Flying Towards the North Star — Gunnhildur Yrr

Flying Towards the North Star — Consulting — 2024

The challenge

In my second semester of the Master’s in Strategic Design and Entrepreneurship, I took part in a semester-long consultancy project. The project was developed collaboratively by a multidisciplinary team: graphic designer (myself), product designer Lin, business developer Bart, and experimental designer Hugo, each bringing a unique perspective to the process.

Kirt x Thomsen is a visionary studio in Copenhagen working at the intersection of design, storytelling, and future scenarios. As they explored opportunities in new markets and the integration of emerging technologies such as AI, they identified a need to articulate a clear, unifying direction that could inspire the team and strengthen their market position. They were seeking a way to distill their creative capabilities and distinctive approach into a guiding framework that could support long-term growth and innovation.

The solution

To respond to Kirt x Thomsen’s brief, we embedded ourselves in the studio as process consultants over the course of four months. Through ethnographic observation, interviews, workshops, and thematic analysis, we worked closely with the team to co-create a strategic framework rooted in their core identity.

Our proposal: the North Star concept – a strategic design intervention centered on building internal alignment through a clear and collectively owned organisational identity. At the heart of this concept is a culture handbook designed in Figma to surface and express the studio’s purpose, values, and aspirations in a way that resonates across the team. Rather than a traditional brand manual, it is a dynamic internal tool intended to spark reflection, encourage dialogue, and strengthen unity.

To symbolically anchor the new direction, we also proposed a sculptural object for the studio: a visual manifestation of their shared vision that serves as a daily reminder of who KXT is and where they are heading. Together, these elements aim to nurture an identity-led culture, support collaborative decision-making, and create a strong foundation for future expansion into new markets.