Design Integration Pilot

"The Design Integration Pilot is helping Australian manufacturing businesses transform through design, proving designers may become in demand as business strategists."

I recently wrote about the Design Integration Pilot, which is helping Australian manufacturing businesses transform through design. Similar initiatives have proven hugely successful in countries like the UK and New Zealand, so it's about time we got a program of our own - we'll need something to fall back on if our coal runs out.

In a nutshell, the DIP is a pilot program that unites designers and manufacturers in South Australia and New South Wales with the goal of driving innovation, profitability and global competitiveness.

As one interviewee told me: “Australia is experiencing a blind spot and a skills gap. I don’t think Australia’s tertiary education system gives sufficient emphasis to design as a problem-solving enterprise. We have to move away from defining ‘design’ as a product outcome, to seeing ‘design’ as a process.”

Designers of the future will have the opportunity to design not just products, logos and brands, but also business strategies, operational systems and business models.

Read the full article here

Taking advantage of the digital economy

I recently interviewed digital entrepreneurs in Australia and the UK about the best ways of taking advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN). I know what you're thinking. NBN = snore. But the technology will open up lots of doors (and competition from overseas), so if you're a digital or creative entrepreneur it's worth reading.

I loved speaking to Art Processors in Melbourne, which developed an impressive mobile platform called 'The O' for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania. Art Processors are now taking the technology global, because it has the potential to transform the experience of visiting art galleries.

I also loved speaking to the co-founder of London-based CultureLabel.com, a website that sells affordable art from galleries around the world. Don't visit the site if you don't want to tempted to spend money. You've been warned.

Read the story here on CreativeInnovation.net.au

Playing in the gaming sector... an interview with Mitch Olson at SmallWorlds

Australia is home to a vibrant gaming sector, yet over the past few years a string of high-profile games developers have closed their doors for business thanks to the high Australian dollar.

With the rise of mobile and social gaming, many overseas publishers have also pulled the plug on video games midway through development, leaving Australian studios scrambling to secure new work or risk lapsing into insolvency.

The secret to survival may depend on introducing more resilient business models, so I recently interviewed the very talkative Mitch Olson, founder of SmallWorlds, about establishing NZ's largest social gaming company in New Zealand. Mitch has a knack for attracting millions of dollars in external investment - both from government grants & private investors - and is using its latest round of funding to fund the company's expansion into Brazil.

Read the interview here...

Icebreaker interview: has Caroline Hamilton devised a new way of funding albums?

In London, an investment fund called Icebreaker has devised a new model for funding the creation of music.

Created by entrepreneur Caroline Hamilton, the model brings investors together with artists and bands in the same way the feature film industry relies on financing from private investors. Will it work?

Caroline politely ignored her jet lag on a recent trip to Brisbane to explain how the Icebreaker model works. Our conversation is published here

Claire Inc, Adelaide

Often when I interview interesting retailers and designers I accidentally buy their products.

Claire Inc is a good example... Belinda Humphris founded online vintage store Claire Inc in 2009, and it already has a global following thanks to a smart web marketing strategy.

Humphris first began selling second-hand clothes on eBay to fund her university studies, never imagining her hobby would later become a fully-fledged business.

Buoyed by the success of her eBay store, she decided to invest in a standalone online store, ClaireInc.com, a couple of years later.

By setting up an online store to sell vintage fashion from the 1980s and ’90s, Claire Inc now generates 50% of its sales overseas while 80% of its Australian customers are based in Sydney and Melbourne.

Without an online store, Claire Inc might never have caught the eye of influential fashion bloggers like Style Bubble in London, or attracted celebrity buyers like British singers Lily Allen and M.I.A.

Read my interview with Humphris here... While researching the story, I purchased a very excellent 1980s pencil skirt for the bargain price of $110 dollars.

How to make money from creative ideas...

Very few creative entrepreneurs have cracked the secret to monetising IP.

I recently interviewed 2 people who have: Tomek Archer, an industrial designer and musician from Melbourne; and Shainiel Deo, CEO of Halfbrick, a gaming company in Brisbane.

Tomek Archer (below left) is very switched on when it comes to licensing his furniture designs to international manufacturers. He's not precious about IP - instead he believes the more available you make your designs, the more likely you are to profit from them.

Shainiel Deo is running one of Australia's most successful independent gaming studios. Halfbrick used to rely on commissioned work until it introduced 'Halfbrick Fridays' (much like Google's '20% time') and began to develop its own games, like 'Fruit Ninja', which has been downloaded 3.5 million times and counting.

You can read Tomek Archer and Shainiel Deo's advice on IP on CreativeInnovation.net.au

Right Angle Studio: tips on being a 'Betapreneur'

I have always been impressed by Right Angle Studio and its founder, Barrie Barton, who is one of the cleverest young digital publishers in Australia.

I recently interviewed Barrie for CreativeInnovation, and you can read the story here

I've known Barrie for years and am always surprised at what he turns his hand to next... this year, it was launching a venue, The Pond in Sydney to promote Pure Blonde, and a hotel room to promote Victoria, called The Lost and Found Hotel. All this without losing Right Angle's focus on publishing (Right Angle publishes 'The Thousands' online city guides including twothousand.com.au and threethousand.com.au).

Right Angle's founders (and brothers), are the lovely, enviably intelligent and imaginative Chris and Barrie Barton. They belong to a new generation of entrepreneurs dubbed ‘Betapreneurs’ by UK trend-forecasters LS:N Global.

Betapreneurs rely on online communities to beta test ideas quickly and cost-effectively. If audiences respond well, those ideas are expanded. If not, they can be collapsed quickly, minimising losses. It's a far more efficient way of testing new market opportunities, and is made possible by digital technology.

How to manage creative employees

I've met enough creative employees in my time as a design/advertising journalist to know they're not always easy to manage. People who are imaginative and full of ideas don't necessarily respond well to things that may detract from their creativity, like starting work on time, or wearing a suit and tie.

So, I recently put together this story about Creative Talent Management. I interviewed Patsy Peacock, CEO of fbi recruitment in Sydney and James McGrath, creative chairman at advertising agency Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne about what makes creative practitioners tick.

You can read the story on CreativeInnovation.net.au here

(Above: an illustration of Clemenger BBDO's creative department in Melbourne)