Tag Archives: Tractor Design School

Australian Design Radio

Posted on March 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

Some of the best ideas are blatantly obvious. For example this one: ‘Let’s do an interview podcast with the Australian design scene, because it doesn’t exist yet”. But how many good ideas never get made? Too many. Luckily Flyn Tracy and Matt Leach (whose day jobs include leading Sydney’s Tractor Design School) were undeterred and are now introducing Australian Design Radio to our earbuds.

Matt Leach and Flyn Tracy

ADR creator Matt Leach and Flyn Tracy

And as their latest interviewee, yours truly got an opportunity to talk about design, creative technology and mentorships. Some top questions from Jason Little and the listeners were addressed as well.  Click through to listen to my chat with Matt & Flyn here:

https://australiandesignradio.simplecast.fm/6

Australian Design Radio Episode 6

Australian Design Radio Episode 6 with myself

When Australian Design Radio launched less than a month ago, it took off like a naughty pic on Snapchat. Shooting to more than a 1,000 listeners per episode, it already features on Apple’s coveted New & Noteworthy iTunes page.

ADR recommended on iTunes

ADR recommended on iTunes

Creative luminaries interviewed so far were Jason Little (ex Re & Landor, now For The People), Kevin Finn (DesigNerd, Open Manifesto & The Sum Of, ex-Saatchi), Frankie Ratford (The Design Kids), Matt Stott (Common, ex-Attik) and Chris Doyle (own studio, ex-Interbrand).

Matt Leach, Flyn Tracy and Tim Buesing

Matt, Flyn and I in the (increasingly warm) ADR podcast studio

The interview itself was hugely enjoyable, because Matt and Flyn are top blokes and cultural connectors-par-excellence. I am sure the podcast will greatly increase their reputation. In addition to just having a chat with about our views on design, I was able to reflect on the reasons for my creative approach and past choices of clients and projects.

So let the guys know what you think of Australian Design Radio and subscribe to the whole series on iTunes. Lots of high calibre creatives are already lining up to go ‘On Air’ with Matt and Flyn for ‘ADR – Season 2’.

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Tractor Design School

Posted on February 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

If you lead an agency or marketing department, you know what the bane of our industry is: it is starved of really good digital talent. Talent that can fuse genuine, explosive creativity with systemic thinking. The ‘systemic’ part means that these people know a lot about and can use existing digital formats, e.g. media, video or social content. And then combine these two realms to create new, innovative solutions.

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One of our new recruits at Reactive actually took a course in Digital Design at Tractor last year, a school established to address this lack of creative, digitally-savvy newcomers. And this year, with help from us and some other industry heavyweights from places like DT, R/GA and MentallyFriendly, Tractor is growing up to become an accredited school. Some of the sessions will again be led by one heck of an inspirational teacher-posse, in the shape of my colleagues Gabriel, David and myself.

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Additionally raising Reactive’s profile as a place of excellence for digital creativity is my mate Tim Kotsiakos, ECD of Reactive in Melbourne, on the advisory board.

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If you want to invest into your own career, sign up. Courses start March 3. If you already know a lot, why don’t you give back and offer your help in the shape of talks, playing host or other course support? Those digital superstars of tomorrow won’t grow on trees you know.

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Posted in design, Strategy

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Tractor Design School grad show

Posted on November 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

If you lead an agency or marketing department, you know what the bane of our industry is. It is starved of really good talent. Talent that can fuse genuine, explosive creativity with systemic thinking. The ‘systemic’ part means that these people know a lot about and can use existing digital formats, from media, video or social technologies. And then combine the two realms to form innovative, creative solutions. One of our new recruits, Melissa, actually took a course in Digital Design at Tractor last year, a school established to address this lack of digitally-savvy creative newcomers. And some of the sessions were led by one heck of an inspirational teacher, my colleague Gabriel (see below Mel presenting her project last year).

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Gabe and his team mate Dave have kept at it and tirelessly helped teach a new batch of students, the class of 2013, which is now holding their grad show this Thursday.

“Thanks to the generous donation of time by industry experts like Gabriel and the team at Reactive, these young designers are exposed to the best industry practice and processes far sooner than usual. This gives them the experience and confidence to pave the way for the future of Australian Digital Design” says Flyn Tracy, manager and creative leader of Tractor Design School.

So shout out to them for giving back to the industry and raising Reactive’s profile as a place of excellence for digital creativity. If you have time, come along and say hi. Get your tickets here and have a peek at the digital superstars of tomorrow.

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Here are a couple of shots from this year’s class visiting the studio at Reactive.

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Digital Future of Oxford Street workshop

Posted on November 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago we held a nice little workshop at Flyn’s Tractor Design School on  the ‘Digital Future of Oxford Street‘, fusing a an intro to UX and wire framing with a bit of digital creativity in the realm of urban planning. With a mixed audience of partly junior design professionals and some novices we enjoyed our 2 hours of ‘digitally augmenting’ the experience of being on Oxford Street. Here’s the recording of our live video stream, where you can see Flyn, Gabriel and myself.

Our workshop on Ustream

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Oxford Street workshop

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Posted in Convergence, Locative Media, Mobile, Video

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Digital Future of Oxford Street

Posted on October 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Art & About Sydney is a collaborative arts festival where every street, lane way, building site, intersection and thoroughfare is a canvas for creation and storytelling. And we at Reactive are gladly contributing with a free beginner’s workshop on digital design of urban spaces, in particular the Digital Future of Oxford Street. Our educational partner Tractor Design School is hosting our workshop where we explore a new digital perspective on one of the main arteries of Sydney: Oxford Street.

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From Mardi Gras stage, night clubs and restaurants to thoroughfare to the beaches of the Eastern suburbs – what role will technology and digital design play in the future version of Oxford Street? We’ll explore digital design ideas for this multi-faceted space with many different kinds of users. We will be mixing the concept of wireframes and user experience with digital thinking and a bit of fun: http://thedigitalfutureofoxford-es2.eventbrite.com.au

Here is an interview I conducted with Dan Hill, now CEO of Fabrica, on  How data is changing our streets and cities – listen to the audio here.

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No prerequisites or experience in digital design or software is required. It is an entry level workshop which is supposed to show residents and visitors what sort of professionals work in and around the area of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst. So if you are in Sydney and are curious about learning something new, we are looking forward to seeing you.

Get your free tickets here on Eventbrite.

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Posted in Convergence, Locative Media

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