Design Strategy, Trends

21st Century Design: Circular Economy

March 11, 2019

A couple of weeks ago, we explored how design could help mitigate the alarming 21st century problem of poor emotional wellness. Today we’ll take a look at the role design can play in developing circular economies, another pressing need in the 21st century. Where do the two intersect? How can we design ventures that are profitable, but not at the cost of environmental sustainability?

A circular economy provides the opportunity for sustainability to successfully co-exist with business goals.

A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.

– WRAP, Waste Company

There are already a number of inspiring projects around the world that have recognised the burning need for such a system, and have developed products and services around the concept. Examples often work better than theory, so let’s take a look at the ways some organisations are employing the concept of the circular economy to tackle the world’s biggest resource and waste management problems.

OCEAN TRASH

According to The Ocean Cleanup, over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently litter the ocean, and it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Read more about the effects of these alarming statistics at the Ocean Conservancy website .

Some companies have integrated innovative product and venture design solutions that do their part to stop the problem from becoming worse.

RAW for The Oceans

Jeans made out of ocean trash? In 2014, Pharrell Williams showed us how clothes can be designed for fashion AND sustainability. The singer, who is also the Creative Director of Bionic Yarn and now a co-owner of clothing brand G-Star Raw, collaborated with the two mentioned companies to develop RAW for the Oceans – a project that recycles ocean plastic into denim.

S-1500 Chair

Integrated design firm, Snøhetta has spent two years on a research project to understand “plastic as a material, its journey and footprint in the value chain, as well as its inherent qualities”.The aim has been to help the public understand waste plastic in a new light – not as a substance that has completed its life cycle, but as a resource that could be put to many possible new uses.

The firm has developed the S-1500, a chair made from 100% recycled ocean plastic, in collaboration with furniture manufacturer, Nordic Comfort Products. The chair uses recycled plastic made from worn out fishing nets from the local fish farming industry, while the sub-frame is fashioned from recycled steel – making it one of the lowest carbon footprint chairs in the market.

By sourcing waste material from the local community and converting it into a new product in the same geographic area, the company has designed a circular system.

Adidas Parley

Adidas, in collaboration with Parley, designs eco-innovative ways to convert materials made out of ocean waste into high performance sports gear.

UNDER UTILISATION / WASTAGE OF RESOURCES

Practices and systems that don’t fully utilise resources or the entire lifespan of goods also contribute to an unsustainable future, and examining how to change these systems to the circular economy model is where opportunity for innovation can be found.

Vigga

Babies and young children grow out of their clothes very fast, sometimes even before they have had a chance to use a new item! The same goes for maternity wear – its use is for a limited time period only. Danish company Vigga has developed a system that allows parents to lease, rather than buy, their high quality organic maternity and childrenswear.

By becoming part of this shared economy, customers get to choose 20 items of clothing and once they don’t fit anymore, they return them and receive 20 more in the next size, all at a fraction of what it would cost to buy the same clothes.

Since this system means that the clothes have to be passed around more often, long lasting quality is built into their design, in order to get more usage per item, also reducing textile waste by 70-85%

Gamle Mursten

Bricks provide an eco-friendly building material option that can be recycled and reused, if properly treated. Cleantech company, Gamle Mursten, employs a patented, chemical free cleaning technology that allows for old/used bricks to be cleaned, inspected and reused, saving 95% of the energy that would be needed to manufacture new bricks. Each reused brick saves 0.5 kg of CO2 emissions.

Where old bricks from a demolition site would conventionally end up in a landfill or have to be crushed for recycling, Gamle Mursten provides a way to make full use of this building material’s lifespan, which can extend into centuries.

Olio

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. In developing countries most of the loss happens in the growing or post harvest stage, but in wealthy countries like America, most of the food waste happens in the consumption stage – when consumers throw out excess food.

Besides it being ethically wrong to throw out food when there are people starving around the world in poor countries, food waste also has a detrimental effect on the environment, by wasting natural resources and/or adding to greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Olio website:

“If food waste were a country it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases”

Olio is an application designed to reduce the incidence of food wastage. The digital platform connects those with surplus food to those who need or wish to consume such food.

Are you intrigued by these ideas? Or do you have a great idea you’d like to take to the next leve? Get in touch with Zeitgeist – your venture design partner!

Brand Strategy, Design Strategy, Space Design

KAAV: At The Intersection of Wildlife, Luxury & Sustainability

By admin on

February 27, 2019

- Brand Strategy, Design Strategy, Space Design

Wildlife awareness and wildlife conservation are key to developing a sustainable future.

In honour of World Wildlife Day which is this Sunday, Zeitgeist would like to shed the spotlight on Kaav Safari Lodge. Located at the southern border of the Nagarhole National Park, Kaav integrates wildlife awareness into its luxury safari lodge, while at the same time ensuring that the footprint left behind from their business operations is as minimal as possible.

It can be tricky to incorporate luxury and sustainability into a venture’s design, but Kaav weaves the two seamlessly into its business model.

Here are 3 things we appreciate about this eco-friendly resort:

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

Starting with its minimal brand logo, every design aspect of the Kaav brand represents an unobtrusive but sophisticated ethos. The typography of the logo subtly hints at the outdoors and nature, through its use of alphabets that look like camping tents.

