To Be Designed. We mix art, design and science to craft future stories.

We help people and businesses speculate on their future.. Or their future futures, it’s strategies and to actually build their dreams. We cross borders. We cross industries. We make participatory design fiction, creative futurology, storytelling or whatever it takes to make our work a work of art. We imagine things. We create stuff. We mix naive ideas with science. We test, prototype and develop as we go. We work on the small. We love the simple. We aim for what’s right. We make mobility work, or simply move us humans forward. We work on the really big. We’re very comfortable with drastic change. We like efficient. We want effective. We’re visual and tangible. We evoke emotion. We make you feel. We make you believe.

This is what design is for.

To do all that.

And only all of that. 

We are designers. We question a lot. We question our clients. We question status quo. We question design. We’re not rude. We just do design and we do it well. We prioritise function over form but let form lead function on. We begin in the future and work our way back. Yes, we are a super tiny team with many friends. We know it takes all of us to do all of that. We’re only missing you.

  • The first step to knowing is to know that you don’t know. Maybe that’s when you call us. The next is to figure out what it is you want to know. Finding the right question is half the battle.

  • Designers need open and curious speculative minds. Understanding more let’s us do better faster. We like triangulation, a mix media method of quant, qual, spiral curriculum, Hermeneutics and tests. We explore through a series of hypothesis to find the right aim.

  • When we know where to aim we can formulate what to do, what to solve for and how. Depending on the nature of the question we bring the question to it’s point through storytelling, visions, conceptual approaches or solutions in writing and imagery. We all need to see where we’re heading.

  • This is where it happens. We inflict change. That dream shifts to reality..and that is the whole point. This is why we asked the questions, this is why we did our research. For us, taking all that into tangible, actionable things we can touch, hear, see or sense is where we get our reward. Some just love the strategy..we love to make it happen. We design all the things yet to be to get where we wanted to end up. Sometimes through collaboration with makers, architects and other studios. Whatever way, whatever style, whatever time they require to be right.

  • Oh, the things we put into the world. Wether it’s a brand, a business, product or idea we nurture and care for it to live longer, to fit tomorrow as well as future quests. The beauty of making things intended for the wild is that they become part of that wilderness. Like everything it needs to evolve. We design with this in mind and plan to stick around to set it up for the continued success of everything we make. This does not make us rich but it has made us friends and let’s us sleep well at night.

What we do.

Visions
Design Strategy

We work in the the intersection of brand, business, products + services, experiences and people to achieve long-term relationships. We use mixed methods to create tangible and actionable end states and a plan for how to get there.

RESEARCH

Great design eats research for breakfast. And we love breakfast. Interviews, observations, reports, speculations, future futures, trends, data..we do it all. We need this both to know what opportunity to solve for and to form an opinion on how to do it.


PURPOSE AND VALUES

Finding your place in the world and the foundations that sustain it matters for all of our actions and decisions. We help identify and make them clear and useful.


BUSINESS AND BRAND VISION

Setting the right aim for the future and making it clear for everyone to see is where many great businesses find their greatest obstacles. We give you tools to decide on the direction and everything you need to communicate it.


POP UP’S
CO-CREATION LAB
SPECULATIVE WORKSHOP

We facilitate participatory co-creation labs and scenario (fiction a.o. speculative) driven cross functional work with society, business and organisations. We also make scenario based future workshops to guide you right.

Artefacts & Experiences
Strategic Design

We put a lot of pride in the craft of bringing form and body to make our strategy come to life. Our ability to deliver design with personality that’s sharply on point rests on education and many years of experience. And maybe a little bit of that “je ne sais quoi”.

CONCEPTS / RND

The tangible vision and idea that holds the pieces together is what helps us understand at an early stage what we’re going for. We conceive it, show it and communicate it.


IDENTITIES

All of the things that make your brand unique, all cooked up in a rich and luxuriously dense concoction. We make them from scratch or evolve what exists today. Ready to set your mark anywhere, anytime for everyone.


PRODUCTS / SERVICES / STARTUPS

This is where the rubber meets the road and where you prove your worth. We bring all of our expertise, research and creativity to make sure that your product seeps of you-ness and greatness no matter where. Digital, physical, speculative and everything in between.


PACKAGING

Yeah, sure. It’s packaging and maybe it will just go in the trash but RIGHT before that happens it plays a huge part. It is where you set the stage for what’s waiting inside. We design and support you all the way to finished, as-intended results.


SPATIAL EXPERIENCES

Because nothing is either this or that, it’s life, it’s messy and unruly. We might shine our brightest here, keeping all of your (and their) touchpoints and channels tightly on brand and on path.

Creative Boosts
Design Support

We know that our work is never “done” and we stick around to see to it that it does. Together with our client friends, stakeholders and implementation partners we learn as we go and adjust accordingly. We’re big believers in prototyping at every scale.

DESIGN ADVISORY

A lot of people touch your brand and it’s representations. We can support in any way you need to make sure everything ends up right and tight. An hour with us to get a perspective or second opinion, a direction and path for others to follow, or a regular design workshop routine with your team. Whatever floats your boat.


CREATIVE DIRECTION

Keeping all the pieces on path with creative height is difficult to master. Not because you can’t..but because it’s easy to loose perspective of the big picture when your head is in every detail too. Let us help.


STUDIO SETUP

Maybe it’s time for you to build your in-house team? We can be your starter team, helping you get the foundation and organisational readiness in place.


ACTIVATION

Maybe you’re about to get something new into the world or you need to kick your established brand or product into a new gear. We’ve got the ideas and tools to make it happen.

FAQ

Why so many questions?

Creative ideas usually grow from knowledge and insights. We think you have a lot of knowledge and a lot of insights. We need that juicy stuff so we can do great things together. It’s that easy.

Why do you work in the open all the time?

Well people try to give us desks and we always end up in the kitchen. Partly because it’s coffee adjacent but mostly really because it’s where we tend to run into people and stumble into the most interesting conversations. Maybe you see what we do and it makes you think of something or maybe we ask you what you’re working on and that makes us think of something. Turns out thoughts cross pollinate very well in kitchens making them a great place for us to be.

How do you even time travel, and why?

Research + Conversation + Imagination. In here also lies the answer to that bonus question..why do we always work as a team? Our own heads run out of gas very quickly but with more minds the engine keeps running. Better work, more fun.

Why can’t you just simply stay in the grid and on path like all the others?

Hmm…well then how would we be sure we chose what we did because it was the right thing to do and not just the easy thing? We admit. Sticking to a pre-determined cookie-cutter template never really seemed like the best way forward. Except of course when design methods as recipes for success is your product..then it has worked out very well for you. Congratulations. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Don’t you ever sleep?

Yes. We love sleep. We just want to sleep well at night, having those ideas and solutions outside of our heads rather than inside.

Why do you want to be on a project early when it’s just sales, research and plans?

Umm..because this is where it all begins and where we have a chance to ask the most questions. Which brings us back to square 1 (*Why so many questions?). Asking the question is the beginning of knowing the answer.