DESIGN CONSULTANCY
Our design consultancy helps organisations and groups to shape better, sustainable and equitable futures. Through imaginative design and ecological thinking, we help you to collaborate on addressing complex challenges, imagining futures and possibilities, and working together to make them happen.
FREE CONSULTATION
Starting from a short call or meeting, we provide a one page lightning consultation report, identifying key organisational challenges and proposing what we can offer to help.
WE WORK WITH
Our transdiciplinary studio approach allows us to work effectively across many different sectors and contexts, from cultural and civic organisations, businesses and creative practices, research and education institutions and community groups and associations.
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MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, ART CENTRES, THEATRES, FESTIVALS
YOU NEED
New ways to engage audiences with complex cultural and ecological themes.
WE CAN OFFER
A reframing of your programmes through futures and ecology lenses.
Playful tools, worldbuilding and exhibitions for engaging audiences.
Storytelling and game-based workshops to explore complex ideas.
Facilitation of collaboration between artists, curators and publics.
TYPICAL PROJECTS AND OUTPUTS
Integration of Participatory Workshops into exhibition programmes.
Storytelling Games for festival audiences.
Designing Futures Playsets for museum education teams.
Conceptual Worldbuilding for speculative exhibitions.
Audience Engagement Frameworks.
Creative Programing Support for gallery seasons.
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC AGENCIES, POLICY TEAMS
YOU NEED
More impactful ways of engaging publics in complex decision making and long-term planning.
WE CAN OFFER
A reframing of policy-making from ecological and futures perspectives.
Design of contextual and participatory engagement processes that balance creative vision with real-world practicality.
Design of innovative and sustainable public services.
Storytelling consultation tools.
Facilitation of collaboration across sectors and stakeholders.
TYPICAL PROJECTS & OUTPUTS
Narrative Futures Workshop to engage citizens in urban planning strategy
Participatory Games for public consultations on land use decisions
Ecological Systems Mapping of contested spaces
Climate Scenario Card Deck for adaption planning
Service Design Blueprint for municipal recycling services.
Engagement Toolkit for cross-stakeholder innovation sessions
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UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS, DESIGN SCHOOOLS, RESEARCH LABS, E-LEARNING PLATFORMS
YOU NEED
New transdisciplinary research approaches that can translate into collaborative projects, publications and teaching.
WE CAN OFFER
Novel speculative design research frameworks, methods, techniques and stools.
Storytelling and worldbuilding as knowledge creation practices.
Playful and innovative tools for collaborative learning.
Interdisciplinary speculative workshop facilitation.
TYPICAL PROJECTS & OUTPUTS
Speculative Design Research Project to develop new frameworks for visualising futures.
Curriculum Module on speculative design games in research.
Educational Game for using more-than-human design techniques.
Research Dissemination Playset for practice-based design projects.
Public Engagement Exhibition for dissemination of research findings.
Workshop Series for PhD design methodology course.
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STARTUPS, INNOVATION LABS, STRATEGY TEAMS, ETHICAL BUSINESSES
YOU NEED
Innovation that synergise strategic growth with long-term environmental and social responsibility.
WE CAN OFFER
Help to reframe your business strategy through sustainable futures and systems thinking
Design of more effective services though futures thinking and inclusive speculative methods
Playful methods and tools for collaborative ideation
Strategic workshops to support aligned decision making across teams, stakeholders, clients and users.
Participatory engagement experiences for communities to shape products and services.
TYPICAL PROJECTS & OUTPUTS
Ideation Design Sprint for climate technology start-up.
Speculative Future Scenarios for sustainable product development.
Design of Speculative Prototypes to suppport strategic decision-making and internal advocacy in an innovation team.
Strategic Workshop to help transform environmental, social and governance values into operational business practices.
Service Blueprint for a local circular economy marketplace, mapping how people buy, sell, and reuse goods.
Participatory Design Project working with communities to shape a sustainable urban farming startup model.
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CHARITIES, NGOs, COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS, GRASSROOTS INITATIVES
YOU NEED
Ways to help people work together to imagine and build better futures for their communities and environments.
WE CAN OFFER
Imaginative ways of turning complex issues into design challenges that communities can work on together.
