Creative tool and decentralised platform built for messy, collaborative studio work. Ongoing research project with Dr Adam Procter at the University of Southampton.
Spatial computing
From 2018 to 2023, I led design and technology in a R&D consultancy spun out of a design agency. We focused mainly on spatial computing, developing our own IP as well as working with clients including Apple, Google and the BBC.
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My client work in Labs is mostly protected by NDA, but you can get a taste of our work through this selection of sketches and prototypes. Work shown made by, and in collaboration with: Fengyi Franklin Zhu, Matt Wade, Dave Cameron, Jonny Naismith among many others. We worked on many different aspects of experience design for XR.
Stagehand
A collection of friendly, powerful tools for mixed-reality filmmaking
Even in 2024, it's still hard to prototype and convey ideas quickly in XR. Stagehand is a collection of tools which has evolved over several years. At the core is an iOS app which captures a complete 3D scene representation.
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You can use those captures for scene-building, 3D design, or quick mixed-reality films which superimpose content into the space. The creator tools are like After Effects meets Visual Studio Code. The rendering engine is based on web technologies like three.js and React. That means you can draw on a much wider community of templates and examples, and the threshold to entry is much lower.
Workbook
Programming notebook and environment for creative, iterative prototyping
This project was born from years of practical observation into how generative design really works in organisations. The risk is that we focus on the cleverness – or perhaps novelty – of a system, rather than technology being in service of a good story or a compelling need. I firmly believe that programming is inherently a deeply creative act. We have amazing, mature tools for exploration, visualisation, hacking and invention with data. With the arrival of effective generative AI, there is a massive need for processes which suit comparison, refinement, reduction and iteration. Rather than just generating endless options, which has never really provided great results in my experience. It gives the illusion of efficiency but really just creates a new dilemma of choice.
Learning and education
A selection from the past five years of creative workshops, lecturing and shared learning
Over the years I've designed and facilitated possibly hundreds of different creative workshops and sessions. I've run creative workshops for designers, engineers, game designers, students, entrepreneurs, agronomists and supply chain managers among many others. I love the accidental alchemy that often emerges when you put different disciplines together. A workshop helping students build practical techniques for futures thinking and communication From a creative session exploring imaginary file formats of the near future To me, the joy of group creative work is not really about ideas but about perspective. You get to watch how others think.
BBC Homepage
Building smart, useful personalisation into one of the world's biggest news sites
In collaboration with Sahin Gumus, Joel Smith, Tung Shing Wong and others
Flex VCXC
Launching a brand new multiplayer, 3D virtual sales platform for a global electronics manufacturer
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In colloration with Dave Cameron, Emily Spyt, Jed Carter, Vladimir Exil and others
Trinity
Product and design consulting for a platform that helps farmers balance financial and natural sustainability.
Modern farms have a vast variety and volume of different types of data. We built a comprehensive data visualisation system to help keep focus on the most crucial decisions.
BBC News iOS app
Bringing new immersive media formats and features to a popular news app
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In collaboration with Sahin Gumus, Joel Smith and others
mbdx
Prototyping and user testing environment for the BBC
BBC Voice Assistant
Generative design, brand identity and technical implementation for the BBC's new voice assistant
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The BBC were launching their first public pilot of a new AI-driven Voice assistant. We worked with them on the sonic and visual identity and product design. Video (c) Microsoft. It's genuinely quite hard to build generative design into scaleable software that works across a wide range of devices. I joined an engineering spike to implement a high-performance custom renderer.
BBC R&D
Helping build a new identity and voice for a world-leading research organisation
BBC R&D is an extraodinary organisation that has survived and thrived through many waves of technological change. It has a fantastic culture, a supremely talented team and brilliant ideas. We helped give them a voice through strategy, comms and brand identity.
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We built an identity that expressed the sheer diversity and variety through motion, color and pattern. Research and brilliant technological ideas often struggle to escape the Lab. A key aim was to make tools to tell compelling stories about their work to the outside world. Under the hood, the design is part an experiment. Graphics are all driven by shader code, designed to be living, evolving and constantly in motion.
BBC Sounds
Product design, generative graphics and drawing tools for the flagship audio product
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BBC AR Strategy
Exploring the future of augmented reality for public service media
I helped BBC R&D build a case for a major new investment in augmented reality over multiple years. Our team ran research, interviews and idea generation processes with a diverse team of contributors. AR often describes a multitude of different emerging trends and technology breakthroughs. We created a unified language and icon system to help talk about those technical challenges.
Smart lo-fi signage
Giving e-readers a new life as ambient signage
It's sad that e-readers, like most technology, ends up gathering dust. They are surprisingly resilient little devices. This was a project to make efficient, playful ambient signage for our London offices.
Aoyama Treehouse
Screenless interaction design for a new Tokyo co-working and mindfulness space
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We created a membership token in the form of a weathered stone. It could be used as a controller and access key within the space. Work in collaboration with Dave Cameron, Matt Wade, Guy Wolstenholme and Fengyi Franklin Zhu
BBC Weather
Weather forecast simulation and data visualisation
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Magic Leap One
Helping launch the pioneering mixed-reality headset
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Setbuilder
A storyboarding tool for spatial experiences
This was an internal prototype born from a need to make simple AR experiences from 2D assets. One of the big hurdles with spatial computing is the demands of authoring 3D content and models. We wanted to explore whether there was a way to tell simple interactive stories without the overhead of building art in 3D.
Unilever
Imagining a sustainable, seasonal future for mass-market food brands
illa
A research project into drawing tools that simulates physical materials like graphite and wax
Film and microscopy by Jimmy Irwin
Open Systems
Data-driven generative artwork for a Swiss network security business
Brakit
Digital tools for a modular furniture system
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IBM iX
Building a language for IBM to communicate stories with data