Open Project
About
Studio Size
Small (1-5)
Year founded
2012
Borough
Manhattan
Studio Bio/Philosophy
Honor and elevate. Create relevant form derived from the project’s core. Acknowledge histories and legacies. Communicate meaningful contexts. Craft immaculately. Design with lyricism, wit, intelligence and authority.
Elsewhere
The Team
Open Project has 2 people. Of those, 2 are studio heads and 0 are managerial.
60% of studios are small-sized (1-5 people).
Gender Breakdown
100% male
0% female
Average height
5’10”-6’
Shortest: 5’10”
Tallest: 5’11”
Number of freelancers/year
1-5
Number of interns/year
1-2
Average: 1-2
Studio Disciplines
Breakdown of Work
Number of studio projects
0–25
Pro-bono projects
1–5
Strategy/Execution
14% Strategy
86% Execution
Primary Specialties
- Art Direction (58)
- Books (52)
- Branding & Identity (77)
- Editorial/Publication Design (51)
- Environmental Design (38)
- Exhibition Design (33)
- Experience Design (33)
- Information Graphics (41)
- Interaction Design (36)
- Mobile Design (30)
- Packaging (45)
- Print (75)
- Typeface Design (25)
- Web Design (59)
Clients’ Industries
- Advertising (22)
- Education (40)
- Fashion (45)
- Finance & Investment (26)
- Music (28)
- Real Estate (24)
- Retail (43)
- Technology (37)
- The Arts/Cultural Institutions (71)
Open Project’s Clients
- Antenna Design New York
- BlackRock
- Corcoran Sunshine
- Lowe Counsel
- Ogilvy
- Signature Theatre
- Target (7)
- Warner Music Group (3)
- Westcott
Allen Hori, Partner
Demographics
Age 52, Male, from Barryville, NY, USA, now lives in NoMad, New York, NY. Formal education is graduate degree, primary design education is school (Cranbrook Academy of Art).
What’s been the biggest influence on your design career?
Kathy McCoy, Laurie Haycock Makela, Robert Rodeck, Gaye Chan, Robert Nakata, Harmine Louwé, Gerard Hadders. Their specific talents and persistent attitudes of deep and wide curiosity with poetically strange inquiries have been largest influencers.
Years in Design Industry
25 years
Average: 17 years
Industry before design
fine art photography
Previous Design Employment
- The Other Type
- Studio Dumbar
- Hard Werken
- Bates Hori
- Atlantic Records (2)
- Prescriptives
- Ogilvy & Mather, Brand Integration Group (2)
- Object Collective (3)
Teaching Design
- Yale University — 13 years
- Cooper Union — 0.5 years
- Pratt Institute — 0.25 years
Time spent designing
70% actual
80% desired
Weston Bingham, Partner
Demographics
Age 44, Male, from New York, NY, USA, now lives in East Village, New York, New York. Formal education is graduate degree, primary design education is school (California Institute of the Arts).
Years in Design Industry
23 years
Previous Design Employment
- Object Collective (3)
- Wolff Olins (4)
- Ogilvy & Mather, Brand Integration Group (2)
- marchFIRST
- USWeb/CKS
- Organic
- VH1
- Chermayeff & Geismar (4)
- Koppel & Scher (2)
Teaching Design
- Pratt Institute — 4 years
- School of Visual Arts — 2 years
Board Member on Professional Design Organizations
- AIGA New York — 2 years
- AIGA Experience Design Committee (now defunct) — 1 years
Time spent designing
60% actual
70% desired
Location
The Space
The studio is about 500 square feet. It’s owned and they’ve been there for 1 year, 6 months.
Number of times moved
0
Total people in space
2
Amenities
- Bike storage (26)
- Cleaning service (44)
- Coffee maker (53)
- Dishwasher (24)
- Elevator (54)
- Free booze (28)
- Freezer (43)
- Library/book collection (67)
- Photo/video equipment (45)
- Pin-up board (43)
- Private bathrooms (34)
Number of conference rooms
1
Client meetings held in studio: Less than half
Number of plants
6-10
Decorations
Books and bookshelves, Our friends' artwork, Photos, Process materials for ongoing projects
Desk Policy
To each their own: some keep their desks tidy, while others like it messier.
Space Satisfaction
It could be better, but it works for now
Working Days
Working week
The work week is 30-39 hours/week, core hours are 9:30-6:00, with the first in at 9:30am and the last out at 6:30pm.
8% of studios work 30-39 hours/week.
The average is 40-49 hours/week.
Work Weekends?
Once a month
Take Summer Fridays?
Most weeks
Busiest Time of day?
Morning
Favorite Typefaces:
- Akkurat (8)
- Akzidenz-Grotesk (13)
- Avant Garde (2)
- Baskerville (2)
- bryant (2)
- Courier (2)
- DIN (13)
- Melior
- Monotype Grotesque
- Monotype Walbaum
- Scala (serif) (2)
- Swift (2)
- The Proteus Project
- Univers (10)
- Various Stencils
Culture
Music
Plays music for 70% of the day at an average volume. Currently obsessed with Trust, Savages, and most played over the last year is New Order, Adele.
Side Projects
As a studio, 20% of our time is dedicated to non-client based work.
42% of studios have side projects.
Biking to work
1
127 bikers across all studios
Pick your poison
Vodka
Overall Noise Level
Average
59% of studios are average
Studio pets
1 dog
32% have pets at the studio