Metalab

“We’re falling behind in AI” That’s me waking up in a sweat after seeing Joe Shmoe agency leader publishing the latest AI thought piece, hosting a roundtable or coming out with a very provocative new take on how AI is both the technology advancement of our lifetime and completely overhyped all at once. It gets to me sometimes. As much as I love seeing people engage, learn and share, it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind when everyone seems to have become an overnight expert. That’s why for two decades now, Metalab has always taken the approach of more doing, less talking. Want to learn about something? Pick up the tools and get to building. Today, what we’ve ended up with is a lot of pretty interesting stories building products with AI. It probably started in earnest in early 2018, although I’m not sure we really knew what was starting back then. Otter.ai came to us for help conceiving a best in class intelligent audio transcription tool — something clicked in the early days of working on that product and today they’re one of Forbes Best Generative AI Workplace Productivity Tools. Ever since then, we’ve been deep in this world building. In 2021, concerned about artificial intelligence’s potential impact on the news business, Nicholas Thompson and his team at The Atlantic approached us to run a conceptual track to safely and positively leverage AI on the digital publication — a project none of us thought would see the light of day anytime soon. It’s launching in the coming months. We then worked alongside Tim Davis, Chris Lattner and the incredible team at Modular in 2022. Quite literally creating the building blocks to AI development that’s now valued at over $600M. Last year, during a pivotal moment in Midjourney's history, we worked with David Holz to give their 20M+ users another way of using the platform aside from their longstanding Discord centered interface. And today, we’re working on a product that will launch to billions of people overnight when it goes live — but that’s a story for another day. I don’t think we’ll be writing a book or doing a big thought piece anytime soon, but what I have asked the team to do is pull together some of these stories and the nuggets of learnings we took away from them, so we can start sharing — hopefully it’s not something that keeps anyone else up at night. In the meantime, I’ll keep getting comfortable falling behind, so we can stay focused on building. #genai #design #product #ai #aidesign

Design Company of the Year. Technically that honour goes to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, but Design Company of the Year Finalist doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Either way, feeling incredibly proud to be included in this list from Fast Company. Well before my time, Metalab had a long history of not only not chasing these, but often being dismissive of them. About a decade ago, I walked into our office in Victoria and one of the first things I noticed was the Webby being used as a doorstop — not as a flex or a sign of disrespect, but more because they were so focused on their love of doing the work that the award itself didn't matter. So over time, one of our developers found a use for it. I guess word got around and we haven't won a Webby since, so if Fast Company sends us anything in the mail, I promise we'll treat it better. And if Webby's listening, we're sorry. But this has been about twenty years of consistent approach. Know what you're good at and don't deviate. Find incredible clients to do it with. Build the thing and let the results speak for themselves. In many ways, today is no different — we still don't think too much about awards. But somehow this one does feel different. Maybe it's that we're the only agency in the mix getting recognized and I know firsthand there are some incredible agencies out there. Maybe it's that Fast Company is actually one of the few that puts the right level of thought and care into evaluating the true contributors in industry. Or maybe it's just the number of times over the past few years I've heard the Metalab team quietly say to each other: "If people only knew" We often have these pinch ourselves moments when we stop and think about the lineup of partners we get to work with. It's really humbling. So maybe this will be the moment where 'people started to know'. More likely, we'll keep building the things and the right people who know where to look will take notice. Thanks Fast Company. Thanks Metalab team. Feeling very proud. #FCDesignAwards #Design #Product

Our friends at awwwards. approached us to give a peek behind the process of one of our more recent and personal undertakings – our own website. Our primary goals were to let the work do the talking, focus on product, and inspire our community. While it took some time, inner reflection, and iterations, we built something we’re proud of. More on the Awwwards #SOTD winner in the case study: https://lnkd.in/ddaev7qU

Thanks for the feature, Awwwards. It was great chatting with the team!

James Clear came to us to transform his Atomic Habits philosophy into a product that supports lasting positive change. Atoms. is a powerful habit-forming app designed to mold into daily life and help users become the person they want to be. Learn more about the method behind the mechanics of the 4.8-star app → https://lnkd.in/gPBenW5U

Welcome to the app store Suno 🎉 🔥 This one hit home for a lot of the music lovers and creators here at Metalab. Since their first launch late last year, Suno's been leading the charge in the text to music space, which has been equal parts a beautiful expression of creativity and a hotly contested use of AI. The debate should and will no doubt continue, but for now, we're excited to ship a new brand and mobile app to help the 12 million+ users making music everywhere they go. More to come on our recent work in gen AI, so stay tuned. #brand #design #engineering #showreel #genai #music

It’s a good day to download Suno on IOS. We had an incredible time working on this project with their team. Congrats!

Say goodbye to bad habits. We partnered with NYT bestselling author James Clear to create Atoms — the official Atomic Habits app. The same philosophy, but translated into an actionable habit-forming app. Check out the full case study → https://lnkd.in/gPBenW5U

We didn’t want our social media warning label for Fast Company’s call to tackle the surgeon general’s recent recommendation to be just another prompt that gets ignored. To fight the battle of the mindless scroll, we used visual badges. Aesthetically, the badges resemble glass, pointing to both the fragility and value of the platform. Functionally, they capture attention and direct focus to the short and sweet messaging, supporting the shift of unhealthy behaviour and changing mindsets. Check out the full article: https://lnkd.in/gV6J9wJA

The good folks at Fast Company asked us for our take on the surgeon general’s latest recommendation that social media should come with a warning label for teenagers. Doomscrolling is the norm, so we took a native approach with our label to have a more lasting and meaningful impact. To do this, we identified key moments in the app experience that often affect mental health. → Seeing someone’s edited or unrealistic photos. → Getting unfollowed. → Scrolling for hours in a blink. → The comment section… Then, we prompted a moment of reflection to encourage a mindset shift. Read the full breakdown on our design: https://lnkd.in/gV6J9wJA