Offering plush rooms with private balconies and glamorous tents with their own private decks, the accomodation at Kaav leaves no stone unturned when it comes to offering clients a luxurious experience. But it also blends into the location’s natural, wildlife setting, through the use of carefully chosen natural materials and employment of climate responsive architecture. Kaav’s architecture and interior design beautifully complement all aspects of the the business’s ethos.

The same goes for the common lounge, dining room and swimming pool. The infinity pool feels more like a pristine, untouched, natural water body one would chance upon in a remote jungle, than it does a man made pool.

The well thought out property design is the foundation upon which Kaav is able to present guests with a unique value proposition.

SUSTAINABILITY

Kaav takes sustainability seriously. Its actions are not limited to supporting a ‘crowd pleasing’ cause or a one-off CSR initiative. Rather, sustainability is integrated into the processes of all its key activities.

This eco-friendly lodge uses renewable energy wherever possible, recharges groundwater tables and employs a reverse osmosis system that provides potable water at low-energy expenditure. For all the cooking done here, naturally obtained methane is used, extracted from a bio gas plant that employs the lodge’s own kitchen waste.

Further, Kaav engages with the local community to annually plant endemic flora, essential to maintaining biodiversity in the area. Guests also have the opportunity to participate in this activity.

AUTHENTICITY

Kaav promises ‘untamed luxury’. And it stays true to this promise, by allowing one to experience wildlife in all its glory, with the comfort of high end hospitality.

Located in one of India’s best places to sight wildlife, Kaav promotes wildlife awareness through a number of activities that allow guests the opportunity to explore and understand nature and its relation to the broader ecosystem within which it exists. Some of the activities include nature walks, spider walks, boat safaris, coracle rides, birdwatching and kayaking. The lodge has a knowledgeable resident naturalist, who is able to answer every question pertaining to the flora and fauna of the area.

What makes the Kaav brand truly authentic is the attention it pays to the small details; the details that reveal the brand’s commitment to wildlife awareness, sustainability and creating meaningful and unforgettable experiences.

Little things like the bespoke Christmas tree made entirely out of natural materials, the thoughtful riverside tea break after the morning’s nature walk, or the Tiny Safaris which are dedicated to exploring spiders, ants, beetles or fireflies are what make Kaav an authentic brand that stays true to its promise.

All images: www.kaav.com and https://www.instagram.com/kaavsafarilodge/

Design Strategy, Trends

21st Century Design: Emotional Wellbeing

By admin on

February 13, 2019

- Design Strategy, Trends

The 21st century has brought with it an unprecedented surge in emotional and mental health issues and an article by Sarah Rich, Editorial Director at IDEO, nudged Zeitgeist to revisit the positive impact Design, as a discipline, could have on the wellbeing of people living in this century.

In this article we examine 3 emotional wellbeing issues of the 21st century and highlight a few design solutions that aim to mitigate them.

LONELINESS

According to the September 2018 issue of The Economist, the lonely are not just sadder; they are unhealthier and die younger – here is an article from Harvard University that explains why. Loneliness is not just affecting the elderly, as would be natural to believe. Studies have shown that the elderly are actually more resilient to loneliness than millennials. For all the benefits technology has brought, one of the negative impacts it has had on today’s youth has been the aggravation of feeling isolated from society.

While technology has improved connectivity, it has ironically, for a large section of the world’s population, decreased feelings of connectedness.

How can design help mitigate the rising global problem of loneliness?

One way would be to design more meaningful experiences. While a youngster may have 1000 ‘friends’ on Facebook, nothing beats the experience of human interaction. The Cares Family – a UK based charity dedicated to curbing loneliness – creates experiences that bring together the two groups most vulnerable to loneliness. It organises activities within communities that bring together those in the age groups of 65+ and 21 – 40, as it feels that these two groups have much to learn from each other and in doing so can build real bonds of connectedness, purpose, friendship, sharing and belonging.

DEPRESSION & ANXIETY

While we don’t mean to club anxiety and depression as a singular problem, in many cases the two go hand in hand. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

– An Assocham study released a few years ago revealed that in India “Because of demanding schedules, high-stress levels, and performance-linked perquisites in private sectors, nearly 42.5 percent of employees in private sectors are afflicted with depression or general anxiety disorder…”

– In the US, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness.

– According to ourworldindata.org, in 2016, the world had nearly 275 million people suffering from anxiety disorders.

– According to the WHO, globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression.

These 4 statistics alone bring out the fact that anxiety and depression are amongst the biggest health issues of our time. The reasons are many – and we shan’t go into them here, but as designers we can ask ourselves what we can do to mitigate the problem.

Can we design products and services that push back against these alarming statistics?

Here are a couple of examples of products that aim to alleviate the prevalence of some forms of anxiety and depression:

Applications like Calm, Headspace and Breathe use technology to help people with de-stressing techniques at regular intervals. Some of these include meditation, focused breathing and stress-buster time-outs.

Colouring books for adults are an example of a product designed to alleviate anxiety and depression, as well as improve focus.

Concentrating on colouring shifts the focus from troubling and debilitating thoughts and moves it to something creative and rewarding – a completed art project.

Some products aim at easing specific types of anxiety or depression. For example, sunrise alarm clocks are designed to help people coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression related to changes in season.

