Designer-driven
OH! Interactive Installation by Tangible Interaction
Judge’s Pick: Nico Taus RGD
"This interactive exhibit is beautifully simple and exquisitely engaging. People can learn how to use it without the need for instructions or communications—making it accessible to all. By tastefully combining technology, sleek design and human movement, the installation ignites the wonder, imagination and curiosity that exists in all people. It gets people smiling and encourages strangers to interact and share a memorable moment. This installation has a large effect—not only on those who interact with it but on the cityscape itself. I believe this type of design project can bring people together and forge new relationships."
Project Description:
The goal was to create something engaging that would bring people in Vancouver together, build a sense of connection and create a feeling of community. OH! allows participants to affect the night skyline by controlling the existing lights on the dome of Science World, Vancouver’s most iconic building. The installation entices people to feel connected to where they live and also to the other participants around them. During activation nights, thousands of people came out to be a part of the experience, often forming lineups and patiently waiting their turn.
Credits:
Creative Director: Alex Beim
Lead Designer: Andrea Buttarini
Research & Development Lead: Brendan Matkin
Programmer: James Acres
Producer: Holly Hofmann
Ipseity Web App by Tammy Le
Judge’s Pick: Ian Grais RGD
Having a mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s, I know first-hand the challenges of providing consistent care. This is such a simple and powerful solution to a very real problem. I could use this today and know that it would be very helpful to my mother’s team of caregivers. Great work!
Project Description:
Dementia is a growing problem, affecting millions of Canadians. As dementia progresses, it’s very common for the circle of care to grow as needs do. But it can take weeks for caregivers to learn about a person’s care preferences. Small details matter in alleviating agitated behaviour. Ipseity allows families to create individual care profiles specifically tailored to a person’s care preferences. This includes routines, activities of daily living, food preferences, as well as a person’s life story and hobbies. Families can share access to the digital profile with a care team, as well as easily update and maintain the profile over time.
Credits:
Designer: Tammy Le
Instructor: Douglas Whitton
The Loneliness Project by Marissa Korda
Judge’s Pick: Deborah Adler
The Loneliness Project promotes action and awareness through an interactive design that reveals a feeling we all share and that society often overlooks. It promotes empathy as a tool to understand each other and reminds us that there are entire stories inside each of us. The project also takes responsibility by providing the information to a few hotlines. The website is beautifully-designed and easy to use. The charming animation style and overall tone make the project approachable and inviting. The logo is well-executed and celebrates the word loneliness instead of concealing it.
Project Description:
For this Passion Project, the goal was to create something that facilitated empathy and human compassion through design. After some exploration, Marissa landed on loneliness as a lens through which to explore the topic. The goals evolved: 1) Promoting empathy both for others and for ourselves. 2) Reducing stigma around loneliness and increase the topic’s visibility. 3) Provide an outlet for those experiencing loneliness. Through a Google Form with four questions in a few Facebook groups, Marissa collected over 1,200 stories from 60 countries including Syria, Australia, Thailand and Mexico. She used sound, visuals and animation to craft an emotional experience around each story. The illustrations and overall design create a digestible way to read the stories that conjures up an image everyone can identify with: being alone and feeling like a small piece in a much larger world.
Credits:
Creator & Designer: Marissa Korda
Developer: Philipp Schöfer
Producer: Lesli Ink
Our Home and Native Land by Underline Studio for Flash Reproductions
Judge’s Pick: Katie Maasik
"A beautiful and thought-provoking concept that challenges the reader into seeing there’s more to this than meets the eye. Stunning Canadian photography and an innovative use of the torn page reveal Simpson’s powerful poetry and social commentary, which confront the reader. This thoughtful concept deals with relevant information to promote social change with a lovely and sophisticated use of white space and minimal, poetic typography. A beautiful yet evocative project."
