Because

Sensibly forgoing awkward team-building days only made enjoyable in the most cringeworthy episodes of The Office, Wolff Olins brings its team together with a series of talks from inspiring experts in and around the design industry.

The talk series, called Because, aims to awe employees, clients and friends and get them excited by wheeling out speakers on the cutting edge of their field.

Last night saw French designer Etienne Mineur speak about the interplay between physical and digital media. The designer, who has created stunningly innovative websites for Issey Miyake and Chanel, is currently investigating how paper and screen can be used together, especially in the world of gaming.

Mineur showcased a couple of his prototype explorations, including books that turn their own pages, a tome featuring pixelated stills from Night of the Living Dead which are also QR codes linking to parts of the film, and a game which uses physical counters to play on an iPhone interface.

Perhaps most inspiring was a game which used an iPhone as a counter on a paper board. As the iPhone is moved around the illustrated board, images from below, such as rocks around which you have to navigate your ship, appear on the screen in an animated form. You can see the game at work in the video below.

To further encourage team bonding, Wolff Olins commissions a designer from the team to create a poster for each event. To avoid trivialising the work of the speaker, each poster is created without the knowledge of who is speaking, but this week’s pixelated Pacman-like graphics are a particularly good fit.

What do you do to inspire your team? Let us know in the comments box below.