The Open Group logo

Often cre­ative,
for­ev­er curious.

The Open Peo­ple tell sto­ries, craft design and shape expe­ri­ences, each informed by a sense of pur­pose and optimism.

Con­tact us

Our (ad)ventures.

We devise projects in the arts, media and com­merce, then realise them with our indus­try part­ners.
The best become tele­vi­sion series, books, prod­ucts, events—or entire busi­ness con­cepts. Many occu­py the shift­ing, heady junc­tion between real life and the dig­i­tal world.

stories

media, publishing and television

Flying Workshop Logo
Flying Workshop

With Nathan Peter Wong, we devel­op tv dra­ma and ani­ma­tion for young peo­ple and fam­i­lies. Every show—quirky or profound—features diverse and relat­able char­ac­ters. Indus­try lead­ers have men­tored us and com­mis­sioned our work.

Disney Channel logo
Best Bugs Forever

Our first ani­ma­tion fol­lows the escapades of a com­mu­ni­ty (or infes­ta­tion) of friend­ly ver­min. The show was com­mis­sioned by The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny, which added its char­ac­ter­is­tic vibran­cy and pol­ish. Fifty-two episodes (in six lan­guages) have been pro­duced by the Academy-Award®-nominated stu­dio, Je Suis Bien Con­tent. Fam­i­lies across the world have enjoyed the show on Dis­ney Chan­nel, abc Aus­tralia and oth­er networks.

Character Parts

Fly­ing Work­shop has a fam­i­ly focus. In parallel—and in contrast—we’re explor­ing arrest­ing adult dra­ma and fac­tu­al pro­gram­ming. Char­ac­ter Parts com­ple­ments Fly­ing Workshop’s recog­nised name while estab­lish­ing our pres­ence as ‘grown-up’ inde­pen­dent screenwriters.

experiences

education, the arts and commerce

Hearts and Culture

Our fledg­ling char­i­ty cam­paigns for cre­ative and per­form­ing arts spaces, resources and edu­ca­tion in region­al communities.

Harris Institute Logo
The Harris Institute, Preston

Start­ing in 2015, we insti­gat­ed a £5 mil­lion bid to restore a Grade-II*-listed Vic­to­ri­an-era land­mark for the com­mu­ni­ty. We envis­aged its quar­ter-acre of floor space buzzing with edu­ca­tion in cre­ative and tech­ni­cal crafts, exhi­bi­tions, music, film and per­for­mance. Sad­ly, the building’s poor con­di­tion halt­ed our work. Now, a broad­er coali­tion is dri­ving the project ahead, and we look for­ward to con­tribut­ing our expertise.

Our ser­vices.

Can we add to your project? Our loy­al clients com­mend our insights, skill and warm pro­fes­sion­al­ism.
Soon, our new spe­cialised sites will offer help and infor­ma­tion that’s rel­e­vant to you.

publishing

book design, editorial and production

Book Design Australia

Our design ser­vice for estab­lished pub­lish­ing hous­es pre­pares high­ly-visu­al children’s pic­ture books, text­books and lifestyle titles. Sat­is­fac­tion lies in bring­ing togeth­er the work of authors, illus­tra­tors, edi­tors, pho­tog­ra­phers and pub­lish­ing spe­cial­ists. Clients have includ­ed Scholas­tic, Cen­gage, The Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy Syd­ney, McGraw-Hill and Hor­witz.
★ Relaunch­ing 2025

A Book Inside

We part­ner with emerg­ing self-pub­lish­ers to get their words into print and into read­ers’ hands. As we work, we glad­ly share our knowl­edge to build our clients’ con­fi­dence. We’re ready to help with tra­di­tion­al and on-demand print and e‑books. Every­one has a book inside. What’s yours?
☆ Launch­ing 2025

Our peo­ple.

We’re small—but human. Two of us guide a grow­ing cre­ative cir­cle of helpers, while indus­try men­tors keep us nim­ble and knowledgeable.

Photo of Stuart Gibson
Stuart Gibson
director, publishing consultant, project developer

stuart@theopenpeople.com

A var­ied edu­ca­tion means Stu­art knows a lit­tle about jour­nal­ism and the­atre, and rather more about education.

