In October 2008, CAT began working with Timorous Beasties on a collaboration funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board. In response to the theme: ‘Exploiting Digital Technologies’ the purpose of the BeastiesLAB project was to explore the potential benefits of a digital workflow based on the idea of co-creation. This involved the development of a retail installation that invited customers to create their own cushion by interacting with Timorous Beasties print designs through a playful experience that brought their content to life. With products being digitally printed at CAT only once a customer had purchased the product, this on-demand approach offers greater flexibility and reduced risk for designers whilst providing customers with a unique product (and memorable experience). Aside from these commercial benefits, the focus of the project was to explore the creative opportunities enabled by co-creation.

In order to ensure customers did not feel as though they were ‘using a computer’ the interactive scenes were controlled using a Nintendo Wiimote with colourways being selected using printed swatches with embedded RFID tags. The video below shows the final concept.

BeastiesLAB: Design from TechStyleLAB on Vimeo.