Cecilia Martin and Klasien van de Zandschulp are risk takers with a deliberately disruptive approach to their work. Members of Lava Lab, the innovation lab of the Amsterdam and Beijing-based creative agency Lava Design, they help companies embrace technology in innovative ways by engaging with millennials.
Millennials are one of the largest generations in history and possibly the most important generation in the world. By 2020, millennials will make up 70 per cent of the workforce.
In order to engage with this young people, brands must be more experiential and break down the barriers between offline and online, for this is a generation who are really defined by their relationship with technology.
“For millennials, the relationship with technology is very emotional,” explains Martin, “not only to connect with people, but their mobile phones are the remote controls of their lives. They also use it to construct their own reality. It means you are changing the way you see yourself.”
Martin goes as far as to say that millennials are the “Da Vincis of today”, driving a renaissance that has changed the way people think about themselves. Millenials are part of a world of fast cultures, fast tools and fast platforms, and do not struggle to adapt to technologies, in fact – they are driving them forward.
To illustrate how Lava Lab works, Martin and van de Zandschulp talk the Design Indaba audience through a number of recent projects, including the brand identity for a Russian museum, a mobile design studio in Beijing and how they can help you become Facebook friends with characters in paintings.