At the­atres in Syd­ney and Lon­don, Stu­art found an affin­i­ty for arts mar­ket­ing. His knack for vibrant writ­ing and design was wel­comed at Scholas­tic Aus­tralia, where he pro­mot­ed edu­ca­tion­al and children’s books. In 2002 Stu­art found­ed a pub­lish­ing con­sul­tan­cy, which has pro­vid­ed edi­to­r­i­al and design for 160 books with some 500,000 copies in print.

His work at The Open Peo­ple cen­tres on themes of sto­ry­telling, child­hood, edu­ca­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty, design and innovation.

Please be reas­sured that Stuart’s com­put­er is not cur­rent­ly on fire: that’s his smoky Lap­sang Souchong.

Peter Hilton portait
Peter Hilton
arts and experience consultant, project developer

peter@theopenpeople.com

When young, Peter quick­ly recog­nised the pow­er of storytelling.

After join­ing a pro­gres­sive youth the­atre, Peter honed his quick wit, impro­vi­sa­tion and writ­ing skills. His ear for dia­logue and accents count­ed, but an empa­thy for oth­ers did most to ground his por­tray­als. Lat­er train­ing in The­atre in Edu­ca­tion and the Com­mu­ni­ty saw Peter encour­age the trust and esteem of dis­en­fran­chised young peo­ple as they told their own stories.

Peter’s knowl­edge of the­atre and tele­vi­sion extends across the uk, us and Aus­tralia. He’s drawn to mus­cu­lar, char­ac­ter-dri­ven drama.

Along­side his own work, Peter’s career in the arts, her­itage and tourism sec­tors has includ­ed roles at The Syd­ney Opera House, Lon­don’s Bar­bi­can Cen­tre, York Muse­ums Trust and Madame Tussauds.

Peter is known for his humour, humane insight and good judgement.

‘Curios­i­ty about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great cre­ative people.’

leo burnett

Let’s say hello.

From our base south of Syd­ney, Australia—and thanks to online chats and cups of tea—we col­lab­o­rate with peo­ple around the world. How may we help you?

The Open Group Pty Limited

Gan­dan­gara Country
po Box 1050
Moss Vale nsw 2577
aus­tralia

+61 (0)2 8000 1000
hello@theopengroup.com

acn 108 809 794
abn 74 317 400 213
Reg­is­tered for Aus­tralian Goods and Ser­vices Tax (gst).

At our office, it’s 2:55 am on 

Wednes­day, 26th August.

The Open People Limited

Pre­ston, Lan­cashire
unit­ed kingdom

hello@theopenpeople.com

Com­pa­ny 09250517, reg­is­tered in Eng­land and Wales.
vat gb 213 8625 18.

At present, we are work­ing in Aus­tralia. Please con­tact us at our Aus­tralian office as shown.

The Open Group works on Gan­dan­gara Country.

In the spir­it of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, The Open Group acknowl­edges the Tra­di­tion­al Cus­to­di­ans of coun­try through­out Aus­tralia and their con­nec­tions to land, sea and community.

We offer our respect to their Elders past, present and future, and to all Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples. We recog­nise and can learn from their con­tin­u­ing spir­i­tu­al, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al and envi­ron­men­tal practices.

© Copy­right 1997–2026, The Open Group Pty Limited.

The names and logos for The Open Group™, The Open Peo­ple™, Peter­gate™, Book Design Aus­tralia™, Hearts and Cul­ture™, A Book Inside™ and Char­ac­ter Parts™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Limited.

The name and logo for Fly­ing Work­shop™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Lim­it­ed and Nathan Peter Wong as joint-ven­ture partners.

The name Best Bugs For­ev­er™ is a trade­mark of The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed in asso­ci­a­tion with Je Suis Bien Content.

‘Freight’ type­faces by Joshua Dar­d­en are licensed from Adobe Fonts. The ‘Open’ logo was adapt­ed from ‘Zan­tiqa’ font by Sergiy Tkachenko, licensed from MyFonts.

Site writ­ten and designed by The Open Group Pty Limited.

Please con­tact us with any ques­tions you may have about this website.