Korey Kay and Partners

Other examples of their work:

This is a powerful piece of imagery, together with the shocking statistic it is very effective.


Their motto:

This is a fantastic motto, it doesn't cost a lot of money to outsmart someone or a view.

BDA

Bruce Dunlop & Associates, based in London is a creative agency.

'We are a community of people who eat, breathe and sleep visual communication. We live for the moment our work PROVOKES a response, CONNECTS with an audience and DELIVERS a result.'

A great statement, already I want to work for this company, although this is really aiming high, they work for the world's biggest media owners. The kind of work they do is channel branding, promotions, set design, integrated campaigns and internal comms campaigns.

'If it requires a great idea and storytelling flair, we do it.'

This company is my dream job.

Their client list is very impressive, Al Jazeera, ITV, Channel 4, Setanta, MTV, Disney, Sky, O2, the list goes on...

A link to their cool show reel: www.bdacreative.com/#/en/Communication%20Showreel

This points me to another goal for this year, if I want to take myself seriously as being a motion graphics designer, I need a show reel!

Marlon Griffin

Marlon Griffin is a British director of commercials, he studies Graphic Design at Bristol University, then started out as a storyboard artist designing sequences for special effects. He has won many awards for his work from Cream, the Royal Television Awards among others.

I believe he is the Creative Director at BDA in Singapore, he has extensive experience in motion graphics and has directed for the likes of Nike, Orange, Coca Cola. He is known for his conceptual thinking, creative ideas and energy.

Without sounding creepy, I would love to be in this guys shoes, when I get older! 

The Partners

I stumbled across this agency by accident while hunting for my ten briefs over the Summer.

' The Partners is Marketing Magazine’s Branding Agency of the Year and no 1 in Design Week’s Creative League Table.
Our unique understanding of creativity as a driver of business success is fast being recognized as the most dynamic and effective approach in the industry – a point that many of our clients will happily endorse. '


They have studios in London and New York and have a variety of clients from some of the world's biggest brands e.g. and some much smaller brands. The company has been winning awards for their work since 1990, here is an example of their work.

'The first outcome of that institution-wide work was the development of a coherent brand look that fully integrated the existing logo and color into a new and clean design framework. We realigned every aspect of the brand from logo development to print collateral to creating a contemporary new home on the web.'
 

Website guidelines by The Partners NY - I tried to create a similar guideline book last year when branding my music channel.

This is the response I got when I emailed them about a placement:

Company: FND Collective

Another digital collective who have created some amazing pieces!

"Established in 2007, our goal is to find projects that allow us to explore the artistic and commercial opportunities that come from collaboration between film makers, animators, musicians, illustrators and interactive developers.

We recognize that the future is in a merger of these disciplines and we see that our specialist skills, when put in one place, can lead to exciting and innovative outcome."

Showing the making of Pendulum 'Watercolour':

PENDULUM: 'WATERCOLOUR' BEHIND THE SCENES from the found collective on Vimeo.

Showing the finished cut:

PENDULUM: 'WATERCOLOUR' from the found collective on Vimeo.

This video is really exciting, and the way it is filmed and the effects complement the energy in the song. The silhouette of the crowd jumping up and down brings a familiar feeling of adrenaline from being in a similar situation watching The Prodigy live, which gives a personal touch to the viewing of this film.

innocence wedges magnets from the found collective on Vimeo.

The brief for this was to re-design the Innocent smoothie characters into a three dimensional format, while still retaining the cartoon style.

SONY IFA from the found collective on Vimeo.

I absolutely love this, this was created for the Sony IFA 2009:

'FND worked with DFuse and Paul Mumford to create 3D elements for this installation for Sony. After being involved with DFuse for the 2008 IFA event in Berlin we were invited back to create an installation for the 2009 event with Labmeta and DFuse co-directing the video content'

I would love to be in an environment like this as my job! I can really see how exciting the outcomes are from their portfolio of work.

Company: The Light Surgeons

A collective of seriously cool people, based in East London.

Looking through their work, I came across by accident, I thought wow these guys do some cool stuff. Then I noticed they have done a lot of motion graphics for one of my favourite bands, Chase and Status! Winner.

However, they aren't just about motion graphics, in the collective they cover, illustration, type design, photography, screen prints, installation and live performance! Everything that interests me...

One of the tour visuals for Chase and Status:

End Credits - Chase & Status feeaturing Plan B from THE LIGHT SURGEONS on Vimeo.

http://www.lightsurgeons.com/about/

I would love to be a part of something like this, their work is really exciting and contemporary, and involves lights, which strangely is something that interests me! I like lighting but never thought of combining it with graphics until my digital module previously.

