Did you know that Geelong has a new multi-purpose workspace, and it goes by the name of The KO Creative Studio?!
Located in Newtown, this brand new space has an aim to provide an environment for creatives and small businesses to work, connect and be inspired. I sat down with founder’s Olivia and Karina about their new business venture, and how it will help the Geelong creative community.
Hello Olivia and Karina! Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourselves?
Karina and I initially met through our partners, who both grew up in Geelong. Karina and I both grew up in the country, she is from Ballarat and I grew up on a sheep farm near Hamilton. Karina is a food stylist and I was working as marketing manager for a book publishing company, Hardie Grant, we both love food and wine and our mutual love of cookbooks meant that we hit it off straight away. We’d talked about the idea for THE KO for ages before finally deciding to give it a go about 18 months ago.
What exactly is The KO Creative Studio?
We like to think of THE KO as a very multipurpose workspace, we have a photography studio, and events/gallery space for workshops and classes, and a co-working space. The idea is that creatives and freelancers can come and work here whenever they need, and also meet like-minded people. We also run a whole series of events and classes. A day in the life of the space might be that we have a photoshoot happening in the studio, people working or meeting in the co-working space and then an event happening after work.
How can people go about coming here?
We’re open weekdays during business hours – you can book a trial day of co-working via our website, or email us to arrange a time for a tour.
Why did you girls decide to start this up?
We were both looking for a new challenge – opening a space like this was a dream for both of us, so we decided to take the leap and make it a reality. We also thought there was a real need for a space like ours in Geelong, there are so many creatives – designers, photographers, small business owners and other people – who commute up to Melbourne to use a studio or for meetings, we decided to create a space where people could bring their clients to Geelong, or use our studio or co-working space. We hope people come here to get inspired, learn new things, meet new people, and also make great work!
In what ways do you plan to foster collaborations among local businesses?
We hope to foster collaboration among local business by providing a space for people to meet and work in a beautiful and inspiring environment.
What kind of events will be hosted here?
All the events are based around the pillars of food and wine, art, design and creative business and ideas – we put on events that we ourselves would love to go to. We have a couple of things coming up like book club, pasta classes, wine tastings, bread making and more. We also host Side Project Sessions monthly, a space where people can come and work on any projects they want to progress but might have been putting off. The space is also available to hire out for private events.
The KO Creative Studio is located at 1/14 Lambert Avenue, Newtown. Visit theko.com.au or check them out on Insta @_the_ko_
Written by Chloe Cicero
Photos by Armelle Habib