Kinetic Singapore on how the creative industry can step up to help during these times of crisis, WFM, and adapting to a pandemic.

Sometimes, it takes a crisis for us to truly appreciate what&rsquo;s important. One such example would be the delivery riders: getting food or essential items delivered to us by delivery riders has become an even more regular, and important, occurrence in our lives than before during our circuit breaker.

With a gloomy outlook on the virus and economy in the daily news, and heightened tensions, it is not unheard of to hear of delivery riders bearing the brunt of complaints when orders take too long, or made wrong. The rise of contactless delivery and the &ldquo;coldness&rdquo; it had between rider and customer sparked an idea for <a href="https://kinetic.com.sg/main.html">Kinetic Singapore</a>, an independent&nbsp;&nbsp;boutique design, advertising and interactive agency, to create a #ThankYouDeliveryHeroes initiative.

The 15 person team, including co-founder Mr Pann Lim, and his colleagues,&nbsp;made 24 illustrated posters, featuring tongue-in-cheek sentences, such as &quot;You make my day bloom even though I&#39;m stuck on zoom&quot;&nbsp;that was circulated throughout social media and were made available to download on their website.&nbsp;

 
&ldquo;We are very happy to find that there are others out there who feel the same. Since we shared about the initiative, we&rsquo;ve had many people printing and putting up the posters at their door, and not just limited to our friends and family,&rdquo; said the team.

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Ahead, we speak to the team about the initiative, how the creative industry can step up to help during these unprecedented times, their experience with&nbsp;WFM, and the music they&#39;ve been listening to, which runs the gamut from Taylor Swift to heavy metal.

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&nbsp;What sparked your #thankyoudeliveryheroes initiative?&nbsp;

It began with a designer in our creative team who was thinking out loud about the current&nbsp;contactless delivery norm during one of our Zoom meets, about how it&rsquo;s so cold, and she said&nbsp; &ldquo;how about if we make posters for them?&rdquo;. And everybody on the team loved how this was so&nbsp;meaningful. Getting to work right away, we took about a week to write and design the posters,&nbsp;as well as cobble together a simple website.

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For&nbsp;public response, was&nbsp;there anything that surprised&nbsp;or stood out to you?

We loved&nbsp;that those who don&rsquo;t own a printer actually took the effort to recreate our posters&nbsp;by hand. Some even went one step further and came up with their own designs. And it is&nbsp;really heartening to see parents getting their kids involved in this thank you effort, making it a&nbsp;family art and craft activity while teaching the young ones about love and kindness!&nbsp;

What part to play do you think the creative industry has in our current times?&nbsp;

We can&rsquo;t speak for the industry but we&rsquo;re happy to put our creativity to good use in times like&nbsp;these. Although this is a very small initiative as compared to all the other COVID-19 efforts,&nbsp;we truly believe little things can make a difference. If we can brighten the day of someone&nbsp;else, bring a smile to tired faces, spread love in a time of anxiety and isolation, then we would&nbsp;have played a part no matter how small.

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&nbsp;Do you think advertising will change from the pandemic?&nbsp;

Not just advertising &mdash; everything. People&rsquo;s mindsets and behaviours will be different, which&nbsp;in turn means that we will have to approach things differently too.

But then again, this constant unlearning and adapting is not new to the industry. It’s what drives us to push the envelope, to create work that is relevant to the times and yet has the ability to surprise. 

How else do you think we can show compassion for one another here in Singapore?&nbsp;

Maybe start by putting ourselves in others&rsquo; shoes? That way, we might not be so quick to&nbsp;judge. And little acts matter. It could be as simple as being patient while in a long queue and&nbsp;greeting the frazzled cashier when it&rsquo;s finally your turn. Like they say: a smile costs nothing&nbsp;but gives much.

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&nbsp;What does a day at work look like for you under the Circuit Breaker now?&nbsp;

There are 15 of us at Kinetic so each one&rsquo;s day is a bit different for sure. But we all come&nbsp;together at least once a day on Zoom to discuss on-going projects and also to talk nonsense,&nbsp;just like we do back in the office.

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Has the pandemic affected your individual creative processes, and how?&nbsp;

It&rsquo;s safe to say this current situation presents challenges for everyone on the team. Some of&nbsp;us find working from home more distracting. Some find being stuck in one place stifling and&nbsp;miss the stimulation that the outside world provides. That said, our job is one of imagination&nbsp;and creativity, and there are no boundaries when it comes to those.&nbsp;

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What have you been doing to stay positive or balanced since the pandemic began?&nbsp;

The answers are as varied as the members of our team! We list some below:&nbsp;

&bull; perfecting my brownies&nbsp;

&bull; keeping to an exercise routine&nbsp;

&bull; treating myself to an ice cream a day&nbsp;

&bull; reading the books bought last year (and the year before last...)&nbsp;

&bull; calling my friends so that we know we&rsquo;re in this together&nbsp;

&bull; spending quality time with my parents&nbsp;

&bull; cooking new dishes&nbsp;

&bull; experimenting with new cocktails&nbsp;

&bull; going for walks in the park (with a mask on!)&nbsp;

&bull; doing yoga&nbsp;

&bull; watching lighthearted videos&nbsp;

&bull; playing online games&nbsp;

&bull; videocalling loved ones&nbsp;

&bull; weeding the garden&nbsp;

&bull; chilling with the cats&nbsp;

&bull; Netflix, Netflix, Netflix

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&nbsp;Music the team has been listening to to keep spirits up?&nbsp;

Too many to list! Suffice to say our tastes run the gamut, from pop (Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift),&nbsp;post-rock (Good Weather For An Airstrike, Hammock), folk rock (The Lumineers), to jazz&nbsp;(Ornette Coleman) and even metal (Sepultura).

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Check out the initiative <a href="https://www.thankyoudeliveryheroes.com/">here.&nbsp;</a>

Meet The Creative Team Behind The #ThankYouDeliveryHeroes Initiative

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