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.

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.

Petergate Publishing

Our books will move young read­ers to grow in under­stand­ing, cour­age and resi­li­ence, to explore and improve their world, and to express their ima­gin­a­tions through the arts.

Real Experiences

We work on paper, on screen and in the ima­gin­a­tion. But we long for the tact­ile, ana­logue, bare­foot, hands-on world too: authen­t­ic lived experiences.

Real Creativity

Gen­er­ous ment­ors helped make our early dreams real­ist­ic. We aim to share that good for­tune through pub­lic­a­tions, edu­ca­tion and group events for people pur­su­ing a cre­at­ive liv­ing and life.

Real Childhood

Once, our plan for a low-key, irreg­u­lar par­ent-and-child magazine seemed suf­fi­cient. But now, a pos­it­ive, anti-pink, out­spoken, inclus­ive, un-plastic move­ment for fam­il­ies is imper­at­ive. Now we must build broad­er media and exper­i­ences under­pinned by hope, resi­li­ence and respect.

Hearts and Culture

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

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.

Design for Children

By link­ing graph­ic design with edu­ca­tion, we craft tempt­ing, usable and vibrant media for young people. Backed by research and strong eth­ics, our work avoids the hec­tic pink-and-orange explos­ive excesses that dis­tract and exhaust our audi­ence. In their place? Respect, read­ab­il­ity and honesty.

Words with Ways

Bring­ing our copy­writ­ing and con­tent-cre­ation skills to the fore, Words with Ways shapes cus­tom­er-cent­ric writ­ing and design with a dis­tinct iden­tity and brand voice.
★ Launch­ing 2024

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 People 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

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 Com­munity and Edu­ca­tion­al Theatre 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.

The Open Group Pty Limited

po Box 1050
Moss Vale nsw 2577
aus­tralia

+61 (0)2 8000 1000

hello@theopengroup.com

In Moss Vale, it’s on .

acn 108 809 794
abn 74 317 400 213

Registered for Aus­trali­an Goods and Ser­vices Tax (gst).

Copy­right © 1998–2023, The Open Group Pty Limited.

The names and logos for Petergate®, Book Design Aus­tralia®, Hearts and Cul­ture™, Mod­est Store™, The Open Group™, The Open People™, The Open Store™, ‘Open’ logo™, Real Child­hood™, Real Cre­ativ­ity™, Words with Ways™, Print is Read™, A Book Inside™, Char­ac­ter Parts™ and Spice and Friends™ 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 Typekit. 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 email us with any ques­tions you may have about this website.