Creative Cartelle

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Cartelle is a creative unit formed by Johnny Slack & Stevijn van Olst based in Amsterdam. We aim to deliver high quality interactive experiences.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies, stay informed and motivated?
Blogs & magazines are a good resource for new technologies. Inspiration can come from just about anything if it applies: games, movies, every day life

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Our ideal projects are for brands/clients that are looking for something new or innovative. We like making things that are entertaining and useful.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Educating your client is very important in the interactive industry, the trick is to take a few steps back and be able explain all the details that are common knowledge to us.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Nintendo Europe was one of the more interesting projects, this was a redesign for the Nintendo Europe platform which is quite a beast. We incorporated very interesting filter mechanics and embraced the Nintendo fan culture through blogs and user generated content.


Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
At this point 1 at the time, since its just 2 people. We like to take our time to do things right, the process gets complicated and stressful as more projects and people are involved at the same time. We aim to produce quality creative work and that's nearly impossible if you juggle too much at the same time.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
That would be our current combination of an Art Director/designer and Creative Programmer. We would like to add a good motion graphics artist, and a producer would be nice over time.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By working hard and staying humble.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Interactive displays moving more into public spaces, for informational or entertainment purposes. So more agnostic interface design that can be scalable and applied to multiple types of screens. Mobile is also finally starting to unfold.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
"You really can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it."