Sunrise alarm clocks (also called SAD alarm clocks or bodyclock lights) such as those made by Lumie, use the concept of Light Therapy to gently and gradually increase the intensity of light emitted from the alarm clock, mimicking the way the Sun actually rises, beginning 30 minutes before desired wake up time. Incorporating a more holistic mirroring of the human body clock is a gentler way to ease the body into waking up. In contrast, waking up to a tune, even if it’s a peaceful one, is more jarring, and could cause the sudden release of cortisol, and hormone imbalance – leading to a bad mood or feelings of depression.

SLEEP DISORDERS

The example of the sunrise alarm brings us to the problem of sleep disorders. While some sleep disorders are caused due to underlying medical health issues, very often sleep problems are a result of other mental wellbeing issues, mainly anxiety and depression. What are the dangers of not getting adequate sleep? This video explains:

Here are a few products designed to help create the ideal ambience for a good night’s sleep:

In some cases completely blocking out all external sounds and/or listening to white noise can induce better sleep. Bose Sleepbuds have been designed specifically to enable this. While sleep buds can sometimes be large and uncomfortable, Bose keeps the design small and sleek, and ensures comfort even when sleeping on one’s side. Users can opt for preloaded music tracks that either mask external noise or help with relaxation, set alarms and timers, and charge the speakers through its nifty little case.

The Dreampad pillow’s inbuilt sound technology allows only the user to hear tracks while lying on top of it, without disturbing others in the same space. According to the company, the pillow is designed to be more effective than white noise machines alone, since it travels through the body by bone conduction and triggers the nervous system’s relaxation process simultaneously. It plays preloaded ambient music that is most conducive to deep sleep.

Zeitgeist is always inspired by design solutions like these. And now we are asking ourselves how we can design experiences for heightened emotional balance.

Watch this space for more!

Design Strategy, Trends

Tech and Design: What’s Happening Across Industries?

By admin on

November 21, 2018

- Design Strategy, Trends

At the intersection of technology and design lies a huge potential to create meaningful solutions. In last week’s article, we briefly explored some of the new technology that will soon find its way into our everyday lives. Today we examine a few industries where tech and design are already beginning to sit comfortably together and we explore what the future could bring.

SPACE DESIGN

For disciplines like architecture, interior design, process and factory layouts, and other space design fields, new technologies are opening up possibilities like never imagined before. mixed reality tools like Microsoft HoloLens allow all parties involved in decision making to view, edit and participate in the development of designs before execution, resulting in huge cost and time saving thanks to real time interaction, as well as improved customer and end user satisfaction!

With a VR headset, potential users of a space can take a virtual walkthrough in an unfinished project to see what the end result will look like.

Realtor apps like Street Peek already use augmented reality to have information like listing price and number of bedrooms pop up when potential home buyers/renters point their phone at a house.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Virtual and augmented reality improves the efficiency of collaborative efforts – a key element in developing sound and purposeful products.
According the the Microsoft website, “Microsoft HoloLens and Autodesk Fusion 360 are helping improve collaboration across the entire product development process, enabling engineers and designers to iterate together in real-time. Faster prototyping, more confident decisions, and more efficient cooperation are the future of product design.”

MANUFACTURING

Google Glass, which didn’t do as well as its creators imagined it would in the mass consumer market, would appear to be finding a new lease of life in its new avatar – Google Glass Enterprise Edition, or Glass EE as it’s referred to by those in the know.

This version, which was adopted as pilot projects for testing in companies like GE, Boeing, DHL and Volkswagen, is beginning to garner large scale adoption, thanks to the improved quality and productivity observed by these early adopters, where Glass has helped workers improve their efficiency. For example, when workers at GE use Glass EE with a wi-fi enabled torque wrench, the device tells them if they are using the right amount of torque.

Further, research from Forrester indicates that by 2025, over 14 million US workers will be wearing smart glasses at their workplace.

Glass is a good example of innovative technology missing the mark, when its market potential is not properly explored and the product isn’t accordingly modified to suit a latent need. While Glass failed to garner mass B2C adoption, it appears to be redeeming itself in its 2.0 version in the B2B market.

RETAIL

Augmented and virtual reality have the ability to add tremendous value to the world of retail, and are poised to be used more frequently in the future.

We’ve already seen some examples of how virtual reality can offer a more immersive experience when it comes to advertising. For example, Lipton’s 360 VR ad campaign of 2016 allowed viewers to “go on a journey” inside a relaxing cup of tea. Similarly, Oreo’s campaign took their audience through a sweet-filled, tempting journey to promote their new cupcake filled cookie, while Johnnie Walker used VR to create a more realistic viewing experience while promoting awareness around the consequences of drinking and driving.

With augmented reality, retailers have the opportunity to put more information in the hands of their consumers, in a more fun and interactive way, simply by pointing their phone at an object. Imagine a future where you could walk through your supermarket and point your phone at a loaf of bread to have its ingredients, expiry date and such information pop up on your screen – the day when this will be commonplace is not that far away.

Besides educating or imparting information to potential consumers, AR could also offer them a more convenient, pleasurable and time saving shopping experience. Companies like Home Depot, Ikea, Lacoste and Sephora already have apps that do just this.

With Ikea Place for example, you can point your phone at any space and see what an Ikea product would look like in it. With the Lacoste LCST app, users just need to scan trigger images in a Lacoste store and can “try on” an entire product range, as well as interact with additional information. Timberland has even experimented with using AR technology for users to try on clothes, without physically trying them on.

