Circul8 Blog

Plastiki Fantastiki: Their Voyage is Over, but the Journey Continues for David de Rothschild

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:46:48 +0000

We sent down our man in the field today to the arrival of Plastiki in Darling Harbour.

 The crew of Plastiki has had, what seems like, an impossible journey. Essentially floating across the Pacific Ocean on a pile of plastic bottles in 128 days with one goal, “To ban single use plastics”. Their boat was made of 12,500 plastic bottles to be precise, all stuck together with glue made of cashew nuts and sugarcane. Incidentally, Plastiki was designed by Australian ‘Sydney to Hobart’ winning designer, Andy Duvall.

  This boat embodied their core message and the journey from San Francisco to Sydney a plea for help from a green island.

  After having a drink of water, the man behind it all David de Rothschild said, “Anything is possible if you realise what you can do” in an effort to encourage people to find their own ways of reducing their dependence on plastic. As he stepped off he said. “I wish I was standing here saying we’ve solved the problem, but we haven’t”. 

 Ian Kiernan, the founder of Clean Up Australia revealed that there is approximately 13,000 pieces of plastic in every square kilometre in the Pacific Ocean. “This opens your eyes to a problem you can’t see" he continued, “We have an innate ability to invent things for our own convenience" often with a complete disregard for the repercussions to our environment.

  As the Plastiki crew were being welcomed into Darling Harbour, The U.S. Ambassador reminded us to "Never doubt the power of a small group of committed people to change the world". So committed indeed that one of the crew undertook this journey during the birth of his first child.

  David de Rothschild emphasised that it does not take one person to change how we use plastic because "Nobody is as smart as ‘Everybody’…" and the Plastiki was "The greatest exercise of teamwork" from the industrial designers, the glue makers to the bottle collectors, the expedition would not have been possible without the dedication of the team.

  David’s vision is aimed at challenging the "that’s just how we do it" mentality, because our society has become to accustomed to just using things once and throwing them away. 

 The fact is that nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. The biggest problems are Plastic bottles, bottle lids, plastic bags and Styrofoam because they photodegrade (break into smaller bits of plastic) into the WATER and are ingested by animals. This became even more apparent when several plastic bottles floated by while we were waiting for Plastiki to arrive.

  After years of trying to clean up our harbour, Ian Kiernan said, "We need to put yesterday’s habits behind us", there has to be a better way.  

 Following the lead of groundbreaking town Bundanoon, other local councils are seeking to ban the sale of bottled water in an effort to reduce the plastic suffocating our Oceans.

Circul8 team

The Circul8 seed is growing, one unique patch of digital space at a time

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:37:29 +0000

Some of Sydney’s most respected creative minds have come together for an online project to honour emerging local talent in the 10×10 project, a part of Vivid Festival.

The focus of the 10×10 PROJECT voting was to identify key groups that are creating a stir within Sydney and Australia. Among the contributors are Sass & Bide’s Sarah Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton, Dinosaur Designs co-founder Liane Rossler, and film critic Margaret Pomeranz. Read all for more information

Creative Industry Leader, Liane Rossler stumbled on Jamie Madden and Alana Stock (the driving forces) behind Circul8 after seeing their Greenpeace origami whales’ campaign.

“There’s an energetic dynamic in ‘The Trophy Room’ offices, kind of like a meeting of minds? They (Circul8) are really excited to take an idea and let it grow with you. It’s what companies should be like, and I was grateful to work with them.”

It was Circul8’s energy in all things socially conscious that drew Ms Rossler to them originally; and now she believes the agency is one of Sydney’s most valuable creative inspirations.

“When I decided to vote, I looked at finding different people in different fields who all have a similar big heart. Circul8 work on projects that have a social commitment, so I think they fit the perfect ideal.”

The agency has already graced the stage at last year’s Webby Awards in New York and this year’s AIMIA Awards in Melbourne; so they know they are onto a winning recipe.

It may just be that the endless award nominations call for more ‘Trophy Room’s’ than one, if they keep this up throughout 2010.

Circul8’s portfolios will be available to view online from the 4th June at http://creativesydney.com.au/ or www.theloop.com.au/circul8

Contact Circul8 on 02 9331 6685

Jobs - Senior Digital Art Director

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:29:24 +0000

We’re looking for a Senior Art Directorto join our team. If that’s you read all below.

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Greenpeace box an AIMIA Award for Innovative Slogan Campaign.

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:27:06 +0000

Major environmental NGO Greenpeace has taken out the Science Health and Environment Award at the 16 annual AIMIA’s awards in Melbourne earlier this month for the international campaign Action-Pact. Circul8, creative agency for Greenpeace, has delivered a second award for the multi-national NGO in twelve months.

The latest award comes off-the-back of a recent win in NYC where Circul8 was the only Australian digital agency to win a Webby for its digital advocacy campaign Send-a-Whale. The campaign inspired people to create an origami whale and sent it to the Prime Minister of Japan, asking for an end to whaling. The online protest has seen over 175,000 whales created to-date. The campaign is just about to breach the international market, after being translated for release in eight languages including Japanese.

