Blind

Blind are another of those big Californian design companies that also have a NY office. They have huge clients for all the usual monster brands like Nike and Microsoft, however I am just posting this as I'd seen the video for Gnarls Barclay "Crazy" many times (the world's best selling track of 2006), which appears to be an After Effects / graphic type project.

This is something I am very interested in. I also have many contacts in the music world, and could possible be able to at least be able to pitch ideas for this kind of thing if I had the skills/talent/ideas. This for me is a huge motivation!

Their main site is here.

Dstrukt

Originally hailing from Manchester, Chris is a skilled motion designer, animator and art director. Inspired by movie titles and with a background in both online and traditional media, Chris began working under the name Dstrukt producing work for a number of high end clients including MTV Networks Europe, Channel 5, BBC, Vodafone, Discovery Channel and VH1.

Chris is also regularly featured in design and industry magazines, such as Computer Arts and IdN, and presents at design conferences around the world. As well as running Dstrukt and numerous personal projects, he co-founded the experimental film collective Devoid of Yesterday with Rob Chiu from The Ronin. Chris is passionate about photography, music and cinema and channels these influences into his glitchy, dark and edgy creations

Dstrukt is currently a fully active Motion Graphics studio catering in 3D, Compositing, Animation & Art Direction. Chris is also a key member of London based motion house Wyld Stallyons.

Watch The VH1 "Smells Like The 90's" short here

See the AWESOME showreel here

Manchester Work

I already know it is unlikely that I would be able to move away, so commuting seems to be the best option, therefore a sizeable amount of the profiles on this file will be commuter feasible from Wrexham.

Manchester appears to be the "second best" place in the UK for design and digital media. I am yet to learn whether this was always the case, or whether it's "on the up". I have researched and found links to around 55 companies, ranging from graphic design, advertising, branding, web, motion graphics, and tv. The bulk of the companies are mostly graphic design and advertising and / or web companies.

I will be doing full reports on most of these companies as soon as I get time, however I have spent several hours scanning through the websites to get a feel for what's out there. I have discovered the following:

There are a lot of uninspiring web companies working out of Manchester, There are also a fair few rather dull looking brand / graphic design companies too, although there are plenty of them which I think means at least there is work to be had.

There are also some very good looking places, at least 5 companies are inspiring. These companies do appear to be the print side of things, which I have been not too keen on in the past. I am now starting to realise that the web has the potential to be really boring-but-functional. It can be entirely characterless, whereas some of the design and advertising firms are doing some very nice work in print.

I have recently read through the web-sites of: BJL ,Unit Communications ,Funnel Creative ,Love Creative , Fanatic ,BDH/TBWA ,Studio North , The Chase, Cicero , Delineo , Illustrated History , Kr8iv , The Like , and these (sorry, but I have already read though all the websites, and most of them aren't really inspiring me at all): http://www.justforlaffs.co.uk/
http://www.likeariver.co.uk
http://www.magneticn.co.uk/
http://www.moonfish.com/
http://www.90degrees.com/
http://www.purplepenguins.co.uk/
http://www.bubblemedia.co.uk/
http://www.chamele.com/
http://www.fireandskill.co.uk/
http://www.ideasfoundry.com/
http://www.influencedesign.com/
http://www.lemoncherry.co.uk/
http://www.luxson.co.uk/website/
http://www.neasdencontrolcentre.com/
http://www.pandoragraphics.co.uk/
http://www.race-international.com/
http://www.reflexdesign.co.uk/
http://www.reformcreative.co.uk/
http://www.sputnikinternet.com/
http://www.faithcreative.co.uk/
http://www.3gdesignstudio.co.uk
http://www.creativelynx.co.uk/
http://www.dawsondesign.com/
http://www.definitivelabs.com/
http://www.fifthlevel.co.uk/
http://www.focalpop.co.uk/
http://www.finite.co.uk/
http://www.four23.net/
http://www.nypocreative.co.uk/
http://www.touchpointuk.com/
http://www.wests-web.com/flash.html
http://www.day-light.co.uk/
http://www.eg-g.com/

I am as yet to draw full conclusions from this research, but it has made me consider a more general design approach. My gut instinct still tells me the whole motion graphics thing is really going to explode by the time I finish my BA in 2009, but I now know this ought to be based on good graphic design and image making skills and a sound footing in 2d design and stills (i.e. paper).

