How we think leads to what we make. Above all, we think about how to tell a story—what will engage and entertain audiences in the most direct and beautiful way?

Interactive Storytelling

We create media experiences that harness deep sources of content and tell compelling stories. We start with content and concepts and build stories that guide people through a journey of their own choosing.

Media Strategy and Planning

We transform abstract goals and objectives into clear pathways to engaging technology, interface, and storytelling solutions. We help turn raw ideas into a realizable vision with the power to move people.

Interdisciplinary Design

Our diverse design team provides comprehensive creative for every dimension of the experiences we make, from high-level user experience design to interaction design to visual and environmental design.

Multi-platform Digital Publishing

From mobile apps to Web sites to immersive environments, we create interactive media in a variety of formats and for most every platform.

Comprehensive Software Development

The technology team’s depth and range in software development inspires our creative and delivers innovative results. The quality of our software is defined by our process, which combines best practices and flexibility.

Hardware Engineering and Prototyping

Our team of engineers and makers design, define, develop, and deploy hardware systems that house and support the software and interfaces that serve our stories.

Our work...

• Communicates brand & institutional values
• Entertains & inspires creativity
• Preserves & transmits heritage
• Informs decision-making
• Interprets & visualizes complexity
• Facilitates dialog & connections
• Provides access to archives
• Promotes products & services

Through...

• Digital environments
• Kiosks & installations
• Web sites
• Tablets & mobile devices

For...

• Consumer brands
• Museums & cultural institutions
• Government organizations
• Entertainment & themed attractions
• Educational institutions
• Retail & trade events
• Media & publishing

Our Studio

Since 2006, we’ve occupied our current North Portland studio on the second floor of a converted warehouse that we designed from the inside out to serve our creative enterprises.

Studio members work in teams across disciplines in open, collaborative seating. The core of the studio is comprised of a two-story structure supporting offices, private meeting areas, conference rooms and a living room. The compartmentalized design of the structure was inspired by cabinets of curiosities or Wunderkammer, the proto-museums that appeared in the 1500s displaying strange artifacts from around the world to amazed crowds.

Lab

Both a place and a special unit within Second Story, the Lab explores the use of technology for innovative interactive storytelling.

Led by the Innovation Director Thomas Wester, the Lab is an incubator for new ideas and projects that demonstrate new opportunities for Second Story and our clients. This flexible part of the studio enables us to experiment, prototype, and test unique hardware configurations throughout the concept, design, and development timeline.

Careers

We’re a group of creative people from diverse backgrounds: visual artists, engineers, wordsmiths, filmmakers, planners, thinkers. We all share a love for technology, storytelling, and a desire to make great things. We offer rewarding careers, internships, artists-in-residencies, and contract opportunities.

Open Positions

• HTML Developer
• Senior Interaction Designer

Internships

Each year Second Story provides paid internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. We provide mentorship and collaboration through diverse projects to students across all disciplines for two to six-month internships.

Apprenticeships

For recent graduates exploring new opportunities for their career, we offer three to six-month apprenticeships where an apprentice works under a senior designer, developer, or producer to develop their skills and explore professional opportunities in this industry.

Artist-in-Residencies

Housed in furnished cottages in our neighborhood, established designers, architects, developers, and media artists come to Portland and collaborate in the studio on specific projects through this program.

Please send an introduction, your resume, and a link to your work to careers@secondstory.com.