Ether in prehistoric times: 1993 to 1995
Established in 1993 by Ingrid Spielman and Thomas Ashelford, Ether is one of Australia’s first web design companies. Ether’s first claim to fame was the legendary Wood & Wire website – an online music magazine, described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘Australia’s first popular web site’. (SMH, 8/7/2000).
Around this time, Ether developed websites for The Sydney Morning Herald, Optus Communications, The British Council (Australia), Macquarie Bank, AMP, The Powerhouse Museum & John Singleton Advertising. Ingrid Spielman set up the first Web Design course at the Sydney Institute of Technology Design Centre while on staff as a p/t lecturer.
ABC Online 1995 to 2002
In March 1995 Thomas Ashelford was hired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to oversee the development of the ABC’s online presence. After the official launch of ABC Online in July 1995, Thomas developed ABC News Online, and stayed at ABC Online as Creative Director until 1999.
In late 1998, Ingrid Spielman was recruited to launch The Playground, the ABC’s award winning children’s web site. In 1999 Ingrid was moved into the New Services Division prototyping Digital TV, Interactive TV, and Broadband Internet Services. After a posting to the BBC in London in June/July 2000, Ingrid returned to Sydney and led the ABC’s Broadband team. The ABC Broadband portal won a prestigious AIMIA award in 2001.
From 2001 to 2009
Ether worked with many talented writers, editors, cinematographers, television producers, graphic designers, flash developers, and programmers, on projects including Australian Biography, Australians at Work, several projects in Film Australia’s Digital Learning collection , National Indigenous TV, Australian Screen, the Beyond 2000 TV Series and Amnesty International Australia’s Internet Censorship Campaign. Ether was awarded a Broadband Production Initiative funds for The Pure Drop website – an exploration of traditional and world music, which was a finalist for an AIMIA award in 2008.
Thomas Ashelford was a guest lecturer and curriculum consultant for… University of Technology Sydney, AFTRS, and consulted on web projects for Westpac, Radio Australia, and Radio National.
2010 and 2011
Thomas partnered The Interaction Consortium throughout 2010 to oversee new development on the Australian Screen website, and commenced work on a significant front and back end redesign for the Art Gallery of NSW’s website. Ingrid has established a subsidiary brand ingridspielman.com, with a focus on websites and social media strategies for small to medium businesses.
