Bringing our New Balance story to life, each of our flags is handcrafted by New England Flag & Banner, a Boston institution just a stone’s throw from New Balance’s global HQ.
While researching local artisans, our team serendipitously discovered their century-long legacy of craft: from handcrafting iconic sports banners (including all Boston Celtics championship banners in TD Garden) to the traditional appliqué technique, celebrated for its authenticity, precision and boldness.
This chance discovery unlocked a natural collaboration, bridging heritage with motion: technically precise, deeply human and rooted in craft. The perfect contemporary beacon for New Balance spaces worldwide.
To inform the New Balance store project, our team immersed themselves in the brand’s world across Boston, New York and Tokyo.
Observing the stores and absorbing each city’s cultural rhythm, allowed these trips to shape a design approach rooted in real experiences.
The flag’s graphic language references the track markings at the brand’s Boston headquarters, translating performance into a bold visual expression.
Map Project Office and Universal Design Studio have teamed up with New Balance to reimagine the interiors of the brand’s global stores, starting in London and Boston and more recently Tokyo.
Along this journey, one of Map’s pioneering outcomes was a moving in-store flag. Inspired by the visual energy of sport, from finish-line tape to stadium banners.
Designed as a recognisable beacon across locations, it welcomes people into the world of New Balance while reflecting the brand’s focus on craft, community and performance.
@barberosgerby ’s exhibition Alphabet is now open at @triennalemilano as part of Milan Design Week.
Spanning over thirty years of work, the show brings together more than two hundred pieces – from production designs to prototypes, models and drawings – including selected works from Universal Design Studio and Map Project Office.
On view now.
IBM Nighthawk is part of a series of animations highlighting IBM’s new square lattice chip architecture, the next evolution of IBM Quantum chips.
Animation created in collaboration with @ibm , @found_studio and @father_sound
In a world where technology often accelerates our pace, Cognitive Bloom offers a thoughtful pause.
This collaboration between Map Project Office and @chnwlee reimagines AI not as a tool for speed, but as a companion for reflection. By transforming data into a living ecosystem of growth and care, it invites us to reconnect with ourselves, others and our digital environments in a more mindful way. In this gentle unfolding, we not only find answers, but the space to ask the questions that matter most.
Follow the link in bio to learn more
Words by Günseli Yalcinkaya @gunseliiiiii
In a world where AI accelerates everything except our ability to pause, what would it mean to design technology that slows us down rather than speeds us up?
Cognitive Bloom, a collaborative project between Map Project Office and Chanwoo Lee, designer and visiting lecturer at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, imagines a personal, domestic AI device that nurtures a new ritual of self reflection.
Through the central motif of gardening, Cognitive Bloom encourages users to take a respite from the frantic pace and fixed attention of our digitally overstimulated lifestyles, cultivating a reflective and meaningful engagement with what lies beneath the surface.
Follow the link in bio to learn more:
Words by Günseli Yalcinkaya
If data could bloom like a living ecosystem, a digital environment designed for self reflection, what might we see?
Cognitive Bloom coming soon, a collaborative project between Map Project Office and Chanwoo Lee
AI is often invisible—existing as code and computation. With NorthPole, we had the opportunity to make it tangible.
Designed in collaboration with @ibm , the enclosure becomes more than protection. It’s a precise, purposeful object that reflects IBM’s thinking—signalling intelligence, trust, and a new design language for AI hardware.
Explore the full project via the link in bio.
Models by @synapse_models
At @IBM Research — Yorktown, NY, the Microelectronics Research Lab (MRL) is a 50,000 sq. ft. cleanroom space that enables rapid experimentation for classical, AI, and quantum computing research.
To make MRL’s work visible and understandable from the outside, @universaldesignstudio and @mapprojectoffice ’s approach, in collaboration with IBM Research, was to design a modular display system that adapts as technology evolves – allowing frequent swaps of artifacts and explanatory panels to reflect the latest research.
Inspired by the lab’s amber glow, 30+ illuminated panels showcase real technology samples (from 200-300mm wafers to cutting-edge chiplets) paired with crisp infographics on breakthroughs like the first 2nm node Nanosheet wafer. Blending precision and flexibility, each artifact sits in a 3mm matte white acrylic frame, with UV-printed content sandwiched between clear panels. The display demystifies microelectronics and celebrates tomorrow’s innovation.
Graphic design by @optics.lab
Photography by @ryanlavine1
#IBMResearch
We recently collaborated with @ibm to design the hardware enclosure for their NorthPole AI chip.
Built to process large language models with exceptional efficiency, NorthPole rethinks traditional chip architecture, and our role was to reflect that innovation through its physical form. Whilst AI is often experienced as an intangible, digital layer, our approach focuses on making it tangible—translating IBM’s cutting-edge research into an object that embodies clarity, intent, and performance.
Our design refines every interaction point, from material finish to form factor, enhancing tactility and creating a sense of precision and control. Airflow is carefully directed to optimise cooling without compromising on visual simplicity, ensuring a critical balance between engineering and aesthetics.
The result offers a functional enclosure that introduces a new kind of design language for AI hardware—one that communicates intelligence, efficiency, and trust.
Film by @found_studio
Sound by @father_sound
