Why a Studio for Knowledge Design?
So much knowledge is circulated and shared around the kitchen table, at protests and rallies, in the encounters during a commute. Design does something with the kinds of knowledge – the knowledge held in memories, bodies, routines, emotions, political practice, relationships – that make up our everyday lives.
We started a studio to practice these creative interventions with knowledge, and share this way of approaching the world, with knowledge as a medium.
What We Do
Through our work, we aim to shape public discourse around knowledge design while helping organizations and communities develop accessible and dynamic learning experiences that honor multiple ways of knowing.
At Shapes of Knowledge, we:
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We aim to inspire conversations about how knowledge appears in daily life through articles, design examples, community talks, and multimedia that reveal the hidden work of shaping knowledge.
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We design immersive, hands-on encounters with knowledge that transform how people understand learning itself. Our curriculum sprints, creative workshops, and experimental formats, reveal new possibilities for engagement and discovery.
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We demystify knowledge design by inviting others into our creative methods. Through collaborative design sessions, toolkit sharing, and process documentation, we make knowledge design accessible as a form of creative practice anyone can engage with.
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We collaborate with organizations in knowledge design processes to develop tailored learning experiences that honor their unique contexts, communities, and creative visions.
Meet the Designers
We both come from backgrounds as educators and hold advanced degrees in curriculum studies. We believe that everyone has ideas about what's worth knowing and we are excited to bring this beyond schooling context. We created Shapes of Knowledge as a studio to teach and continually develop our approach to knowledge design.
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Sarah (She/her) is a curriculum designer and researcher specializing in the role of senses, affects, and materiality in ways of knowing. Through her roles as Program Manager at Black Paint Curriculum Lab, Instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of City Learning Ecology at City Seminary of New York, and Co-Director on the curatorial team of CSNY's Walls-Ortiz Gallery, she designs curriculum at the intersection of creative practice, place, and theology. She completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, and has a Masters and Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.
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Raquel (She/her) is a knowledge designer and educator based in San Francisco with over 15 years of experience in education. She has designed curricula for school districts, companies such as Adidas and Twitch, and a range of community-based organizations seeking to innovate their learning models. Raquel holds a Master's in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Previously, Raquel served as Director of Learning at the Edible Schoolyard Project, where she led the development of curriculum and educational resources for school-based food and garden programs. She also designed professional learning experiences to support educators in implementing this work across diverse settings. Currently, Raquel works as a freelance knowledge designer, contributing to projects of varying scale and subject matters.
She believes in the power of curriculum to create transformative change in the lives of both young people and adults.