The online space has proven the perfect playground for the NGO’s. From the early days of email petitions to the advanced Social Media Advocacy campaigns of today. A typical campaign now integrates with Facebook, email, twitter, YouTube and Google. Creative director Jamie Madden had this to say about the evolution in Online campaigning “There has been a fundamental change in the playing field, one day NGO’s were working hard to get 1000 people at a protest, now we can have more than 100,000 in a matter of days or weeks and the protest doesn’t end.” This evolution reaches beyond simple protest he adds “The changes to fundraising have also been extraordinary; the gong ride sponsorship program moving online has turned a 300k event to a 3 million dollar event in 4 years.”

Circul8 are overtly passionate about the NGO sector, founders Jamie Madden & Alana Stocks have embedded their strong moralist approach into business directives. Jamie says “My family are all involved in the environment, so I’m kind-of the black sheep working in advertising but working with NGO’s has given me the opportunity to give something back, while building a business, I guess black sheep can also produce useful wool”

Circul8 are founding members of the Surry Hills collective space, The Trophy Room, where they ruminate with artists, architects and town planners. The space also hosts an open-source art gallery with seasonal shows from local and resident artists.

CIRCUL8 SCOOPS 2ND MAJOR AWARD FOR GREENPEACE CAMPAIGNS

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:55:58 +0000

AIMIA Award joins Webby Award in the Trophy Room at Surry Hills

It’s not often you can walk into the offices of a 3 year old agency and be confronted by a wall of major industry awards. The blossoming Sydney based digital agency Circul8 is the exception to this rule. Co-founders Alana Stocks and Creative Director Jamie Madden have wasted no time putting Circul8 on the map with Australia’s only win at the International Webby Awards in New York. Proving it was no fluke, the award was followed up with a win at the 16th annual AIMIA’s earlier this month in Melbourne.

The AIMIA-winning campaign for Greenpeace International, Action-Pact, saw over 20,000 people send a climate change messages to delegates at the December 09 summit in Copenhagen.
The campaign was a hit with public voters as well as the panel of judges at the AIMIA awards, with one judge quoted as saying “It’s a brilliant site, this was the only site I actually participated in, created my own entry and networked it via email, Facebook, and Twitter”

In 2009, Circul8 was the only Australian digital agency to win at the International Webby Awards in New York for the Send-a-Whale advocacy campaign for Greenpeace International, which saw 170,000 people create and send an origami whale to the Prime Minister of Japan, demanding an end to whaling.

Circul8 co-founders Alana stocks and Jamie Madden are excited about the recent wins.

“The social media scene has helped us grow by focusing on creative ideas that go that extra step to get noticed. People are spending hours posting status updates and engaging, telling everyone what you’re having for dinner or about your cat’s affair with the neighbors’ cactus ten times can get pretty dull. Our mandate is simple, we create brilliant content that people want to talk about and share” Jamie says

Alana is adamant that all great ideas are supported by great strategy and the changes in the online advertising landscape is seeing all sorts of industries scrambling to get on-board with new wave of media, including Twitter, Facebook and word-of-mouth campaigns.

“Advertising is now a two-way communication between a brand and its audience, it’s the most fundamental change since the advent of the moving picture, its impossible to ignore, if you do you might just wind up in some dark corner, talking to yourself.”

Circul8 are keen to build off the back of this momentum in 2010 and are currently working on a number of potential award winning projects.

AIMIA – Award Winners 2010

Click here to download the AIMIA Booklet

Circul8 team at the AIMIA Awards in Melbourne.

Photo Credit: "16th Annual AIMIA Awards - Red Carpet" by Amy Ward

Blog Action Day! Global action against climate change!

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:50:57 +0000

Today is Blog Action Day, October the 15th 20009. A day when thousands of blogs across the interwebs speak out against climate change.

We’ve always come from the school of thought that the environment is better if we don’t stuff it up. In other words let’s not sit quiet while global warming heats up this into a galactic sauna.

What can you do about this climate change catastrophe that we are facing? Switch to energy efficient light globes. Walk or ride your bike to work. Or switch to green power.

Do it. Your kids will love you.

Cables circulating the globe

Michael — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:26:10 +0000

So how does the interwebs get around the globe? You’d be surprised that we are all actually physically linked by a planet sized array of cables, pipes and tubes. But interglobal web isn’t new, only the way we communicate has changed. In 1901 a massive network carried telegrams over land and under oceans. Although 100 years ago lol catz were sent in morse code, and took about 1.5 seconds per word to get through.

Lead Flash Developer

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:38:45 +0000

We are looking for a highly skilled and motivated, flash developer. Ideally you will have experience with technical websites, ad campaigns and application architecture with strong problem solving skills.

Work with our award winning creative team on a diverse and ever inspiring range of jobs across the travel, fashion, NGO and entertainment sectors.

Circul8 is in an exciting time of growth and want you to come along for the journey. This is the ultimate environment to unleash your potential as a ground breaker in the field of development.

Apply to info@circul8.com.au,

(individual applicants only, no recruiters please.)

Crush your PNG like you’re the hulk. Roaaaaarr!

Michael — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:45:13 +0000

Before 84KB:	After 53KB:

Wow!

If you’ve ever wanted to get your file size down, while still keep the quality up then there’s a better way. Smashing Magazine published a very helpful article on PNG optimisation techniques. Check it out here.

Papervision Scene Creator GUI

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:26:12 +0000

The crazy cats over at Juxt interactive has created a Papervision Scene Creator GUI. It’s a straight up Flash App that allows users to quickly and (relatively) easily create Papervision scenes.

Go grab the Apha while it’s hot hot hot!

http://www.juxtinteractive.com/work/vizualpv3d/