Here’s to 2008, hello 2009 …

Thanks to everyone in our community for your support this year. Together, through the effectiveness of our Considered Designs and the vision of our inspiring clients we made a real difference in the world in 2008.

We had many highlights including launching major web presences for newmatilda.com, the LHMU, the Victorian branch of the ETU, BigPond’s new messaging system MyConnect, and the Guide Dogs NSW social media strategy and pilot MySpace page to name just a few.

While we focus on effectiveness it’s always nice to be recognised for our work and we took away a swag of awards including a Finalist in the Classical Music Awards for Sydney Symphony’s Sinfonietta project, two AGDA finalists for our “Hey Joe, know an eskimo?” recruitment campaign and an FBI/Timeout SMAC award for the Raise The Bar campaign. Co-collaborator John Wardle and I were also recognised in Sydney Magazine’s Top 100 influential people awards for our work on the campaign.

Speaking of which the first small bars opened in Sydney just a few weeks ago and live entertainment will soon be filling pubs, restaurants and those new bars thanks to changes in the planning laws. Nothing short of a cultural revolution has begun in NSW and Digital Eskimo is proud to have played its part in this.

We also moved into our new open plan studio this year, giving us 300 square metres of bamboo floored sunlit space in which to create and collaborate. We continued to eco-innovate in the space, bringing our third worm farm online to process our food waste and we recently installed a rooftop vegie garden, closing the loop on our food usage. And finally, in a market downturn we ended the year strongly; picking up key clients Artbank, UTS, UNSW and Randwick Council.

A special thank you to the very talented and committed team of digital eskimos for a sterling effort achieving all this and more. They are Duncan Underwood, Fieke Geerts, Chris Gaul, Michelle Gilmore, Matt McCauley, Anthony Ditton, Soraya Asmar, John MacFarlane, Caryn Wilson, Kate Bedwell, Christopher Potter, Rob Aston, Jeremy Epstain and Vaike Neeme. A few more also to the ex-eskimos who have moved on this year and our hard working partners  – Penny Hagen, Robert Gravina, Bo Daley, Meitar Moscovitz, Rhoda Lazo, Rully Zakaria, Kylie Doherty, Amanda Wood, Tom and the team at Mooball, Grant Young, Greg Turner, Carl Braga, Owen Lansbury, Natalie Rowland and the many others who have contibuted to our success this year.

Finally, a few photos from our RE-USABLE themed Christmas party, best RSVP went to Rosy Porter for her cycling party goer – check it at http://www.digitaleskimo.net/xmas08 (she’s about 19th in if you click next a few times you can find her masterpiece).

Click here for the party photos.

Here’s to the new (decidedly challenging!) year ahead, the studio re-opens Jan 5th.

All the best,

Dave Gravina
Principal & Creative Director