Kinetic Optimism Studio Information

k_o is an experience design and concept inquiry studio. We work on how technology participate in human life - not just how it functions. Every connected system contains more social possibility than current design has found. Not more features or efficiencies. More presence. More attentiveness to the situation it finds itself in. More capacity to notice, to gesture, to participate in the life of the people and places around it. Finding that possibility — making it specific enough to build toward — is what we do. We work at the moment before the category forms. Before the interaction pattern solidifies. Before the platform logic constrains the design space. Before the relationship between people and a new technology has been decided. That is where design has the most to offer. It is also where we are most useful. We bring together experience design, systems thinking, and social imagination. We work alongside product architects and technology teams, asking what a connected system could understand about the situation it operates in — and designing from that question outward. The work takes the form of experience frameworks, concept prototypes, and design propositions: specific, inhabitable, and concrete enough to move a conversation forward. Since 2018, the studio has partnered with Ford Product Development on software-defined mobility — exploring how a vehicle can be more than a means of transportation. How it can notice the situation it is in. How it can participate in the social life of the city around it. How the relationship between a person and their car can begin before the car arrives. A US patent has been granted. Several patent disclosures are pending. Clients and partners have included Ford, AstraZeneca, United Rentals, J&J, Lincoln, Mazda, and others. k_o studio is a creative partnership between two designers, Wojtek Szumowski and Shabnam Hosseini, and the constellation of generous contributors in synergy with the vision, and trust of our clients.