True North

True North are a design firm in manchester. They seem to have a great reputation, but I haven't been able to get much more information, as their site is pretty useless. It just states they are from "ooop north" and they win loads of awards.. hmm.

Dinosaur

Non-Format

Company: Non-Format
Type: Art Direction, Design and Illustration
Based: London, UK
Staff: 2

Non-Format is a creative team comprising Kjell Ekhorn (Norwegian) and Jon Forss (British). They work on a range of projects including art direction, design and illustration for music industry, arts & culture, fashion and advertising clients.

I really like their typographic work. It has that graphic design thing but pushes the envelope a bit. They obviously know their stuff, but their designs aren't conservative. I also really like the way many of them are black and white, no mid-tones, and still work really well. It's powerful stuff. I hope over the next year (or 2 if i do the BA course 3rd year) to be able to try many typographic "experiments", like limited colour palletes, black and white or a bit of print work. I hope this will give me more ideas to "cash in" later when I leave, however for the puposes of professional studies, I have no idea if they make money and are succesful. I will have to find out!

i want

Company: iwant design,
Type: illustration, graphic design, web and art direction.
Based: London, UK
Staff: 2 full time


I want design comprise of John Gilsenan and Bruce Allaway. John originally studied fine art for turning to design and working at a London design agency, whilst running club nights in London. Bruce studied design communications and has worked in the design industry for several years working for London's major arts organisations.

I want have undertaken a variety of work since their inception, putting equal effort into club flyers, websites, music packaging, art direction and work for the fashion industry.

This company initially came to my attention prior to my decision to return to college to study design. I am an acquaintance of Ben Watt, who has worked with i want over the last few years for the identities for his various ventures such as Everything But The Girl, Buzzin Fly Records and associated club events and branding. My background pre-college is in dance music, clubs and all that stuff, and I had seen Ben's identity and knew I liked it. I have since looked into that direction more, and read some pieces on i want in Eye and Creative Review.

In addition to their music identity work, i want are also doing work for Brent Council and short-film makers Misty Films and Future Shorts, who are an organisation who are showcasing short films. I like the idea of doing other work, some variation. I have emailed John from i want to ask if their approach is financially working.

I also asked a few other questions:

Is it just the two of you, or do you work with any freelancers or people to help you do anything?

Yes, there is just the two of us and no, we don't use freelancers or have any help for anything. However, we are becoming more stretched and need a new premises, a junior and somebody to concentrate on all web and new media aspects.

Does the music design pay enough to scrape a living or is it just a labour of love?

I suppose music design in all it's facets does pay enough to scrape a living and more. But it depends who you work for, how much work you do, what kind of work you do, if you are in any kind of demand and so on.

Is the income from your very groovy looking work feasible?

Groovy work - ooh that scares me. We earn a decent living and most of the work we do is creative and work we enjoy. However, we could probably double what we earn if we had the time to manage things better and get a few more people in to handle the everyday crap that we shouldn't waste our time on. I think we are carving out a space in an extremely difficult and saturated market but it's difficult to gauge how you are perceived and on what level.

any hot tips?

Hot tips. mm it's not easy, sooo many people think setting up as a freelance or starting a small company will be a walk in the park but it's tough. Winning, and come to think of it, losing pitches is haaard work. We have found ourselves pitching against the likes of Neville Brody and Peter Saville so we must be doing something right.

Pros: They look like they do great, satisfying work, somehting to be proud of, and after a bit of research, it seems that it's possible to make a decent living if you don't mind hard-work and are a bit lucky.

Cons: They are in London, and are fairly small. I do however think that if were to work as a freelancer, they have an interesting business model, and one I think I could tap into.

