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OPEN Topics on Social Impact.
It can be, if you put humans at the center of your (social) campaign and design decision. Meet Swedish creative force Adam Kerj and visionary Australian design strategist Chi Ryan, to ensure that your impact is good, never scary — this is your path forward in 2021 and beyond.
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Experience Design
Human-centered design is very simple. It puts humans at the heart of what we do. So rather than thinking about how much money we’re going to make and how much we’re going to sell—although that is important, of course—we’re thinking about human needs first, instead of desires. After all, what you want and what you need are different things.
— Chirryl-Lee (Chi) Ryan
Designer, Director of Experience at Idean and ‘This is HCD’ Podcast Host
— I like to make playlists. I mostly listen alone, but if we’re in the car, there’s got to be some semblance of a beat throughout, otherwise my wife isn’t having any of it. On Saturday, July 21, we embark on a two-day, 15-hour extravaganza of a car ride. After 18 years, it’s goodbye New York, hello Nashville, Tennessee. I need a song to start the playlist—it can be on the slow side, I do get one of those—that perfectly captures the few minutes when you emerge from the tunnel, and the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan disappear from the rear-view mirror, and, gulp, your life begins anew.I’m thinking about “Girl from the North Country,” Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash’s magnificent duet on Nashville Skyline (coincidence?). For me, the woman in the song is New York City. Have a listen, you will see what I mean.
Meanwhile, as I move 900 miles west, Ridley, a most endearing bulldog, is settling into his Brooklyn apartment after a 16,000-kilometer journey east from Melbourne, Australia. Ridley belongs to Chirryl-Lee Ryan, who seems to be on a global journey to improve how the world experiences … anything and everything. Chi is Director of Experience at Idean, a unit of French consulting firm Capgemini. In this role, Chi walks in the shoes of the people she is designing for (sometimes, they are customers, but they are always human) and plans the interactions they have with a product, service or brand, or with something more intangible, from the human point of view. She intuitively understands that no matter what the messaging might be, it’s wasted if it isn’t designed with people in mind.
Maybe I should’ve consulted her on the playlist?
“Honestly, one of the things that’s really important is observation. It’s not always about asking questions. It’s often about just waiting and watching and seeing what happens. That is when you get some of the best insights about what is happening in a particular space and how you could potentially solve for problems that are happening or ultimately make things better.”
Interview photography shot exclusively by Chloe Sobel on location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Thank you for your hospitality Chi!
Social Media
I think what we see now is humanity coming back. And I think it’s probably a counter-culture reaction, that if you can triangulate technology, creativity, and humanity, and if you are in it long-term, and you can prove that in everything you do, I think you see a shift from how brands behave.
— Adam Kerj
CCO at Accenture Interactive Nordics
— Our lives are really a set of discrete journeys, many running simultaneously. From the day you are born to the day you die. From the day you meet someone special to the day you part. From the day you get your office security badge to the day you give it back. From the day you first lay eyes on a product, a team, a band, an author, to the day you abandon it for something newer and sexier. Adam Kerj specializes in journeys. He can’t sit still (figuratively and literally; we managed to squeeze in our interview as he took the train to Stockholm Arlanda Airport for a flight to Hamburg). As Chief Creative Officer of Accenture Interactive Nordics, he takes companies and their consumers on all sorts of trips (or experiences, if you prefer). Lately, he’s been shepherding a project called Memory Land AI on behalf of a Stockholm energy company. The project introduces the elderly of the city—often isolated and lonely—to someone who can keep them company and bring some warmth into their lives. Ok, sure, the someone is a disembodied voice coming out of speaker, but don’t jump to conclusions. The voice is actually Artificial Intelligence at work, and it can carry on a real conversation. Creativity and technology engender trust, and the result is a verbal memoir of the older person’s life. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a journey.
Don’t stop believin’.
“If there was a voice assistant in your home that you could talk to, would that make you feel less lonely, make your life more worthy? Would you feel that you have a bit more context if you could tell your life story, if we captured and shared it with the rest of the world? Would you be willing to take part in the Memory Lane project? And the answer was: Absolutely.”
Animal photos by CACTUS Creative Studio (Stocksy).
DEAR FRIENDS,
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Every brand has a story—we tell yours, using powerful design, words and vision. Sometimes, we even work with multiple brands on a single, colossal project, like the deeply meaningful Google + SheSays + C/BY/C = Rare, a collaborative event at the Cannes Lions, which shared Stocksy’s story and commitment to diversity, inclusion and female empowerment.
Share your Vision 2021 with us and keep on. STRATEGY, CONTENT, DESIGN and SOLUTION, let’s create together!
Excelsior! Mia, Andy, Chloe + Anna.
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