The State of Design festival is fast approaching, and as an accompaniment to the usual flurry of workshops, seminars, talks and design activities, a set of digital tools have been launched.

State of Design iPhone app
2011 brings with it another iPhone app which holds the festival program, video and enables content to be shared through social media. It’s available for download at stateofdesign.com.au/festival/iphone-app.

Animated State of Design program calendar
SouthSouthWest (who developed the SoD festival identity) and Peptolab have collaborated on an animated SoD calendar which works as a screensaver to provide up to the minute information on festival events, plus the festival’s live Twitter feed. To download the calendar visit stateofdesign.com.au (launching Monday 11 July 2011).

The Sound of Buildings multimedia walking tour
The Sound of Buildings tour is an iPhone app which is a multimedia walking tour spanning 10 of Melbourne’s most architecturally significant buildings told through the voices of engineers, architects, project managers, building users and children. Download it at stateofdesign.com.au/festival/iphone-app (launching  Thursday 14 July 2011).

Design Television
Design Television is an online, 365 day mixed-media platform presenting examples of successful business and design collaborations, design criticism and an active archive of the 2011 Festival. Located at stateofdesign.com.au/dtv, DTV will host three channels including Write on Design.

There are also a few items in the SoD program which include digital components:

City Traces: The Festival of Design Movers:
Using your GPS enabled smart phone, CityTraces invites you to join a collaborative mapping project to trace the contours of your city according to your travels during the Festival.

The Invisible Landscape:
A joint Arup and City of Melbourne initiative that will provide a platform for the public to engage and share its thoughts about this city’s landscape and in particular to highlight the value of its trees, or ‘green infrastructure’.

Something From Nothing:
Take part in the design and development of a video game – draw creatures that will be scanned and transcribed into an actual game by experienced developers.

Moving Through Time:
A self-guided audio walking tour of four of Melbourne’s industrial and mercantile gems and featuring interviews with architects.

The festival runs from 20 – 31 July at varying venues around Melbourne.