Life Holds Thee

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Ahoy. I'm Andrew Covell - the lead project manager at Ted Perez + Associates, a digital agency situated in Venice, CA. We execute design, development, strategy and combat missions with our clients in the film and advertising industries. [www.tedperez.com]

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My first love of digital media came in middle school [c. 1995] when I discovered the joys [and consequences] of distributing photos of my teachers with Photoshopped mohawks and beards. I think I only got in trouble once, so it was totally worth it.

I matured slightly and went on to study digital media and advertising at Michigan State University. From there I've worked a brief stint as a cartoonist, in video production, print production and mobile phone content production [ringtones, etc]. Now I'm at Ted Perez + Associates as an interactive producer also involved in strategy, copywriting and business development.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
My preferred method of discovery has been cruising the tech blogs for new ideas and technologies to discuss with friends and co-workers. I suppose some day I'll become crotchety and stop wanting to learn new things ... and that'll be the day I run off and become something like a chimney sweep or circus bear trainer.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A client earns a gold star if they have clear objectives, reasonable schedule/budget and the grit to be bold. [A good sense of humor is always extra credit].

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Having proper scope and documentation [statement of work, wire frames and site maps, etc.] is key. It's a lot of heavy lifting at the start of the project, but it's the best way to make certain the vision is clear and understood by all parties. Without, the project becomes a moving target that will likely implode two to three weeks into development.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
My favorite project was an interactive installation we built in Q309 for Sprint's NOW campaign in San Francisco and NYC [Agency - Goodby, Silverstein & Partners]. We designed and programmed large street level displays that interacted with people as they walked past using infrared motion detection. It was a great concept and was unlike any other project we've worked on before. To say it was a challenge is an understatement, but it was an incredible experience. More info: http://www.echoesofburmajones.com/2010/01/12/96/sprint_interactive_now_installation.htm

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Projects vary in scale, intensity and maintenance. The workload also depends on the stage of production. To give an answer, I'd say 3-5. Too few projects can be just as bad as too many - which speaks to the quote: "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it."

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
The Adobe suite, iTask, Excel and a bit of gumption are all I need to paint the wagon.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My ideal team consists of talented people who are eager to take ownership of their work and create something special. I'm pretty lucky to work with the team I have at Ted Perez. They rule. They're extremely talented and share a genuine enthusiasm for the work and have the initiative to contribute to the project beyond their primary responsibilities.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I try to make my clients' jobs as simple as possible by being reliable, anticipating their needs, actively listening and staying on schedule. Execution-wise, it's important to constantly look for ways to improve the project and take it beyond the initial vision. Sometimes the effort doesn't pay off and we may need to take a step back, but the ambition rarely goes unappreciated. To not make the extra effort is to be a mindless sweatshop.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It will be interesting as more people begin using mobile devices as their primary [or at least, most used] web platform. The iPad isn't there yet, but it's a peek at where we'll be in a few years. Technology is constantly evolving. It's fun to think that four years ago having a phone with constant access to the web seemed frivolous. Now constant connectivity is a near necessity. A challenge for our industry will be managing the multitude of platforms that will exist. Versioning a site or application for 15+ unique devices will be a nightmare if we don't approach with some semblance of standardization.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I have yet to scratch the surface of wisdom in my lifetime. With this admission, I'll allow Mr. Melville [not pictured] to share his consideration on my behalf: "[…] perhaps, life holds thee; not thou it."

Stepping Up To the Plate

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Sean Lam and I'm from Singapore. I'm the Creative Director at Plate Interactive, a tiny web design studio I recently founded. I formerly co-founded Kinetic Interactive and have since left the company after ten fantastic years to embark on this new adventure.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I was never really interested in studying when I was younger, so because of that, my results weren't good enough for me to get into a university after my tertiary education. After serving my nation (it's compulsory for Singaporean males to join the military) for two and a half years, I decided to follow a close friend to enrol in an art school.

Art was something I was fond of and because of that, I easily excelled in school. I chose to specialize in digital media because of the inner geek in me. I love computer gaming, music and animation, so choosing this course allowed me to marry all of my interests as it is a multi-sensory medium.

After leaving school, I worked mostly on Director-based CD-Rom projects. It was the time when the internet was still in its infancy stage, and everyone was on 28.8 modems. Things got exciting when Flash appeared on the scene and I immediately got hooked on it. That's when I knew I wanted to be in this business for good.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
It's all about interest. Interest keeps me and the rest of my team up at night, scouring the web for cool new finds. As individuals, we have diversity on our side and we keep one another informed all the time on what interests us as designers or programmers alike. These finds quite often inspire and motivate us to get off our backsides and create something together.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client is someone who is intelligent, reasonable, has a clear understanding of branding as well as a clear vision of what they want to achieve. Even if they do not know how to get there, but is willing to listen to suggestions and opinions in order to solve problems and journey together. It will naturally also be a bonus if they are generous with budget, prompt in payment and have a fixed project cut-off date.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Through reasoning and showing very detailed mockups that leave little to the imagination of how the end product will look like or function.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
It's hard to say, I have done many projects that I'm proud of in the last ten years or so. One of the best was a project I did when I was still with Kinetic. It's a website for an Indonesian yogurt store called Sour Sally Frozen Yogurt. www.hellosoursally.com

