A couple weeks ago, our good friends (and colleagues) over at Influx suggested we take a look at a design company called Local Projects. An interdisciplinary design company whose work fuses "information design, media and interactivity," Local Projects has won loads of accolades and awards for creating unique spaces in public that help tell- or facilitate the telling of- stories. Traditionally, design is rarely narrative in nature, yet Local Projects have developed an approach and aesthetic that makes their work about so much more than the presentation of a story or message. Duly impressed and more than a little blown away by what we learned from LP's website, EMERGE sent off a few quick questions to Jake Barton, Local Project's founder. Here's what he has to say:

1. What is Local Projects exactly? How did such an unorthodox design studio come together and evolve? How many people are involved and who are they?

Local Projects designs media installations for museums and public spaces. We're a multi-disciplinary studio that brings together physical, graphic, hardware and interaction designers with filmmakers, editors, programmers, writers, and researchers. Right now we are five people, with a large range of outside collaborators for each project. Everyone does many things, so our programmers do interaction design, our graphic designers do motion graphics, and our hardware designers do 3D animations. We're trying to stay relatively small, but there are some big projects that are looming, so we will be growing in the new year.

2. LP has coined several phrases to describe its work. Could you talk a bit about the importance of "collaborative storytelling," "environmental media," and "innovative interfaces?"

These three labels just help others to understand the basics of all of our work: telling stories in public spaces using novel tools. "Collaborative Storytelling" projects are projects where we design a process, not just a product. Like the jetBlue StoryBooth, where the stories come from the audience itself. "Environmental Media" projects integrate storytelling into immersive physical spaces, like the Carousel where visitors are surrounded by a submersed journey through the ocean. "Innovative Interfaces" are interfaces that don't feel like ATMs, like the digital book project for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

3. Having worked for corporate clients (jetBlue) as well as more civic-minded enterprises (Smithsonian Institute, Sound Portraits Productions), does the nature of your client have a meaningful impact or does Local Projects do what Local Projects does regardless of the client?

The nature of the client is critical, because in the end your design work can only be as meaningful as the content. With Timescapes, we had the entire history of New York City to tell in 22 minutes, so we used a series of evolving maps to visually tell the story of New York's epic growth. That technique is not specific to corporate versus non-profit, its specific to the content. The Eames studio did some of their best work for IBM, and other corporate clients, because the content was evolved.

4. What are some current projects that Local Projects are working on?

We're opening three pieces for the New York Historical Society's ground-breaking exhibition on Slavery in New York, including a short film starring Danny Glover. We're doing media design for the new Museum of Chinese in the Americas, with architecture by Maya Lin. And we're designing the Public Information Exchange for the Center for Architecture, a hybrid digital/physical project that allows architects to garner feedback on their buildings before they are constructed.

5. So much of LPs work winds up in public spaces (Story Corps, Jet Blue). What has been the impact of working on client projects which live within public spaces?

Dense urban spaces offer such interesting opportunities to gather, reflect, and interact with other people. Clients are starting to figure out that media and participation helps to harness that potential. For StoryCorps, having the recording booths in public spaces reminds people that while the conversation they are recording is first and foremost private and intimate, it will eventually join a public archive, and is actually a public act.

Thanks to Jake Barton and Local Projects. EMERGE can't wait to see more of their innovative and engrossing work.