The Berlin-based experience and design lab co-creating regenerative futures.
Sympoiesis (pronounced sym-po-ee-sis) derives from the Greek sym-(together) and poiesis- (creation), and means making or worlding-with. Sympoiesis is the conviction that nothing truly creates itself. Nothing exists in isolation and everything is born from relationships. Life is profoundly co-creative, constantly making and remaking itself.
Rooted in this understanding, we seek to build long-term relationships with individuals and organizations committed to creating the conditions for life to ever reimagine and express itself anew.
We envision a society in which we are critically aware, ecologically attuned, and spiritually enlivened, capable of metabolizing loss and willfully regenerating our places and communities.
We are imaginative storytellers, passionate designers, and regenerative thinkers. We help you find your creative voice and tell your story in words and images that enliven and find resonance with your growing community. We work alongside you to imagine a thriving, multi-species future and discover your unique role in it, building the capacities to make it possible.
“In Sympoiesis, relationality is the recognition of an undeniable and indestructible entanglement of life; and the effect and impact we have on other species, as they have on us.”
— Rūta Žemčugovaitė, co-founder Sympoiesis
Our team
Sympoiesis is founded by Rūta Žemčugovaitė and Niels Devisscher. We are supported by a growing network of trusted freelancers uniquely gifted to bring your generative vision to life.
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Niels is the co-founder of Sympoiesis and Communications Lead. He works as a freelance communications strategist, graphic designer, writer, and imagination facilitator. Niels taught himself urban and fine art landscape photography and has since won numerous awards in prestigious competitions, including bronze in The Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3).
In his art and commercial work, Niels experiments with both analog and digital collage techniques and explores diverse themes, including mythology, aliveness, and human and more-than-human co-habitation.
He holds a BSc in International Entrepreneurship from the Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences, Belgium, and completed courses in Regenerative Development (Regenesis Institute) Prosocial (Prosocial World), Investing in Systems Change (Forum for the Future), Design Thinking (University of Virginia), Human-Earth Connection SRI (Mind and Life Institute), Kinship and An Ecology of Love with Dr. Andreas Weber (Advaya), Flourish! Climate Learning Journey (One Resilient Earth), Core Principles of Graphic Design (MICA).
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Ruta is a co-founder of Sympoiesis and Regenerative Research Lead.
She is a freelance writer, facilitator, and multi-disciplinary artist, based in Berlin.
She holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Stirling and has trained with the leading trauma healing experts in Costa Rica. She has facilitated trauma-informed workshops in the US, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany. She has extensive experience working with Holochain, AI, and humane technology startups.
Ruta explores regenerative design practices and works with systems change facilitation through the lens of more-than-human perspectives.
Ruta researches and designs alongside mycelium as a co-creative agent for regenerative futures.
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Neirin is a Welsh-Australian animation director, illustrator and motion designer based in Berlin.
He collaborates with Sympoiesis as a creative director, animator, and motion designer, breathing life into websites, visual designs, and storytelling.
Focusing primarily on 2D animation, Neirin’s style combines mixed-media animation techniques including cell animation, painted frame-by-frame, motion-collage and stop motion animation to create colourful, imaginative worlds that burst out of the frame.
His work has been described as “fluid, with a focus on morphological shapes and characters that seamlessly blend into one another, defying the separateness we often impose between ourselves and the rest of the world.” It is often inspired by indigenous Australian dreamtime imagery, Jungian symbology, and animism.
Having studied BA (Hons) Filmmaking at the Manchester School of Arts, his background in visual storytelling continues to inform his practice. As well as numerous explainer videos and commercial work for clients such as The Atlantic, Vice Magazine, Nike, and Nordeus, Neirin has created music videos for renowned musician Pixies, Boney M, Weyes Blood, and Dezydery to name a few.
He is currently focused on collaborations with clients that foster good ecological practices or a focus on regenerative business, as well as developing his own fictional short animated films.