On 7 September greenUps is once again celebrating the humble bicycle. And for good reason too. In one hit they help address climate change, peak oil, air pollution, noise pollution, traffic congestion, health and obesity issues, not to mention make the city a better place to live.

When: Tuesday 7th September, 6:00pm
Where: Oscar’s Lounge Bar, 84 Union Street, Pyrmont (from the city it’s a short pedal across Pyrmont Bridge)

On the night, we’ll be giving away a new bike (courtesy of the City of Sydney), valet parking (thanks to Bike Sydney), tune ups (by Bicycology), and films (from the Bicycle Film Festival). Note that you don’t have to be a cyclist to come and enjoy this event. It’s still about drinks and networking as usual!

RSVP via Facebook or the MeetUp site

Related posts:

1. September greenUps – For the Love of Bikes!
2. Bicycle parking and repair station opens
3. Bike lovers across Sydney unite

It’s not often that you can bundle OpenSource, co-design, prototyping, art, sustainable living, and some Nintendo wii remotes into one project. That’s exactly what we ended up doing however in a recent collaboration with UNSW’s National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA) for the HotHouse Symposium at the Opera House.

With the concept behind HotHouse so in tune with our values (being sustainable citizens and as designers) we quickly found ourselves partnering with NIEA to create the Urban Sketch Lab— a digital sketching tool which attendees used to express ideas about re-designing urban space. Images of well-known sites around Sydney were projected onto a digital drawing table which could then be sketched over using an infra-red pen. The sketches were then uploaded to the event site and linked with the profiles of attendees so that people could continue to discuss and share their sketches.

Developing the concept

Creating the Sketch Lab from concept to completion was a collaborative process. In the early stages we brainstormed ideas with our designers and programmers, workshopped ideas with NIEA staff, artists and curators, and in the early stages, even brainstormed ideas with a visiting artist and computer science pHD candidate from Holland. Around the same time one of our developers had been testing out an open source program that allows you to use wii remotes to turn any surface into an interactive whiteboard. So we started to explore ideas using this technology and an open source programming language called Processing to develop the interface. These tools were used in our final version of the installation – further  growing our already high appreciation and support for the open source community.

Prototyping

With a short timeline to design and develop the interface and build the table, we created a prototype using spare wood, parts of other tables, our bathroom mirror (!) and, amongst other strange things, a sheet of humble tracing paper. Our first infra-red pen was actually made using a glue stick. This large contraption attracted a lot of attention around the studio which also gave us a good opportunity to gather some early user feedback from fellow eskimos.

Setting up a simple prototype proved invaluable, not just from the lessons we learned on the user interface but it also proved incredibly useful when we began to collaborate with an industrial artist to build the physical table. Early on in the conception phase we were keen to work with Chris Fox a friend of the eskimos and exceptional sculptural artist. Chris immediately got what we were aiming to do with the Sketch Lab concept and took measurements and schematic information directly from the prototype. Most of the basic setup used for the prototype was maintained in the final version for the event (which utilised an old architects drawing table heavily customised for our purposes) even down to the use of tracing paper (between perspex screens) to create a surface that would reflect the projection.

User experience

The HotHouse launch event was the first time we could put the full setup together. We’d tested the software, the table, and pen prototypes, but due to the short timeline we were unable to test the final versions of each component altogether. This was a bit nerve-wracking but also a fascinating experience from a usability perspective. Observing how different people used the tool first hand gave us important user feedback. Many event attendees also had their own ideas about how the Sketch Lab could be improved or used in different contexts.

The installation generated a lot of interest online too from those unable to attend as we posted images on flickr. We’re pleased to say we are continuing to develop the Sketch Lab and the insights gained from this first-hand user feedback will be used to inform how we re-purpose it for the upcoming Web Directions conference in October.

Thanks to Chris Fox and the Digital Eskimo team that collaborated to bring this project together: Nathan McGinness, Scott Nolan, Ozan Onay, Jeremy Epstein, Duncan Underwood, and David Gravina.

Related posts:

1. We have entered the experimental age

Last Friday, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) welcomed Transport Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement of a shipping reform policy, which includes the introduction of a tonnage tax and a proposal for an international ships register. This is a major milestone for the MUA, who have long been campaigning passionately for policy reform that will revitalise Australian shipping industry.

The announcement comes shortly after the launch of “Keep Australia Afloat” in April, an integrated campaign by Digital Eskimo and the MUA which aimed to mobilise members and supporters to firmly encourage local MP’s to engage with their Cabinet colleagues. The campaign included a virtual flotilla, posters and handouts, downloadable origami ships and a shipping ‘passport’ that we created to educate politicians about the issue, providing them with all the information they needed to take action. Clearly presenting all the relevant key facts and figures as simple information graphics, the passport was very well received and helped tip the outcome in favour of support.

The campaign was particularly important for us as modern shipping is still one of the most energy efficient and low carbon ways to move goods and raw materials long distances around the country and the world. We congratulate the team at the MUA and their members for a highly effective campaign and welcome the Government’s decision to back Australia’s shipping industry.

Related posts:

1. Join the MUA’s virtual fleet and keep Australia afloat

“An entertaining swipe at corporate irresponsibility.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

“Great fun! It takes some nerve, not to mention diabolical intelligence… to pull off the elaborate pranks devised by the Yes Men.” (New York Times)

When: Thursday 2nd September, 6:30pm
Where: The igloo, Level 2/44 Foster St, Surry Hills

The Yes Men Fix the World follows Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, two screwball political activists who can’t take “no” for an answer. Posing as top executives of giant corporations, they lie their way into big business conferences and pull off outrageous pranks to expose the dangers of letting greed run our world.

