On Sunday 27th September, members from the Digital Eskimo team represented at the Randwick Ecoliving Fair, as part of our ongoing support for the live local project. The day was a great success, despite the gale force winds that continually threatened to blow the fixtures away!

To read more about the event, please click through to the live local blog here.

Related posts:

1. Experiments in local living
2. Randwick Ecoliving Fair
3. live local nominated for two AIMIA Awards

We are pleased to announce we will be collaborating with the NSW Architects Registration Board to design and develop the NSW Architecture Diary.

Digital Eskimo has been commissioned to create the online diary to promote events that focus on Architecture in NSW. Ultimately the project aims to encourage and facilitate discussion and debate about a range of architectural issues in the community.

Currently architecture events are promoted across a wide range of websites and are often targeted at other architects and aficionados of the craft. The website will allow anyone to promote an event, from the large number of associations and organisations that are involved in the architecture world to individuals showing off a new installation – making it the place to go for up to date architecture events information.

We’re looking forward to the opportunity of applying our Considered Design methodology to uncover solutions for the Architecture Diary that go beyond the obvious and functional, to create something inspiring and useful for the community.

Related posts:

1. Architecture Insights
2. Architecture Insights refreshed for festival
3. Design Thinking Drinks at Digital Eskimo

We attended a lively and interesting Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) talk featuring lawyer Chris Finn of Finn Roache last night.

The talk touched on that ugly elephant in the design studio, free/spec pitching in the context of the global recession – loosely defined as the act of doing significant free work (strategy, ideation or actual design) to win a tender or proposal process. It was refreshing to hear outright condemnation of this terrible business practice from the floor, although Chris’ legal “solution” worried me.

But first I’ll explain the beauty pageant thing.

There are many reasons why asking for and doing free pitch work is a Very Bad Idea. I know it feels like we’re getting great value when we get things for free. But free and value are rarely bedfellows.

Sure, I can understand the temptation to ask for free ideas and designs. As a client it seems like a great way to filter the creative agencies from the lambs, to mix my metaphors a tad. It also feels like a great big free idea haul, and you’ll certainly get a wad of random ideas that may or may not be useful in the project. But to then choose an agency based on those ideas is akin to choosing the person you will marry at a beauty pageant; it might start so but it ain’t going to end pretty.

Frankly, the agencies simply won’t have had the time to immerse, research, understand context and deliver a proper response to a brief in the day or so they can give to a free pitch. Unless they are desperate or mad or both, they’ll commit only enough time for a superficial response.

An agency’s portfolio should give a client all the examples needed to decide if they cut the mustard strategically and creatively. Almost as importantly their approach and process should feel right for the client and the project. That’s it. Oh, and their proximity to good cafes and Surry Hills,of course.

Another thing to consider: Clients, being ethical people, will want to throw out and forget all the losing ideas and designs. In reality, though, this is hard to do; a clever idea has a way of weaseling its way back from obscurity. Like it or not, it’s very hard not to bring those other ideas to the table when the project commences. We all know that’s unfair, even unethical – but it happens. So paying for pitch work is a great way to avoid putting people in this difficult ethical position. I would like to see companies proudly stating they don’t ask for free pitch work for ethical reasons alone and making this a part of their sustainability reporting.

And it’s also bad for the project …Really bad, because as i mentioned earlier the design team has not had time to understand the client’s project (not to mention their business!) and therefore they cannot possibly have an idea that has the necessary contextual understanding, strategic insight or empathy behind it. It’s the opposite of the design approach we take here at Digital Eskimo, which we call Considered Design. Free pitch work is Ill-Considered Design. And who wants that?

“That’s OK, we’ll just toss that idea out and start again once we’ve chosen the agency” is often the response to this point. That makes perfect sense, actually – and I think this happens sometimes. But then why put all those people through hours of free work to just toss even the winning idea out and start again? Politics and people being what they are, though, there’s a good chance that someone – quite likely a few of the decision makers – are in love with that beauty pageant winner and have a vested interest in keeping that idea and design alive.

I can’t think of a better way to stifle creativity and innovation!

OK, so there’s also a swag of really obvious reasons why it’s a bad idea for the agencies themselves but I wont go into it here. It’s a sign of desperation and I reckon it’s a pretty laughable scenario to profess to be proud of your work if you so readily give it away for free. Nuff said.

