vorkurs

vorkurs is a design engineering studio.
A studio for creative direction and design engineering. We understand and shape how organisations tell their story, then design, build and launch their digital products with their team.
For startups, climate companies and mission-driven organisations, especially when the in-house team is too small for what needs to launch.

Our practice

Consulting & Strategy

We work out what needs to happen, and what doesn’t. Goals, users, platform and how your team actually works, so you invest in the right thing and everyone knows why.

Brand & Story Systems

Brand, content and digital systems that hold together in practice, not just on paper. Teams move faster, stay consistent, and change course without starting over.

Build & Deploy

We build fast, accessible, maintainable products and put them into production: websites, design systems, internal tools, AI-assisted workflows. No fragile setups, no handing off to someone else to finish.

Stewardship & Evolution

After launch we stay close. We watch how it’s used, improve what matters and keep the system from fragmenting, so your investment keeps paying off instead of needing a rebuild.

How we work together

Audit – Fixed scope

For when something feels off but you're not sure what. We look at your current setup — platform, brand, workflows — map the gaps, and give you a clear plan. Fixed fee, no commitment beyond that.

Embedded, monthly retainer – Monthly retainer

For teams that need someone senior inside, not alongside. We join your team 2–3 days a week, sit with the people who use what we build, and work directly into your stack: design, engineering, or both. Most long-term partnerships start here.

Project – End to end

For when you need something designed, built and running. From brief to launch and into production. Strategy, design, engineering, deployment: one team, no handoff gaps.

Advisory – Fractional lead

For organisations that need senior direction without a full-time hire. We come in as a fractional lead — set the direction, define the workflow, align the team, and step back when the system runs on its own.

Selected work

brandmelder x NEW STANDARD.S

Web Development & Image Tooling

We built the website for brandmelder, a non-profit climate journalism project by Netzwerk Klimajournalismus Deutschland. Working with the Berlin studio NEW STANDARD.S, we took their brand design to launch in under two weeks.

Inside the CMS we built a halftone image generator, starting from the studio's p5.js prototype. Editors upload a photo, adjust the dots, pick a brand colour, and the result becomes the article's image. Every story stays on-brand, with no designer needed.

Website

CrossBoundary

Multi-site Frontend Development

Partnering with Berlin-based agency backendforth, we led the development of the multi-site platform for one of the largest sustainable-development investment firms in the Global South. We turned the component system into a scalable frontend, keeping visual integrity across regions and sub-brands.

Translating complex financial content into clear, trustworthy interfaces, with a system that scales.

Website

citizenM

Creative Direction & Design System

We helped setting the creative direction and content creation across citizenM's digital ecosystem: landing pages, campaigns, CRM and web content, working on campaigns that generated €20M+ in revenue in 2024 only.

Along the way we mentored the in-house junior designers, managed external agencies, and kept the visual language consistent across 37 properties worldwide.

Erik Kessels & Gallerie d'Italia

Creative & Technical Direction

We worked with artist Erik Kessels on Un'Immagine, a large-scale immersive installation at Gallerie d'Italia, Milan. Thousands of images from the Publifoto Archive are stitched together by an algorithm into a continuously moving 360-degree visual and sound experience.

We were the bridge between the creative and the technical: interpreting the artistic vision, finding the right collaborator, managing the creative dialogue and overseeing delivery.

View exhibition

Principles

Form follows function

Every decision is shaped by use, context, and accessibility. Structure comes first.

True materials

Strategy, technology, and content that reflect reality. Built for durability, not short-term appeal.

Systems over artifacts

We don't make one-off deliverables. We make structures that stay consistent as they grow.

Close to the problem

We work where the work happens: with your team, your users and your real data, not from a deck at a distance.