This year was another big one for CDG! We have had some big wins as a business and had some changes to our team. We have been very lucky to have one of the world’s most experienced and talented Senior Industrial Designers, Jason Smith working part time within our Brisbane team for the last two and a half years. Recently, Jason’s UK family have needed him home where he will no doubt stay for the next few years. The good news is that although not in the Brissy studio, Jason will continue to work with the CDG team from his home in the UK… who knows maybe this is the start of Clandestine’s UK Studio.

To back fill the empty seat in the Brisbane Studio, we were lucky enough to re-recruit Rohan McEvoy (our first ever employee). We welcome him back to the team after a two year break studying overseas and working in other Industrial Design consultancies.

There have been some big achievements for CDG over 2019 and below are some of the highlights.

1.0 Field Orthopaedics Micro Screw surgery and European certification

Back in January our client Field Orthopaedics successfully performed the very first hand surgery using our first medical device, the Field Orthopaedics Micro Screw Kit, which is now available to surgeons in countries all around the world. The surgery was performed on a 14 year old junior equestrian with who injured her hand falling off her horse. All of her Olympic aspirations are now back on track after recovering well from surgery. See Channel 10 News coverage about the exciting milestone.

Then in February the Field Orthopaedics Micro Screw Kit.was formally recognised as an ISO13485 certified company. This means our FO Micro Screw Kit will is now available to surgeons in Europe. We're very proud of this achievement, which has been 2.5 years in the making, and are continuously amazed by the global growth our FO Micro Screw is currently experiencing.

2.0 QODE

At the beginning of April, CDG exhibited at QODE the perfect event for combining Queensland innovation, tech entrepreneurs and global giants of industry from the different corners of the globe including Germany, the USA and Israel. CDG were the only exhibitors and were an Industrial Design island in a sea of tech-preneurs, VIPS and venture capitalists. This worked in CDG’s favour with the more than 3500 thousand attendees interested in building hardware products for their primarily software play.

View the QODE gallery here and the wrap up QODE Video from this year - keep an eye out for one of our featured team members! The key takeaway was that the event was very successful for the team and we are definitely coming back again - we’ll be back there in March 2020.

3.0 Neil’s trip to the USA

In late April, CDG Creative Director Neil Davidson was invited by his digital design brother, Ben Johnson, CEO Josephmark to attend a once in a lifetime conference curated around cognitive performance. The two day Cognitive Performer Summit held in San Francisco and was facilitated by Andy Walshe and his team at Luminal and curated by host company, Logitech.

Logitech CEO Braken Darrell on stage at conference credit: https://blog.logitech.com/2019/05/08/2019-cognitive-performer-summit-exploring-innovation-in-technology-health-and-esports/

During the Summit the speakers explored how cognitive performance impacts and informs; Teams, Health, Psychology, Skills and Equipment. They then continued to learn about the critical success factors for these performers. The other amazing part of the Summit were the calibre of attendees, the discussions had around the table and even in the coffee line - there were some pretty interesting cognitive/mind bending tales told.

4.0 MAXTRAX XTREME launch

Back in May MAXTRAX added a new offering to their product range getting an extreme makeover making their already tough recovery boards even tougher. The multi-award-winning MAXTRAX XTREME is now the most advanced 4WD recovery track ever created, featuring 88 replaceable hard-anodised alloy teeth moulded into a heavy-duty, super-tough, engineering-grade reinforced Nylon recovery track.

MAXTRAX XTREME is designed and manufactured for professional use based on direct feedback from some of the world's most elite military units, off-road racing champions, certified 4WD driver trainers and globe-trotting expedition leaders as a mission-critical recovery track for a wide range of scenarios where time is of the essence and aggressive driving and excessive wheel spin is often unavoidable. Including active combat situations, timed motorsport competitions and remote area expeditions.

MAXTRAX XTREME is also easily repairable in the field. If a tooth gets damaged, simply flip the board over and use a T-50 Torx bit to remove and replace the damaged tooth.

5.0 Visit from Leanne Kemp Queensland Chief Entrepreneur

In July, Leanne Kemp Queensland Chief Entrepreneur came and visited Clandestine’s studio at Woollongabba. She spoke to and met the team and we shared how we manage the different stages of Industrial Design innovation and new product development with our clients.

