01
Rigor before narrative.
The science comes first. Design serves the material, it never distorts it. Accuracy isn't decoration; it's the product.
I make data and science tangible.
I build experiences that translate findings into something people are meant to feel, explore, and keep.
—Peter Schmidlin.
Lab
Six miniatures, moving right now.
Six live pieces from the lab. What's tangible here, you can have in your own project: data that stays exact in the detail, becomes beautiful, and can be felt in the moment. Interactive, educational, precise.
loading stars…
Every star from the Hipparcos catalogue, position and brightness mapped one to one.
Graphics
Will the sky glow tonight?
The Kp index as a dial, calm to storm, live from the magnetosphere.
Understanding
Charges write the field
A dipole, field lines, particles drifting along them.
Compasses
Well-being compass
Three fields, one glowing core.
Scale
How old?
The whole history of the universe as a single ring.
From a project
Made comparable.
A snippet from Descienced, one of the ongoing projects. A grey wolf alongside five other animals, by scale and by numbers. Pick a partner, switch the view.
Manifesto
What drives my work.
Three principles guide every decision, in code, design, and the way I talk about the material.
02
Attention is the vessel.
Data becomes memorable when the experience earns attention through craft, not tricks. Respect the material and the reader, and they stay.
03
Every level, every audience.
A child and a professor need different entry points to the same truth. Good vessels bend without breaking the content.
Services
Formats that hold.
From data, facts and concerns emerge digital stories that create closeness and prompt action. Schmidlin Studio works for organisations with a scientific, educational, ecological or societal mission. Complexity becomes tangible without being flattened.
STORY
A concern becomes a world.
A species, a phenomenon, a person. A page that listens rather than explains, and leaves an invitation at the end.
TOOLS
Pull the levers until something clicks.
Tools that do not explain a topic but make it explorable. A person turns the dial, the system answers, understanding builds on its own.
DATA
Numbers you can touch.
Charts and maps that shift how data is seen. Sliders, comparisons, live sources. The provenance stays visible.
PLATFORM
When a topic grows into a platform.
A whole platform with tools, content and pathways. Many experiences under one roof, strict architecture, gentle handling.
SCIENCE
Research that lands.
Studies and datasets prepared for people who actually want to listen. Not simplified, but made comprehensible.
SPARRING
When the format is still open.
Two or three hours of honest sparring on what exists, what is wanted, and which formats could carry it. A concrete recommendation at the end, even if no project follows.
Projects
Four projects, one conviction.
Each one explores a different way to make science feel like a place you want to stay.
012026Beta Live
Astrophotal
Precision for astrophotographers.
Telescope and camera compatibility, exposure, light pollution, sky quality. The tools I wanted for long nights under clear skies, built to be honest about the numbers.
ReactAstronomy EngineSupabaseClaude
022026Live
Wisdom Boom
Boom-bap tribute to human wisdom.
27 tracks translate philosophy, science and history into rhythm and sound, with fullscreen karaoke, a live visualizer, and a section for voices too often unheard.
ReactSunoClaudeMidjourney
032026Live
Sound of Extinction
Messages before the silence.
An audio experience of select species we are likely to lose. The tracks are told from the animal's first-person perspective. A final cry before the species falls silent.
ReactSunoClaudeMidjourney
042026MVP in development
Descienced
Science, comparable.
A multi-dimensional platform that puts scales, theories and technologies side by side, tuned for three cognitive levels, from curious child to working researcher.
Next.jsTailwindClaudeTTS
Collaboration
Two tracks, one hand.
As a sole trader, I take on commissioned work that aims to make complex matters tangible for an organisation or institution. As president and developer for the non-profit association Kentainment, I help create openly accessible, grant-funded and novel formats of knowledge communication.
Commercial
As an independent practitioner
Translating complex subject matter into experiential visualisations and graphics, for studios, researchers with their own mandate, initiatives and independents who want to make their data tangible.
- Interactive data visualisations that make complex data navigable
- Custom web platforms, built end-to-end
- Concept, code and visualisation in one pair of hands
Non-profit
With the Kentainment association
For research institutions, educational organisations, NGOs and foundations who want their content to become an experience.
- Platforms for science communication
- Data pieces with emotional depth
- Educational formats tuned to different audiences
A clear line stays between the tracks. What connects them is the person behind, the lab, and the same craft.
In the background
Built solo, but not alone. Three anchors stand alongside the work.
- SciencePersonal and institutional advisory, the latter sought per project.
- TechClose exchange with UX practitioners and DevOps engineers from pioneering environments.
- InstitutionKentainment association, founded to advance new forms of science communication.
Who
Schmidlin Studio
Led by Peter Schmidlin, Switzerland. 25 years of marketing and communications around data-near product development, across B2B, B2C and C2C. Former co-founder and chairman of a cleantech startup at Technopark Luzern.
Founder of the non-profit association Kentainment. The studio runs the association's platforms and works independently for external organisations. The two roles stay separate: the association initiates and funds, the studio delivers.
Focus areas: science, education, nature and animal protection.
Association
New formats for science communication.
Kentainment is the non-profit association I founded so new ways of communicating scientific knowledge can be funded, governed, and trusted. A vessel, not a product, that holds every project above and the ones still to come.
kentainment.comAssociationFounded 2026Zug, Switzerland
Contact
Let's talk.
Partnerships, research collaborations, or a concrete idea you'd like to build. Reach out directly.
How a project starts
What happens when you reach out
No funnel, no contract by page two. Four small steps to find out whether it fits — both ways.
01
You write.
A few sentences are enough — who you are, what you're working on, what you'd like to build. Voice memo, sketch, link to a paper. Whatever helps you think.
02
We talk.
Half an hour on the phone or video, free of charge. We sense whether the subject excites both of us. If not, no harm done.
03
Concept sketch.
I take a day or two and write back: a rough angle, the shape it could take, an honest estimate of effort. Non-binding. You read it, then decide.
04
Decision.
We do it, or we don't. If we do, the first sprint runs three to six weeks. If we don't, you have a written concept anyway — yours to keep.
Cello
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