The world we designed for the Telstra Uncaged project had to strike a balance between geometric sophistication and organic beauty. Through exploratory sketches, paintups and 3D sculpting, we fashioned a family of stylised geometric birds styled against a Rosella.

The technical design challenge was to maintain a stylised form for the bird, while coupling it with realistic movement and behaviour.

We were tasked to create an ambient experience which communicated the emotional aspects of the Telstra brand –sophistication, transformation, movement, communication and colour. Our birds were animated with social behaviours, transmitting colour from one bird to the next. We observed real-life flocking behaviours, and brought them to life in our bird colony to introduce a realistic social dynamic within the colony of these birds.

The experience is designed to play throughout the day, with the environment’s lighting situation evolving over time, and the birds’ behaviour also reflecting this change to create a more inviting ambience to the store.

We had to design birds with a minimalist approach to form, but had the ability to articulate realistic motion for our animators to work with. The environment was designed so light and shadow could play beautifully through it’s leaves and branches as the time of day changed, with the idea of turning Telstra’s massive in-store display into a delightful portal to another living world.

The digital birds were also extended into the physical world, using coloured 3D printing and hand-made paper construction to create the retail bird displays.