Openbox Design Studio
When I met its founder, Openbox was a partner-led social impact investment firm with a portfolio of startups and social enterprises. I was hired to rethink their portfolio strategy and determine whether it made sense for them to build out a new business vertical that offered strategic design and management consulting services as a full-service design studio. Together, we discovered that the opportunity was larger than that.
Fifteen Months Later
I was initially hired to spend three months working with Openbox founder Marquise Stillwell to understand the existing impact investment business and the opportunity he envisioned in expanding their services. I also evaluated whether there was a strong opportunity for successful market positioning and entry starting with its existing portfolio.
I then spent the following year working closely with Stillwell to restructure the company from the ground up, embracing a new design-driven philosophy and enhanced set of capabilities. By the end of 2013, Openbox had adopted the new brand and service model centered on design for impact as part of its primary identity alongside impact investing.
As a further testament to our work, Openbox has since moved entirely away from impact investing and now operates as a research and design studio working at the intersection of people, cities, and planet.
Representative Clients
The Lowline Young Designers Program
The Lowline was an ambitious effort to build an underground park in an unused Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal. While at Openbox, I served as an advisor for the Lowline’s Young Designers Program (YDP) on content, outreach, fundraising, and exhibition strategy.
I also helped with visual documentation and produced and edited audio interviews for a sound installation for the Lowline YDP exhibition held at the Mark Miller Gallery in the Lower East Side.
Team:
Designer: Eli Rosenbloom
Senior Strategist: David Baron
Senior Strategist: Garance Choko
Strategic Advisor, Audio Producer: Deepthi Welaratna
Social Innovation Fellow: Anastassia Tsivy
Social Innovation Fellow: Michael Perez
Partners:
Mark Miller Gallery
Public-Matter
The Haiti Report
In the chaotic wake of the Haiti earthquake, an inspiring collaboration between a Haitian grassroots group and a NY-based tech nonprofit defied the odds. While spearheading its relaunch, I led an impact evaluation for Awana Digital (formerly Digital Democracy) investor Openbox to understand and communicate the how and why of their success as a potent lesson for the field.
The Digital Democracy-KOFAVIV partnership focused on low-cost, high impact solutions such as replacing a damaged data reporting system and adding a 24-hour national hotline. Internally, we developed a suite of design methods and frameworks dedicated to complex systems analysis, narrative mapping and analysis, and impact evaluation in order for the agency to analyze the partnership and its value and then communicate its value to the field of humanitarian aid.
Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative as partners Digital Democracy and KOFAVIV took to the stage with Hillary Clinton, “The Haiti Report” positioned the Digital Democracy-KOFAVIV partnership as a blueprint for innovative and unusually effective problem-solving in the field of humanitarian aid and helped reposition Openbox as not only an impact investor but as a global design-for-impact agency of note.
We also forged a partnership with the Brown University-incubated Makeshift Magazine, which aimed to surface grassroots innovation among other topics. The result was “Contagious Logic,” a long-form investigative journalism feature that focused specifically on understanding how KOFAVIV’s grassroots activism functioned as a sophisticated public health intervention that provided an activist solution to a socially contagious disease.
In the wake of the project, new client prospects and partners emerged, confirming that the unique HCD toolkit we had designed for complex systems design and narrative storytelling were highly valued.
Team:
Project Manager and Co-Author: Garance Choko
Designer and Illustrator: Eli Rosenbloom
Editor: Christian Howard, Cornell University
Field Translator: Farah Boyer, École Supérieure d'Infotronique d'Haïti (ESIH)
Data Collection: Emilie Reiser, Digital Democracy
Statistician: David Sinclair, Cornell University
Project Director, Co-Author, and Photographer: Deepthi Welaratna
Partners:
Awana Digital
KOFAVIV
École Supérieure d'Infotronique d'Haïti (ESIH)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Port-Au-Prince
The Clinton Global Initiative
Makeshift Magazine
Press Coverage:
techPresident
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Randi Zinn
In 2012, Randi Zinn was the author of a newly established lifestyle blog for NYC moms who was at the start of her journey to grow her brand and business.
While at Openbox, I assisted Randi Zinn with developing the long-term vision for her brand and company. I helped her launch her first website, develop a social media strategy, and recruit a team designed to help her meet her goals.
Team:
Producer: Maria Arrington
Associate: Jason Linzer
Designer: Eli Rosenbloom
Director of Strategy: Deepthi Welaratna
