Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Bogan Mexican


After the accolade of winning B&T Experiential Agency of the year, E2's christmas party this year was full of bogan cheer. The whole team gathered together at Bronte, where tequila and mexican hats were the order of the day. As resident photographer of E2, I managed to capture some of the more spontaneous moments of the day, using 35 mm b&w film.

Enjoy the highlights and have a festive new year.

E2 Team


Friday, November 20, 2009

Pop Culture


It seems that 'pop-up' spaces are increasingly - well - popping up everywhere. Whether it be a retail store, bar or restaurant, creating a temporary space is fast becoming the best way to get people through the door and increase brand awareness.

The latest of these pop-up venues to hit Sydney is The Pond, a three month bar and restaurant nestled in a heritage cottage space in Burton Street's new bar triangle, between Pocket bar and the equally European feeling Dr. Pong. Having been starved of small, interesting independent bars for so long - and with a jealous eye on rival city Melbourne's thriving bar culture - it comes as no surprise to find that Sydneysiders are flocking to the latest venue openings in their droves.

The Pond is also a clever piece of experiential marketing created by Pure Blonde, building around their campaign, 'A place much more pure than yours'. We love the interactive website, which fuses venue information with campaign elements such as the TV advert.


This week's post was brought to you by Joel Todd

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Blowup


If ever you've wanted to learn about how to make a building from air and plastic, E2's creative director, Alex Ritchie, will be talking about the sensibilities of transient structures in a public talk at Corporate Culture in a couple of weeks time.

Alex will draw on a gamut of inspirational inflatable spaces and express his views on the renaissance of impermanent structures in recent years. In what promises to be an informative and entertaining evening, the discussion will then move to cover the place of inflatable architecture in the commercial design world and lessons that can be applied to the design of exhibition, event and built environments. We promise you this talk wont be full of hot air!!

Inflatable Architecture

Corporate Culture

21-23 Levey Street,

Chippendale


Thursday 3rd December 6.30pm


RSVP Hettie Dearn

hettie@e-2.com.au


Friday, October 9, 2009

Touch the screen and see what happens


When you look at the history of touchscreen technology, you will learn that the technology emerged from academic and corporate research labs in the second half of the 1960's. The technology has made significant advances over the last few years and has become ubiquitous with pda's, particularly the Ipod Touch and Iphone. This also means consumers are confident to use this technology across consumer electronics devices.

E2 have recently used touchscreen technology as part of a Virgin Mobile Australia, 50 store roll out. Consumers are given the opportunity to compare and contrast various handsets, features and tariffs from one touchscreen.

There are a few benefits why this technology benefits consumers. More information on screen, minimises paper wastage, easily updatable product content from a central source also ensures product information is fully up to date, without wasting time with design and print costs. Having this interaction with the customer in store also improves the efficiencies of the business to suggest through the touchscreen either alternative products (upsell) or complimentary products (cross sell), offering the customer a better purchasing experience and the business a healthy increase in customer spend.

This interactive technology is the first of it's kind in Australia's retail landscape and will no doubt become an integral hygiene factor to enhance the retail user experience of the future.

Monday, September 14, 2009

E2 TURNS 2!


Next month E2 celebrate two years in the industry, and what a fitting way to mark the occasion but by moving into their refreshing new offices in Paddington.

This experiential agency has architects, interior designers, strategists, graphic designers and producers working together through the entire planning process, through to execution.

This breadth of talent has allowed them to successfully deliver experiential solutions across a gamut of brands, including Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Apple, Sony, Kodak, Westfield, Herman Miller, Crestell and the list goes on.

Project after project, E2’s grounded philosophy which is about creating experiences as the powerful driver of human behaviour has ensured the success rate across retail, experience centres, exhibitions and events. For Qantas it’s about investing as much of their $10 million budget into the user end experience, so that employees can touch, see, hear and smell the brand’s customer service excellence. For Westfield, it’s about understanding the psychological mind states of the consumer when they shop and delivering a highly intuitive in-store experience in a relevant and memorable way. For Herman Miller, it’s about creating an immersive experience that merges design with innovation to celebrate this timeless brand.

But E2 is so much more than just the ROI on your bottom dollar. It is the passionate and enthusiastic people at E2, all bound by a common purpose to drive innovation and exploration, which sets this agency apart from any other of its type in Australia.

Monday, July 27, 2009

A miniature design adventure




The E2 team got creative over the weekend, and all took up the challenge of turning a champagne cork into a classic or contemporary miniature chair. The impetus for this splurge of creativity is part of a competition organised by furniture design studio, Living Edge, as part of Saturday in Design, an annual trade event for the design community, now in it's 6th year.




