Anticipating: We shape futures

When starting new, complex projects with rough concepts, sometimes not everything adds up. Sensemaking is the process by which we create meaning from collective experience.

Filtering and categorizing extensive information in real time is the foundation on which we further build with workshop facilitation, visual thinking, system modeling and design thinking.

What if... everything didn't go wrong all the time? Utopian visions of the future enable us – detached from the constraints and limitations of the present – to look at what is desirable among the possible developments.

We explore and promote utopian thinking, since desirable futures as alternatives to the present offer an orientation for creative action.

We gladly offer you inspiring lectures or host participatory workshops based on your emerging questions.

In order to be able to think specifically about the determination and justification of practical goals, it makes sense to understand the actual state in detail.

We get to the bottom of questions about the genesis and possible development of problems and challenges with scientific precision and know how to communicate the findings clearly and coherently.

In a complex world, networked thinking is becoming increasingly important for decision-making. Modern scenario planning therefore is based on dynamized cause-effect chains. Scenarios set up hypothetical sequences of events to draw attention to causal lines of thought.

In addition to showing how a hypothetical situation can emerge, we explore variants and alternatives, what options are available at each stage for different actors to direct further developments. In this way, thinking in scenarios enables the disclosure of design options, simplifies development processes, and can prevent them from pitfalls.

Futures Research is the scientific examination of possible, desirable and probable future developments and design options as well as their preconditions in the past and present.

Based on signal and trend research, we jointly discuss various future scenarios and generate system knowledge for your organization. In particular, we focus on desirable futures and address the needs of future personas and potential user scenarios. We use the impact of utopias and the creativity of speculative design to open up alternative perspectives.

Although we basically cannot know what is about to come, we contribute to shaping futures through our actions today. We imagine pictures and ideas about the world of tomorrow. By scientifically examining these current images of the future, futures studies stimulates reflection and makes the diversity of possible designs visible. In this way, it provides orientation for action and can have a transformative effect.

Speculative design depicts a world that does not yet exist. And with this approach, it gets to the bottom of the current challenges humanity is facing. In this way, statements about the present can be made on the basis of design based futures studies - mostly in the form of speculative artifacts. First and foremost, this discipline invites us to imagine together what the world could look like - and how we can best respond to its changes.

We gladly advise you on what Speculative Design can do for you and your organization or project, and provide an inspiring application.

The Future Workshop is a method established since the 1970s to develop new ideas and solutions for social or organizational challenges with collaborative imagination. Typical clients are public authorities, municipalities, associations or companies.

In collaborative efforts, designs of future scenarios, goals and measures for organizations are usually developed within one to three days. The application is usually limited to regional processes and is used by authorities, municipalities, associations or companies. The Futures Workshop is thus a participatory format to involve citizens and is particularly suitable for topics such as the environment, sustainability, social justice or the promotion of democracy.

Much of scientific knowledge is buried in jargon-heavy reports. This means they are not easily accessible, nor do they offer much clarity or guidance to non-specialist readers. To get the attention of the general public to engage with and act on science-based information, we need to communicate more and better – through innovative, engaging communication formats with potential to reach new and broader audiences.

We translate complex issues into easy-to-understand infographics, design standout scientific publications, conceive participatory formats, and stage exhibitions for museums, trade shows, and conferences.

With several of our publications we have been able to set international impulses in the field of innovative science communication.

We take on the visual content in ambitious projects for knowledge transfer. Within this framework, we moderate co-creative processes, develop system models, support authors in the user-centered editing of complex issues, and use storytelling and infographics for the generally understandable translation of contexts that are difficult to explain.

The approach is usually functional and can produce large and small results – from the preparation of annual reports, innovative scientific non-fiction books to graphic novels.

When time is short and you have to fight for the attention of decision-makers, factsheets and executive summaries are our tool of choice. Our international award-winning infographics team brings all its experience to bear when it comes to condensing content and translates extensive reports into one-pagers, folders or infographic posters in close cooperation with your experts.

Short attention spans are a side effect of our fast-paced information society. To reach as many people as possible in the shortest possible time, whether in social media, at events or in online seminars, we like to resort to video formats.

Our expertise in infographics, coupled with our experienced animation and production team with extensive studio equipment, opens up the entire spectrum of motion-picture-based information formats to us. From vector-based explainer videos to kinetic typography and 3d animations, talking-head videos with hand-drawn live illustrations, we have a format to suit every taste and budget.

No company can survive without a presence on the web anymore. In most cases, even singular research projects, initiatives and information campaigns need a website as well.

However, visual design is usually not enough. Complex content in particular often needs to be brought to the point, adapted to the reading habits of users and adapted to the technological framework regarding language and form. This is exactly where our strength lies. We translate your messages into clearly structured web pages, interactive infographics or captivating scrollytelling pages.

Graphic novels on profoundly scientific topics engage enthusiastic audiences. The format combines easy accessibility with humor and substance with which it creates access to complex topics. Our specialty: We combine comics and infographics to tell insightful stories that are able to withstand extensive fact-checking.

