The Royals launches prototype lab Y2
Creative agency The Royals has launched a product development lab named ‘Y2’ out of their Melbourne office, with plans to explore creative and communication technology.
Y2 is led by former strategy director Dave King, the launch follows Michaela Futcher’s promotion to head of strategy which allowed King to move into the development lab.
The lab, which has been created in partnership with Deakin University, will offer programs and research for clients.
It will run with a ‘prototype or die’ philosophy, giving researchers the space for creative innovation to solve problems and creative opportunities.
Y2’s initial focus will be in the areas of artificial intelligence, mixed reality, conversational experiences and the future of journalism, narrative and storytelling.
King, now the director of Y2 as well as innovation partner for the Royals, said the new lab was “crucial” for creating and distributing “world-leading product development.”
“Through our many years of experience we have seen the power of a prototype to apply pure research and enliven hypotheses about the near future,” King said.
“Creating this dedicated space and program where expert teams can collaboratively design, build and test their ideas is something we believe is crucial to developing and exporting world-leading product development from Melbourne.”
Deakin University will also have the opportunity to put forward candidates for the lab as well as research resources for the projects run.
Matthew Allen, Deakin’s professor of internet studies at Deakin University said the partnership started as a “commercial proposition”.
“Deakin needed a creative agency, and the Royals put the best pitch to help Deakin build its innovative brand in higher education.
“Very soon the partnership became something more. Dave King, from the Royals, sought from Deakin a more in-depth relationship, for a new kind of creative R&D partnership – one that would bring the dynamism of the creative agency into alliance with the depth of research talent available at a university.
“The partnership is a sign of how the business of research and education is changing to meet the needs of Australia’s future success in creative design and invention,” he said.
Commenting on how Y2 came about, Allen said the university needed a “mash up space” to find a “better creative rhythm.”
“Y2 came about because we wanted to get new ways of working innovatively, and to achieve that, we needed to create a space set apart from the normal working worlds of creatives and academics.
“The origin of the Lab is also its purpose: Y2 is itself a rapid prototype of a different kind of creative research space. Its main goal is to allow creative prototyping and concept development of great new experiences and products which don’t fit the everyday.
“Collaborating with a partner like the Royals, with its track record in successful creativity, communications and technology, allows Deakin to be more agile, more disruptive, and prototype the inventive solutions we need for everyday problems.”
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