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Augmented reality puts information at the tips of travellers’ fingers, as they explore a new place. From historical information on monuments to nearby restaurants, lodging and other facilities, the improved experience for travellers results in more accurate information dissemination, time saving, better informed decision making and ultimately, happier holidays!

eTips is one company already offering AR enabled apps that turn your phone into you own personal your guide. Their apps are categorised into Landmarks, National Parks, Cities and Museums. So for example, if you were visiting the Louvre in Paris and wanted to know more about a particular painting, all you would have to do is point your phone at the painting and have the information pop up on your screen!
This article from CNN explores ten popular AR travel apps.

HEALTHCARE

According to HackerNoon, by 2025 the healthcare revenue from augmented and virtual reality will be around $5 billion. Here are a few ways the medical world has already adopted the technology:

Using the Augmedix platform with Glass, a ‘scribe’ or real time assistant is able to remotely experience what a doctor sees and hears, thus freeing him up from the task of having to fill in information and leaving him more time to focus on his patient.
In one study, the total time spent on data entry went down from 33% of the day to just 10%, while patient interaction rose from 35% to 70%.

Another example is AccuVein. According to the company, 40% of IV injections miss locating the vein on the first attempt. Accuvein uses projection based augmented reality to make vein location in patients far more accurate it and has been found to improve the likelihood of first stick success by 3.5 times.

The AED4EU app used in conjunction with the Layar reality browser could potentially save people’s lives by helping them locate the nearest defibrillator.

EDUCATION

Virtual and augmented reality in education allow one to experience something without actually having to be present at the place. For example, with Google Expeditions students can explore places from the Great Barrier Reef to Mount Everest, without having to ever leave the classroom!

AN EXCITING FUTURE FOR DESIGNERS

We’ve only really covered just the tip of the iceberg in this article. While we’ve highlighted the major tech trends that are going to impact us, we’ve examined just some of the possibilities in just a few industries. That’s because the potential is enormous. We would have to write book-sized article to explore it all completely in depth.

The idea is to get us all, as designers, thinking about where we could find a place in this landscape that will soon be upon us.

As a designer where do you think you will fit in in the future?

Do share your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to check out Part 1 of this article.

Design Strategy, Trends

Tech and Design: What Does The Future Hold?

By admin on

November 14, 2018

- Design Strategy, Trends

Twenty years ago we sat on the cusp of the mobile phone revolution. The advancement in technology at the time opened up endless possibilities for designers from various fields. From new possibilities for existing design disciplines – product designers for example – to entirely new design job profiles, like application designers, the design world was headed towards a new era.

Today we sit on the cusp of another revolution. Advancements in technology today are paving the way for virtual, augmented and mixed reality to become a part of everyday life. Where does this leave designers? What is the current scenario and going forward, what are the new roles where designers will be able to add tremendous value? What are the skills that designers should begin to hone?

In this article, we take a look at the overall scenario, and in the following week, we will take a specific look at certain industries, to see what the future could hold. If you are a designer, perhaps the time is ripe to ask yourself – Am I ready?

WHAT’S WHAT

In case you’re not absolutely familiar with the terminology, here’s a succinct explanation from Wikipedia that sums it up nicely:

Virtual Reality (VR) immerses users in a fully artificial digital environment.
Augmented Reality (AR) overlays virtual objects on the real-world environment.
Mixed Reality (MR) doesn’t just overlay, but anchors virtual objects to the real world and allows the user to interact with the virtual objects.

Besides our smartphones and tablets, hardware such as Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens present us with a whole new range of possibilities. Coupled with this, is the soon-to-be-ubiquitous 5G and the yet-to-be-realised potential of IoT, which push the boundaries even further.

WHERE DO DESIGNERS FIT IN?

The obvious roles for designers are in the more areas of traditional design, like graphic design, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design.
But beyond this, more and more designers are finding a spot at the biggest decision making tables across organisations, and not just at those within the design sector. With design thinking as a process gaining more popularity, the huge value a designer can add in helping to arrive at truly impactful and viable solutions is being recognised.

Companies are putting designers at the head of the table…The user’s experience of technology these days is even more important than the tech itself. The UI is what distinguishes a product; a company. That’s one reason why designers are being employed across industries.

– Scott Belsky,
Chief Product Officer, Adobe
Co-founder, Behance

Venture design services that incorporate the design thinking framework, where problems are looked at from a macro level, and proposed design solutions are crafted from end user insights along with other factors in their environment, will come to play an important role.

An interdisciplinary approach that views the problem from various angles and seeks the inputs of experts from different disciplines will lead to the most comprehensively designed solutions. For example, when planning a commercial building, an architect would create a more effective design if he clearly understood the market segment he was designing for, the demographics of the area and the needs of each specific age group of the end users.

This would require intensive research and an in depth analysis by the architect, requiring him to go beyond his domain and should ideally be a collaborative effort with other experts, such as a social anthropologist or social psychologist.

Furthermore, venture design enabled through design thinking, allows the business to discover and tap into latent needs that the end user might not even realise he has, leading to a more comprehensive solution. With technology evolving at a speed that’s hard to keep up with, organisations will have to integrate new solutions rapidly. Venture design helps firms focus on the right thing at the right time, to take advantage of opportunities when they arise and to constantly deliver meaningful solutions. It also addresses the need for adaptability and answering the “what ifs”, by providing pivot strategies that enable the business to move or change the direction of their solutions to better fit the end user’s requirements, as they evolve.