The judges will be looking for wit, originality and craftmanship to be in for a chance to win an iconic Eames Lounge and Ottoman. Pop along to Living Edge (74 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills) at 3pm on Saturday 1st August, to view the assortment of entries for this miniature design haven.



http://www.saturdayindesign.com.au/about-the-event

Friday, July 24, 2009

Sparkling M towers over Melbourne



The city of Melbourne may have paid "$A240,000 for a fat blocky M" however this flat block represents the culture in this cosmopolitan city. The national leader in architecture is represented through the geometric forms. The graphic segmentation represents the topography of this city from it's eclectic café and fashion cultures to the wine country. The reflective vortexes graphically sparkle like gems, signifying this forward thinking city.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Inspirational Spaces




Last Monday, E2 gathered at Customs House in eager anticipation to listen to Alex Ritchie (E2) and John Bilmon (PTW) share their inspiration around what constitutes an inspirational space as part of AGDA's latest series of public talks. Both, impressive in their delivery, talked about the relationship between nature and architecture. This symbiotic relationship shed some light on just some of the places that Alex sources inspiration from when starting a new project. What I found most interesting from this talk is how nature informs engineering in so many ways. For example, who would have thought that the structure of the Millennium Dome was inspired by a Jelly Fish. In fact, when you look at many of the most impressive buildings in the world, much of the inspiration comes from the natural engineering that lives in our lands and deep in our oceans. Take for example Buckminster Fuller's futurist visions of cityscapes, where he addresses the importance of sustainable growth, taking its learnings and borrowing from some of natures core values, e.g. camouflage, adaptation, growth, interrelations and change.






John Bilmon's astounding and comprehensive description of The Water Cube - the Aquatic Centre for 2008 Olympics in Beijing, further compounded the importance nature plays in the role of engineering. Through an extensive series of design concepts, John explained how the planning team at PTW Architects had gone through a gruelling audit to identify how best to emulate the natural formations of bubbles as part of the Cube's structure. The team also ensured that the building naturally related to the adjacent Olympic building to strengthen the relationship between the gender roles each building had with each other, the yin to the yan. It was impressive to learn how nature had all the answers to some of their biggest engineering challenges and in fact the final structure was informed by Chinese culture, history and geographical location.






Although it may be an unfamiliar term to most people, biomimicry, or looking to nature for design inspiration, is not a new approach to solving design challenges. In fact, its guiding principles have served to inspire architectural works, breakthroughs, and consumer products for centuries.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Tangible vs Intangible






The realm of brand experience is broadening all the time, and as media further fragments, so will the definitions that define a particular channel. So for example, outdoor and ambient media is case and point where the line between these two channels blur. The same can be said about brand experience; it is no longer just applicable to outdoor events, exhibitions or promotional sampling opportunities of a brand. The term is so much wider than that, the user experience through a website; the 5 second decision at the supermarket shelf; a recommendation from a friend for a new flavoured chewing gum, and the list goes on. So you could argue that any engagement a consumer has with a brand, is a brand experience.


In this post I'm interested in exploring the experience a consumer has with a brand in the physical space. There are two components that make up this form of brand engagement, broken into tangibles and intangibles. The tangibles comprise the spatial design; the materials used to form the physical construction. For example the structure, flooring, lighting, finish and so forth. The intangibles are driven by human factors and are about how a consumer engages with those aspects of a brand you can't touch, but you can feel and leave a lasting memorable impression. These comprise of service, process, delivery, education, tone and behavior. If you can get these aspects right you are likely to get your consumer recommending the experience to friends. We call this the design of the experience, critical to the holistic brand experience.


A great example of a project which successfully merges the tangibles with the intangibles is the newly constructed Qantas Centre for Service Excellence in Sydney. The project undertaken by E2 and MPA Construction Group is the first of it's kind in Australia. E2 Creative Director, Alex Ritchie has worked on some of the worlds most notable design experiences, including the Millennium Dome, Guinness Storehouse and Disneyland in Paris.


A 5000M2 space, with a 20 meter wide piazza in the centre. This is the heart or hub of the centre, where staff and attendees can socialise, eat and network. As you move into the peripherals of the hub, different zones address Qantas' different training needs, including simulated cabin crew pods, workstations, image and presentation areas. Critical to the Qantas brand, customer service is an omnipresent intangible factor to the Qantas experience. 'Every moment counts' is the creative concept behind this project, which is brought to life successfully by creating brand drama as attendees walk through this pioneering space.


In effect, this project sets the benchmark of what a total brand experience should embody by cleverly ensuring Qantas brand attributes are ubiquitously imbued into every part of the experience.