Our approach
Three fundamental ideas inform our design practice and collaboration with our clients.
Sustainable impact
We believe strategic design creates sustaining and resilient innovation, which is able to adapt to changing environments and demands, vital for staying relevant, useful and valuable in the long term.
Context is key
We believe understanding contexts and systems is the key to grasping the full scope of any problem and creating meaningful solutions and interventions.
Focus on experiences
To intervene in complex systems, we have to look at the smallest elements of experience: how people interact with things, with each other, and with the world around them—the everyday details of their lives.
Panorama
Talk and a panel discussion at the German Mobility Congress 2025 on design futuring and the potentials and limits of future images for shaping tomorrow’s mobility. (2025)
Workshop with representatives of medium-sized companies at the Offenbach Chamber of Industry and Commerce exploring futuring methods for better decision-making. (2025)
Three-day workshop at our Frankfurt studio with design students from Tatung University Taipei exploring design futuring methods, futures thinking and speculative prototypes. (2025)
Series of interdisciplinary workshops and talks with industrial design, electrical engineering and media design students about design futuring. (2025)
Event on World Futures Day at the St. Michael Center for Bereavement Counseling in Frankfurt, where participants explored futures of dying and new ways of dealing with death with dignity. (2025)
Workshop at the Fachtagung Katastrophenvorsorge with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK)’s National Focal Point for the Sendai Framework (NKS), exploring how resilience might be lived in Germany in 2045. (2023)
Event for World Futures Day 2024 at the ma ma office in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen with practical exercises and discussions about futures and anticipation. (2024)
Workshop on ‘The Future of Civil Protection in the Face of Climate Change’ with staff and Young Professionals of the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV). (2023)
Presentation and discussion on 'Designed by AI' exploring the usefulness and shortcomings of artificial intelligence tools throughout the design process from ideation to implementation, part of an expert forum at Hoffmann + Krippner. (2023)
Using Design Futuring to devise strategies, change processes or product and service innovations for SMEs. Part of a event series by the Offenbach Chamber of Industry and Commerce. (2022)
Talk about 'Design Futuring' as an innovative approach to develop solutions to diverse societal problems and new responsibilities for designers. (2021)
Article on the benefits of Design Futuring in the fields of disaster risk reduction, risk management and civil protection for resilient and sustainable futures, published in the German Committee for Disaster Reduction newsletter magazine. (2020)
Spotlight
We used today’s societal, medical and technological trends to outline the future of medical applications and collaborated in a strategic discursive design project to anticipate future medical products and services.
We helped our client co-create a new company-wide service management experience by introducing a culture of design across all departments.
Clients
Panorama
Talk and discussion about mobility futures
Talk and a panel discussion at the German Mobility Congress 2025 on design futuring and the potentials and limits of future images for shaping tomorrow’s mobility. (2025)
Workshop about decision-making for SME⤻
Workshop with representatives of medium-sized companies at the Offenbach Chamber of Industry and Commerce exploring futuring methods for better decision-making. (2025)
Futuring Workshop with Design Students⤻
Three-day workshop at our Frankfurt studio with design students from Tatung University Taipei exploring design futuring methods, futures thinking and speculative prototypes. (2025)
Design Futuring at Tatung University Taipei⤻
Series of interdisciplinary workshops and talks with industrial design, electrical engineering and media design students about design futuring. (2025)
“Futures of Dying” Futures Literacy Lab⤻
Event on World Futures Day at the St. Michael Center for Bereavement Counseling in Frankfurt, where participants explored futures of dying and new ways of dealing with death with dignity. (2025)
Futures Literacy Lab “Living Resilience in 2045?”
Workshop at the Fachtagung Katastrophenvorsorge with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK)’s National Focal Point for the Sendai Framework (NKS), exploring how resilience might be lived in Germany in 2045. (2023)
World Futures Day 2024 at ma ma⤻
Event for World Futures Day 2024 at the ma ma office in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen with practical exercises and discussions about futures and anticipation. (2024)
Futures Literacy Lab on Disaster Risk Reduction⤻
Workshop on ‘The Future of Civil Protection in the Face of Climate Change’ with staff and Young Professionals of the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV). (2023)
Talk at H+K Zukunftstalk about AI in Design
Presentation and discussion on 'Designed by AI' exploring the usefulness and shortcomings of artificial intelligence tools throughout the design process from ideation to implementation, part of an expert forum at Hoffmann + Krippner. (2023)
Webinar about Futuring for Businesses⤻
Using Design Futuring to devise strategies, change processes or product and service innovations for SMEs. Part of a event series by the Offenbach Chamber of Industry and Commerce. (2022)
Lecture at Tatung University Taipei
Talk about Design Futuring as an innovative approach to develop solutions to diverse societal problems and new responsibilities for designers. (2021)
Guest editorial for DKKV about Design Futuring⤻
Article on the benefits of Design Futuring in the fields of disaster risk reduction, risk management and civil protection for resilient and sustainable futures, published in the German Committee for Disaster Reduction newsletter magazine. (2020)
Want to know more?
ma ma Interactive System Design
Gutzkowstrasse 7 HH
60594 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
“We think in generalities, but we live in detail.” —Alfred North Whitehead