iPro

Life Holds Thee

2010-02-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

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.

Victors & Spoils

2009-11-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello and welcome to another installment of an idiot writing about himself. I’m Evan Fry, and I’ll be your idiot for the day. Our company is fresh-baby new, it’s called Victors & Spoils and we’re striving to be the first agency model that is one part ad agency, one part crowdsourcing. We just opened our doors here in Boulder Colorado. I’m not an Interactive Producer and I don’t even play one on TV. I can pretend to be one here or instead we can agree to replace “Interactive Producer” in all these questions with “Creative Officer.” I’m going to go for the latter. Might be a huge mistake.

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 hate digital production. I know dick-all about it. Can you see how funny I am? God I bet everyone is just laughing their asses off right now. But seriously folks. I love digital production. Though I can’t really do it as an interactive producer might, given that I’m not in the least bit qualified, I have the utmost respect for those who can. Without them, we’d all be watching TV ads in full-forward via Tivo wishing there was something better in the world of marketing.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I think it’s mostly through forced immersion. Learn by doing action. At Crispin Porter + Bogusky where I spent my last seven years before Victors & Spoils, I basically realized I had to start learning a lot lot more. And in a hurry. So I took it upon myself to pay more attention and not glaze over entirely while all these other talented bastards on projects I was overseeing spouted on and on. That helps a lot. Also what helps is making friends with developers. I’ve got a few actually. And man are they smart. One of them is lead developer on a side project of my own that we launched a couple of months ago called BFA (befuckingawesome.com) – and through turning BFA into reality I’ve learned a lot for sure. Thanks to Chris. That’s his name. He drives a badass ‘Vette too. He has it all. Fucker.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It starts with a willing and smart client sitting across from us saying something like ‘hey we really want to solve something that we know we have to solve. How do we do that?’ Ideally it’s something where a company realizes that they are deficient in some big overarching realm like social media or mobile. Or maybe it’s something where they want to engage their fans and customers to create something. You never know what could come out of something big and high-elevation like that. Those are the best. When you work together to solve a business problem, everyone open-minded about what the solution may look like or what medium it will use.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Talking. Honesty. Perception. Being observant and listening and making sure everything is a conversation, never a stance of selling this or that.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
This is a great question. I’ve been lucky enough through the staggeringly savvy machine of CP+B to be involved with some really fun launches and high-profile stuff. It’s hard to pick one. The GAP :90 with Spike Jonze is pretty tough to beat though. By today’s standards a complete traditonal-media yawn with no extensions and a total media dead-end. But watching Spike killin’ it was just really awesome.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Is 0 a good answer? It has to be 0.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
I’m a huge fan of Stickies. Macintosh HD > Applications > Stickies.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Everyone is well fed and extremely attractive. There are also at least two dogs there. A ball to toss said dogs. And some Colorado IPA in a cooler. Everyone is smart, positive, problem solving, make-it-happen types. Nobody smokes or bitches about shit.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Listening. Respecting them. But also realizing that the happiest clients are always going to be the ones who are behind successful business solutions and results that catch fire. So sometimes making sure their best interests are met means being really honest and making sure they know I’m coming from a place where I just want to make their brand famous.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Web-platform systems where creatives cherry pick projects from wherever they are, producers execute brilliantly and we continue to move everything forward. Strategic and creative direction are still personal but everyone else is outlaw hired gun. Lots of mustaches and whiskey. Even the women wear mustaches and swill whiskey.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Sometimes going for a bike ride is the best answer.

From Somebody Else

2009-10-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
The beard is Bryant Florez and the mug on the right is Justen Holter. We are the collective force behind From Somebody Else (http://www.fromsomebodyelse.com). With our knees deep in creative and interactive development, our true obsession is in the collaboration and execution of great work.

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?
Justen’s love for organization and logic makes him a dev at heart with great appreciation for design and aesthetics. Exploring unique ways to combine his passions, he took to Flash development over 6 years ago and has been living and breathing Actionscript ever since. I, on the other hand, have been doodling, constructing, or designing something ever since developing manual dexterity. After studying Architectural Design, my love for art and animation brought me to Full Sail University where I met Justen and we began collaborating on interactive experiments. Having attended our first industry conference as students, it was at FITC in Toronto where we realized how insanely amazing this industry was and how far we had to go before truly becoming part of it.

