Image Credit : ASPECT Studios & Studio Binocular
Project Overview
Selandra Community Place (SCP) is an Australian-first concept which centres on an interactive eight-star, zero energy display home that pilots a variety of sustainable initiatives around improving the environment, and health and wellbeing of the wider community.
Through innovative combination of QR codes, interpretative signage and interactive media, the City of Casey, ASPECT Studios and Studio Binocular created a communication strategy to deliver key ‘ideas’ to promote sustainability when building new homes and make informed decisions to improve their families’ health and wellbeing.
Visitors use smart phones to scan and access a mobile website to gain a deeper understanding of simple ideas they can undertake. The display home uses subtle visual prompts to direct visitors on a self tour, where they can discover ways to improve the health and wellbeing of their families and the planet.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
ASPECT Studios & Studio Binocular
Team
Creative Director: Laura Cornhill, Ian Rooney
Art Director: Laura Cornhill, Ian Rooney
Project Management: Vivi Chau
Project Coordinator: Anna Moore (City of Casey), Cassie Evans (City of Casey)
Animator: Caspian Pantea
Designer: Jake Muir, Kristy Brown, Noemie Le Coz, Angela Arango
Illustrator: Jake Muir, Noemie Le Coz
Developer: George Kastanis
Project Brief
SCP is a project that is integral to the business plan for the City of Casey to deliver real change to their communities through a display home centred on sustainable and healthy living.
The brief provided to ASPECT Studios and Studio Binocular called for a design lead solution that would be accessible and legible to visitors, purchasers of the display home. This was vitally important due to the limited time visitors normally spend in display homes and the demographic background of potential visitors. Our objective was to deliver a message in an engaging medium that would cross cultural and language barriers. A friendly and non-threatening visual language was developed to appeal to both parents and children alike.
The delivered combination of (1) clear and simple interpretive graphics to enable self tours, (2) legible printed cards to pique visitor’s interest with basic benefits and (3) QR codes to access the mobile website to gain a deeper understanding through additional information and engaging animations enhanced the project’s ability to reach and inform its audience.
In delivering information on traditional information cards as well as enabling access to the information via their smart phones, the strategy could reach a wider target audience.
Project Need
The project demonstrates the ability for Councils to work together with developers to help shape a more sustainable and healthy future for its local residents. In working closely with designers, Council was able to achieve greater penetration of the information and establish a welcoming community hub for the residents of the City of Casey.
Understanding that not everyone had the time or inclination, the team developed a layering and hierarchy for the information. In this way, the right information was delivered at the right time. Those with a passing interest for a specific idea would still learn valuable key messages while those wishing to delve deeper, could access the motion graphics and fact sheets on the website.
The initial idea was to develop an interactive 3D model of the display home that visitors could navigate as they toured the home. However, due to the limited number of tablet devices that could be provided to visitors and security concerns, it became apparent that a more readily available solution was required. Our team pitched the concept that the majority of families visiting the project would have at least one member with a smart phone.
The delivered combination of (1) clear and simple interpretive graphics to enable self tours, (2) legible printed cards to pique visitor’s interest with basic benefits and (3) QR codes to access the mobile website to gain a deeper understanding through additional information and engaging motion graphics enhanced the project’s ability to reach and inform its audience.
Design Challenge
From the start of the project, the City of Casey, ASPECT Studios and Studio Binocular upheld the principle that all outcomes should be, sustainable, accessible and legible. The broad range of visitors of varying cultural and education backgrounds necessitated a visually engaging outcome. Through the design of simple but compelling iconography, the ability for the information cards, website and animations to work together to communicate the key messages enabled easy comprehension of the data to a wider audience.
The overall branding and identity of the project was driven by these principles where through the use of distinct colours and iconography, visitors could quickly comprehend and link ideas to the four main categories. The pictograms also enabled the widest possible audience as everyone could understand the visual medium. The motion graphics were an additional layer of visual engagement that enhanced the experience and ability for the visitors to understand ideas. Finally, the ease of navigating around the house to locate ideas was achieved through accessible and legible wayfinding.
Furthermore, the communication strategy was cognisant of not being too preachy with a sustainable message. Our objective was to deliver a message in an engaging medium that would cross cultural and language barriers. To achieve this, the team worked collaboratively with SECCCA and CSIRO to distil the complex information into visual infographics. These were adapted as print media and motion graphics. The visuals were developed to be friendly and non-threatening to appeal to both parents and children alike.
Sustainability
The team is very proud of the ability to deliver such complex information through limited and minimal print material, thus delivering a more sustainable communication strategy. Instead the team focussed its delivery through digital format. Such a delivery method also widened the ability for the messages to reach a wide range of audience and catered to people’s potential technological inhibitions, language barriers and educational backgrounds. Any printed material was supplied on 100% recycled paper with “green” (or sustainable) ink.
The display home itself is unique to the industry and demonstrates that homes can be built with sustainable materials and practices; that is energy, waste and water efficient; and provides an environment for families to grow their own food and be active in their community. In setting the benchmark, the City of Casey is actively working towards helping their residents to live in a healthy and sustainable way.
Tags
Motion
This award recognises visual and audio communication in the form of advertisements, short films and music videos that place an emphasis on design values.
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