The Open People logo
Often cre­ative,
for­ev­er curious.
The Open Peo­ple tell sto­ries and shape expe­ri­ences, each informed by a sense of pur­pose and optimism.
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 busi­ness­es. 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.
2007–

Disney Channel logo
Best Bugs

Our first ani­ma­tion fol­lows the escapades of a com­mu­ni­ty (or infes­ta­tion) of friend­ly ver­min. The show enjoys the back­ing of The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny, which has added its char­ac­ter­is­tic vibran­cy and pol­ish. Fifty-two episodes are in pro­duc­tion by the Academy-Award®-nominated stu­dio, Je Suis Bien Con­tent, for ini­tial broad­cast in Europe.

Petergate Publishing logo
Character Parts

Fly­ing Work­shop has a pure, 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 a pres­ence as ‘grown-up’ inde­pen­dent screenwriters.
2018–

Petergate Publishing logo
Petergate Publishing

Our books will move young read­ers to grow in under­stand­ing, courage and resilience, to explore and improve their world, and to express their imag­i­na­tions through the arts.
2002–

experiences

education, the arts and commerce

Real Experiences

We work on paper, on screen and in the imag­i­na­tion. But we long for the tac­tile, ana­logue, bare­foot, hands-on world too: authen­tic lived experiences.

Real Creativity logo
Real Creativity

Gen­er­ous men­tors helped make our ear­ly dreams real­is­tic. We aim to share that good for­tune through pub­li­ca­tions, edu­ca­tion and group events for peo­ple pur­su­ing a cre­ative liv­ing and life.
2004–

Real Childhood logo
Real Childhood

Once, our plan for a low-key, irreg­u­lar par­ent-and-child mag­a­zine seemed suf­fi­cient. But now, a pos­i­tive, anti-pink, out­spo­ken, inclu­sive, un-plas­tic move­ment for fam­i­lies is imper­a­tive. Now we must build broad­er media and expe­ri­ences under­pinned by hope, resilience and respect.
1999–

Hearts and Culture

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

Hearts and Culture logo
The Harris Institute, Preston

In 2015, we insti­gat­ed a £5 mil­lion bid to restore a Grade-II*-listed Vic­to­ri­an-era land­mark. With over a quar­ter-acre of floor space, we envis­aged a space buzzing with edu­ca­tion in the arts and tech­ni­cal crafts, com­mu­ni­ty events and arts gath­er­ings. Exhi­bi­tions, music, film and per­for­mance would be a night­ly focus. Sad­ly. the building’s poor con­di­tion halt­ed our work. Now, a broad­er com­mu­ni­ty coali­tion is dri­ving the project ahead, and we look for­ward to con­tribut­ing our exper­tise.
2015–

The Open Store

Can e‑commerce be rec­on­ciled with mul­ti-sen­so­ry and worth­while, real retail? We’re design­ing eth­i­cal prod­ucts and authen­tic cus­tomer experiences.

Spice and Friends logo
Spice and Friends

Restor­ing the sens­es to food retail, Spice and Friends groups tastes and aro­mas in a new­ly use­ful flavour vocab­u­lary. Spe­cial­ist ingre­di­ents, fresh blends and por­tion-planned recipe kits will become easy, healthy meals. Impec­ca­ble sourc­ing, inspir­ing recipes and demon­stra­tions will embold­en new and prac­tised cooks to exper­i­ment with inter­na­tion­al flair.
2010–

Modest Store logo
The Modest Store

Sim­plic­i­ty, tex­ture, mate­r­i­al and form link the hand-made crafts of Japan, Scan­di­navia and Aus­tralia. Our curat­ed range of ceram­ics, tex­tiles, fur­ni­ture and home­wares will jux­ta­pose the beau­ti­ful and use­ful work of arti­sans from each culture.
2019-

