oio school is BACK!

oio news #32

Author

Matteo Loglio
08 May

Hello folks, and welcome back to another issue of oio news™. From us in the northern hemisphere, we are also grateful to be welcoming back the warmth of spring, the sunlight, the trees and the sneeze-inspiring flowers.

Exciting news! This month, we are officially announcing the re-opening of oio school, our annual summer workshop set in a magnificent seaside villa in Italy. Find out how to sign up and participate in the Golden Ticket challenge for a chance to win a free spot! Also, a throwback to our offsite in Milan in March and a few more updates, so get ready as we dive into the oioverse ☄️

Not your ordinary school

school is cool at oio school

oio school is our annual summer school, a week of intensive ideation, designing and prototyping. Participants from all over the world join in and work alongside the oio team, tackling a custom design brief that we prepare. All levels and backgrounds are welcome, from professional designers and creatives, all the way to students and fresh graduates. You’ll be living together, working together, partying together, making lifelong connections and friends.

the actual villa 💫

But it’s not just work—the summer school takes place in a fully renovated 18th century factory, with plenty of rooms, a large workshop area, and, of course, a swimming pool. It’s located in the deep south of Italy, almost at the end of it, in the Salento region, a short trip from the seaside.

The brief

By joining the school, you’ll be working alongside the oio team, who will be sharing their behind-the-scenes work and processes, as well as some tricks and tools used in the real world with our very real clients. We’ll be sharing case studies and methodologies before actually jumping into a design brief.

Last year, the brief was called “Hot Things for a Hot Planet,” and participants worked on a series of artifacts to follow along with the brief. Each participant interpreted it in their own way—from a video game about animal extinction to a storytelling object, all the way to an AI tool to redesign the future of food. Projects were wild and really cool. None of the participants had previous experience with the tools we presented, and we guided them through each step of the process.

Why a school?

Education is a topic very dear to us. Together with my co-founder Simone, our lead designer Bjørn and our creative technologist Marta, collectively we all teach in some of the most prestigious design programs around the world, and we’ll probably keep doing it for a while. I personally started teaching very young at Central Saint Martins, in London, and from there I never stopped.

❝

The subject of our work is intangible and rare and niche and volatile — perhaps teaching is our way of making it real, preserving it in time and in the minds of the participants.

What oio does, is not taught in schools. Some of them try (by calling us to teach), but it’s the nature of our practice that makes it un-teachable in a traditional format. And that’s why we concentrate them in weekly workshops, such as the oio school. We’re not trying to teach you a subject, it’s more like showing you how we solve problems that nobody has ever solved before. Sharing a mindset that transcends tools and the latest cool technology, to equip participants with an open mind, and most importantly, without taking ourselves too seriously. In fact, only a fool would believe anything we say.

Last year

Still not convinced? Check out some highlights from last year below 👇

See You At School!

Applications for this year just opened, together with the release of Early Bird tickets (they are going FAST💨). So what are you waiting for? Get yours at: oio.school.

oio.school

one week of interaction design, creative technology and italian aperitivos.

www.oio.school

Also, we’re offering one free ticket to one lucky participant. Interested? Find out more here. Quick! The deadline is in just a few days.

oio party 2025

A few weeks ago, the oio team flew to Milan and reunited in person! Nothing beats sharing a pineapple pizza IRL. Some of us even met for the first time!

We’ve also enjoyed meeting you all at the party, sharing laughs, drinks and good music. If you want to re-live that night, here are some goodies.

🗣️ Never not lecturing

A few weeks ago I’ve been invited to lecture at the London College of Fashion, in the Master of Fashion Media & Communication, with Daniel Felstead. After sharing some oio process insights™, we also did a prototyping session to help students come up with ways to bring their projects to life. Thanks for having us! ✌️

Your monthly supply of fine goods, carefully handpicked from our Discord community (missing out? Join now🪽)

📈 Monthly stonks

🌐 www: lusion
🕹 game: bionic bay
📁 arena: the art of the youtube crate dig
📚 wiki: octupus wrestling
🔧 tool: FScanEdit

✏️ words by matlo & normz

👽 just the 2 of us