Navigate complexity to shape better futures.

Panoramic is a research & storytelling lab generating the cultural and ecological insights that shape effective climate & social solutions, helping them scale responsibly.

Close-up of a mushroom gill underside, showing detailed, radial lines and wavy edges.

OUR MISSION

Strengthen the innovations, organisations & systems shaping a livable future.

Today’s social and environmental challenges are deeply interconnected. Interventions only succeed when they fit the realities they aim to transform. Too often, promising solutions falter because they overlook the cultural, ecological, or organisational forces shaping real-world adoption, or because their stories can’t build the trust and momentum needed to scale responsibly.

Panoramic combines deep insight and strategic narrative to help teams understand the systems they operate in, anticipate risks, design resilient and context-aware solutions, and craft narratives that mobilise people, partners, and resources.

Our Expertise

The analyitical brain of the anthropologist thinking about solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Systemic &
Cultural Insights

We apply ethnographic and ecological research that reveals hidden dynamics, reduces risk, and improves real-world adoption of solutions.

The observational eye of the ethnographer generating qualitative data to solve climate and nature-related problems.

Narrative Strategy
& Production

We craft strategic narratives and cinematic storytelling that build trust, move stakeholders, and communicate impact with clarity and depth.

Organisational transformation workshop with a corporate, NGO or statup team working to evolve team dynamics.

Organisational
Transformation

We facilitate deep design that strengthens structures, practices, and behaviours, enabling teams to operate effectively within complex systems.

Our Context

Research: Case Studies

Assessing Innovation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Ethnographic research in the Kew Gardens Fungarium, where innovators in sustainability are using fungi and mushroom enzymes to help build sustainable solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss.

In 2025, Panoramic Founder Tristan Copley Smith conducted ethnographic fieldwork and on-site filming at Kew’s Jodrell Laboratory to better understand how the organisation’s mission to ‘stop biodiversity loss and develop nature-based solutions’ is enacted in practice. Tristan interviewed senior scientific leadership, observed experimental work, and documented DEFRA-funded genomic sequencing inside the world-leading Kew Fungarium.


Understanding Cacao Supply Chains in Guatemala

Erthnographic research of cacoa farmers in Guatemala, looking at supply chains, local culture and indigenous beliefe systems and how they interface with the wellness industry.

In 2024, Panoramic Co-Founder Daillen Culver conducted five weeks of immersive field research with cacao farmers, producer collectives and entrepreneurs in Guatemala. Her research explored how the rapidly expanding “ceremonial-grade” market is reshaping local production, cultural narratives, and economic livelihoods.

Findings revealed a booming industry influenced by spiritualised marketing, contested claims of purity and sustainability, and heightened climate vulnerabilities. Panoramic is now advising partners in artisanal chocolate production on how to refine supply-chain practices, strengthen producer-consumer relationships, and build more ethical and transparent market narratives.


Feral Hacking for Climate Regeneration in India

Colorful mural of traditional dancers and musicians painted on white wall of a building with a window, surrounded by green plants and bushes, an air conditioning unit, and a tree overhead.

In 2025, Panoramic Co-Founder Kit Braybrooke conducted research examining how frontline communities in India are using hacking, making, jugaad, DIY fabrication and community innovation to build alternatives to extractive climate technologies. Early work has mapped emerging ecosystem hubs - from biomaterial labs to community aquacultures - that demonstrate new models of regenerative, locally governed innovation. The project began with the “Calling All Hackers & Makers for Climate <3” workshop at What Design Can Do Delhi, followed by a research residency with UnBox Cultural Futures India and Pro Helvetia. It builds on a decade of work with global hacker, maker, and circular movements.

Panoramic uses these insights to inform regenerative innovation strategies across partners working at the intersection of community-led sustainability and design.

Filmcraft

The Empathy Project: Discovering Inner Worlds

In 2025, Panoramic was commissioned to produce The Empathy Project, a mid-length documentary exploring how deep emotional connection to animals shapes personal transformation, stewardship and activism. Through intimate interviews with twelve senior advocates, the film reveals how empathy can drive social change while also confronting the climate and biodiversity impacts of animal agriculture.

Directed by Panoramic Founder Tristan Copley Smith, the film will be submitted to festivals and private screenings in early 2026. Learn more at The Empathy Project website.

Our Team

Daillen Culver, co-founder of Understory Labs

Daillen Culver

Associate Researcher

Patrick Killoran

Strategic Advisor

Tristan Copley Smith, founder of Understory Labs

Tristan Copley Smith

Founder & Director

Dr. Kit Braybrook, co-founder of Understory Labs

Dr. Kit Braybrooke

Research Advisor