Like I said earlier, there are much better alternative methods for agency selection that benefit everyone – especially the client, who in the end just wants a great relationship with a top agency and the best result for their project.

Let’s just get off the cat walk

Finally, while I applaud Mr Finn for his position on free pitching generally, I disagree with his view that free pitching is going to happen anyway, so agencies should accept it and protect their free work with a legal letter or such (he’s drafting one for AGDA at the moment). Sort of like a pre-nup before the beauty pageant.

While I know he and AGDA mean well, I think this is another Bad Idea. First, this just perpetuates the idea of Free Pitching with clients. Every request for a free pitch should be dealt with by every agency the same way. ADGA could perhaps spend our membership fees preparing a very clear, well communicated explanation that agencies can send on to clients. Then I’d suggest the agency head explains in a meeting why the approach should be altered and why the agencies who do offer to do work for you are not following our industry guidelines on this (and who knows what other evil things they do, right?).

Suggest a credentials presentation approach, rather than this crazy, good-for-nothing free pitch thing. Or if they really really want to do the pageant, then ask them nicely to pay for it – it will be money well spent. It’s amazing how much better the pitches are when they’ve been done by senior staff during work hours rather than late at night after the paying work is done. Having said that, it’s still a beauty pageant; the hair and makeup is just a bit more tasteful.

And let’s face it: Legal letters are only useful if you can back it up with legal action. Now as I (perhaps rudely!) stated on the night – the only people to win out of this approach are the lawyers. Chris argues this is how they do it in the legal profession, and contracts from law firms work rather well, I imagine – who wants to get in a legal tussle with a law firm? Anyone? No, thought not.

However. most design agencies are simply not going to have the capacity (or headspace!) to go after (possibly difficult to prove) copyright infringement from free pitch work. It just won’t happen, and people on the client side aren’t stupid – they know that. So why treat them like idiots? That’s no way to start a relationship.

I call on AGDA to scrap the legal letter and stand firm with a formal policy and strong recommendation that free pitching breaks our code of practice. While we can’t legally stop our members donning the leotards, applying the thick gloss lippy, shaving the three day growth and strutting their stuff on the cat walk, we can perhaps make it uncool to do so. And no designer wants to be uncool, right?

No related posts.

It’s a very exciting day today as the new laws that Digital Eskimo helped usher in take effect. The agency put its support behind the Raise the Bar community campaign, providing branding, design and our campaign engine (and initial funding) to the project.

In just three months we were able to help galvanise public opinion and change laws that had been stagnant for 25 years due to political influence and a lack of vocal community support for change. Our campaign, coupled with strong leadership by Clover Moore changed all that.

It’s no overstatement to say NSW will never be the same again. Small bar legislation takes effect July 1 and recent changes to the entertainment planning laws mean you’ll likely see a real person playing real music in that bar.

I was personally involved in the strategy and tactical team and worked with a seriously talented and motivated group who deserve all the kudos the campaign has received. There were many contributors and supporters but special mention goes to the core team being: John Wardle, Jonathon Larkin, Mimi Daraphet, Adele Winteridge, Damian Cerini, Andrew Cox. Full credits here

No related posts.

We just hit the go switch on NewMatilda.com, the independent news analysis site with some of the most progressive and interesting writers working in Australia (or anywhere for that matter!). The site is the product of our Considered Design process, and really shows just what can be achieved when you take the time to understand your client’s business and consider users constantly in the design process.

There’s a lot of smarts under the hood but the site somehow feels so simple to use, a sign of great design in my books. A sophisticated tagging system and editorial controls including algorithm based What’s Hot make the site work well for regular users and fresh browsers alike.

I could go on but the proof is in the pudding … www.newmatilda.com

And a recent favourite
You Only Get One Tampa

Related posts:

1. newmatilda.com

Yesterday the Premier of NSW Morris Iemma announced a radical shakeup of our state’s liquor licensing laws. The changes follow an intense couple of months campaigning which was spearheaded by our very own Raise the Bar campaign. Its a great result for the campaign as pretty much everything we had been calling for appears to have been included, most importantly cheaper, simpler small bar licenses will become law in NSW at last.

The impact this will have on NSW cultural life should not be underestimated; alternative music and art galleries will become economically viable overnight, small experimental venues will open stimulating more conversations, political debate and cultural exchange amongst the diverse audiences they will attract. This isn’t really about drinking, this is about the cultural fabric of society, though the art of drinking will be improved too with more variety such as organic beers and wines being given a chance to flourish in the smaller venues.

