DesignStudio is now Further

Design will be commoditised

When we started DesignStudio 15 years ago, our goal was to build an agency that put design first. Our work with Airbnb was our first attempt at designing an iconic identity. It shaped our design process. It fueled and inspired one of Silicon Valley's early in-house design cultures. Our work with the Premier League was a belief that design mattered to millions of football fans. For Riot Games, we designed and implemented entirely new codes for esports that are now used across the category.

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In 15 years, design has transformed from a niche craft, to an essential practice. New brands, agencies, and creators create beautiful work every day. The design community has grown into something far more inclusive. Processes, references and projects are openly shared and adopted. Design culture, design craft and design thinking are now commonplace. This is absolutely something to be celebrated.

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But it also means generative AI will easily and endlessly reconstitute years of human effort. We’re already seeing AI emulate illustration styles, photography, copywriting, and naming. Brands are using AI to create assets, quickly and cheaply. We've seen myriad new tools for insight gathering, information synthesis, and building identity systems. There are tremendous advantages to all this. But our thesis is that in a few short years, much of design — the practice, the process, the craft and the skill — will be automated.

Creativity is what endures

‍DesignStudio has taken us so far. It has been a vehicle that has brought together the most talented people who want to design the very best brands. But for the next decade, we will need completely new tools, skills, standards and ideas on what it means to create impact. And we need a new vehicle to get us there.

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We’ve brought together the expertise of DesignStudio, Analog and Pixel Artworks, to create Further. Further is a bet on the future, and a belief in human creativity.

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Our bet is to focus our collective expertise on strategically critical points that change the course of companies. We call these defining moments.

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Our belief is that only people can get a feel of the culture, convince leaders to make moves, and take creative leaps that ensure work is commercially impactful.

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Sounds like big talk. But it's something we've been doing for some time. Changing how Penguin Random House thinks about what they do. How people experience British Airways. How UFC levels up engagement. How Microsoft makes decisions. How EA SPORTS operates beyond gaming. These have been defining moments in each company’s trajectory that we have been privileged to create, shape and implement.

How do we do this?

R&D

It’s easy to make work for the industry, not the audience. We must understand the nuances of people and cultures who experience our work. We must continuously explore and apply new technologies and processes to better connect with them.

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Relationships

It’s easy to create work that is derivative. Originality requires leaders to take risks. And that asks for creative partners who can intuit their comfort zone and push them beyond. The same is true for all of us at Further. As our industry transforms, partnerships ensure creativity endures.

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Resonance

It’s easy to create work that leaves no mark. When we are exposed to so much output, we become desensitized to its impact. We must seek to create work that has consequences, move people beyond reason, measure and prove its force.

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What happens next?

‍DesignStudio's name was never important to us. What matters are the teams that went over and above every day over the years to create groundbreaking work. Now, those teams continue, but bring their creativity to expanded capabilities in brand, campaign, experience, digital and production. And in the coming months, it is our ambition to bring even more capabilities into our Further teams.

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Automation and imitation are inevitable. But it gives us a tremendous opportunity to celebrate what people do best. We are free to focus on moments that change the course of companies.

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To do that, we must move first.

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Design will be commoditised. But creativity will endure.

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