Apologue founder Tali Krakowsky. (Photo: Eyal Toueg)

Former Imaginary Forces director of experience design Tali Krakowsky has launched Apologue, a new company that will create branded experiences by merging storytelling and new media with physical environments.

Krakowsky, who spoke at the Boards Summit Europe a fortnight ago on interactivity in physical spaces, was latterly with WET Design and has created branded experiences and installations for clients including MOMA, Van Cleef and Arpels, Frank Gehry, Airbus and IBM.

Apologue will work on a dual model: the first will see Krakowsky working on a project basis to create experiences for a wide variety of clients from the worlds of real estate, architecture, fashion, cultural institutions, brands and technology. The second model will see Krakowsky act as a consultant to brands and clients, offering concept, strategic and content advice to those already dabbling in experience design, as well as building teams of experts to execute those ideas.

"We have to respond to shifting cultural trends," says Krakowsky of why she set up the company. "Specifically our relationship to data and our demand that it be available at all times in real time and always curated for us. Another cultural change is our relationship to storytelling. Storytelling is no longer linear but much more of an interactive piece. How storytelling relates to life is not just reading fiction vs videogames. I see storytelling in a much broader sense of how we are entertained and how we learn and engage with the world."

Krakowsky says these trends will translate into how we interact with physical environments. She cites the retail space as an example: richer, more convenient and more personal shopping experiences for users and a wealth of valuable raw digital data for clients about shopping habits, how people interact with products and their decision making, which will be invaluable in helping better target and hone marketing and products.

It might seem esoteric, but Krakowsky argues that experiences are invaluable in the area of branding. Agencies like Mother and Crispin Porter + Bogusky are entering the experiential realm and consumers crave a more authentic experience than that provided by most advertising, she argues: "Branding is going to expand to doing culturally relevant, location-based projects sponsored by brands. I think what experience design... [can do is] create local experiences that target your specific audience and that matter, that are embedded in culture, that contribute to culture, and that your brand will be associated with goodwill. You can't buy that. You can't make a commercial about that. You can only live that."

Although Krakowsky could not discuss details of much of her work, she has already completed a touring installation with a major US agency and brand. She is also finalizing large-scale entertainment-based projects that integrate emerging media in physical space, and is in conversation on strategic media consulting with several technology, design and architecture firms.

"I think it's about creating physical environments that integrate new media and change how those spaces behave and the way we experience them," she explains of the ethos behind her projects.

"Ten years ago we couldn't imagine the internet, and now we couldn't imagine a phone just being a phone," she concludes. "I think in the very near future we won't be able to imagine our spaces not being intelligent, bringing the versatility and interactivity, curation, real-time, all the amazing things of the web, will be seamlessly embedded into our physical environment."

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