Our ser­vices.
Can we add to your project? Our loy­al clients com­mend our insights, skill and warm professionalism.
Our niche sites let us offer help and infor­ma­tion that’s rel­e­vant to you.

publishing

book design, editorial and production

Print is Read

When Book Design Aus­tralia out­grew its name, we split our ser­vices between pub­lish­ing hous­es and indi­vid­u­als. Print is Read adapts to the sys­tems of large firms to design high­ly-visu­al 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.
2002–

A Book Inside

We part­ner with emerg­ing self-pub­lish­ers to get their words into print and into read­ers’ hands. Our lit­er­ate, step-by-step approach cov­ers edi­to­r­i­al, design, pro­duc­tion and mar­ket­ing. We’re ready to help with tra­di­tion­al and on-demand print, e‑books, retail and direct sales. Every­one has a book inside. What’s yours?
2004–

communication

marketing, content and design

Design for Children

By link­ing graph­ic design with edu­ca­tion, we craft tempt­ing, usable and vibrant media for young peo­ple. Backed by research and strong ethics, our work avoids the hec­tic pink-and-orange explo­sive excess­es that dis­tract and exhaust our audi­ence. In their place? Respect, read­abil­i­ty and honesty.
2019–

Words with Ways

Bring­ing our copy­writ­ing and con­tent-cre­ation skills to the fore, Words with Ways will address our clients’ increas­ing need for cap­ti­vat­ing, cus­tomer-cen­tric writ­ing with a dis­tinct tone-of-voice.
2019–

Arts Marketing

When mar­ket­ing enter­tain­ment com­pa­nies, the­atre, dance and exhi­bi­tions, we estab­lish a ‘total expe­ri­ence’ for audi­ences before the cur­tain ris­es. Close research and our heart­felt response to each pro­duc­tion guides our work: direc­tors have even adopt­ed our imagery when stag­ing their events. Our ideas—tiny or comprehensive—have appeared for Disney’s Beau­ty and the Beast, Only Shad­ows The­atre Com­pa­ny, Peter Dar­ren Pro­duc­tions, Curi­ous Works, Ensem­ble The­atre, DS Pro­duc­tions, The Lin­galayam Dance Com­pa­ny and pre-emi­nent venues in Eng­land and Australia.
1993–

Our peo­ple.
We’re tiny. Minus­cule. Just two of us guide a grow­ing cir­cle of cre­ative free­lancers and indus­try con­sul­tants, who keep us nim­ble and knowledgeable.
Stuart Gibson, The Open People
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 tea.

Peter Hilton, The Open Group
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 Com­mu­ni­ty and Edu­ca­tion­al The­atre 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 cur­rent base in Sydney—and thanks to online chats and cups of tea—we col­lab­o­rate with peo­ple around the world. How may we help you?

The Open People Limited

Pre­ston, Lan­cashire
unit­ed kingdom

hello@theopenpeople.com

In Pre­ston, it’s on .

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

Our Pre­ston Office is tem­porar­i­ly closed; you can con­tact us in Syd­ney.

The Open Group Pty Limited

po Box 400
Sur­ry Hills nsw 2010
aus­tralia

+61 (0)2 8000 1000

hello@theopengroup.com

In Syd­ney, it’s  on .

acn 108 809 794
abn 74 317 400 213

Copy­right ©1998– The Open Peo­ple Limited

The names and logos for Peter­gate®, Book Design Aus­tralia®, Hearts and Cul­ture™, Mod­est Store™, The Open Group™, The Open Peo­ple™, The Open Store™, ‘Open’ logo™, Real Child­hood™, Real Cre­ativ­i­ty™ and Spice and Friends™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Limited.

The names and logos for Fly­ing Work­shop™ and Char­ac­ter Parts™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Lim­it­ed and Nathan Peter Wong as joint-ven­ture partners.

The name Best Bugs™ is a trade­mark of The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny Limited.

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

Site writ­ten and designed by The Open Group Pty Limited.

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