Australia Post - Talking Post Boxes
Send a friend a post card! How we made post boxes interactive for a good cause
Last month, we teamed up with Thinkerbell to bring a wild idea to life, Australia’s first ever interactive talking post boxes. This project was part of a nationwide campaign for Australia Post in collaboration with Beyond Blue to prompt Aussies to check in with loved ones by writing a postcard, encouraging social interaction and creating awareness around mental health.
The brief was to make Australian post boxes interactive, using movement sensor technology, triggered by an unsuspecting passerby. Although the project came with a tight deadline, we found it to be a unique design challenge. How do we design an interactive, weatherproof (and teenager-proof) unit packed with electronics that could be retrofitted on to existing post boxes in three different cities around the country without compromising their structure?
After sketching out a few concepts, we turned to our project archives for inspiration. Years of Vivid projects meant Anton already knew his way around experimental electronics and coding. We came up with a sheet metal form that integrated on top of the existing post box unit, making it appear to be simply an extension of an ordinary post box.
We were left slightly stumped when we asked the question of what is the radial arc of the top of a post box, the response was they’re all different. So the next challenge became how can we standardise a unit that can seamlessly fit onto any post box? The answer? Four mag-switch magnets (Anton’s favourite fundamental force of nature).
Welled our design in CAD and issued drawings to our suppliers to be produced in sheet metal. After a few hours of Anton welding in the workshop, the sheet metal came together in the form of three Auspost red boxes. Selina figured out the internal layout of electrical components to fit perfectly behind an acrylic laser-cut sheet with mounted speaker units. Magnets were loosely located within the unit and after a few hours, everything came together with the help of a few washers and M5 bolts.
Roadtrip time! Anton visited the lovely town of Traralgon (Victoria) and spent his Friday installing the first of our three units. The team spent the week prior pondering if a large sheet metal box and a 12V battery and a toolbag would be flagged by airport security… thankfully it wasn’t. Meanwhile Amber and Selina took one of our trusty GoGets, Hooi the Hybrid, down to Australia’s scenic capital Canberra to install the second unit. Of course, there had to be a stop at the well-known Trapper’s Bakery next to the iconic Australian landmark, the Big Merino (iykyk). The final of the three post box units was wrestled onto the postbox located in a Wintery wind tunnel on the corner of Market and York streets in Sydney’s CBD by Amber and Selina.
We’re grateful to have collaborated with Thinkerbell on a cause we genuinely believe in. Even with the occasional design curveball, the process was as rewarding as the outcome. We are proud to help deliver part of a nationwide campaign with our returning partners Australia Post and Beyond Blue.