Designers who wish to be at the forefront of pathbreaking designs, will have to engage in continuous learning and experimentation, to be able to understand, manipulate and employ new technology optimally.

The designers of the future need to look beyond just their field of speciality and also remind themselves to understand things from the point of view of a layman using that product or service. Design, be it of a product, space, user experience or of an organisation can no longer be looked at in isolation, if it is to be truly impactful.

As a designer, are you ready for the impending revolution that is upon us?

What are your thoughts – we’d love to know in the comments below.

Design Strategy

It All Begins With Empathy: Designing For Social Impact

By admin on

September 14, 2018

- Design Strategy

In a recent article entitled 5 Things To Keep In Mind When Designing For Social Impact, Tabitha Yong rightly pointed out that “too many designers use ‘design for social good’ to cushion personal legitimacy, buzzing about ‘social innovation’ and ‘helping the poor’ without thoroughly understanding what these concepts truly entail — or worse, without thinking about whether their contributions are actually doing more harm than good.”

This got us thinking about examples where people have used their designing skills to develop designs that truly do have the potential for great social impact.

A couple of weeks ago we showcased 3 examples of brands that were reimagined for enhanced social impact. Today we’ll look at examples in 3 other fields of design – product, application and space design – that were developed for enhanced social impact in the field of healthcare.

Product Design: HIV Home Test For Developing Countries

According to UNAIDS, in 2017 there were 36.9 million people living with HIV, globally. Of this staggering number, 70% live in Africa while 14% live in Asia and the Pacific, in low and middle income countries.

An early diagnosis is key to preventing the condition from progressing to AIDS. If diagnosed in the early stages, an HIV positive person who receives appropriate antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment can go on to live a long and relatively healthy life. While notable progress has been made in curbing and preventing the spread of the HIV virus over the past 10 to 15 years*, one of the reasons the epidemic continues is because the societies where it is rampant have poor access to medical facilities. Lack of infrastructure and transport means that a person has numerous obstacles in getting to a facility just to get tested.

Product designer Hans Ramzan has come up with a solution. The reason his product – Catch – has the potential for vast social impact is that it has been developed keeping the two main constraints in mind:

1. People in developing countries who face huge obstacles in getting to a clinic to get tested, often don’t want to make the journey just to be told it’s “too late” – Ramzan solves this problem by developing a ‘test at home’ device, that reveals the results immediately.

2. Low and middle income sections of society, where the prevalence of the virus is the highest, do not have the resources to access superior medical facilities – Ramzan’s product can be mass produced at a cost of around $5 per piece.

This design helps in quick and easy diagnosis. If you’re interested to learn how the device works, click here.

App Design: BNF Drug Catalogue

Our next pick helps in quick and accurate prescription. With the multitude of drugs and drug combinations available today, doctors have a lot of criteria to consider before they prescribe one to a patient after diagnosis has been completed. Is the patient already on a similar drug? Will the new drug being prescribed result in an adverse reaction with one the patient is currently on. What are the side effects? In Britain, the British National Formulary (BNF) index is the go-to reference book for clinicians to check up on information like this. Recently, design studio Modern Human developed an app version of the index. The designers observed doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical students struggling between sections of the book, with post-it notes everywhere and using five fingers to keep several sections accessible at once.

They designed the app to make it easier for medical professionals to search for and compare drugs from their electronic smart devices, without having to flip back and forth through the pages of a voluminous book. Not only does this save a lot of time and improve accuracy, especially when having to cross reference drugs, but it also means that doctors out in the field or on house calls can prescribe on-the-go.

Features like ‘smart search’ or those that highlight interactions with non-medical substances (certain foods for example) go a long way in improving the effectiveness of the user. The free app has been downloaded by over 126,000 clinicians in the past year to treat approximately 1.5m patients every month.

Space Design: GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Centre

The devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti led to an unprecedented outbreak of cholera, a disease the country had not experienced in over 100 years.

When invited to redesign the GHESKIO hospital after it collapsed in the earthquake, instead of simply designing a space that could treat cholera patients, MASS Design Group looked at developing a holistic solution that would tackle the root of the problem and curb reinfection. Cholera is a water borne disease, so to nip the problem in the bud, MASS incorporated into the building design, a “specialized wastewater treatment system that removes all waterborne disease pathogens on-site to ensure that there is no recontamination of groundwater, and no need for off-site treatment.”

MASS specifically designed the building within its local context. It incorporated a rainwater harvesting system that enables the water so collected to be treated and used for cleaning, bathing and drinking, a clerestory design that allows for natural ventilation and cooling in the hot, humid Haitian climate as well as natural sunlight to enter, and made use of local building materials and craftsmen, to be able to have full control on quality and to sustain the livelihood of the locals. The GHESKIO CTC design embodies the prevention aspect of good medical care.

The designers highlighted in this article clearly began developing their designs by first empathising with the end user. By willingly embracing the constraints the projects posed, keenly observing the end user, designing within context and focusing on solving the root cause of the problem, rather than its symptoms – all principles that make up a Design Thinking framework – they were able to arrive at solutions that could truly impact society positively.

Do you have an idea that has the potential to impact society positively? Zeitgeist would be happy to explore the possibilities with you, using our innovative Venture Design framework. Get in touch today!

