Nikolai Cornell and Eric Boisvert presented a talk entitled “In The Future, Spaces Will Laugh At Your Jokes” to the Event Design & Marketing Summit in Chicago IL this past week. 

Here is an except of their talk :

At our studio when a client asks us to do something that’s never been done before (which is pretty much every project), we look at future visions of not only what could be, but visions of the future that never came– and probably never will such as the flying car. 

The danger with working on the edge of design and technology is that sometimes you fall off. We are constantly putting work out there to be the next big thing. So how do we really create something that is the next big thing? And how do we prepare as designers?

As designers and marketers start to think about the future it’s important to remember the William Gibson quote:

“THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE – IT’S JUST NOT EVENLY DISTRIBUTED.”

We are living in Star Trek times. We have our tri-corders. We have our communicators. Our studio makes touch walls and holodecks. For us as designers, the interesting question is, how do we create a future that is delights and informs people. How do we create something amazing, instead of something mediocre.

At the studio, we have a tool we called MAYA. (M)ost (a)dvanced, (y)et, (a)cceptable.

Coined by Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), is the self-proclaimed “Father of Industrial Design”, and one of the most prolific designers of the 20th century. Time named him one of the 100 culture influencers of the 20th century.

MAYA explains why he applied the principles of streamlined design not only to locomotives, which benefit from reduced wind friction, and pencil sharpeners, which do not. The design prepares a culture for the idea of speed. It makes it “Yet Acceptable”.

A special shout out to all our new friends, and the host of the summit – Event Marketer.

Later, when I began to learn more about Hillman I was struck by his mastery of self-re-invention. Something that is critical for any creative person to make it in this world – and a habit that we’ve tried to work into our own practice. In the studio today we were wondering what would have been Hillman’s next act.

Check out Hillman’s short film on the architect Daniel Libeskind and it will give you a sense of the care and passion he brought to his work.

Check out the Wall Street Journal rundown to see coverage and the video.

We developed a gestural interactive that pulled in Instagram (instagr.am/) photos that had been tagged with either “surf”, “skate” or “bike”. Viewers to the exhibit could simply wave their arms to pull in more images in real-time.

(Demo Video)

(Opening night.)

(The exhibit featured many up and coming LA artists and designers.)

(The space was packed all night long.)

(Attendees uploaded photos from their phones and used their body to interact with the exhibit.)

Our team at PUSH collaborated in concepting the UX, and lead development of the application and display system of the touch wall. The result: a beautiful, highly engaging experience that amazed and amused everyone from playful children to Mr. Toyota himself.

Consisting of three vertically mounted, 82″ multi-touch LCD screens, the “Toyota Vision Wall” brought to life the new Prius through three distinct stories: the factory, the showroom, and the street. When users aligned the background images of one story across all screens, a short animation would play across all three screens simultaneously. 

Users can explore over 250 unique pieces of content using the familiar touch-screen gestures on the touch wall. For people interested in finding out more information, dealer information was readily accessible, as was an easy way for people to signup to get more information.

After debuting at the 2011 Detroit Auto show, the Vision Wall has traveled across the US and has appeared in over 25 locations nation wide.

(Close collaboration with GPJ / Toyota made sure the Vision Wall was nicely integrated within the space.)

(The installation draws a big crowd at each show it travels to.)

(Users can explore a wide variety of different Prius related content.)

(The three 82″ screens created an almost life-size virtual Prius.)

(Screen-to-screen toss allowed users to flick images from one screen to another on the touch wall.)

(Visitors could select a different story to explore by dramatically shifting the background of the touch wall.)

(When the backgrounds of each screen align on one story, a large video plays across the entire touch wall.)

(User experience prototyping of the touch wall.)

Together with the Reebok team, we identified that the project should focus on the intersection of the content expectations, digital patterns & behaviors. We designed a unique research methodology that included trend hunting, in-depth-interviews, and research into current messaging surrounding fitness to uncover the unknown-unknowns around fitness.

The final result was a new strategic direction for Reebok – backed by business and audience insights, and culminated with the campaign launch for the 2012 Superbowl commercial and the unveiling of the new reebok.com site experience.

Superbowl Commercial

A selection from the strategy readout.

Working with Jack Morton – the lead event agency, PUSH Offices designed an interactive table installation that told the story of how the transfer of money across the globe can help empower those in need.

Each visitor to the gala was given a commemorative coin that was both a keepsake and their personal key to unlock and navigate the interactive experience. The coins were individually tagged with an invisible IR marker so that the tables would recognize each unique attendee.

When an attendee placed their coin on the table, their name would appear on the screen greeting them with a personal message. Attendees could then use the coin to navigate through Western Union’s products & services, and “send” virtual money between countries on both sides of the table. 

(Demo Video)

(The venue space provided a beautiful setting for the experience.)

(One of the docents trying out the installation during setup.)

(Each attendee was given a coin which they used to control their experience on the table.)

(The coin could be placed on 5 different regions of the world to begin the experience.)

(Attendees are first prompted to place their coin on a region.)

(A personal message welcomes them.)

(Simple on-screen instructions guide users through the experience.)

(Attendees can explore and learn about Western Union’s services.)

(And send virtual money from one country to another.)

(User experience prototyping.)

(Demo Video)

As mid to large scale touch screen hardware becomes more accessible, the software to run applications that benefit a business environment remains relatively limited. Our goal was to create something that was easy to use, quick to deploy with visual design that looked better than anything else on the market.

To make sure we crafted the right user experience we applied our proprietary PUSH Offices audience research methodology which involved traveling to national trade-shows, in-depth customer interviews, competitive audits and end user testing.

The result was a new, leading edge touch software product called “White Label Showcase”. A streamlined content management system (CMS) is built into the application, giving users the ability to easily create and manage their own unique, visually engaging, multi-touch presentations.

To date, Fortune 500 and global companies including Applied Materials, Black & Decker, Boeing, McKesson, Neutrogena, Owens Corning, and United Launch Alliance have counted on our White Label Showcase software to present their products and services all over the world.

(Screenshot of Homescreen View)

(Screenshot of Gallery View)

(Screenshot of a photo selected in Gallery View)

(Screenshot of a full-screen photo in Gallery View)

(Screenshot of a video selected in Gallery View)

(Screenshot of a full-screen video in Gallery View)

(Screenshot of the CMS)

PUSH Offices crafted a tailored research methodology for Navteq that involved in-depth-interviews with developers from over 15 countries, competitive analysis, and strategic partner interviews.

The competitive audit quickly revealed that there was an opportunity around streamlining access to developer tools for current and new members to the site.