The campaign, (Digital Eskimo branded and designed the website with help from our talented tech partners at Mooball) was very effective, presenting a positive message that went all the way to the Ministers office and throughout NSW with over 7,000 virtual drinks being sent to state MPs. The campaign also included a sophisticated media strategy leading to a large amount of press, donated street press ads, community radio ads and editorial thanks to FBI Radio, our recent meetup/party and more.

It was a fantastic effort by the entire Raise the Bar team and a great result for NSW. Importantly it shows how effective a strategic, well designed campaign with strong online and integrated channels can be.

Read the articles on our campaign site

No related posts.

Last night Dave and I presented the freshly-minted Raise The Bar Campaign site at WebJam. The site was well received, resulting in our presso being voted third favourite. Big thanks to WebJam and SitePoint for the prize and for everyone that voted for us!

Congrats also to the other winners, especially Dmitry for the Optimus Microformats Transformer. The project is a great contribution to the standards community – and he was sooooo pumped about winning the prize (which included an iPod Touch contributed by Binalogue)… it was a delight to see.

WebJam will be posting videos from the night to Viddler shortly. But in the meantime, Priscilla, who attended the event on her birthday – happy birthday P – has posted a note about the campaign (and why she’s supporting it) on her blog.

The media interest in the campaign, plus getting the site up and live and ironing out the bugs have prevented us from writing about the site here. Hopefully Dave will have a few moments in the coming days to write a bit more about the campaign and the site…

Related posts:

1. WebJam 3
2. Eskimos at WebJam + Web Directions South
3. Raise the Bar wins SMAC Award!

Politics Online have announced nominees for the “The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics“. We’re very excited to see the ACTU, one of our clients, appearing in the list for the Your Rights at Work website. We designed and built the site (with our good friends and tech team Mooball) a few years ago as a hub to the ACTU’s very successful campaign and continue to provide strategy, creative and technical support for it.

If you get a moment, check out the nominees and cast your vote (for us!)

P.S. congrats also to our friends over at GetUp!, who have also been nominated.

This is an international award often presented to projects with much bigger audiences and budgets, so it’s great to see Australian representation among the nominees. And although we’ve already won an Effectiveness award from the Australian Graphic Design Association for the site it’s still exciting to be up for another!

**UPDATE: We won! We’re very excited to hear that the campaign site was awarded first place. Watch a video of the award ceremony

Related posts:

1. Your Rights At Work

Our latest project has just launched for the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. The site features a powerful cross linking sub system for related information and promo modules, donation promotion capacity and a comprehensive, well considered information architecture providing an easy to navigate structure for the significant amount of content the institute must provide its various stakeholders.

Importantly there’s inspirational imagery throughout and a range of features that ensure the communications goals of the organisation are squarely met by this first phase of the project. Exciting new features were devised in our brainstorms with the Garvan and will be implemented in the next Phase .. meanwhile take a look and donate to help the institute in its vital work.

Related posts:

1. Garvan Institute
2. Garvan Institute

Recently we produced some banners for WWF International in support of their Climate Witness initiative.

WWF’s aim was to make an impact on delegates as they entered a G8 symposium on climate change, and for future events the Climate Witness team may attend. They came to us to help work out an effective communications tool to achieve their goals.

We developed a series of 2 metre high banners (pictured above posing with the d.eskimo team) that each tell an individual climate witness story through a number of means:

• Powerful singular words – Hot, Warnings, Impact, etc. – run down the side of each banner;
• Each of the images depicting the climate witness is made up of the words “here” and “now” to highlight that this is an issue that requires urgent action;
• When you get closer to each banner you can read the climate witness’ story;
• They work as a series ranging in colour from yellow to deep orange, which, as you can see in the photo, represents a form of heat reading – from warm to hot.

Visit the WWF International Climate Witness page for more information about the initiative.

We did consider a number of different approaches to the banners in terms of their environmental footprint, but unfortunately there were none that we could find that were particularly friendly. We did choose durable and long-lasting materials in the hope that the banners will see a lot of use before reaching their used-by date. But if anyone knows of any enviro-friendly options for banners and the like, please let us know!

Related posts:

1. WWF Climate Witness
2. Mobilising the Climate Witnesses
3. Climate Friendly site update