Design, the noun, is something that people engage with regularly. To put it behind glass, or something you visit with in a gallery, has us scratching our heads because of its everydayness. On the other hand, as a verb, design is something most people have little exposure to or thoughts about. All the conversation, trial and error, misprints and mess-making are lost when distilled to flat graphics tacked up for gallery goers.

In all our early conversations we grappled most with how to show something that is hard to capture. As designers we tend to cloister ourselves away in our studios often with headphones on, focused. By making the creative process the focus we challenge the visitors’ typical conception of what it is that we do as designers. We think it appropriate to present ourselves, as the exotic other, within a platform that everyone understands. So we stage a working environment for visitors: a modern menagerie.