Smithery – A Strategic Design Practice

We help you make things people want, rather than make people want things.

Smithery is an independent Strategic Design Practice, set up by John V Willshire in 2011.

We help organisations take an active role in shaping their futures as they look out over an uncertain landscape. This involves learning to perceive and understand new realities, sparking appropriate internal innovation, and acting on these instincts to make real change.

About our work

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We help you think broader, for longer.

Since 2011, we have developed our unique practice informed by a cross-section of modern ways of thinking and creating.

We can help you and your team in a huge variety of ways, operating in the spaces in-between established disciplines to find highly effective new ways of working.

Systemic Sensibilities

Reveal the complex connections around your current model

Innovation Frameworks

Structure models to support better decision-making

Futures Thinking

Explore longer term implications of possible scenarios

Information Design

Communicate your vision and direction to all stakeholders

What Strategic Design Delivers

Our approach will help you build a better future for your organisation. This work can span the initial research phase, the design and testing of new interventions, through to the launch of new initiatives.

Broaden your worldview

Create a better picture of the connected and complex factors around your organisation

Reveal opportunities for action

Shape prototypes and probes that help identify new, potentially potent directions

Shape a vision for transformation

Tell a credible story that captures the best of your past, and make the most of your future

Change the decision-making culture

Reframe how problems are approached, researched and resolved by teams

Build durability for uncertain times

Set up experiments that will thrive in complexity rather than succumb to it

Deliver resilient, long-term solutions

Build out new efforts that are truly future-facing rather than reliant on past echoes

FAQs

What sort of clients do you work with?

We are experts in exploring the edges for emergent practices, and we thrive in the liminal spaces between departments and disciplines, roles and responsibilities. This means we typically work across existing teams, or with those empowered to explore future-facing strategy. Our experience is much broader than most as a result. Recently, we have been:

Helping an Intergovernmental Organisation build out a Future Trends and Signals System
Shaping a strategy around learning capability for a large multinational FMCG
Creating a strategic customer-service framework for a housing association
Designing online micro-network services for government innovation
Working with a fast-growing dating start-up with their future business strategy

You can read more about our client work here.

We have also worked with clients across the following sectors:

Financial services companies

Media corporations

Interior designers

Global and local charities

Technology giants

Government science groups

University leadership teams

Legal firms

Global brewing companies

Toy manufacturers

Professional bodies

National and local museums

How do you typically work?

We like to start small. Designing quick, creative research discovery sprints helps us understand what makes your problems unique, or what we’ve seen before. We then want to support our clients by helping them build skills and knowledge internally which will help them thrive. We will recommend bringing some of our collaborators network, but prefer to build the skills of your own team.

What sort of projects are you interested in?

We are fairly agnostic to the type of project that a client brings us, or indeed the sector it comes from – what matters most is that the people involved are truly up for exploring broadly and imagining wildly.

Currently we are particularly interested in clients who are looking to explore what a regenerative future would look like for their organisation. What does it mean for your organisation to contribute to the healthiest environment, with the greatest economy, for all in society?

How could we explore a potential partnership?

Talking together is the best way to explore how we can help you. After an informal conversation we can arrange a deeper discussion with others in your organisation, as long as we agree that there is something interesting to explore. Get in touch with us here.