Company: Attik

'We don't just create advertisements, design and interactive experiences. We get the world talking, staring, blogging, and most importantly remembering our client's brands.'

This is such a cool collective of people, the work they have created is recognisable straight away, meaning the end of the first quote is correct, a lot of the work I saw and thought, "Oh yeah, I've seen that, how cool!"

This was an advert for the new Scion, a strong message was needed to promote the product so Attik, designed a campaign called 'Take on the Machine' in the style of a new Blockbuster campaign. With a short but intense teaser creating intrigue, and a range of printed media to accompany, directed the audience to a microsite built to look like a new movie website.

This company is very concept driven, and their work is incredibly clever and innovative, and shows a lot of collaborative work, to target all demographics of their audience.

Company: Channel 4

Due to my recent interest in TV animation graphics, I thought Channel 4 would be a company I would like to work for. The idents that appear before programmes, are really cool, showing the different parts of the 4 in different planes, which meet to make the number 4 and carry on passing on.

I am currently waiting to apply for a workshop day which will take place in September!!

Company: Sparkloop

http://www.sparkloop.com/

A cool company centred around web development, branding and print. Although there isn't a massive portfolio of work, the quality is good. Originally called Edition, the company has evolved into Sparkloop. They don't advertise a lot and are really not fans of marketing heavily. There is no news on the Sparkloop site or testimonials so I have had to go with the work from the previous company which received a lot of positive and professional feedback.

This piece of work really did catch my eye, I do appreciate black and white photography with spot colours, and this works really well:

Company: Vast Agency

Vast is a design and marketing agency based in Nottingham and Leeds. I discovered this company after a conversation on the train with a man in the fashion industry, who told me that Vast do a website for his company. They come up with creative solutions for both online and offline media, for all kinds of industries from fashion to public sector regeneration.

'Without ideas there is nothing. Our creative mission is to produce relevant ideas that engage, inspire and communicate our client's products and services.'

Example of their work:

Baracuta is a menswear company, known for their Harrington jackets first made in the 1930's which are still extremely popular today, and have been imitated by many other companies including Fred Perry, Lyle and Scott, Lacoste, and many others.

The logo does have a very vintage feel with a contemporary twist, and the work created by Vast for Baracuta includes, a look book, photography, web and branding. Above is an image, I believe to be from a look book, which has a very fresh and contemporary feel to it. I particularly like the colour scheme, the yellow really stands out against the grayscale on the left.

What I have found in my research is that not many of these agencies post the photography associated with the work, either that, or they bring in a photographer to do the work. As photography is something I am really interested in, this company appeals to me even more.

MPC...

"MPC (The Moving Picture Company) leads the world in post production and visual effects for the Feature Film, Advertising, Digital and Television industries. MPC is based in Soho - London, Santa Monica - CA and Yale town - Vancouver. The facilities are centrally located, networked and have a dedicated digital infrastructure.

MPC Digital takes traditional VFX to the plethora of new Advertising channels available today; whether banner ads for internet websites to special projects such as code driven LED installations, the team can advise on how to re-use content created for traditional media in today’s world; or indeed start something from scratch…"

I would love to be part of their team, they create some of the best adverts out there, and win some well deserved awards too. One of my favourite adverts that they were a part of is the Cadbury, Gorilla's Moment.

The 90 second spot was the first chapter of a series of Cadbury commercials, and in this one it featured a gorilla effortlessly but passionately playing the drum solo in Phil Collin's 'In The Air Tonight'.

Another fantastic advert is the Evian, Skating Babies commercial, which won a Gold Award at the London International Awards '09 and also got into the Guiness Book of World Records for being the most watched viral.

Company: Pixar

With my new brief on Motion Graphics and Animation, and my new interest in this area of digital media I decided to investigate the careers in this line of work. I then began researching Pixar, which I realise I have no hope of becoming an animator for this company due to my lack of drawing skills, but I am still interested to know what a job in this area entails. The interview pasted on my Design Context blog from an animator at Pixar helped inform some of my curiosities, but I dug deeper and searched the FAQs on the website...

What animation software do you use and what do you recommend for those hoping to work for a company like Pixar?

Pixar uses its own proprietary software built and maintained in-house. In general, we look for broad artistic and technical skills, rather than the ability to run one package over another. We concentrate on finding people with breadth, depth, communication skills and the ability to collaborate. If you have those attributes, we can teach you the specific tools.

