2014-09-15

Open Work

We have some big news:

This month, we started a new design collective with our good friends Elisabeth Malcolm and Daniel Powers. The collective is called Open Work.

Dan and Lizzie come from an interaction design and development background which is increasingly interesting to us and the work we’ve already been doing. This extends both our capacity and our scope beyond what we can do alone.

Like us, they are interested in content-based design, reading experiences across all media, and in open and collaborative processes.

We see design for analog and digital media not as a schism but as a continuum: the two extremes influence and inform each other. Often they can complement each other. Open Work has the capabilities to apply systemic thinking, content sensitivity, art direction, programming, and production skills to any kind of medium.

We want to continue working for the culture industry — art, publishing, fashion, music, architecture — like the two of us have for the past decade. This kind of client is especially appealing to us because they are involved in their own creative pursuits: They are also making something, and that is the best way to collaborate.

We also want to use the collective to work more (even more!) on self-initiated, playful research projects that explore how we shape our media, and how they shape society in return, from post-Gutenberg to post-internet. A first example of that is Indygraph, a website that captures Twitter users’ feelings about the Scottish independence referendum on September 18.

We will continue to operate Atelier Carvalho Bernau as usual. We’re not closing, nor shifting, just curious.

Be curious with us!

Much love, Susana and Kai

PS. We are  N @opnwrk on Twitter.