The Power of Designing for a Single User

Scale is often considered the pinnacle of success. Whether it’s writing a best-selling novel or building an app that has millions of users, we judge the significance of work by how many people it reaches.

Odyssey Works—an experience design collective—takes the opposite approach. They create bespoke performances for an audience of one. 

They spend months planning and researching a single person—learning everything they can about who they are designing for. They talk to their friends and family, read their favorite books, and learn about the decisions and questions that person is sitting with. 

Then, they craft an in-depth experience to help that person explore the themes of their life. The result is a meticulously curated, months-long performance filled with surprise encounters and personalized art installations that seem to mirror the very fabric of a viewer’s existence. These experiences often involve a fusion of reality and art, challenging each viewer to confront their deepest fears, explore untapped desires, and unearth profound truths about themselves. 

Photos from Carl Collins’s odyssey, where he was tied to a stake like Joan of Arc. Photo credit: Ayden LeRoux