Ideas on Design

**OFFICE OF HERE-NOW**

17 OCTOBER, 2022



The studio model is dead, they say—so let’s start a design studio.

Free thought is a propellant for innovation. The power to consider the unthinkable and the option to honestly assess critical perspectives require an unboundedness. I believe sovereignty lies at the heart of innovation.

Stockholm once had a vibrant scene of independent design studios. But today, most have been acquired or merged into large networks. This new reality inevitably creates an orthodoxy. Competition between equally equipped agencies creates homogenized design—similar questions being answered in similar ways.

The covers of every deck are embellished with words like impact and transformation. But I do not see critical design emerge from within these expansive design networks.

Innovation is critical and norm-bending—a newness that breaks the understanding of how something was, is, or can be. But ‘big design’ is not equipped to challenge the current state of affairs.

I know because I have been part of the system. The immense complexity created by their size alone makes thinking and acting outside the existing norm impossible. These institutions are perfectly designed to uphold the status quo. Size impedes innovation. That's why they all speak of tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. For them, it has become impossible to act here and now.

History teaches us that big change comes from small actors. Be it David (v. Goliath) or Greta (not with Hans). Stories from all cultures reveal that the events that create a ripple in the fabric of history is when small is truthful and savvy—she outsmarts big. Innovation acts unlike gravity; bigger is not more attractive.

Small can move fast and think free.

What I am doing is nothing new. I’m starting a design studio. But, 
I hope what we will be doing is new. First-of-a-kind products and experiences. Design that is truthful and savvy. That forces change.

Sweden deserves a small, fantastic design studio to continue the human tradition of outsmarting the big. Meet Here-Now.

Edvard Scott