After graduating Full Sail, our collaboration continued professionally as we both joined the AgencyNet team. Over the years we climbed the ranks as Art Director and Senior Flash Developer, having produced great work for numerous brands that include Bacardi, Eristoff, BBC America, Oxygen, Roxy Hunter, Beaches, Ford, and the State of Colorado’s anti-tobacco campaigns.

With several years and tons of shared experiences, we left our friends at AgencyNet to set out on our own. We are now From Somebody Else.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Motivation should be considered a requirement! If you find yourself lacking in that department, branch out beyond your niche. It’s a sure way to discover new inspirations and opportunities.

As for keeping up with the Joneses, usual suspects like blogs, friends, conferences, twitter, meet ups, and all things alike are great forums for keeping tabs on what’s hot. Always keep your ear to the ground. Sometimes we simply start our day a couple hours earlier to get caught up with our feeds and get hip to the lingo. When a certain technology is making waves and has the potential to benefit us and/or our client, we simply make it a point to devote some attention to it. We like to try everything that is relevant to our field and see how it fits into our arsenal. At times it’s the ideas that inspire the need for new technologies. So when you can, dream up new challenges and unique ways to approach them.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is this mythical creature that overpays, is never rushed, and will sometimes compensate our hard earned time with tasty treats and fine wine.

In all truth, it's the less than ideal situations that produce the best results. We love our clients to be as passionate about their goals as we are about meeting them. All we ask is for an open mind and mutual transparency. Clients and projects are supposed to challenge us. If this were easy, there would be a colossal lack of awesome in our industry.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Transparency is always our best policy. Regardless of the challenge, we keep an open mind while remaining forthright about what’s truly within reach. Many times it’s not just what the client wants but what you can do for them that will make the difference. We are very transparent about our process and what we need to be successful. It takes that collaborative relationship to make things happen and arrive to the best results possible.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Hands down our favorite project has been while we were working at AgencyNet, “Own Your C – C-Ville” (http://cville.ownyourc.com/) and “Own Your C – 2.0” (http://www.ownyourc.com/). With a fun demographic to speak to and a great team to collaborate with, this project provided a wide net of opportunities to explore. Having played significant roles in its first installment, you can imagine how stoked we were when the opportunity for 2.0 came along. This time around, our demo had matured as did our ideas and methods for execution. This project gave us a playground to experiment all things creative, animation, interactive, and technical.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends. At one time, we were wrapping up our biggest Flash project as we started another micro site and some rich media campaigns. Most projects are riddled with slow and chaotic phases, so it’s definitely a balancing act. Certain projects tend to dictate how much of our time and focus is required, thus limiting our bandwidth for anything else. So yeah, it depends.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Now you’re talking! One thing we LOVE is being organized! There are several tools we use in our production arsenal that keeps us and our projects in line.

We develop all our projects using SVN to maintain versions and effective file sharing. Opting for a hosted solution, we went with the super awesome Spring Loops (http://www.springloops.com). This keeps our heads out of IT and focused on the development aspects of the project. Additionally, it offers some great tools for deploying your projects and notifications. For tasking and bug tracking needs, we use Lighthouse (http://lighthouseapp.com/). With the right workflow, Lighthouse can be the ideal tool for project tasking, milestones, status updates, and reporting. We also love its ability to export CSV docs for our “Plan of Attack” meetings with clients.

We are extremely particular of the tools we introduce into our workflow. For us it’s important to use high impact low overhead tools that keep us focused on what’s important.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Aside from talented creative’s and gifted developers, a crew that has mutual respect and understanding for each other’s skill set and opinions are the simple ingredients needed for successful collaboration. We are huge advocates of the team mentality and look to surround ourselves with likeminded folks, always resulting in a fun experience.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Discovery and Pre-Production phases are the most crucial when setting goals and determining what will work best for our clients and their projects. This provides everyone a proper venue to really explore what’s important and lay down a plan of attack. If the scope isn’t reflective of that then you need to re-evaluate. Once we’re ready to kick things off, we champion forward with transparency and flexibility.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The sheer growth of this industry is one of the biggest things we’ve noticed. It’s moving into this huge space, covering anything capable of recognizing human input. The technology used to produce the future is becoming stronger and more complex with each new platform that comes out. We would love to see this motivate more collaboration between companies and individuals that specialize in a particular offering, and less of the one stop shop mindset.

