FAQ
So many questions, so little time: here’s the lowdown on what Icelab’s about.
Why “Icelab”?
Because ice is cool. Because the same substance – H20 – has radically different properties, depending on the temperature. Because one little thing can make all the difference.
And “lab”, because the best answers aren’t always the ones you already know: we’re interested in thinking about problems deeply, and experimenting to find better ways of doing things.
What’s “thinking below the surface”?
It’s about the difference between design and decoration, between something being the expression of a deep structure rather than an accumulation of surface features. It’s about making design decisions for the right reasons.
So what sort of work do you do?
Lots of different sorts. We’re interested in solutions to problems: we don’t push specific media or specific technologies. The best answer to a given problem might be any (or a combination) of a number of different approaches: print, video, interactive, online, environmental.
Things we’re working on right now:
- designing and developing websites, front and backend
- building interactives for museums
- presentations for plasma screens
- immersive environments combining people, physical objects, animations on multiple screens, live simulations and sound
- animation for video and television
- database development for managing creative people
Who is Icelab?
In the lab, most of the time:
Michael Honey: major partner: thinking, design, writing, code, reading.
Max Wheeler: design, code, photography, frisbee.
Nathan McGinness: design, code, animation, video.
In and out:
Pawl Cubbin: CEO of the ZOO Group and second partner in Icelab. Benevolent yet provocative background presence. Owes Michael a chair.
Daniel Edmonds: Professional musician and some-time Icelab collaborator. Works with us on projects in different cities.
We also use freelance designers and coders on different projects. Make contact if you’re interested in working with us – or for us.
Less mass, more energy
There’s a temptation to try to optimise your business by cranking out the same thing, efficiently, again and again. It’s the agribusiness model: get good at doing one thing, then do it as cheaply as you can in the greatest volume. Because you need to keep volumes high, you need to market to people who don’t actually want or need your product – and that’s just what it is, a generic product, the same as the last, the same as the next.
But agribusiness monocultures are boring and brittle: they’re prone to disease, and they’re easily wiped out when the market shifts.
We’re more like hunter-gatherers: we improvise, adapt, try new approaches. For us, a new project is an opportunity to explore different ways of doing things: to learn from the past, but also to try to build for the future. It means we need to have a broader range of skills because we do different things at different times. We stay agile and light. It’s more diverse, and it’s more interesting.
Designed by humans
Michael Honey
Max Wheeler
Nathan McGinness 
Daniel Edmonds On our bookshelf
Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design
Michael Bierut writes, we read.
XS Green: Big Ideas, Small Buildings
Tiny buildings that make us happy. And the world too.
Design Like You Give a Damn
Low-cost projects from around the world providing shelter, health care, education, and access to clean water, energy, and sanitation. Do more with less.
Phaidon Design Classics
Essential 3-volume compendium of 999 industrially designed objects, in chronological order. Arrived in a box the size of a microwave.
Edward Tufte: Beautiful Evidence
Beautiful Evidence is.
Interesting
Max Kerning
"When I look around, I see disorder in the world—needless chaos and messes. I sense panic and stress. In fact, I feel it myself. It rattles my soul and gives me a headache and a sourness of the stomach. This is because everywhere I am assaulted by sloppy text that is displeasing to the eye."
Small team, smart people
"I’ve seen it both ways. Working in a teams where the vast majority of the staff were multi-disciplined, and in teams where each section was clearly its own echo chamber to the point where it felt like the considerations of one team would always be ignored by the other. I can tell you that the former was not only infinitely more productive, but that the results were exponentially better."
Inventive Labs
Virginia came to visit recently. Props from one lab to another.
Helvetica
Not the font (that goes without saying!), but the film. We found it ideal for a typographically nerdy DVD night. Bring your own beanbag!
NZ field laboratory?
We wish that were true. But have a look anyway - it's a cool project.
Unit 3/1, The Metropolitan,
1 Gordon St,
Canberra City ACT 2601 Australia
Telephone +61 2 6162 0241
Facsimile +61 2 6162 0242