It takes a village: Let’s collaborate on your digital projects

What we do: We conceptualize, prototype, design and build digital platforms, infrastructure and products. Additionally, we have a sharp eye for branding and take a strategic point of view. We can merge with your existing team for additional capacity or take on your project all by ourselves, be it a rebranding, custom website, API backend or online platform.

Who we are: We’re a diverse and deliberately small team of researchers, designers and software engineers, combining their digital expertise in one company. This combination allows us to take digital projects from the first sticky note all the way to launch and beyond. If additional skills are needed, we can tap into a large pool of collaborators.

Why work with us? Village One is an independent studio with strong values, high efficiency and a radical structure: We’re worker-owned, meaning you’ll always talk to an actual co-owner of the company. This leads to quick decisions, high motivation and minimal overhead. It also means we’re here to stay – most clients work with us for many years, in long-term partnerships.

Book a call Our vision

Actions speak louder than words. Our portfolio

A screenshot of the new Publix website, showing an illustration that resembles a text editor interface, text with lots of quirky icons inserted inbetween. The text is cut-off, but reads something along the lines of “Publix is going to be a new place for journalists and democracy”.

Publix

Developing the visual presentation and digital infrastructure of Publix, a new house for journalism and public debate

Research, Strategy, Design, Development
A collage of website screenshots from the new YouthPolicy.org website, with the headline “We provide open data for better public policies” clearly visible

Youth Policy Labs

Re-imagining the brand and website for YouthPolicy.org, the most extensive knowledge base about youth policy around the world

Branding, Design, Development, Data migration
Over-the-shoulder photo of a person sitting on a couch with a laptop. The screen shows a website advertising a world-wide event in which different people can meet. It’s visualized with an abstracted globe with dots for every country.

My Country Talks

A software platform to spark conversations, reduce polarization and help societies connect over the issues that divide them

Design, Development, Platform, Community
A illustration showing geometric shapes stacked into a tower, looking a bit wonky

Sovereign Tech Fund

Establishing a serious-yet-playful brand and website for STF, Germany’s leading open-source fund, to strengthen digital infrastructure in the public interest

Branding, Design, Development, Accessibility
A collage showing the words “DemocracyNext” thrice and a detailed illustration with people in discussion.

DemNext

A comprehensive new website, guide and scalable design system for DemNext, the action institute exploring the next democratic paradigm

Design System, Development
A collage of screenshots from the website typemates.com, showing a range of typefaces and very large text that reads “An ultra friendly typeface”

TypeMates

An entirely new custom online shop, with a bold design and thought-through interactions, for a cutting-edge type foundry

Development, E-Commerce, Web App

We team up with individuals, organisations and companies who share our optimism that a better world is possible. Like what you see? You could be up there as well!

Get in touch

Digital projects: From idea to production and beyond

Galaxy

Digital strategy, research and prototyping

Box

Branding and design systems

Plant 200

Digital products, platforms and infrastructure

Flower

Custom website design and development

Hat

Technical consulting and audits

Tech stack: Elixir Phoenix, Ruby on Rails, Next.js, React, Typescript, Node.js, GSAP, Framer Motion, Craft CMS, Craft Commerce, Kirby, GraphQL, serverless

Methods: Remote and in-person workshops, Scrum, Kanban, prototyping, usability testing, journey mapping, visual compass, accessibility evaluation, information architecture

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s what our project partners say

  • I’d like to say thank you for this incredible collaboration. Not just in terms of the excellent outcome, but also about how to do things (together) and why. Love in all directions!

    Leonid A. Klimov Science Editor, dekoder
  • It is such a pleasure working with you. Your sense of purpose; your empathy and respect; sense of beauty and design; the clean and smart coding; your pragmatism and professionalism. It fills me with great joy to know that we'll keep working together.

    Andreas Karsten CEO, Youth Policy Labs
  • Village One has worked with us to develop a brand identity for the Sovereign Tech Fund that is not just coherent: it also strengthens our message and clarifies our vision, mission and identity.

    Powen Shiah Communications Manager, Sovereign Tech Fund
  • Over the last months we’ve redesigned and rebuilt Media Lab Bayern’s website with great support from Village One. Seriously, I’ve rarely seen such a smooth relaunch. Kudos to the entire team!

    Alexander Rühl Teamlead Marketing, Media Lab Bayern
  • We immensely enjoyed working with this amazing team. If anyone is looking for a creative, talented, value-driven team for design & web development I would highly recommend to reach out!

    Claudia Chzwalisz Founder + CEO, DemocracyNext

See even more

Want to talk to the owner? Sure, which one?

Photo of Dorothée Schwartzmann, strategist at Village One
Dorothée Schwartzmann (she/her), Strategy
Photo of Harry Keller, developer at Village One
Harry Keller (he/him), Frontend Development
Photo of Christoph Rauscher, designer at Village One
Christoph Rauscher (he/him), Design
Photo of Zhuo-Fei Hui, developer at Village One
Zhuo-Fei Hui (she/her), Backend Development
Photo of Sev Furneaux, developer at Village One
Sev Furneaux (he/him), Frontend Development
Photo of Julia Shkatova, designer at Village One
Julia Shkatova (she/her), Design

Our aim is to assemble a team of roughly 12 people over time, because we think that’s a healthy size for a creative team. Good things take time though and while we enjoy meeting new people, we’re not actively hiring right now. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about open positions!

A team photo of all six Village One members, standing around outside and looking at their phones

Pick our brains: Articles from our newsletter and digital garden

Oct 2024 newsflash—what we’ve been working on

We’ve prepared a round-up of 10 tiny updates, focused on our recent project work. Ready? Let’s catch up!

A new brand and website for YouthPolicy.org

About a year ago, we received an incredibly nice email from Andreas Karsten, the CEO of Youth Policy Labs (YPL). Lo and behold, we were invited to Fürstenberg to meet the YPL team at their annual off-site and to understand better what they do as an organization. Here is what happened afterwards ...

“Der Krieg und seine Opfer”—creating an online documentary with dekoder.org

We supported dekoder.org with design and code on an ambitious project: launching an online documentary series that tells the overlooked stories of civilian victims in Nazi-occupied parts of the Soviet Union during WW2.

Projects wishlist / blocklist

Village One is a studio with strong values and our goal is to win over clients and projects we feel genuinely excited about—that leads to the best work, after all. Below are our wishlist, red lines and a few personal statements from members.

Why is Village One a cooperative?

When we got serious about founding Village One we didn’t yet know that it would become a cooperative. Rather, we conceptualized what our ideal company would look like, based on the tensions we had felt in previous employments and what inspired us in other organizations.

Office hours: Let’s get to know each other!

Got a project to talk about or just want to chat? First contact can be daunting, but we make it easy: Just schedule a video call (or send us an email)!

We use our digital garden to document processes, values, organizational knowledge, newsletters and everything in between.

Visit the garden

Stronger together: Come along for the ride!

The Villager’s Dispatch

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Virtual office hours

Got a project to discuss or simply want to say hello? Book a video call right away!

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We’re on Mastodon

Our main social presence is on Mastodon, follow for inspiration and regular updates:

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