CARA EYRE
LEILA KIDSON
CARA EYRE | LEILA KIDSON
CARA EYRE
Information designer, data illustrator and visual storyteller
Design is never neutral. It governs how we see the world, what we notice and what we don’t, how we move through spaces, which narratives feel true, and whose voices get left out. It shapes how we think, whether we act, and what we believe is possible.
As a designer, Cara holds that responsibility close, humanising data and translating complex research into visual narratives with intention and care. Her work lives at the intersection of social design, information design, and storytelling, and extends into grassroots spaces, bridging design education into local, real-world contexts.
Through OCTOPI, she is committed to creating work that doesn’t add to the noise but cuts through it, shifting narratives and inspiring collective social change.
Born in South Africa, currently based in Mexico City.
LEILA KIDSON
Social systems researcher, facilitator and DESIGNER
Leila is a social systems researcher, designer and facilitator working at the intersection of grassroots realities and structural change. Her background in law and journalism gave her two models of how stories construct the world: narratives shaping how justice is delivered or withheld, and inquiry as a discipline of remaining genuinely open to what questions uncover. Both inform a politics she brings into design practice. To challenge the assumptions encoded in briefs, in data, and in the questions we fail to ask about how people are entangled in the systems around them.
Through OCTOPI, she works across investigative storytelling, collective inquiry, systems research and facilitation, leading processes that surface patterns across sectors, building research communities can use in advocacy, and designing the stories and tools that help organisations understand not just what people experience, but the dynamics and histories producing those experiences.
Born in South Africa, currently based in Cape Town.
Together we are curious about how we shift dominant narratives, think differently about our position in the world, and take action in the spaces we have agency.
We find solace in the delicate conversations we have with people making their way through this era of collapse and adaptation, and hope to keep doing so for many more years.
