Poke Pop Up At The Design Museum
A little while back we were asked by the Design Museum to create a map charting the history of digital design in London. Very honoured and with two weeks to get something in the can, we set to work.
The digital design industry is the very epitome of rapid change, so we decided to make an interactive, time-based map. This allowed us to demonstrate that speed, as well as show off the advantages of a digital approach. The creation of a map also meant we could chronicle the geographical movement across the capital, triggered by a high rate of agency mergers, acquisitions and deaths, in a visually commanding way.
We aptly named it 'The births, marriages and deaths of London's digital creative agencies of note 1994-2009'.
Built in Flash with an XML back end, the biggest challenge was creating a dynamic system that could a) accommodate everyone working on it simultaneously and b) take one final information dump at the end.The knob was made possible with the addition of some Arduino jiggery-pokery.
Lots of swearing and snack bribes for our developer later, and we had a rapid-fire, boom-bust-boom extravaganza showcasing the breakneck pace of change in the last 15 years.
We ummed and aahed over whether or not to include the explosions. But upon reflection, while acknowledging the gravity of the events we were plotting, this is undoubtedly an industry with a sense of humour and we wanted to inject some fun into the project.
Course, the Little Black Book took a massive hammering as we contacted countless folk to gather information. It was a gargantuan industry-wide effort and we can't thank you all enough.
*salutes*
Now, do enjoy the video of our map below, in all its interactive glory.
Design Museum - Super Contemporary from Poke on Vimeo.
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