The Sydney Fish Market.
The Second Wind
Founded in 1871, The Sydney Fish Market is the largest of its ind in the Southern Hemisphere. Needless to say the landmark and Australia has changed a lot in the past 100 years, and they thought it was timefor a 20,000m2 upgrade.
To this day, being one of the selected members of Blend Week 2018 is still one of the most eye opening experiences I've had. Both as a Designer, and a Sydney Sider who grew up going to the markets.
Contextualising the Info
Over time, perceptions about the world's fishing industry became perceptions of the fishing industry within Australia, which is reality is drastically different. This resulted in heavy over regulation on fishermen and the market due to the wrong and irrelevant information.
This combined with the general public's misinterpretations about the culture & histor y of the SFM, to seafood prep and cuisine resulted in simultaneous declines for stakeholders. To make matters worse, many of these consequences feed negatively back on to itself and ripple out past the market to every grocer.
The Core Needs
01
Respect & Recognition for Fishermen
Unknown to us but the craft and expertise needed to be a modern fisherman are a mixture of science, dangerous conditions and detailed practical skills.
But without people wanting to work as one, means the industry is dying from the inside. Even children of the founding family, have disengaged.
02
Better Understanding From the public
From ethics & sustainability to cuisine and food prep, as Australians we have access to some of the freshest seafood on the planet, yet most things we believe about it, it is wrong.
Fish keeps longer than you think, the Australian industry is more than sustainable and our seafood pallet is actually very "basic".
03
Ongoing sustainable engagement
Over 50% of traffic are well off Asian tourists, which in turn alienates the locals.
Drastically affecting the local engagement, and therefore growth as an industry.
Prices for popular seafood is projected to go up by atleast 300%.
Making the information real, and useful
Having the stakeholders (owners, staff and service designers)show up at each checkpoint or pitch to interface with was crucial. Combined with the research package and the onsite guided exploration, gave the insights texture and a voice. This later became a core part of our solution.
7AM: the owners, Members of the founding family, and our teams onsite.
Persona flow and relationships
Persona Summaries in flow by Tricky Jig
My role
Our team comprised of a VD, an Industrial Designer, a Business Strategist and myself. Having skills that overlap our team members, I ended up product lead to best try and leverage our collective skills. My responsibility was to focus on satisfying the numerous stakeholder needs.
With the others taking responsibility for asset generation & sprint management (VD), logistics (ID) and financial/legal viability(BS).
This is where we spent 80% of our time,
playing devils advocate and striving for the rounded solution.
Reel Talk... What is good for?
Script, Storyboard, Voice Over and edit made by Clement Tan
Part 1 - Strategic Engagement
Part 1 is attracting all personas using food culture and proximity with exclusive time based experiences. Despite being a cornerstone of food culture in Europe and the US, Sydney has barely experienced the adventurous experience of chasing down a coveted food truck or stepping outside the office and grabbing a topnotch feed.
Team members: Anandini Tapodhan, Grace Mccloskey, Andrew and myself.
Field Demo: Wynyard Station
2 minutes after pouring rain.
For this to work all that is needed is a few social media drops of locations and times slots, a couple local foodie publications like concrete playground and the vehicle itself.
The rest of the 'marketing' would through word of mouth and by the truck visiting as many dense Sydney locations as possible!
Part 2 : Visceral Connections
The second part addresses who is inside the vehicle and its design, which in this case is the stakeholders themselves i.e Wet Seafood Retailer, Restaurateur, and Seafood Suppliers. These champions will have a rotating opportunity to make the food truck their own, venturing out to different parts of Sydney throughout the week.
Serving their specialities made from fresh catches direct from the SFM, this allows them to share knowledge about their craft. This rangers from secrets on everything from food preservation & efficiency, to species that are hugely popular across the water but unfamiliar to locals.
Reminder of core goals
- Respect & Recognition for Fishermen.
- Better understanding from the public on the industry, SFM & seafood in general.
- Ongoing, Sustainable engagement.
What does this achieve
- It gives people in this industry a platform and fun space to communicate and share their experiences.
- It not only provides the opportunity to clear the air but also diversify the public's tastes, introducing less mainstream species or methods. In turn this also would help balance the price of the seafood itself!
- By exposing people of all areas to the SFM's food, vendors and culture, this gives people a concrete reason to visit the new SFM and with highlights to the numerous stakeholders.
This is experience is meant to create hype and interest as it moves around Sydney transforming the space its in, into a food hub. being both a shareable experience and an introspective one, the Reel Talk Food Truck lets people engage with content or the champions themselves. This is then contextualised and made memorable with hot, steaming and interesting fresh food.
The Final Notes
- SFM already has access to the truck talent, as well as the food at cost or wholesale price.
- The rotating ownership of the Food Truck incentivises vendors themselves, as it gives people a reason to visit their specific spot in the new SFM.
- This solution is built as a positive feedback loop, with high repeat use. with very low upfront monteray as well as time.
- The Food Truck solution also has a very low upfront cost and is quick to throw together.
What is Blend Week?
Blend Week is a one-week design-led accredited curriculum that solves tricky problems quickly. It ‘blends’ client, student and industry skill-sets to ideate, build and validate prototypes. A response to the need for ‘T-shaped’ people (deep specialisation + broad understanding) who’ll be equipped to manage the opportunities of the future of work.
