We started Protagonist Studio because we’ve seen firsthand what the right narrative can do for design.

We’ve been using narrative to solve complex UX, content and service design problems for over a decade, for clients ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 companies, and with agencies like Ziba, Smart and McKinsey Design. Through that experience, we’ve come to embrace storytelling as a uniquely powerful and underutilized tool for shaping design strategy, especially in multi-disciplinary creative teams.

We formed Protagonist Studio in 2018 to put that tool at the center of the design process, and use it as a hub for more integrated, more user-oriented strategy. We build up teams on a per-project basis, tapping a trusted network of researchers, writers, designers and strategists in the US and Europe, to give you the right mix of expertise without the excess overhead.

Curious how that works, and how we can make it work for you? Send us a note—we’d love to hear your story.

Carl Alviani

FOUNDER

Carl specializes in telling stories about the process, artifacts, and consequences of design. He’s helped dozens of companies and agencies improve their design outcomes through research-based narrative, and his writing has appeared in WIRED, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Gizmodo, Forbes and elsewhere, on topics ranging from service innovation to urban planning and the ethics of interaction design – anywhere creative decisions affect human experience. He spent five years shaping content and marketing strategy for Ziba Design; before that, he edited and wrote at two of the world’s longest-running design websites, Core77 and Coroflot.

Previously a 3D CAD modeler, a high school science teacher, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in East Africa, Carl holds a BS in Structural Engineering from UC San Diego and a Master of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute. Having lived and worked in New York, Portland, Malmö, Amsterdam and Singapore, he’s currently based out of Glasgow.

[Carl] has a special knack for turning a half-baked idea into something worth sharing with the world. Simply put, sharing a room and a piece of writing with Carl made me a better thinker and storyteller.

- Sean Madden, Senior Director of Product, Nike Retail

Carl delivered content wins. It's that simple....His fluency runs deep in the design industry and his commitment to putting a point of view into context for the audience created resonance we would've otherwise struggled to find.

- Jensie Miksich, Brand Strategy Director, Context Partners