
Whether it's a mortgage,
a piece of art, or just
a conversation —
The door's open. Reach out about a loan, a brand project, a commission, or just to say hello. Good people tend to find each other.