Gitanjali Singh Cherian
Marketing Manager

*New HIV infections have been reduced by 47% since the peak in 1996. (unaids.org)

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Brand Strategy

Reimagining Brand Identity For Impact – 3 Examples

By admin on

August 30, 2018

- Brand Strategy

The goal of Design Thinking is to develop solutions that create value within a given context.

As science advances, perceptions change and progress takes place, the requirement of the end user changes as well.

Isn’t it pertinent then to regularly re-evaluate the relevance of an existing design in its current context? Especially if it is one that has been around for a while?

This is what ignites the flame of innovation. Here are three examples of re-branding done intelligently and that spark a deep connect with their respective audiences.

Towards Inclusivity – The International Symbol for Access (ISA)

As the ISA – a white figure in a wheelchair against a blue background – celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, McCann London has launched its Visibility93 campaign to address the sign’s relevance in today’s context.

Over the past 50 years, advances in science and people’s perceptions have led to us as a society slowly recognising that a person in a wheelchair is not necessarily indicative of someone with a disability. From physical disabilities like arthritis to mental ones such as schizophrenia, ‘invisible’ disabilities can often be overlooked and suitable access denied. The Visibility93 campaign was launched by McCann to shed light on this and to reimagine the sign as one that is more inclusive.

The Visability93 campaign includes a suite of custom typeface that can be freely downloaded from the campaign website, as can a free poster, to raise awareness of the same.

Why the number 93? According to Sport England, 93% of the people living with disabilities do not in fact use a wheelchair. McCann wanted to draw focus to this eye-opening statistic.

The original disability sign, designed by Danish student Susanne Koefoed in 1968 played a huge role in raising awareness and promoting empathy, acceptance and a change in perception. But even the best of designs must take heed of the zeitgeist and readapt itself to become meaningful and relevant in its current context.

Making Growth Fun – Social Mobility Foundation

The Social Mobility Foundation in England, is a charity that works towards improving the lives of young people from low income and minority sections of society, by helping them gain an entry into good universities and on to the career paths of their choice.

Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR), which worked on the project for free, has rebranded the organisation to be more in tune with the target audience – a young, Internet savvy, always-online community. The new identity is playful and inclusive.

Keeping in mind that online platforms are a big marketing channel for the organisation, JKR developed animated branding, which you can see below – it’s playful, attractive, clever and representative of upward mobility. The missing ‘o’ concept was extended to promotional and marketing material.

The firm was also cleverly able to transfer the missing ‘o’ concept into static print material, such as posters, brochures and t-shirts.

While developing the redesign, JKR worked within certain constraints. For example, it didn’t alter the existing identity to an extent that it would no longer be recognisable as that of the organisation’s. It made subtle tweaks instead, such as retaining the original colour palette of pink, purple and white, but opting for slightly brighter shades. It also kept in mind that running costs across brand extensions should be kept to a minimum to make it a viable proposition for the charity. So a free typeface that is readily available on Apple and Microsoft systems was chosen, while existing photographs from the charity’s own vast database were used for impactful imagery.

Depicting the Role of Women in 2018 – Girl Guides, UK

The role of women in today’s society is vastly different from what it was a 109 years ago, when the concept of Girlguiding was born. For over 100 years, the organisation has been encouraging girls and women between the ages of 15 to 25 to “learn new skills, work as part of a team or as a leader, and complete projects for social or charitable causes.” The Guides are split into 4 categories based on age (plus the Senior section for those aged 14 to 25). Guides can earn accomplishment badges in a skill or an area of interest by completing certain (age appropriate) challenges. The brand’s redesign which was developed by Red Studio, focused on a new look and feel for the badges and the corresponding award books and handbooks. It also incorporates the addition of new skills to the Guides’ repertoire, such as Coding, Inventing, Human Rights and Festival Go-ing.

The badges are current, appealing and appropriate to all the Guide age groups. One of the main outcomes of this re-design is that the new badges have a more “permanent” feel to them – they can be sewn onto jackets, caps, blankets etc. as keepsakes, evoking the feelings of achievement and belonging, as well as nostalgia in the years to come.

While the colour palette for for all the age groups is the same, the books for the two younger groups focus more on the colours and contain illustrations; the use of colour in the books for the two older groups is more pared down and photographs instead of illustrations are used.

The examples highlighted here have added value to existing designs by making them relevant to their current audience, in their current context, without taking away from the core of what each brand has stood for over many years.

Design Thinking focuses on human-centered design that truly adds value to the end user. Do you have a brand identity that needs re-imagining for today’s world? Using the framework of Design Thinking, Zeitgeist can help you design and develop a Brand Strategy that can take your business to the next level. Reach out today!

Gitanjali Singh Cherian
Marketing Manager

Image and information source: www.designweek.co.uk

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Business Tips & How To's

5 Ways To Become More Creative

By admin on

July 31, 2018

- Business Tips & How To's

Regardless of the kind of work we do, creativity is the spice of life and we must strive to extract its essence everyday. But not all of us are built to harvest this spice, either due to the fear of the unknown or because life never conditioned us to explore it.

In this blog, we’ll describe 5 ways you can juice your creativity, challenge it and push it to the limits, with some curated efforts.

1. Get Uncomfortable

Consume media content that’s way outside your comfort zone or area of interest. This could include watching unfamiliar documentaries or foreign-language films without subtitles, listening to offbeat music or even just reading YouTube or Twitter comments (in monitored dosage, it’s a different high altogether!) The aim is to activate the brain’s lateral thinking which often sparks creativity.

