our story

nowhere was formed of many strands that began to weave together in the mid to late nineties. One of these strands, or legacies, was the Design Transformation Group, a group of like-minded, international designers, educationalists, consultants, philosophers and artists who wanted to explore and experiment with the future business of design. By being in community with each other once a year, at a week-long event we called a DesignQuest, we shared ideas, played with possibilities and unlocked each other's imagination and creativity. The momentum produced from these events, and the subsequent publications that followed, opened intriguing networks into both the corporate and academic design worlds.

A second important strand was that of organisational transformation. A small group of practitioners from the fields of strategic change, culture change, branding and marketing, creativity, visioning and leadership found themselves with an opportunity to work together in a couple of client systems. They soon discovered that by transcending the usual silos that exist within many businesses, and which consultants are also compartmentalised, we could unlock exponential value and impact.

A third and vital component was a realisation from a small emerging group of people that they all had something else in common - a personal practice - a daily consciousness practice that informed the way they walked in life and appreciated the world around them

These practices were diverse, and informed by both ancient and modern wisdom traditions - which in itself is the fourth strand of our story and legacy. These practices and disciplines included, and still include: The Science of Consciousness, the New Sciences, Psychotherapy, Gestalt, Design and Craft, Zen Buddhism, Native American Earth Wisdom, Taoism, to name but a few...

With these strands, six people came together to design a new company with the intent of synthesising them into a living practice for catalysing creative and collective breakthrough. This practice would be just as applicable to global businesses as it would be small businesses, schools and organisations of all kinds, as well as of course our families and friends.

It took two years to design nowhere. This included waiting for the name of our company to reveal itself, which it did travelling down an escalator on the London Underground during a conversation about the principles of Gestalt Therapy - working in the now and here. Through this period it also became clear that we should start with two companies: limitednowhere (a commercial company) and the nowherefoundation (a not-for-profit company). The creative tension between the two was part of the spark we wanted and needed. We believed this in turn would create a gravitational pull that would attract other like-minded people and organisations to our quest.

As part of the design process, we also decided to be nomadic (with no central offices) enabling us to be as light on our feet and on the planet as possible. We wanted to stay below the radar and be invisible wherever and whenever possible.

Instead we wanted to use the time that normally goes into finding new business and competing with others in more productive and meaningful ways. For example, to develop, refine and codify our emergent practice.

Lastly we wanted the nowherefoundation to outlive us all. This fundamental value was embedded into the ethos of the community so that the commercial company (now companies) would always be in service of the foundation and where necessary tithe financial support. Fortunately, from our formal launch in January 2000 we have been able to live up to these design principles. People somehow found out about us, and we moved towards the work that excited and challenged us. Over the next few years, two companies turned into six, with numerous other strategic partners and programmes.

Today we intentionally remain small and specialist, growing only slowly in number. Our creative-catalysts work all over the world in different combinations with global businesses and government agencies. And our foundation continues to work closely with leaders, teachers, families and other practitioners in schools, institutions and agencies, internationally, in the public and private sectors.

The first seven years have felt like a living experiment. It was! And, as we strove to find a creative and healthy balance between our consciousness and our commerciality we discovered things that worked and made a difference in today's world. We have taken stock of what we have developed and we feel the time is ripe to share more fully what we have learned

So, we have dedicated our next seven years to share our co-creative practice beyond our immediate network of partners and clients, to invite others to join our quests, so they too can bring their own magic and uniqueness to the challenge of releasing each other's creative potential.

The quest continues...