Reinventing the wheel
Design in Costa Rica is rich in nature and its artistic importance has evolved over the years creating a beautiful and unique identity. Nowadays that heritage has been lost somehow due to the influence of globalization.
How can we contribute to rediscover our design essence and artistic heritage using our expertise on new technologies?
We decided to reinvent the Wheel. Seriously. We reinvented the Wheel.
The Costa Rican Oxcart Wheel is one of the most visible and influencial pieces of Costa Rican design. We reinterpreted its traditional ornamentation and created a modern and unique style suitable for digital platforms without losing its essence. Under the concept of ‘Hop on the Cart’ we supported the rediscovery of the costa rican design and positioned it as a modern cultural symbol even beyond our frontiers.
We built an interactive stand showing our digital interpretation of the Wheel at FID 3. People could interact with the app by taking pictures of themselves, uploading the images and placing them on customizable versions of the Wheel. By sharing them on social media platforms, a sense of community was created during the process. Using Kinect technology, users had the ability to modify the color, mouvement and spinning speed of the wheel making the entire experience even more engaging. All pictures were posted on http://montateenlacarreta.com and on our Facebook page. All these digital interactions helped us to take the most influential symbol of costa rican design and aesthetics to the next level. We evolved it. People experienced that and all the conversations in social media and the real world already started demonstrating that we all could contribute to create the visual identity of a country.
We built an interactive stand showing our digital interpretation of the Wheel at FID 3. People could interact with the app by taking pictures of themselves, uploading the images and placing them on customizable versions of the Wheel. By sharing them on social media platforms, a sense of community was created during the process. Using Kinect technology, users had the ability to modify the color, mouvement and spinning speed of the wheel making the entire experience even more engaging. All pictures were posted on http://montateenlacarreta.com and on our Facebook page. All these digital interactions helped us to take the most influential symbol of costa rican design and aesthetics to the next level. We evolved it. People experienced that and all the conversations in social media and the real world already started demonstrating that we all could contribute to create the visual identity of a country.
Technologies: – HTML5 canvas. Javascript libraries (backbonejs, requirejs, kineticjs), Kinnect, Web Sockets, iPad application