2. Create ‘Mood’

Listening to classical music is always great. The genre is designed to stimulate the mind and induce imagination. You can experiment with speakers or earphones – each has a different effect on the mind.

Lighting has been found to be another major influencer. Contrary to what might seem, dim light often helps the mind dip and wander off shamelessly.

3. Take A Walk

Going out on walks invites different mood accelerators. The ambience helps the mind lose a little focus, only to lift the intense pressure of thinking in silence.

Research suggests that the colours blue and green light up the creative corners of the brain; and where else would one find these in abundance more than the on streets and in nature?

You might be getting the idea that creativity has a lot to do with solitude… but not quite!

4. Expand Your Horizons

Engaging with people outside your ‘project’ results in brilliant ideas too. It can be surprising what comes out of a discussion with kids. Children think uninhibitedly; norms are rarely an obstacle to their wishes! Because it’s not ‘boxed’ thinking, often it spurns innovation.

Speak with a total outsider to your field of work and toss around some ideas for input. If nothing, you’ll at least get an insight into how convincing or flawed your ideas are.

5. Keep Moving

Steer away from stagnancy. Agreed that it sounds big and is much much harder to do. But there are so many ways this can become part of your system and who knows, you might actually develop a liking for it.

Keep restructuring your everyday routine: eating, sleeping, exercising, socialising.

Redecorate the space you live in or even better, move out!

Pick a character like Johnny Depp, Shashi Tharoor, Oprah or Spongebob Squarepants and take on their persona for the day. Become a method actor – walk like them, talk like them, try to think like them; give yourself the importance you ascribe to them.

Start talking to new people – the kind you would perceive as weird, uninteresting or with opposing views.

When you begin to feel extra comfortable in a setting, it can sometimes be good to move away from it.

Remember, creativity lies is in seeking new experiences, making connections and allowing realisations to strike. That’s how ideas are born.

Pahi Gangwar
Graphic Designer

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Space Design

The Coolest Work Spaces From Around The World

By admin on

July 27, 2018

- Space Design

Earlier this week we spoke about the need for office spaces to stimulate creativity and innovation. Today we’re excited to share our favourite creative work spaces from around the world…let us know what you think. Do you wish your work space was like one of these?

It is very important to bring context to the design of your office space – it must be relevant to the work your company does. Simply introducing some quirky furniture, a foosball table and using bright colours isn’t the answer; unless of course, that is what is relevant to your work!

Here are some offices that have designed creative work spaces that are relevant to what they do, nudging their inhabitants’ creativity in the direction of their respective companies’ cultures.

Pionen Data Center, Stockholm

The location of Pionen’s data center makes for a dramatic setting. When the company got hold of this space which used to be a nuclear shelter during the Cold War era, they didn’t miss the opportunity to create something truly ‘cool’.

Located 100 feet below ground, the office is like a space station, complete with greenhouses, artificial waterfalls and simulated daylight. In fact, the inspiration behind the design was 70’s sci-fi movies – the perfect setting for a ‘high security data center’!

This is a great example of a design that puts humans first and boosts employee morale, even though only around fifteen people work here.

Rather than just concentrating on technical hardware we decided to put humans in focus,… Of course, the security, power, cooling, network, etc, are all top notch, but the people designing data centers often (always!) forget about the humans that are supposed to work with the stuff.

– Jon Karlung, CEO at Bahnhof (the ISP behind Pionen)

If an office space whose conference room floor resembles that of the Moon, whose entrance door is 16 inches thick and can withstand the impact of a nuclear bomb doesn’t make you feel important, we don’t know what will!

Zynga

Social game developer Zynga definitely lives out their company culture at their headquarters in San Francisco. Their office plan has an atrium in the centre of this 6 storey building and open work desk layouts.

Everything about the space screams ‘social’ and ‘fun’. It allows for pet visitations and has an informal casual environment, which encourages creativity, and allows employees to feel comfortable in their own skin.

Rolex Learning Center

This one is not an office, but still is a work space in a sense, for students to learn, experiment and ideate. Part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, The Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, houses one of Europe’s largest scientific libraries (with over 500,000 printed works), a cafe and food court, workspaces, a multi purpose hall and a bookshop amongst other things.

Designed by Japanese architectural duo SANAA, this unusual, undulating building is evocative of the way humans interact and learn.

Human movements are are not linear, like the way a train moves, but curve in a more organic way.
With straight lines we can only create a crossroads, but with curves we can create more diverse interactions.

– Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA

The open design integrates with the idea of continuous discovery and endless possibilities – key elements and desired outcomes of learning.

Selgas Cano Architecture Office

Research suggests that working close to nature improves creativity and productivity. Architectural firm SelgasCano’s office in Madrid is the epitome of biophilic design, with their office being located in the middle of a forest!

The tubular building, which has one entire wall and a part of the ceiling made of glass, is half sunken into the forest floor, which means that one is at eye level with the forest floor when sitting at one’s desk.

Needless to say, there is no need for artificial lighting inside the office during the day and one only has to look out of the window or up at the ceiling for inspiration and to enjoy the many soothing and motivational benefits of being ensconced in nature, such as falling leaves, wildlife on the move or the changing daily and seasonal forest landscape.

