jess blogs: February 2012

Thursday, 16 February 2012

Michael Gramlow, Co-founder and Creative Director at Lollipop

Art Director and Creative Director roles at places like Henderson Bas and Organic in the past
Co founded Lollipop with a bunch of ex-agency type people

ABOUT LOLLIPOP

Lollipop is a production company that specializes in video, audio, CG and design.
Their company has evolved drastically in the last couple of years to have more interative work
Unlike 'Integrated' Agencies (Taxi, BBO etc) and Interactive Pure Play studios (Critical Mass, Organic etc) a production company only works with agencies, not the clients. They have a rep that pairs them up with agencies that have work that will fit with what the production company does well. They then pitch their ideas for execution and the agency either chooses them or another company.
Because of the variety of different kinds of work they do, they utilize a lot of freelance talent.

LOLLIPOP WORK

See their portfolio of work here

THE EXTREME GROUP - PURE BLACK SUNSHINE

This was their first project with no real budget for Lollipop, so they invested their own money into the success of their project so they would have a project to showcase for their new company.
The clients coffee packaging looks like a bundle of drugs so they really wanted to play that up, so they created an Flash based interactive "pick your own adventure" type video based website for them.
The challenge for this project was to create a seamless visual experience, which is difficult with cutframes in Flash, because the frame will always cut quickly to the next video with a black screen. They conquered this by lighting the set with flickering lights to disguise this feature.
The next challenge was to figure out how to load all the videos without making the user sit and wait for loading screens, so they would load videos in sequence behind other videos based on the users options to choose which video to pick next, to avoid having to load all 75 megs of video right off the bat.
Another challenge for them was hiring professional actors, and the cost associated with that. So they hired non-professional actors and used lighting to hide their faces.
Overall the site was a success and even won a couple of awards.

SPRINT
See the work

For this project the agency wanted to feature 4 different real businesses, and show in video how they use Sprint technology to run their business.
They rented a slow-mo camera to create a very dramatic video experience.
This all led into a "Customizable" solution for your and your business after filling out a form of qualities about your company.

SHARE A CAROL
Make a carol for yourself

This project was a huge success in the U.S.
They utilized Google maps as the background for each card so you can type in your location and the card customizes to you
The challenge for this project was not only the massive download size but the fact that they were at the mercy of how Google works, so they had to create an interface to navigate around that looks and feels like Google

SAPPORO

See the Sapporo work

Used a lot of CG, video and real time video to create this imaginary world
Used the parallax effect to emphasize the 3D effect
Couldn't be a Flash video because it's too large to load
They created a seamless site that is always moving, the challenge was to create seamless loops while scrolling

ADVICE FROM MICHAEL

You have to pound the pavement and bug people to get the jobs you want
You really have to make an effort to get in and see somebody because they are so busy, even if you think you are bugging them, do it until they tell you to stop
People are really good about giving you feedback about your portfolio.
Story boards are very important.
Sit and think things out with paper and pen before going to the computer.

Alison Garnett, January 27th 2012, Creative Director at Critical Mass

ABOUT ALLISON

Her online name is "SuperCapacity" which is based on a large format washing machine as an analogy to her work habits where she takes on more than she can handle, but it always gets done. Check out her way cool business cards, that can withstand the heaviest of duty washing machines
Allison has 3 dogs, 2 kids and a husband and says that family is the most important aspect of her life
She graduated her undergrad at OCAD for Drawing and Painting, then spent a year in Florence painting
In 1994 she came to Sheridan for the Media program on her parents recommendations
After graduating Sheridan she worked on CD ROM's and Macromedia Director
Alison landed a job at ICE where her career in the digital arts began
She worked at ICE doing digital media, then worked freelance design for a bit, joined Henderson Bas, created her own company called SuperCapacity, went to Taxi for six years and has recently joined the Critical Mass team as a creative director.
At ICE she taught herself how web sites were put together by copy and pasting code
As a freelancer she worked on web work because that is what she wanted to do, which led her to work at HB to work on large projects for Molson, Levi's and Nike. Working on these big brands really advanced her career so after she adopted her baby she could have a successful business.
At Taxi she worked for six years on great brands like Mini, Town Shoes, LCBO, Cadillac Fairview, Taxi Cafe and Telus.

CRITICAL MASS

At Taxi Allison was known as a 'hybrid' because she is good at print, web , photography and packaging
She left Taxi because she felt she was a little bit too comfortable and wanted to work on big sites, not just micro-sites

THEODORE ALEXANDRE

View work here

This was a great site for Allison to start working on because it was a massive e-commerce site, with over 4000 pieces of furniture to sell
They re-hauled the branding and she convinced the company to re photograph all their furniture to work with the brand and work visually with their strategy, this was a tough sell because for each piece they had to have multiple shots of each piece and had to retouch and style each individual photo
They wanted to treat the furniture like a Rolex watch and they definitely achieved the luxury and elegance of that

SEARS

Check out the work here

This was a challenging project because Sears did not have the budget to do a complete rework of their site, so they had to go one department at a time
They could only re-skin the site, so this was a massive I.A. exercise, and had to do a lot of research as to what people look for and buy the most

BRITA

The site was almost a micro site feel, and works to remind you to change your filter
The neat part of this site was as you scroll down further and further the colour changes as if your getting deeper and deeper into the water backdrop.

ADVICE FROM ALLISON

It's not just about the work you do at the office, it's about doing creative things outside of work
Design identities, mini company sites, pro-bono work, business cards and you will get ahead and your work in the office will show it
Work on contests, because you might just win and get to work on the project, it's good PR for your company too.
Don't be afraid to ask for peoples business cards
It's just advertising - we don't save lives, we just make cool shit