Lava Lab: Innovation at the intersection

We talk to the ladies of Lava Lab about the rise of the hybrid designer and the age of Millenial thinking.

“It’s not really about having certain skills, it’s really about developing a mindset and an aptitude and to have cross-functional capacities,” says Lava Lab’s cofounder Cecilia Martin. Lava Lab is the innovation lab of Amsterdam-based creative agency Lava Design and has an ultra-interdisciplinary approach to creating work. Their office is made up of people with diverse, interdisciplinary skills, who share a common mindset. 

Looking at the technologies of the future, Lava Lab’s designers believe that Millenials have an innovative way of thinking that companies should try to learn from. They are digital natives with particular ways of consuming information and media. When they are involved in the creative process the result is not only completely relevant to the needs and desires of their generation, but can also be totally surprising. 

One example of this is how the designers of Lava Lab integrated modern messaging systems into an exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum, where characters in the paintings sent friend requests and private messages to the viewers via their smart phones. 

Innovation, according to Martin and her colleague Klasien van de Zandschulp, happens at the intersection: the places where technologies, skills and mentalities meet.