Curious
A positive guide to serious change. Curious is our substack exploring ideas, insights, and prompts across culture, creativity, and change. Each piece is written to help brand leaders cut through the noise, think long-term, and move from reacting to shaping.
The Only Thing More Powerful than Hate is Love
That’s what creativity is supposed to do: remind us we’re not alone in all this.
Benito Bowl, Spotify the Bookshop and Real Connections
Signals on reclaiming joy, designing for connection not extraction and getting offline to create the things you wish existed.
Action Not Apathy
It’s easy to get stuck, wheels-spinning just critiquing broken systems forever, but real progress and forward action comes from imagining alternatives…and building them. Messy, imperfect and bit by bit as they are.
Ambient Uncertainty, Scroll Stopping and Big Fire Horse Energy
When trust is on the floor it means it’s now the most important thing. Trust is now the competitive advantage.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Real change rarely comes from fighting old structures alone. It comes from designing new ones.
No More Nostalgia and Restraint in the Real World
Do less, but better. Discernment and 2026 as the year of experiential marketing was a common theme at Web Summit last year. This is the time for meaningful, tangible ways people can get involved with your brand. Strike now.
From Pessimism to Possibility and Competence as Escapism
From aestheticising decline to craving basic competence, these three cultural tensions reveal where imagination is breaking down - and where opportunity is might just be forming.
Change is Always Possible
Change feels impossible until it isn’t.
Lately exploring why pessimism isn’t realism, how culture is craving competence and intention, and why imagining better futures is still a strategic act.
The Intention Economy, Continuity > Novelty and Brotox
Our weekly look at three curious points of tension, plus positive ideas for what to do moving forward.
Taking Bigger Risks
A new year, a new quarter of the century, and a punchy little provocation: take bigger risks.
Hope Actually
We’re often told “hope isn’t a strategy,” but what if it could be? In this internal memo, we explore how curiosity and imagination can transform hope from a fluffy ideal into a practical force for change. Because maybe the most strategic thing we can do for the future—is believe it’s still worth building.
Better Futures vs. Future Burnout
Q4 chaos doesn’t have to mean burnout. Let’s explore how brand leaders can reframe year-end pressure into opportunity by setting boundaries, making space for futures thinking, and turning the busiest season into a more intentional start to 2026.
Beyond the Bait
The question for brand leaders is pretty simple: will you be an early adopter and lead the shift away from addiction-based engagement, or a laggard clinging to a failing model until it completely collapses?
What About Trust?
What comes to mind when you hear about declining levels of institutional trust? Is it numbness? Overwhelm? Paralysis? A general sense of “well obviously, but what exactly can I do about it?”
The World We Were Born Into No Longer Exists
What aspects of our present world do you want to no longer exist in the decades to come? What alternative can you build towards? What needs to be true today to create that future?
The Future isn't Inevitable, it's Intentional
When 70% of young people report feeling worse after spending time online, that's no longer a niche experience. That's pretty massive design failure.
The End of Escapism
There’s real opportunity in designing systems people can connect and benefit from within, instead of just consuming from. That can look like circular supply chains, mutual aid models, or shared ownership platforms.
It will feel messy. It will take time. And best to start small. But it’s something we can build - together.
What the Dark Mode missed
“Everything starts to look like everything else—not because of shared meaning, but because the system demands it.” Kyle Chayka, Filterworld
Curiosity as a Strategy
What if the most powerful strategy isn't having all the answers, but asking better questions?
The Rebrand of Upcycling
The case for rebooting our perception of the word left in 2010. Language shapes reality. Our vocabulary choices influence perception, which drives behaviour.
Case in Point
Real-world examples of change in action. Where strategic thinking meets creative doing — stories of how brands turn uncertainty into opportunity.
Get in Touch
Change starts with a conversation. Let’s talk about what’s next for you.