As always this DE Flick is free (a gold coin donation on the night is appreciated) and includes popcorn and beers. Places are very limited so an RSVP is essential.

Don’t miss out – RSVP NOW!

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In an AGDA talk last year titled “How can Graphic Design help save the planet?”, I posited that design has the potential to be such a powerful influence on society because it deals with the creation of context and our environment. My argument was that context and our immediate environs influence our behaviour far more than anything else.

To support this idea, I referred to the famous Milgram Experiment (conducted at Yale University in the early 60‘s) which aimed to measure the willingness of people to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. 63% of participants (playing the role of a “teacher”) administered extreme electric shocks to another human being (“learner”) when instructed to do so by the “scientist” in charge. It was recently replicated for a UK reality TV show, with very similar results.

The experiment offers a powerful and disturbing insight into the power of authority on obedience. Further to this, it reinforces the fact that contextual situations which we can to a great extent design, play a huge role in the way we perceive a situation, and subsequently the way we respond to it. Richard Farson provides a great reminder in his book The Power of Design, stating that “No matter how addicted nobody smokes in church”.

I hadn’t found any footage of the experiment until now so was excited to come across this short documentary online.

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Our portfolio of work for UNSW continues to grow with the launch of “study media” – a site that promotes the arts and media courses available at the College of Fine Arts (COFA) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).

Convincing prospective students to study media at UNSW can be challenging, particularly when geography prevents the (largely internationally based) target audience from interacting with and exploring the university first-hand. To set UNSW programs apart from the crowd, our strategy focussed on showcasing the work of existing students and alumni on an equal footing with the programs and staff profiles. We figured that the best way to encourage enrolments was to show the quality and creativity of actual student work right up front.

From a technical perspective the exciting thing about this project is that it’s the first time we’ve been able to build a client site on our favourite blogging platform – Tumblr. Given time and (rather significant) budget constraints, Tumblr was the perfect platform for a site that needed to make it easy to post a range of  multimedia content types with a flexible tagging system.

I’m happy to say we pushed Tumblr to its limits without it (or us!) breaking and am very pleased with the results.

Related posts:

1. media@UNSW website design
2. UNSW studymedia
3. Forget Parklife, this is …

In just two weeks, the Sydney Opera House will become a hub of creative ecological energy as artists, designers and curators convene for the inaugural HotHouse symposium.

Initiated by the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA), this “collective experiment” will explore practical means for art and design to re-imagine urban spaces, environments and even cities in the name of sustainable change.

The program features a host of exciting speakers and creative thinkers, such as Bruce Mau and our principal Dave Gravina, as well as some spectacular large-scale installations, including the Sketch lab, our prototype collaborative drawing tool we created especially for the event.

The HotHouse Symposium runs from 27-28 July.

Register for tickets here.

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Photography by Peter Duong

‘Agents of Change’ is headed to Melbourne for Victoria’s State of Design festival (July 14-25). This high-profile event aims to promote the power of design to generate value for business, society and the environment.

We’ve used it as an opportunity to spread the word about our pioneering “Change Agent project” by showcasing our ‘Agents of Change’ installation, which debuted at Object Gallery’s State.Respond exhibition earlier in the year.We’re also excited about gathering ideas from our southern brothers and sisters that will feed into the strategic planning of the project.

The ‘Agents of Change’ installation has undergone a redesign to fit the requirements of the new venue (the spectacular BMW Edge Amphitheatre at Federation Square) and is now made entirely from reused and recyclable materials.

If you’re in Melbourne the installation will be on display from 19-24 July. You can check out more photos here.

Related posts:

1. Agents of Change at Object gallery
2. Agents of change on Radio National
3. Sustainable Living Festival

Take a look at some behind-the-scenes footage from Digital Eskimo as we explain the ethos behind our Considered Design methodology in this new video series from Object Gallery.

Object and the NSW Department of Education (through their Centre for Learning Innovation) asked us to provide teachers and students from secondary schools, TAFE and distance education programs with our take on design and the design process itself.

Through a series of interviews with the designers who contributed to this years State. Respond exhibition, the CLI unearthed a practical understanding of how different agencies are using design to inspire sustainable change in the world.

Watch the videos on Vimeo.

Related posts:

1. Centre for Learning Innovation – interview with Digital Eskimo, March 2010
2. Exploring sustainable design at GreenUps

The coolest piece of direct mail ever showed up on my desk the other week. A noodle box with a block of Fimo modelling clay was held within with a call to make something that represented our design approach plus a return address label and stamps to post it. How could we resist?!

Drawing from an idea we explored earlier this year in our “Agents of Change” installation at Object Gallery, we decided to re-shape the Fimo into a symbolic representation of Considered Design’s ability to create opportunities and value from messy, ill-defined problems.

As a creative problem solving methodology, design is exploratory yet systematic, and as such it allows us to repeatedly generate new ideas, quickly prototype multiple possibilities, and ultimately create new outcomes that did not exist before. Design (or more accurately Design Thinking) has the potential to amplify humankind’s creativity so that we may embrace (and sometimes solve!) the messy problems that business, government and society face every day.

MAKE IT! is a project of the CIIC’s Creative Innovation initiative.  More entries and an explanation of the project to be had at the Creative Innovation Facebook page.

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