About MakeMode
What We Do
MakeMode invents and designs web-services designed around problems people face in our everyday world. We work with our partners and associates to design simple services and engender user cultures that become extensions of the people that use them; that enable people to transform themselves, their work, their companies and their daily life.
We're part of The Digital Health Service which means our principles are:
- to reduce user's stress
- increase user's well-being
- increase user's productivity
- increase user's work/life balance
Through this lens we design holistic, user-focused solutions.
People
MakeMode is made up of a group of members, associates and partners who work fluidly within each project. Here's an intro to a selection of our core people:
Gavin is a workshop facilitator and an interaction designer. In 2005 Gavin became a NESTA Creative Pioneer for MakeMode; a web design consultancy and won NESTA seed-funding to develop Rememble.com; a new type of media-sharing web service.
Before Digital Health Service, Gavin has been involved in new media in education for the BBC's 21st Century Classroom, Futurelab and Demos and for ThinkFarm branding agency on brands such as Scottish Media Group, The Listen Charity, ICAP Brokers and Hotwire PR. He is a speaker on emerging digital trends; most recently at the ICA.
Graduating with Distinction from Masters in Interactive Media from the London College of Communication, he specialised in interaction design, user-research and non-linear narrative. He is a visiting tutor at University of the Arts London, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and member of the Courvoisier The Future 500 network.
Nina Gritzke is a project/account manager and online marketeer. Her work is driven by a passion for setting up productive action systems by streamlining and automating processes and by making the best possible use of digital tools.
Nina takes the reigns as Digital Health Service's Projects Director, having previously been involved with the Service in an Internet marketing role since 2007. She also develops online communication for Concentrate, an innovative company that creates products to help children concentrate better.
Prior to these roles, Nina worked on a web project for the audience development of The Women's Library and for the website of EMMA Media Online. She has also worked for the AGfJ in Hamburg where she managed cultural projects and trained group leaders.
Nina graduated with MA Digital Media from London Metropolitan University and Bachelor in European Ethnology and Gender Studies from the Humboldt University Berlin.
Elena Lujan is a designer for digital media and print. She delivers bespoke design that is engaging and that communicates the message in the most effective manner.
Elena has joined the Digital Health Service in 2009. Besides, she is also doing design work for Concentrate and Impero Design.
Before, Elena has collaborated with MTV Spain and worked for different companies such as Sonar, MidOceanbrands and Faschat.
Elena graduated from TAI school of arts in Madrid.
Charlie Davies is a writer and consultant who specialises in communications and community campaigns.
He founded the Pick Me Up online magazine (www.putmedown.com) and recently worked on developing The Nag, an environmental campaign for lazy people (www.thenag.net). He worked fulltime as a journalist for five years (including two years as Features Editor at The Face magazine).
Now he specialises in developing communications strategy for start-ups, small businesses and creative and environmental organisations.
In the past he has worked for the BBC, Demos, the Ideo design agency, the Kaospilots School of Social Entrepreneurs, DCMS, the ICA and Transition Town Brighton.
Matt works out if ideas for new projects for businesses are viable or not. If they are, he works to attract the money, knowledge, design, space and people in order to make them happen.
Right now, he's working on Slack Space Brighton- a movement to put new projects into unused, empty, missing buildings (and have everybody happy about it); a regeneration project around New England House that houses many of the city's creative / startup projects; a Startup School (with Phil Jones, Wired Sussex); and Likemind Brighton- a self-organising, creative network. Recently Matt has worked with public (eg UnLtd, Make Your Mark), semi-public (Wired Sussex, The Werks) and private organisations (Last.fm, Mint Digital).
In the past, Matt set-up smallbusiness.co.uk and raised six-figure investment from the likes of Lloyds TSB and Microsoft. He then founded the quite successful and very well loved Business Bricks website: funded entirely by reader donations (and a big contract with Google).
Robert Bau is a senior, 360-degree brand & design strategist that divides his time between consulting, lecturing, teaching and writing. He lives in London but works all over Europe on a consultancy basis for a wide range of client organisations, including blue-chip companies, NPOs, creative consultancies, and start-ups.
Robert develops market research strategies, brand strategies, brand portfolio strategies, innovation strategies, marketing strategies, segmentation strategies, marcom strategies, creative/design briefs, and innovation-related processes, methods and tools. He also conducts strategic research, such as brand portfolio, customer experience and visual identity audits.
Furthermore, Robert is a popular lecturer and speaker at universities, university colleges, business schools, design schools, and conferences in Sweden, Spain, Ireland and the UK. Target audiences include marketing professionals, designers, design students, and business students.
Robert holds an MBA Design Management from the University of Westminster in London and an MSc in Business Administration and Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He also holds a diploma in Art Direction from Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm.
Robert is virtually bi-lingual (Swedish and English) – born in Sweden, raised in the US, and educated in the US, Sweden and the UK. Workwise, he has been based in Stockholm, London, Budapest, Stockholm and London (in chronological order).
Dr Daniele Turi is the director and co-founder of LikeCube Ltd, where he is responsible for the development of novel semantic search and recommendation technologies.
Daniele has years of international experience in the semantic web (Manchester University) and the semantics of programming languages (Universities of Edinburgh, Amsterdam, and Pisa).
Daniele holds a doctorate in theoretical computer science from the Free University, Amsterdam.