The Open Group logo

Often cre­at­ive,
forever curi­ous.

The Open Group tells stor­ies, crafts design and shapes exper­i­ences, each informed by a sense of pur­pose and optimism.

Con­tact us

Our (ad)ventures.

We devise pro­jects in the arts, media and com­merce, then real­ise them with our industry part­ners.
The best become tele­vi­sion series, books, products, events—or entire busi­ness con­cepts. Many occupy the shift­ing, heady junc­tion between real life and the digit­al world.

stories

media, publishing and television

Flying Workshop Logo
Flying Workshop

With Nath­an Peter Wong, we devel­op tv drama and anim­a­tion for young people and fam­il­ies. Every show—quirky or profound—features diverse and relat­able char­ac­ters. Industry lead­ers have ment­ored us and com­mis­sioned our work.

Disney Channel logo
Best Bugs Forever

Our first anim­a­tion fol­lows the escapades of a com­munity (or infest­a­tion) of friendly ver­min. The show was com­mis­sioned by The Walt Dis­ney Com­pany, which added its char­ac­ter­ist­ic vibrancy and pol­ish. Fifty-two epis­odes (in six lan­guages) have been pro­duced by the Academy-Award®-nominated stu­dio, Je Suis Bien Con­tent. Fam­il­ies across the world have enjoyed the show on Dis­ney Chan­nel, abc Aus­tralia and oth­er networks.

Character Parts

Fly­ing Work­shop has a fam­ily focus. In parallel—and in contrast—we’re explor­ing arrest­ing adult drama and fac­tu­al pro­gram­ming. Char­ac­ter Parts com­ple­ments Fly­ing Workshop’s recog­nised name while estab­lish­ing our pres­ence as ‘grown-up’ inde­pend­ent screenwriters.

experiences

education, the arts and commerce

Hearts and Culture

Our fledgling char­ity cam­paigns for cre­at­ive and per­form­ing arts spaces, resources and edu­ca­tion in region­al communities.

Harris Institute Logo
The Harris Institute, Preston

Start­ing in 2015, we instig­ated a £5 mil­lion bid to restore a Grade-II*-listed Vic­tori­an-era land­mark for the com­munity. We envis­aged its quarter-acre of floor space buzz­ing with edu­ca­tion in cre­at­ive and tech­nic­al crafts, exhib­i­tions, music, film and per­form­ance. Sadly, the building’s poor con­di­tion hal­ted our work. Now, a broad­er coali­tion is driv­ing the pro­ject ahead, and we look for­ward to con­trib­ut­ing our expertise.

Our ser­vices.

Can we add to your pro­ject? Our loy­al cli­ents com­mend our insights, skill and warm pro­fes­sion­al­ism.
Soon, our new spe­cial­ised sites will offer help and inform­a­tion that’s rel­ev­ant to you.

publishing

book design, editorial and production

Book Design Australia

Our design ser­vice for estab­lished pub­lish­ing houses pre­pares highly-visu­al children’s pic­ture books, text­books and life­style titles. Sat­is­fac­tion lies in bring­ing togeth­er the work of authors, illus­trat­ors, edit­ors, pho­to­graph­ers and pub­lish­ing spe­cial­ists. Cli­ents have included Schol­ast­ic, Cen­gage, The Uni­ver­sity of Tech­no­logy Sydney, McGraw-Hill and Hor­witz.
★ Relaunch­ing 2026

A Book Inside

We part­ner with emer­ging self-pub­lish­ers to get their words into print and into read­ers’ hands. As we work, we gladly share our know­ledge to build our cli­ents’ con­fid­ence. We’re ready to help with tra­di­tion­al and on-demand print and e‑books. Every­one has a book inside. What’s yours?
☆ Launch­ing 2027

Our people.

We’re small—but human. Two of us guide a grow­ing cre­at­ive circle of help­ers, while industry ment­ors keep us nimble and knowledgeable.

