Create your own sustainability adventure
Finding a creative solution for something that has proven to be elusive, or too difficult, sometimes comes down to just thinking differently. Take Steve Jobs for example. He even used those words ‘think different’ in the first ad campaign after he returned to Apple in 1997. The campaign was a risk – a call to those who were referred to as ‘crazy’, ‘misfits’, ‘rebels’ or ‘square pegs in round holes’. Those who ‘thought differently’. The ad showed vision of John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Albert Einstein, and the message was that people who think differently, change things. And change things he did. iPods, iMacs, iPads and iPhones became part of the vernacular, part of consumers’ lives. He created a cult of Apple lovers who were fierce advocates for the brand. Pure, marketing, genius.
In today’s world there are other factors that inventors, creators and storytellers should consider. How can we create things that will make a difference – both for the client and for the planet?
Reality bites
You might not think sustainability should enter the realm of your day-to-day work life. But here is why it should. According to the Republic of Everyone, 78 per cent of people are taking into consideration a brand’s social and environmental actions when making a purchase. More than half (56 per cent) also consider a brand’s social and environmental actions when choosing their next place of work. Brands must be totally committed and transparent as to what they are doing in that space, because a hefty majority (86 per cent) of Australians are skeptical about the social or environmental claims brands and businesses make. The younger the generation, the more likely they are to reward brands that act on social and environmental issues. At the moment, brands and businesses are failing to meet those expectations.
Some industries, including fashion and beauty, homewares, food, travel and transport have begun to overhaul their processes in order to meet sustainability goals and reduce their environmental impact. But what about the creative industry? The sport industry? Tech, financial tech, media, arts and medical? In every industry, there’s a need to responsibly manage environmental impact.
Creative differences
Studio Air is forging a path for its clients, not only helping with branding, messaging and promoting businesses, but also working with them to provide sustainable outcomes. Studio Air’s innovative team create things to change things for each client in a unique and bespoke way, ushering in a ‘new normal’, where sustainability is part and parcel of the creative process. Studio Air is also responsibly managing its own environmental impact, partnering with Ecologi to offset any unavoidable carbon emitted in the studio and in client projects, offsetting 95.36t so far. Studio Air is also committed to being 95 per cent paperless.
Studio Air is a boutique creative agency, working with a wide range of clients from various industries, helping to nurture and develop creative solutions that ignite curiosity and change perspectives. Through the use of sustainable tools that help to calculate carbon usage, supply chain vendors that have similar values and a socially conscious approach to product and service, have helped lead the way for Studio Air and its quest to reimagine creativity in a cost effective and sustainable way.
A client may have clear sustainability goals, or they may not. Even if sustainability isn’t a key strategic focus, Studio Air responds to a brief with a considered creative concept integrated with a sustainable impact strategy to elevate that brand. They want to make it easy for their clients to choose their own adventure towards more sustainable practices. The key is realising it’s an ongoing process, not an overnight one, and that making change is possible for everyone.
Like-minded partnerships
Studio Air showed its impressive skillset on its recent ‘Do you see what I see?’ ad campaign in the Australian Geographic (AG) magazine. Given AG’s audience is big on adventure, obsessed with travel and spends a lot of time in the great outdoors, Studio Air knew it had found a like-minded audience with whom it could share its sustainable impact messaging. The question was, how would it transform a full-page advertisement from a physical experience to a digital one, and by doing so, deliver a message that transforms the way we all approach our environment?
At first glance, the advert is an abstract kaleidoscope of textures from the natural world. Sparking curiosity and engagement with the viewer, inviting them to find the QR code, which is cleverly integrated into the centre of the artwork. The QR code transports people into a digital experience that brings the artwork to life, lifting it off the page, slowly folding to its final reveal.
At each stage of the animation journey, a fact about people’s relationship with paper appears – how much we use, what amount of energy that usage requires, and how to reduce this level of impact. Step by step the viewer watches the animation turn into a 3D flower and realizes that the physical artwork is actually origami.
Studio Air’s hope is that through the multifaceted layers of this creative piece of work, we are all reminded to be mindful of the impact that each decision we make has, even if it is printing one single sheet of paper.
And if the impact is unavoidable, to offset it – and turn it into something beautiful.
Studio Air wants to create things to change things. Contact the team about your ideas or projects, and choose your own adventure.
Discover more at Studio Air.