Participatory workshops to help communities to create more liveable futures through storytelling, making and play.
Bespoke tools, games and card decks for communties to run their own activities and design projects.
Help communities to turn their ideas into prototypes and initiatives to be tested locally.
Flexible pricing to support community-led work, including reduced-cost and pro-bono options.
TYPICAL PROJECTS & OUTPUTS
Community Workshops to develop imaginative local responses to climate and environmental challenges.
Co-Design Sessions to shape a community-based sharing economy.
Accessible Toolkits to help local groups to design responses to issues that matter to them.
Pop-Up Gatherings for communities to experiment with shared alternative futures.
Participatory Design Project for the co-creation of a local sustainibility initiative.
Ongoing Community Support to help groups grow and sustain projects over time.
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CREATIVE AGENCIES, DESIGN STUDIOS, ARCHITECTURE PRACTICES, INDEPENDENT DESIGNERS AND ARTISTS, CREATIVE TECHNOLOGISTS, INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLECTIVES
YOU NEED
New ways to bring future thinking and ecological awareness into your creative projects.
WE CAN OFFER
Speculative and ecological futures thinking to help frame concepts, write briefs, and conduct contextual research.
Bespoke design frameworks, methods and tools for creative projects.
Deep project collaboration through workshops, co-design sessions, prototyping, and engagement.
Creation of experimental concepts, narratives, games and scenarios to open up new possibilities for your practice.
TYPICAL PROJECTS & OUTPUTS
Worldbuilding Workshop to envision unexpected possibilites for a service design project
Bespoke Methodological Framework for addressing a complex client brief
Experimental Prototype Design for developing exhibition and public experience concepts.
Custom Design Playset to support internal studio creative processes.
Exploratory Design Sprint to unlock pain-points in ongoing client projects.
Speculative Scenario Deck to explore future strategic directions for products, services or organisations.
WHAT WE OFFER
We offer a set of design-led approaches that help you rethink complex challenges, explore alternative futures, and turn ideas into practical action.
REFRAMING COMPLEX CHALLENGES
Our transdisciplinary, research-driven practice will give you deep insights and new perspectives on the complex challenges your organisation faces.
ECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
We use a framework that helps you to engage with complexity in diverse, holistic ways that emphasise the more than human world, helping you to achieve equitable and sustainable outcomes.
DESIGN-LED EXPLORATION
We use design to bring concepts to life through prototype objects and services, building a bridge between speculative ideas and real-world practicalities.
PLAYFUL TOOLS AND METHODS
We design creative playsets and games for rich idea generation, collaborative exploration and engagement with complex ideas.
SPECULATIVE AND FUTURES THINKING
We help you to explore multiple futures, by challenging your assumptions and giving the space for you to ask how things could be different.
STORYTELLING AND WORLDBUILDING
We use collaborative storytelling as a way to co-create and test richly-detailed alternative futures, exploring possible impacts through narrative techniques.
FACILITATE COLLABORATION
Our participatory co-design methods and workshop-led approach provides space for groups and teams to build capacities, explore complex ideas, and imagine and create future scenarios together.
PARTICIPATORY ENGAGEMENT
We help you to share your visions and ideas persuasively to decision makers and the public through creative outputs, objects, experiences, and events.
OUR SERVICES
Every project begins with a free consultation and a short diagnostic report outlining key challenges and possible responses, from short workshops, consultations and bespoke tools to longer-term design projects and strategic support.
DESIGN SPRINT
A short design project to address a well-defined organisational question, producing experimental design prototypes, and short engagement outcomes.
CREATIVE WORKSHOPS
Our playful workshops help you to collaborate to share ideas and imagine better futures through gameplay, storytelling and design. Ideal for creative inspiration, team building and idea generation.
DESIGN PROJECT
A longer design project to engage with more complex challenges, leading to design objects, bespoke tools, games and card decks, new services, and engagement events.
GAMES AND PLAYSETS
We can create bespoke games, playsets, and card decks for colllaborative storytelling, productive play and design futures.
CONSULTATIONS
We can conduct deep contextual research to better understand the challenges you face, producing a detailed report and a series of recommendations.
STRATEGIC SUPPORT
Longer term strategic support, cultural and educational programme design, research partnerships and design residencies.