What do you look for in animators?

One of the most common questions Pixar receives nowadays is, “How can I become an Animator at Pixar?” There’s really no good answer that’s both short and useful, so we’ve put together some information to hopefully provide guidance for people who dream of being involved in the animation process at Pixar.

Pixar places the technology of computer graphics firmly at the service of the art of animation, not the other way around. This priority is expressed clearly in Pixar’s production process, in which the Animators specialize in animation, with virtually all technical concerns handled by Technical Directors.

The implication of this structure and this value system is what Pixar looks for first and foremost in Animators – we want you to be able to bring the character to life, independent of medium. Computer-graphic technical prowess is of course important, but the emphasis is not as strong within the Animation Department. The reality is that computer graphic animators have no advantage over pen-and-ink animators, clay animators, stop-motion animators, etc. So while it’s preferable for someone to have 3D knowledge, it’s not paramount. In fact 3/4 of the Animators on Toy Story were new to computers when hired.

A common question is, “What software should I learn?” The answer is implied by the above: “Software doesn’t matter; learning to animate matters.” Still, you might expect that learning the software that Pixar uses would give you a leg up. However, even this isn’t true: Pixar uses its own proprietary software. Your knowledge of basic animation fundamentals is the foundation for your computer training, not the other way around.

What are the qualities of a good Animator? A Pixar Animator should be able to bring life to any object or character, showing the character’s internal thoughts and feelings through its physical external motion. To do this, the Animator must be a good actor. His or her work should communicate clearly, containing simple ideas with which an audience can empathize. The animation should be entertaining to watch, employing good timing and relying on individualized, believable characters to put forth humor and emotion.

The Animator also needs an understanding of physical motion. Knowledge of weight, balance, overlap, texture, and form should be evident in the work. In fact, in evaluating a prospective Animator, Pixar relies very heavily on the demo reel presented by the candidate.

You could say that three things are important in pitching yourself to Pixar (the reel, the reel, and the reel). Other factors will of course come into play, including collaborative spirit, timeliness, compatibility with Pixar itself; but these issues never even come up unless the reel passes muster.

Of course, the more a reel shows the qualities discussed here, the better.

We want to see your ability to demonstrate a strong sense of acting, more so than movement. Reels that show fast moving space ships, etc. are difficult to judge because we're not able to get a sense of someone’s ability to understand physics and the fundamentals of animation. We would much rather see a simple story line with strong acting. We’re interested in your animation ability – not your ability to model, shade and light.

Acting is the key element and then we review reels to get a sense of weight, timing, staging, physics, etc. People frequently ask if they should include a flatwork portfolio demonstrating their life drawing skills. While this is nice, it doesn’t give us a sense of your ability to animate a character and bring something to life.

There are at least three other issues that can help make the reel a more effective reflection of the person behind it.

First, it can be very difficult to figure out who did what in a collaboration or group project, and correspondingly difficult to evaluate the work, unless there are clearly describable divisions of labor (see item #6 in “Putting Together a Reel”).

Second, it should express what you want to do. The freedom of being in school encourages experimentation and going beyond what you would normally try. However, unless the result shows what you want to do in the “real” world, this tendency does make it harder to see who you “really” are.

Third, realize that whizzy technology is not great art. There’s something about three-dimensional computer graphics that dazzles people until they get lost in achieving this one ray-traced effect, or adding just one more texture map. When you finally wake up and get back to the content, there’s no time left for great animation.

Good animation is clearly visible through almost any technical limitation. In fact, the thrill of great animation is seeing pencil lines or matchsticks and glue come to life; why would it be any different with a computer.

Or, as we never tire of saying: Computers don’t animate. People do.

And in an effort to hit you with even more information, below are some quotes from our Directing and Supervising Animators about what they like to see in reels:

"I'd rather see 15 seconds of amazing animation than 3 looooooooooong minutes of an unwatchable film. Those 3 minutes can feel like an eternity if everything isn't perfect."

"You’re applying for Animation? Well--show me good animation! Show me acting. Show me thinking. Show me a character that is alive. I don't care about lighting, modeling, shading, particle effects, or how clever you are. Blow me away with something I've never seen. An original character with a distinct personality!"

"Do you draw? Are you a good designer? That's great! Make sure it's in your computer animation as well!"

"Animation. Computer. Drawn. Stop Motion. Sand under glass. If your reel kicks arse, we may hire you regardless of the medium. We don't want to see only computer stuff."