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I'm used to running out 3 to 4 projects at one go. Comfortably, I would say 2. Naturally, the less you have on your Plate, the better the output.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
I'm ironically old school in this aspect, so I don't use any special tools other than a good old Moleskine to take notes, Open Office for all my digital administration needs and an iphone to keep in touch. So far, the agency set-ups I've been involved in are all rather small in size, so keeping track of projects is not really an issue as we don't deal with a huge volume of work at one go.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I'm happy with my team now. A small crew no doubt, but a very capable and dedicated bunch. There's too many areas to specialize in on the internet these days. I do not see ourselves being a jack of all trades and have chosen to remain focused on web design and if needs be, work with other production teams on other forms of digital projects.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By always listening to them and delivering, most of the time, above and beyond what we set out to achieve. We really do care about our projects being beneficial to the clients as it's really a direct reflection of the quality of our services.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Because of the diversity of platforms out there, I think there will be more and more small shops specializing in different fields of digital, eg. augmented reality, papervision 3D, motion graphics, social networking, digital installations etc, and less of those 1 big digital agency that does everything inhouse.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
It's good to stay hungry.

Blue Collar

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
A: Hello. My name is Tom Lehmann and I'm definitely not an interactive producer…however I am part of the food chain that "produces" interactive, so for the duration of this interview, please consider me an interactive producer. If we can slide the term "creative" in there I'd appreciate it! I'm one of the founding partners of Blue Collar Interactive (www.bluecollaragency.com), a new full-service interactive shop in Hood River, Oregon.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
A: Being anything "interactive" requires a very diverse background in the industry as you're almost never solving a problem the same way twice. You're also in many cases combining many different types of media online and off…which is probably why this industry used to be referred to as "multi-media". I went to art school to learn graphic design/advertising and graduated with a limited view on what the industry was becoming. At that time Photoshop 2.5 was all the craze…imagine Photoshop without layers. Fun. I was hired as a motion designer for a post production house, which exposed me to a world in which I had no training, which was interesting to say the least. Nevertheless, I took it on and acted like a sponge around the talent, learning everything I could and actually did quite well. This diversion from my print design education made me realize how boring print seemed and piqued my curiosity to learn interactive, which was just emerging as a new media. The rest is history.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
A: Curiosity. If you're not interested in taking the lid off and looking into the jar you might as well remove yourself from interactive, or kill yourself…whichever seems more appropriate. To truly stay on top you need to tinker and use what you already know to make solid educated guesses on how things work. You also need to enjoy the process of failure, doing so is the key to getting closer to success the next time. In my experience when you take this approach you naturally have others wanting to follow you to see what happens next.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A: Have you ever seen Casper the Friendly Ghost? I'm serious. The ideal client is the one who gives you the information and tools to do a great job and leaves you to it. That's not to say collaboration isn't a good thing, because it definitely can be, especially when the client has a clear vision of where they want to go and loves their brand as much as we (hopefully) do. The ideal project is one that has the opportunity for success, which isn't always the case.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
A: Patience. Honesty. Mutual respect. At the end of the day we both want the same things…to complete the project on time, on budget, and make it kick-ass. Obviously lots of variables can pollute any of those things from happening, but keeping focus and good lines of communication open make all the difference.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
A: That's a tough one because so many projects have their moments of greatness but as a whole I'd say it was a redesign for Buck Knives. Buck embraced the importance of allowing digital to lead the way for a large creative initiative. Not only did we concept and direct a multi-day / location photo shoot for the site and their offline needs, but we also were given the time to do a proper discovery where we really got inside the skin of their customers. Time was spent in the woods, looking closely at the details. We spent time with the employees of Buck and the Buck family at their homes in Idaho. Everyone had a story to tell, from the single mother of 3 grinding hardened steel blades in the factory to CJ Buck showing us his remote wildlife cameras on his property. We never felt rushed or discouraged which really breathed life into the final result.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
A: I like to focus on a project and really give the client and brand my undivided attention. That said, it's not always reality…and in most cases not even close. Sometimes it's the insanity and cross pollination of concepts and problem solving that bring the best ideas. How many projects do you have?

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
A: A chain saw and blow torch.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
A: That's easy because I truly believe we have the dream team. We're a motivated group of inspired and experienced thinkers, adventure seekers, look-insiders, tinkerers, and curious souls with a never-say-die creative drive to improve each and every day. Done and done.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
A: Normally our client's best interests are truly those of their customers. Every decision we make has to meet the customers expectations first and foremost, if we do that, 9 times out of 10 the client's interests are met.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
A: I see more amazing stock images of business people achieving greatness via teamwork. Maybe it's an image of two business people (one white and one african american) on a track performing a text book baton handoff in the relay of life. If it's not that, it will be more focused on the individual and the customization of each persons experience. Advertising continues to get more targeted, I believe in 5 years people won't see advertising that wasn't intended for them. I'm already inundated with Viagra and porn ads so maybe the future is now!

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
A: Inspire yourself.