Our team is experienced in handling sensitive and extensive content. For joint work with experts, scientists or your communications team, you can count on our proven methods and structured collaboration processes.

A clear, authentic and value-oriented identity creates orientation, provides support and meaning – especially in times of change and with a view to the future.

We give brands luminance and communicate to the outside world what your organization is about on the inside. But today, in addition to self-image, mission statement and appearance, topics such as sustainability, diversity, transparency and community building are relevant components of a strong identity and resilient organizational culture.

We advise and support scientific consortia, institutes, foundations, collaborative projects, educational institutions, initiatives and sustainability-oriented companies.

Do you want your employees and stakeholders to understand your project, to adapt to it and drive it forward in a collaborative manner? Then you need a clear vision and a straightforward strategy. We help you define your goal, visualize the path to get there, and create a plan that steers everyone involved in the right direction.

To do this, we create organizational charts, visualize internal processes, facilitate complex system modeling, and offer support in formulating your mission, vision, and purpose statements.

Our live illustrators accompany events, conferences or lectures on site or in the digital space. They translate your spoken content into lively visualizations and vivid imagery.

This creates visual summaries of seminars, keynotes, and panel discussions that provide touch points for dialogues in coffee breaks or serve as stimuli for informal exchanges between agenda items. After an event, visual transcripts enrich post-event communications, social media presentations, or the annual report.

A moderator designs, structures and controls the communicative flow of a workshop. In addition to experience and knowledge of appropriate methods, this requires a deep understanding of group processes, social and communicative skills, and a motivating demeanor.

Whether retreats, meetings, design sprints, hackathons, bar camps, team workshops, creative circles or large group events: Our facilitation experts work with you to design objectives and processes, choose appropriate workshop methods, and keep your participants happy.

Tell me something and I forget; show me something and I remember; involve me and I understand. People support what they co-create. Co-creation accelerates adaptation and change, promotes acceptance, and on top of that: it's fun.

While participation formats are becoming an increasingly prominent tool in change processes, their style and methods are far from set in stone. In fact, change is in the nature of participatory design and it is constantly renewed and evolving, accordingly with the changing behavior and tastes of participants.

Redesigning activities to include affected parties is not only an incredibly fun artistic endeavor for us, but also helps us to stay innovative. What starts with interactive workshops, hackathons, festivals, role playing games, bar camps, or future workshops in the basic setup can be extended at will with (pop-)cultural and entertaining aspects.

Since March 2020, we all know that face-to-face meetings are also possible in the digital space. With the ever-growing range of online-meeting platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams, Miro, Trello and many more, there are now solutions for every conceivable virtual meeting requirement.

We are experts in conducting interactive workshops in the digital space: from the compilation and implementation of a suitable technical infrastructure, content planning, and event design, to execution, moderation and follow-up.

Roadmapping is the strategic process of determining all the actions, sequences and resources needed to take an initiative from vision to reality. We help organizations to determine the path to their future.

Design Thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that organizations can use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and develop innovative solutions for prototyping and testing.

Our certified Design Thinking coaches guide you through structured and easy-to-learn process phases that are especially useful when facing challenges that are not clearly defined or still unknown.

The innovation culture describes a specific manifestation of the organizational culture, which is primarily intended to promote the development of innovations and creativity. Since innovation processes usually involve cross-departmental initiatives, the innovation culture functions as a kind of cross-sectional culture whose norms and values are relevant for all participants involved.

We accompany you in your strategy development process, but also in the implementation of transformative processes or innovative future products. For us, this also means creating offerings that enable a change of perspective and the re-framing of mindsets. Through our Futures Thinking and Change Agents Trainings, we lay the foundation for cultural change and promote creative and future-oriented thinking among stakeholders and employees. In doing so, we ensure that corporate social responsibility, diversity and sustainability always have their place.

To change behaviors, you have to deeply understand people in a process. What motivates them? What are their needs and desires? Why should they change their current behaviors?

We help you understand how your stakeholders feel, think and act. This creates the foundation for relevant, meaningful messages and solutions that are adopted, supported and retained.

We occupy ourselves with the functioning or effects of dynamic and complex social, political, economic, and aesthetic systems in order to understand, optimize, and help shape processes and consequences.

Our infographics team has more than 10 years of experience in concept mapping, systems thinking, modeling complex systems, and the visual presentation of abstract models.

Those who miss out on developing an alumni network after successful events, educational programs, collaborative projects or research consortia are deliberately giving away potential future collaborations. Providing platforms and events for the mutual exchange of a community has established itself as a key factor to build a foundation for successful ideas.

When it is about building and maintaining a community, whether digital or analog, Ellery Studio sources from extensive experience. This includes the establishment of a functioning and self-sustaining infrastructure, the co-creative development of a clear self-image, fundraising strategies, mechanisms for collaborative decision-making and conflict resolution, social media management and content creation as well as event planning, design and moderation.