Christmas Androids
Android Design, Google, 2011
For a bit of end of term fun, the newly established Android Design team in London decided to combine our talents and make a Christmas present for our colleagues in California. We made an Android tree decoration, with a hidden digital gift inside.
We designed and made a series of festive Androids, each with the name of a London designer etched on their back.
After unwrapping their gift the recipient is asked to “...Beam to begin”, the NFC interaction on the Android platform supported by the latest Nexus devices.
Tapping an NFC enabled phone to their Christmas Android reveals a further hidden gift. A tag embedded in the Android’s belly triggers the download of an app corresponding to the London designer named on the back.
The Apps
Each app contains a caricature of a London designer singing jingle bells in their own (silly) voice. You can either play the song through or take control, and play along on the keyboard.
There were 8 apps to collect in all, by tapping your phone on colleagues gifts around the design studio.
Click to view all the different caricatures
App Design and Illustration: Eva-Lotta Lamm
App Development: Mikkel Koser
Making The Androids
I designed and built the Android decorations themselves, using the fantastic laser cutting services at Cut Laser Cut.
The embedded NFC tags
Android assembly line