Workbench Projects

Right here, in the hometown of Zeitgeist, Bangalore – India, is a workspace that really makes you want to jump in and tinker with something the minute you enter!

Workbench Projects, located under the Ulsoor Metro is a place for inventors and learners to prototype and test their ideas. This makerspace is split into several sections so there are areas for discussion, laser printing, designing, woodwork and electronic projects – all with a very ‘workshop’ vibe to it, motivating you as you rub shoulders with others working on something that just may be the next big thing.

These examples bring out what we spoke about in our earlier article, How To Design An Office That Stimulates Creativity, and clearly highlight how an office environment can go a long way in not only encouraging innovative thinking, but also other important elements, such as boosting employee morale, subtly nudging one towards a change in corporate culture, and gently breaking down the barriers that prevent networking and exchange of ideas.

Need some ideas on how to make your office space one that induces creativity for your particular line of work? Zeitgeist can help – reach out to us today!

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Space Design

How To Design An Office That Stimulates Creativity

By admin on

July 24, 2018

- Space Design

When it comes to the working world, should spaces that encourage creativity only be reserved for the offices of designers, inventors and other disciplines of the ‘creative’ kind?

Zeitgeist thinks not.

There is enough research to suggest that the firms that will survive in a rapidly changing and unpredictable future will be the ones that consistently innovate. Accordingly to Gensler:

“The drive to innovate stems from the continued effects of globalization, increased competition, and the steady shift toward a knowledge economy.”

People make a company, (yes, even those that will be AI-ridden in the future) and so it would follow that the ability of people to be creative, motivated and innovative is the need of the hour in any organisation.

But could the design of a workspace help promote creativity and innovation? Could your office space help make elastic thinkers of its inhabitants?

Zeitgeist thinks so.

Today we’ll explore some of the design elements that both startups and well established businesses can integrate into their offices to encourage and develop innovative thinkers.

Beyond developing creativity, a space also has the ability to inculcate a sense of pride and belonging in the people that work there. Further, just as a person can influence a space, so can the design of a space have an impact on people and subtly nudge them towards a desired corporate culture. This is especially useful when making the shift from archaic and often deeply ingrained hierarchical ways of working to progressive ways of working that are collaborative and transparent.

LOCATION

If you are looking for an office space or moving an existing business to a new space, seize the opportunity to nurture creativity from the get-go by opting for the best location and office structure you can afford.

According to THNK, locations that lend themselves to creativity include those that allow for “openness, serendipity and outside inspiration.” This could be an office with floor to ceiling glass, perhaps located at the center of a pulsating area that buzzes with activity, (much like THNK’s own office in Amsterdam that is surrounded by other creative companies, a public park, jazz bars and cinemas with lots of cultural events) one that lets in plenty of natural sunlight and/or one that has an inspiring view.

Not all of us however have the luxury of being able to locate our offices in such idyllic settings, but there are several things that can be done within an existing office space to nurture innovation too.

OFFICE DESIGN

An open design – one that doesn’t make a person feel that he must remain confined to a particular area – is said to be the best for fostering creativity. Creativity and innovation stem from people interacting freely with each other – exchanging thoughts, sharing opinions and working together to develop ideas.

You can’t say to someone, ‘I want you to think differently, build differently, behave differently’ – and then say, ‘Go back to your desk.’ It absolutely doesn’t square with the idea that we want you to create growth. As founders and as leaders, we need to break people’s environments to truly change the way people think and create.

– David Kidder, Co-Founder – Bionic Solution

The process of innovating is made up of several phases – some that require messy, collaborative work, some that call for quiet contemplative reflection and others that call for quickly experimenting with numerous ideas to bring them to fruition for testing. So the workspace must also include private spaces for the times when deep concentration is required. The best way to achieve this is to develop a flexible workspace.

What comprises a flexible workplace? Think movable partitions and whiteboards, multi-use furniture, a floor you can mark, a wall you can illustrate and doodle on, a standing work table to induce the feeling of agility, little niches of solitude – the possibilities are endless!

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Duraflor has 4 excellent guidelines to keep in mind when designing your innovative work space. Does your workplace have all four?

AN ATMOSPHERE OF AGILITY

To further cultivate an atmosphere of agility, introduce elements that aid in quickly making an idea understandable. Innovation is born from the freedom to quickly prototype or express an idea from what’s at hand. So make sure that things like markers, PostIt notes, cardboard boxes, pins, clips, strings, chalk, glue, tape, Lego pieces….you get the idea – basically, anything that would help you to visualise or make a simple model of what you have in mind – are always close at hand.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

But the MOST important thing to induce innovation, (which is also the thing that the leaders of well established companies sometimes have a hard time wrapping their heads around) is to build a culture of creativity. This calls for a change in the mind set first of all of top management. Red tape and bureaucracy do not have a place in innovative organisations; neither does working in silos; neither does a fear of failure.

This kind of thinking can be tough for older companies to imbibe, entrenched as they sometimes are in practices that follow strict hierarchy. Here’s where designing the right kind of environment can gently nudge people into thinking and ultimately behaving differently.

Are you interested in developing a workspace to steer your company towards a future where it will be relevant, valuable and thriving with people raring to come up with the next big idea?

Zeitgeist’s venture design services can help you get there – reach out to us today to be ready for tomorrow!

Next week we’ll explore some of our favourite creative office spaces from around the world. Make sure you tune in!

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