View Creative

Company: View Creative
Type: Graphic Design for Print and Web, identity and branding.
Based: Llandudno, Wales
Staff: 11 Graphic Designers, 6 Web designers, 1 Marketing Executive, 1 business Developer and 3 support staff.


View Creative is an award winning multi-discipline creative agency specialising in ideas-led solutions for print, web and interactive design.
Our team is a collective of 11 graphic designers, 6 web designers, 1 marketing executive, 1 business developer and 3 support staff, all with one thing in common ... a passion for design.

View are almost "local" so in that respect are very interesting to me and my situation. I have visited them, and have met Neil who used to be a design student at NWSAD. From my visit there, it appeared that the most interesting work there is carried out by the "creatives" who are all in the print side of things. The work Neil has done is very good, and I would like to be able to aspire to that type of image creation.

Their web team develop the design work made by the creative people such as Neil, and make sites tailored to the marketplace. They get a lot of Welsh companies who can get funding via the EEC and the Welsh Development Agency to get websites up and running. There is nothing wrong with this, but I would ideally like to be able to do more of the creative work and not just web coding and development.

I contacted them to ask about working conditions:

working hours 9 - 5:30pm plus overtime if there are deadlines to meet or loads on.

All the print designers are permanent, and they also occasionally add extra freelancers if busy. Half of the Web staff are permanent, the rest are freelance with regular weekly work, plus they also hire the odd specialist if required.

Salary details I haven't been able to obtain, although I will keep nosing to see if I can find out!

Pros: A good company within commutable distance. They seem to be onto a good thing getting the bilingual work in, so they look like they might prosper.

Cons: Their web side appears to be a limited for someone with creative ambition (e.g. I would be keen to be able to create the images as well as work on the site development). If I were to work there, I'd want to work in the print design side, or persuade them that i could have a more creative role.

Overview at commencement

I did think I knew exactly what area I wanted to go into (Motion Graphics), yet I now realise there are many other areas to learn that lead to this. I would like to be realistic about my skill level at the moment. I still love motion graphics stuff, but I am very much interested in good image making and typography (good 2d still work is my current goal), so I am looking at a greater area of work. I am also yet to find out which companies are out there. I have a family and we're settled here in Wrexham, so moving to London or abroad isn't really possible and highly unlikely.

I will be looking at companies all over the UK initially, as I might then have something to strive for in the northwest, or could look into the possiblity of freelance work. I ideally want to work at a muti-disciplned and dynamic company, where I will continue to learn and make a lot of good contacts.

I will update these reports half way through and as a conclusion. Hopefuly by that point the path will be a little clearer!

Airside

Company: Airside
Type: Design, Multi-disciplined
Based: London UK
Staff: 11 full-time

Airside is a London-based design company set up in 1999. We work in moving image, graphic design + illustration, and digital + interactive media. The Airside folk have diverse backgrounds, from fine art to programming, knitting to English literature.

Although we mention three main areas of work above, in fact we work in as many different arenas as we're able to get our hands on, what's more important and what Airside is best at, is having good ideas that work across all medium, be it a TV commercial, a website or a billboard. Everything we do is done in-house. Clients range from Unilever, Orange and Coca-Cola to institutions such as The Royal College of Art, The Science Museum and Greenpeace. We have also worked with musicians and individuals like Richard Ashcroft, Lemon Jelly and Nadav Kander, photographer.

Airside staff consist of a hands-on MD and two creative directors, one of which is Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin, three designers / typographers, an interactive designer, in house project managers, studio managers, PR and accountant. A good cross section of work is covered as mentioned on their site, and their output has a definite personality to it. I would describe this as colourful and vibrant and upbeat, although they do produce more formal websites (e.g the Pet Shop Boys and Nadav Kander)

I like their ethos, their desire to get their ideas out in many ways. This way the same visual look can be seen on adverts, packaging, installations, music videos and on the web.I also think this approach would help them survive as a company even if the market changes, whereas a company that had a niche speciality might be more vunerable to these kind of changes.

Pros: Inspiring, multidisciplined, succesful and really groovy.
Cons: Based in London.