Working at Spherical
About Us
Spherical is a transdisciplinary research and design studio working to regenerate the health and integrity of Earth's living systems. Our work spans multiple spheres of inquiry, engaging projects at scales from the local to the planetary. We work with people who willingly engage complexity and who bring care and attention to collaboration.
Our anchor project is the Living Infrastructure Field Kit, a philanthropically funded mapping and co-design platform reimagining how infrastructure is conceived in Los Angeles County, starting with communities. We also explore living systems through coding experiments, ecological data visualizations, immersive productions, and site-specific performances.
The Work
We do research, development, and production, pursuing both big-picture inquiries and focused deep dives. The problems we're contending with are complex enough that everyone here is regularly stretched, requiring us to grapple with systems rather than isolated pieces. We see things through from conception to delivery. Ideas matter, but so does the work of bringing them into the world.
Discernment is essential, as is the capacity to evolve by developing how you think and work. We are committed to continuous learning and adaptation.
Our work requires embracing paradox. We prototype futures while shipping useful tools now, source from the uniqueness of places while designing for patterns across scales, and set clear intent while staying open to emergence. We explore ways to make living systems perceptible and cultivate reciprocal relations with them through practical, accessible tools and experiences. We pay attention to cascading effects, not just direct outcomes.
Craft & Collaboration
We value both disciplinary depth and transdisciplinary curiosity. Projects integrate multiple fields, perspectives, and ways of knowing. We pursue craft with intention, whether through speculative design, critical cartography, poetics, regenerative frameworks, or the many forms of work that bridge disciplines and resist easy categorization.
Craft here means both vision and follow-through. Diverse backgrounds and disciplines inform our approaches. We value elegant concepts and clean code, rigorous research and clear documentation, ambitious scope, and attention to the details that are both functional and evocative.
Our small team means you'll know everyone and work directly with leadership. Success here means being able to self-manage and coordinate with others remotely. It also means supporting others and being supported in return. Collaboration matters more than individual heroics.
Care and attention to relationships is key. We practice honest communication, empathy, and accountability.
Pace and Rhythm
We're a creative technology studio, not a startup racing toward an exit. We work flexibly and are committed to follow-through, respecting deadlines, and honoring our obligations to partners and communities. When we fall short, we reflect on the process to learn from it. We balance periods of intensity with space for reflection and learning.
What Thrives Here
- Ability to learn publicly and seek guidance but also work independently and self-manage
- Comfort with ambiguity and shaping emergent processes
- Integrity over optics
- Curiosity about how things connect and affect each other
- Ability to move from thinking to creating, and ship work that meets real-world constraints
- Care for human and other‑than‑human worlds
If you can hold paradox, stay with complexity, and show up with both humility and humor, we'd like to hear from you.