Photo of Stuart Gibson
Stuart Gibson
director, publishing consultant, project developer

stuart@theopengroup.com

A var­ied edu­ca­tion means Stu­art knows a little about journ­al­ism and theatre, and rather more about education.

At theatres in Sydney and Lon­don, Stu­art found an affin­ity for arts mar­ket­ing. His knack for vibrant writ­ing and design was wel­comed at Schol­ast­ic Aus­tralia, where he pro­moted edu­ca­tion­al and children’s books. In 2002 Stu­art foun­ded a pub­lish­ing con­sultancy, which has provided edit­or­i­al and design for 160 books with some 500,000 cop­ies in print.

His work at The Open Group centres on themes of storytelling, child­hood, edu­ca­tion, cre­ativ­ity, design and innovation.

Please be reas­sured that Stuart’s com­puter is not cur­rently on fire: that’s his smoky Lapsang Souchong.

Peter Hilton portait
Peter Hilton
arts and experience consultant, project developer

peter@theopengroup.com

When young, Peter quickly recog­nised the power of storytelling.

After join­ing a pro­gress­ive youth theatre, Peter honed his quick wit, impro­visa­tion and writ­ing skills. His ear for dia­logue and accents coun­ted, but an empathy for oth­ers did most to ground his por­tray­als. Later train­ing in Theatre in Edu­ca­tion and the Com­munity saw Peter encour­age the trust and esteem of dis­en­fran­chised young people as they told their own stories.

Peter’s know­ledge of theatre and tele­vi­sion extends across the uk, us and Aus­tralia. He’s drawn to mus­cu­lar, char­ac­ter-driv­en drama.

Along­side his own work, Peter’s career in the arts, her­it­age and tour­ism sec­tors has included roles at The Sydney Opera House, Lon­don’s Bar­bican Centre, York Museums Trust and Madame Tussauds.

Peter is known for his humour, humane insight and good judgement.

‘Curi­os­ity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great cre­at­ive people.’

leo burnett

Let’s say hello.

From our base south of Sydney, Australia—and thanks to online chats and cups of tea—we col­lab­or­ate with people around the world. How may we help you?

The Open Group Pty Limited

Gan­dangara Country
po Box 1050
Moss Vale nsw 2577
aus­tralia

+61 (0)2 8000 1000
hello@theopengroup.com

acn 108 809 794
abn 74 317 400 213
Registered for Aus­trali­an Goods and Ser­vices Tax (gst).

At our office, it’s 8:35 pm on 

Monday, 17th August.

The Open People Limited

Pre­ston, Lan­cashire
united king­dom

hello@theopenpeople.com

Com­pany 09250517, registered in Eng­land and Wales.
vat gb 213 8625 18.

At present, we are work­ing in Aus­tralia. Please con­tact us at our Aus­trali­an office as shown.

The Open Group works on Gan­dangara Country.

In the spir­it of recon­cili­ation, The Open Group acknow­ledges the Tra­di­tion­al Cus­todi­ans of coun­try through­out Aus­tralia and their con­nec­tions to land, sea and community.

We offer our respect to their Eld­ers past, present and future, and to all Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We recog­nise and can learn from their con­tinu­ing spir­itu­al, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al and envir­on­ment­al practices.

© Copy­right 1997–2026, The Open Group Pty Limited.

The names and logos for The Open Group™, The Open People™, Petergate™, Book Design Aus­tralia™, Hearts and Cul­ture™, A Book Inside™ and Char­ac­ter Parts™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Limited.

The name and logo for Fly­ing Work­shop™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Lim­ited and Nath­an Peter Wong as joint-ven­ture partners.

The name Best Bugs Forever™ is a trade­mark of The Walt Dis­ney Com­pany Lim­ited in asso­ci­ation with Je Suis Bien Content.

‘Freight’ typefaces by Joshua Darden are licensed from Adobe Fonts. The ‘Open’ logo was adap­ted from ‘Zantiqa’ font by Ser­giy Tkachen­ko, licensed from MyFonts.

Site writ­ten and designed by The Open Group Pty Limited.

Please con­tact us with any ques­tions you may have about this website.