Leanne is the first female appointed to the role, to develop the state’s start-up ecosystem, attract investment and support job creation. She is the first woman entrepreneur to hold this position. In 2019 her tenure as Chief Entrepreneur was extended for another year, the first time the role has been extended since its creation.

Leanne Kemp is Founder and CEO of Everledger and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. She is a prominent figure in the technology sector and recognised internationally as an innovator and leader. Her company Everledger uses Blockchain technology to track high-value assets such as diamonds, art and wine with the aim of increasing transparency and trust with technology.

6.0 Truck makeover

Also in July, the much anticipated extreme design and renovation make over of the Tithonus was now compete - primarily pieced together by Design Director Neil Davidson shipping in mechanical bits and bobs from the UK and US. The other large part of work was undertaken by the team at Wild Side Garage who did a great job, painstakingly prepping, sanding and painting the 32 year old Landrover in the start of the art military spec Raptor Coat.

The awesome wheel rims were transformed by the team at the Alloy Doctor. Custom Jerry Can Holders and rear end metalwork was designed from CDG but fabricated and powdercoated by Langfords and Kilners Engineering. Thanks to the world class trades that we are so lucky to have here in Brisbane.

7.0 Design Awards wins

Back in July, we were getting ready for a seriously amazing night at The Good Design Awards 2019 awards ceremony! We were very humbled and honoured and excited to receive with our client RapidAIM the Best In Class award for Product - Commercial and Industrial category for the radically innovative IoT Biosecurity Fruit Fly sensor trap.

The jury said "This highly innovative design is also clever sustainable solution in that the farmer can limit and tune the pesticide level only to the minimum amount required for pest control rather than a ‘just in case’ approach. This has the potential for a significant ROI and will lead to better outcomes for our environment as a whole. The physical design is sophisticated with an intelligent choice of materials where appropriate (e.g. the use of rope) and the choice of tooling is well considered.

Overall, this is a shining example of design excellence and the team deserve award recognition at the highest level. Well done." We were also proud to collaborate on the award winning GroundProbe SSR-Omni radar system.

8.0 EarthOffset win

CDG were excited, happy and proud to attend the UQ Lab graduating cohort pitch event at the end of July to see firsthand our client Ashley Baxter, a ball of game changing energy, win the best pitch of the night, for creating a new way for people to manage the way we compost. Ashley Baxter, won the Shane Chidgzey Young Entrepreneurs Prize for her startup, EarthOffset, one of 10 startups showcased in the culmination of the six-month accelerator program run by ilab.

EarthOffset is now at proof of principal development stage meaning it’s nearly ready to move onto development for manufacture and roll out for commercial use really soon. The device supports home and community composters to have fast, clean and emissions-free compost by monitoring decomposition and delivering insights through an app.

This has been an incredible successful collaboration between Clandestine, Carbon Circuits and Joseph Mark. In late breaking news as we compile this wrap up, the team are preparing for beta production trials for early next year.

9.0 Ceres Tag testing

Our clients Ceres Tag kept popping up in all kinds of media coverage throughout the year including a satirical cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald. But the real moment of pride was the feature story undertaken by ABCs Landline. For Neil, growing up on a farm, it was a Sunday ritual to come in early for lunch and watch ABC Landline ! So it was very exiting to be part that particular programs focus on the future of farming.

The trials of the tags ran from November 2018 to February 2019l on 100 animals at the CSIRO Lansdown Research Station in North Queensland. Unfortunately the trials were terminated early in the final phase due to the catastrophic rain event and flooding which saw the loss of approximately half a million cattle in North Queensland. The unfortunate irony and insight gained is when released commercially, the Ceres Tag platform and technology, may assist in natural disasters, to identify individual animals, where they are, whether they are alive or not for animal welfare, management and biosecurity purposes.

Whilst the trial was terminated early, it still verified the energy balance in the tag, retention mechanism,communications, material robustness, blue tooth comms, collection of accelerometer data, GPS communications, RFID identification. In early 2020 the next trial will kick off in the Northern Territory with the delivery of large smart tag trial numbers at Aileron Pastoral Holdings on their 1,000,000 acre property.

They are the first to test the tag performance outside of the controlled Research Farm environment. This trial will be with other AgTech collaborators and will demonstrate the benefits of integration and collaboration, hallmarks of the Ceres Tag development. This trial will feature the next generation Ceres Tag which will be 30% smaller than the prototype smart tags trialed earlier in North Queensland.

Year in review 2019