Project Description:
Underline was invited to curate and design an issue of the Wayward Arts series celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. The studio used the opportunity to interrogate the country’s often-glossed-over history and ongoing relationship with Indigenous people. On its surface, the issue appears to be a tribute to Canada’s majestic landscapes. However, perforated lines on each spread invite the reader to dig deeper. Once the pages are torn, the reader is confronted with a haunting poem that challenges Canadians’ presumptions of ownership and use of the land. The poetry is paired with facts on issues ranging from disregard of treaty rights to residential schools, lack of drinking water to inflated incarceration rates, issuing a challenge to readers to reckon with the hidden history of Canada.
Credits:
Creative Directors: Fidel Peña RGD, Claire Dawson RGD
Photographer: Joanne Ratajczack
Copywriters: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Elizabeth Brandt
Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) Clinic by Graduates from OCAD U’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation Master of Design Program
Project Description:
Recent graduates from OCAD U’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation Master of Design Program installed a number of experiential and futuristic interventions centred around our changing relationship with nature in the urban context. The Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) Clinic aims to explore the health impacts of a lack of contact with nature and support the critical dialogue around climate change. As part of Nuit Blanche, the NDD Clinic saw about a thousand “patients” in over 12 hours. The physical space was an interactive choreography of visual, lighting and sound elements. “Patients” experienced the various multisensory elements from a waiting room to examination to treatment for NDD.
Credits:
Designers: Jennifer McDougall, Nourhan Hegazy, Bergur Ebbi, Prateeksha Singh
Serving.Green Website by Manoverboard
Project Description:
Every time we visit a website, upload a file or download an app, we use huge data centres that are mostly powered by dirty energy. This site demonstrates, in accessible and user-friendly terms, the importance of green data centres and the role websites and apps play in climate change. The site has been viewed by visitors from all over the world, who are consistently surprised about the carbon footprint of the Internet. As page weights increase, designers need to be more conscious in their decision-making, choosing lighter-weight code and visual assets and green hosting providers.
Credits:
Concept, Design and Development: Manoverboard
Ideation, Research and Content: Manoverboard, Mightybytes and Third Partners
Recycling Matters Poster by Forge Media + Design
Project Description:
One of the biggest barriers to reducing waste is understanding what can and can’t be recycled. This informative, colourful poster encourages employees to recycle right. The clean and friendly design and use of icons help lead users into the data and communicate messages clearly. To find information easily, content was alphabetized and organized using colour. Because the design is rich in content, there are multiple tiers of information to help catch the attention of passersby. The use of bold and clear headlines allows viewers to quickly enter the data.
Credits:
Creative Director: Stüssy Tschudin RGD
Designer: Shane Collier RGD
Design Review: Meg Lynch RGD, Heather Angell
WWF Sea Turtle Print Ad by Stephanie Hammond
Project Description:
As a passionate WWF supporter with concern for wildlife and specifically the threats facing sea turtles, Stephanie wished to create an informative and dramatic piece to help bring awareness to the vulnerable species. With that in mind, she developed a print ad with an element of interactivity for impact and engagement that highlights the idea that everyone can help, no matter how big or small the gesture. Readers of the ad are able to physically bring the turtle hatchling from the beach to the shore. Following the diagram printed at the top of the page, readers turn the page to reveal the sponsored message on the underlying spread.
Credits:
Art Director, Designer: Stephanie Hammond
Copywriter: Saaqshi Sharma
The Trust Project by The Trust Project Contributors
Project Description:
The Trust Project is an international coalition of news outlets working together to promote truth, fairness and accuracy in the age of ‘fake news’. Through a collaborative design process, The Trust Project created a system of universal signals, known as Trust Indicators, to help readers identify reputable, verified content. Trust Indicators are user-facing and machine-readable, using common tags in their underlying code. By applying a universal Schema mark-up, search engines like Google can verify their content. Design and UX professionals from major media companies in North America and Europe came together to create the Indicators. Through this work, the guidelines for content, UX and usability were established, along with the design of an official Trust mark, and branding and promotional material for the project.
Contributors:
Sally Lehrman, The Trust Project and The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University; Angela Barber, Devin Slater, The Globe and Mail; Ana-Maria Bourceanu, Kathryn Jonas, Adam Smith, The Economist; Jordan Flaig, Independent Journal Review; João Matos, Deutsche Presse-Agentur; Marcus Moretti, Mic
Sponsored
