Inkable
Hewlett-Packard
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
BBDO New York/ Atmosphere Proximity
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers David Lubars Greg Hahn Andreas Combuechen Executive Creative Director Justin Crawford Creative Director Keith Ross Chief Creative Technologist Michael Moroney Executive Producer David Quinta Senior Producer Shane Orr
Production Team
Developers Big Human
Other Credits
Account Team Simon Pearce Mark Tillinghast Mimi Warmington
Date
April 2014
Background
Nearly two billion people around the world had connected through social media, for the most part sharing their photos.
The trouble was, photos tended to get lost in the ether and forgotten so they were losing some of their resonance as personal ways of sharing a moment and sparking a smile.
The question was, could print be part of the solution for a young crowd of digital natives?
Idea
Inkable was a social network which connected printers. When people connected using the app, they could take a photo with their mobiles or pull an image from Facebook or Instagram, then personalise it with Inkable's filters and drawing tools. Then they could select a friend and send it to that friend's printer.
They get a message that something special is waiting for them and all they have to do is click on 'Print'.
Results
The idea of Inkable was created, prototyped and launched to the public inside six months. It launched in the App Store in April 2014.
Our Thoughts
When people say print is dead because of digital technology, they really don’t know what they’re talking about. Technology simply creates new functions for those old materials, which no-one could have imagined before. Like this. Here’s HP embracing digital technology, connecting mobiles to printers, and it will be the saving of them. Kodak pretended the digital revolution wasn’t happening. Digital in this instance means pictures you can really pin up, snaps you can really stick to a wall, fold and put in your wallet, mementos you can actually write on and put in the post. There is always going to be a place for the actual as well as the virtual, for things you can hold in your hand and pass on to someone else. Money, for instance.