"Keep your reel short n' sweet. We watch a lot of these things in reel review so if there's weird, older, not-so-good stuff at the beginning we might pull the tape out before your great stuff! We don't need to see where you came from--we need to know how good you are right now. Edit down to your best stuff."

" The classic animators were inspired by real life and all of the other films around them. And so are we. We're not looking to hire Animation Nerds. We want people who draw from their own other experiences, from live action, and yes, from the Old Masters!"

After reading this, I am now realising, at this present moment in time, I have no hope whatsoever... However, I will keep practising my drawing, and work hard at this brief... Maybe one day...

What kind of internships do you offer?

Pixar offers internships in Animation, Technical Direction, Production Management, Story, Marketing, Engineering and Editorial. Hope is not lost!! What are the qualifications to be considered for an internship? If you are interested in a Technical Director Internship, you must be currently in college working towards your Bachelors, Masters or PhD Degree and returning to school following your internship at Pixar. For all other internship opportunities you must be in or have completed at least your Junior year of college, be a graduate student, or have graduated the year the internship commences. International students who are able to show work eligibility in the U.S. can apply. We do not provide internship opportunities for high school students. What kind of opportunities do you offer recent graduates? We have a new program titled Technical Director Resident. This position is similar to a Technical Director position, but specifically designed for recent graduates. To be eligible for a Technical Director Residency at Pixar, you must be a new graduate from a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD Program at the start of the residency. The goals of the program are to provide new graduates the opportunity to apply their academic training and knowledge to a real job at Pixar. Residents will work on Pixar’s films and will have the opportunity to build their skills and learn from our creative and talented workforce. All technical “Residents” will receive ongoing mentorship and training throughout their time at Pixar. The residency is a twelve-month program. Residents will be evaluated during their term and may be considered for ongoing employment, dependent on overall performance and Studio needs. Recent graduates interested in being a Technical Director are also welcome to apply for a regular full time position with Pixar. The Technical Director Resident position is just a great way to start off your career. If you are a recent graduate interested in other positions at Pixar, please feel free to apply for a full time position or an internship. Positions will be posted on our website when they are available.

Company: Mainframe

This is a UK based company with offices in London and Manchester, voted one of the top 50 studios to work for in the November 2010 issue of Computer Arts. They're main specialties are motion graphics, VFX and animation.

Their founder, Adam, has been invited to be a judge at the D&AD 2011 awards for the TV and Cinema Communications category.

Here is a link to two of their show reels, in Quicktime, otherwise I would have uploaded them to the blog:

http://www.mainframe.co.uk/#reels

I believe they did the cool effects on the woman in this Courteeners video for 'You Did It Doll':

I would love to be a part of something like this! The effects are brilliant, and I love the camera angles used to emphasise the depth of the debris.

Company: Team Impression

Team Impression
1 Lockwood Close,
Leeds,
LS11 5UU
www.team-impression.com

I took a variety of images with my Digital SLR at Team Impression, however my memory card corrupted and I have lost them all.
It was really interesting to see the printing presses in full working motion, and seeing examples of the packaging coming out. Especially the Jamie Oliver cutlery packaging, seeing the finished printed version which had been die cut and then seeing a finished, assembled version.

Seeing the women in the handcrafting section was odd for me, as I just expected that there would be some machine that can fold, glue and bind things together, with the fast ever advancing technology in printing, there may be a machine soon.

Our tour guide explained how one of the rooms used to have around 10 people in it, but then pointed to a machine in the corner and said it does the same job as what they used to do.

I found it a very interesting experience, I just wish I had the photos to show that!

Company: Edge Interactive

This company is a local (to me - Scunthorpe) company, and due to the migration of another local company to the States, they have merged and become a transnational company.

newmediachoice was one of the leading design and marketing agencies in the North of England- based in North Kelsey, near Market Rasen in North Lincolnshire. It's a company I have grown up with having taken part in work experience there when I was 16, and I have followed the companies progress ever since. It first began in Sophie Freear's home in Scunthorpe operating from a bungalow, until she moved to North Kelsey, and was lucky enough to purchase a house with a converted barn which she used as her office.

The client list had extended its services across the Atlantic to San Francisco, and due to the amount of demands on the company, another company was selected to partner and help cope with the demands... this is Edge interactive.

Both companies are ones I am interested in working for, I have seen the work produced by Sophie's company, and

I love their fresh style, which is also the way I would describe Edge Interactive's approach to design.

Here are some examples of Edge's work: