It looks to inject design thinking into all stages of the design and development process and believes passionately that effective digital design is improved through the unification of visual design, editorial, interface and interaction.

We are based in London, in the UK and comprise of a team of talented designers and developers who can work across process and across platforms. We don’t believe in the traditional split between design, editorial, interaction and development, that currently pervades digital design thinking. As a group of professionals, our skills cross over all four disciplines, and allow us to create a truly unified approach, not just in terms of process but in terms of design output.

This, in turn, informs our understanding of the digital landscape, from applications, interface design and social media, it is in its essence, a search for the unification of form and function. A desire to create truly resonating brand experiences that move beyond messaging and seeks to imbue brand experiences into every level of an application.

Our primary goal is two fold, firstly we are always seeking to innovate, either through the use of technology or through the inception and execution of a ground breaking idea. Secondly, make sure that the point of interaction between a user and a digital system is as friction free as possible. Coming from varied design backgrounds from industrial design, graphic design and digital design, we can provide a unique perspective on traditional design problems.

Our name comes from our passion for technology, invention, experimentation and enthusiasm. Qualities we bring to every project we’re involved in.

Partnerships

No work is created in a vacuum and our strategic relationships form the foundation of what we can offer to clients. We are at our core, a small team and our partnership with a core group of companies, (many of which are former colleagues and all of which who share our belief and approach) enable us to extend our core skills and match any scope and delivery

requirements for any project or budget. This inbuilt flexibility combined with the support of an extended network gives us to concentrate on what we do best supported by the confidence to draw in like minded professional organisations when needed.

Handmade digital

We are are part of the hand-made digital collective, offering specialist design and user-experience design services, with a team of like-minded organisations from marketing, project management, and advertising. By being part of a collective, provides a flexible and supporting infrastructure no matter what size of project or budget, with the increased flexibility and autonomy.

Twentyeight uk

We are proud of our long standing partnership with twentyeight uk, a development company that delivers high spec, enterprise level solutions across all platforms.

As former colleagues, our working relationship spans over 6 years and many projects. Its basis on mutual respect and a shared understanding of what it means to deliver great digital products from inception all the way through to execution.

However, this misses out some of the vital aspects that differentiate us from other design studios. It also doesn't adequately describe the way we approach the complex discipline known collectively as ‘User experience’ design (UXD) and how, in all cases, we place design thinking as the central focus of all the projects we engage in.

We take a position that design thinking is relevant to all parts of the application development process, and aim to do this by seeing our involvement in the project, not just within the framework of a narrow silo of responsibilities and deliverables, but by spanning all disciplines, from strategy, through to business development, from UX and design, through to development and launch. Furthermore, we see our relationship with a project and a client, not just within the parameters of that single design brief, but also continuing into the future from product launch and beyond.

In this way our work and our unified approach to UX reflects a passion for design lead innovation, creative

What we produce

Our output is as varied as the briefs that we work on, and the scope of our projects regularly range from the development of proof of concepts and prototypes all the way through to enterprise level application development and deployment across multiple systems, platforms and digital channels.

The result of which can be digital applications and brand experiences that live on the web, TV, and ever increasingly across mobile platforms, whether they be websites, games, social applications and rich internet applications.

We thrive on this variety, as it allows us to bring the full range of thinking to a project no matter the requirements or budget.

This is no different to any other design firm who relies on the talents of their individual design practitioners for the quality of thinking in and execution.

However what this means for a client is that there can be ‘cookie cutter’ approach to their particular needs. Something that sometimes happens in some studios when process over-rides thinking. What clients receive are the consultative benefits that come by using a knowledgeable and intelligent design practitioner. Accompanying this is the faith in the weight that their opinions hold from being experts in their field.

We have some key areas where we passionately believe digital design projects benefit from our approach:

Research and insight

Design as a profession, sits within contemporary culture, and design practitioners create, influence and are influenced by the cultural messages that pervade our society. Design thinking greatest asset is the ability to see relationships within this soup of media and

messaging, to create new and sometimes surprising relationships and use this to help tell stories about a brand, a product or service. As a key facet of our process, design research underpins any insight we may have, whether that be research into a market, a user, a product, or an approach and helps us create compelling narratives by which the digital system acts as a key component.

Unifying design and user experience

Where we differ from other agencies is our focus on UX as a unified discipline of design. Fundamentally, we see the presentation (what you see) and interaction (what you touch/click/gesture) as two complimentary and integrated streams and we refuse to separate them as distinct problems to be solved in isolation from one another. In almost all cases, the way a message is delivered has a massive influence on what it says and how its interpreted by the end user.

We believe that this unified approach affords some major benefits because when approaching any design problem, our default position is to concentrate on the whole problem, not just the narrow part that we have been tasked with. That is why the context of anything we create, is just as important as what we create.

The whole design problem

This unified approach also means we can circumvent many problems before they occur and in most cases have already thought about solutions before the problem has even manifested. For example, in most projects our initial design sketches are already generating expectations for things such as editorial copy. This means we can see very quickly how certain aspects work within the framework we are designing well before they become problems or create bottlenecks in development. Furthermore, having a more holistic view means that a strategy is already in place to deal with unforeseen issues which can have a massive impact of the delivery.

Iteration, prototyping, testing and continuous ongoing development

We are primarily a collaborative organisation looking to partner and lead rather than service and follow. In that sense, our design process is inherently iterative and responsive.

We are, in essence, anti-”Big Design Up Front” (BDUF)

a high cost, high risk and unresponsive process that tries to solve all known design issues before embarking on development. Instead, our aim is to produce proactive design responses throughout the entire project and beyond, feeding in design thinking and insights as the project develops.

Sketching, fast, furious and detailed

We do this primarily through prototyping, a key design tool which in its most simplest form, manifests itself through sketching and drawing and then, through each

iteration becoming further developed until it becomes the final product.

Early on, these low-cost, highly iterative artifacts enable us to explore options and routes without high production overheads. It also allows us to engage with end users early into the production process, and feed in any insights that may eventuate. As the project develops and the design becomes more solidified, prototyping then increases in sophistication until it mirrors the system itself.

This helps us see our involvement as continuing beyond the limits of the project, as the live system is still just an iteration within the product development life-cycle. Accompanied the deployment of measuring tools, it allows the continued integration of design thinking post launch when real users are interacting with the system.

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