Then again, the forecast is looking more like augmented social reality, animated GIFs, and WordPress 4.0.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be nice. Keep it real. Put yourself out there.

Experience Blueprint

2009-09-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Brooks Martin, Executive Producer at Schematic. Schematic is a world-class interactive agency with expertise in client service, strategy, user experience, design, copy writing, technology, production, and performance metrics. If it’s got a screen, we design experiences for it.

I oversee the business development and production for many of Schematic's emerging platforms. In my role, I focus on cross-platform solutions, ranging from advanced Web, ITV, and set-top applications, mobile and environmental installations to broadcast graphics, Blu-ray, game consoles, and even original, branded content. Over the past 6 years I’ve led over 100 projects for clients and partners such as ABC, Accenture, Adobe, AOL, Blockbuster, Bungie, Cablevision, CNN, Comcast, Dell, EA, EA Sports, Fox, GE, Intel, Mattel, Microsoft, MTV, NBC Universal, NFL Network, Panasonic, Paramount, Sky, Sony, Target, Time Warner Cable, Touchstone, Turner, and Yahoo!

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 came out to LA to go to film school in 2000. Soon after that I jumped to a position in (ahem) documentary television. I worked for Bunim-Murray, the makers of Real World, Road Rules, Simple Life and other shows. There we created the first all-digital post-production environment for reality television, enhancing the workflow for capturing, logging, and editing over 9000 hours of footage, per season, per show. Nutty.

Right before film school, I worked at a web-shop in Nashville, TN (hometown) called Anode Interactive, where I was a Flash designer and client-side developer. We had a good business in the Web, but our real expertise was in kiosk and environmental design. Cut my teeth, won some awards, had some fun.

I still love and miss post-production, and I’ve worked on a few stereoscopic projects in the past year. I can’t wait for 3D to get more traction.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I subscribe to a bunch of news feeds, and using a combo of FeedDemon and Google Reader, I just set watches for certain keywords. That keeps me up to date on a range of topics, but I also subscribe to 5-7 bloggers whose opinions I trust, and I read almost every post. I use those blogs to gauge new and interesting topics that I might also want to follow.

Within Schematic I’ve set up discussion groups around several topics (Ministry of Gesture, Ministry of ITV, etc.), and because e-mail is still a strong part of our company’s culture, people share links that way. Each group also has an intranet-wiki page where we keep links to the best of the best and provide references to internal projects, white papers and other knowledge sharing.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I prefer clients who involve us as a partner in their solutions. The more burden we bear, the more responsibility we have, the more we know, the more effective we can be with our solutions. Any time I hear “no,” I want a client who is willing to explore the “well, why not” with us.

I prefer two kinds of projects. 1. Long term Digital AOR, where we can have the freedom to bring all of our expertise to the table in a measured, experimental, scientific process to build a robust, engaging, innovative product. 2. Very short term, full-bore blast where we bring our expertise to bear on a prototype that knocks people’s socks off.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Schematic has a rigorous and proven process for delivering quality. We also work on many platforms/projects that are changing as we go, so we have to be very flexible. For the emerging platforms projects we try and encapsulate all of the most up to date knowledge for a project in a living document that we call the Experience Blueprint. This evolving snapshot of our thinking includes information on almost everything from the most basic requirements to future-state design principles. The document becomes an ever-changing manifestation of our rigorous process. In the end, we end up with a massive document, but it’s all in there, everything from the final product to that crazy idea that we had 4 months ago, that, hey, you never know, we might use one day.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
EA Sports UI Rebrand

Back in 2006, EA Sports realized that they were losing brand equity in their Sports titles because of a myriad of design styles and interaction models across all of the different games developed by 8+ studios. EA Sports asked us to envision what the future of the UI could look like in 5 years, how it could work, how it could grow and expand to meet the changing needs of their top gaming titles, but also incorporate new types of media (branded content and partner video, audio and data) into their gaming experience. We presented the vision piece to the heads of the various EA studios, and they all had the same reaction: “We love it, but can we actually do this?” “Actually, yes,” we said, “and you can do it now.” They literally stopped the presses while we spent the next month furiously working away on the global style guide. The result? They launched the updated UI and brand for all of their 07 titles, and it’s still holding strong.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Either 2 big ones or 7-8 little ones. Even the few times that I’ve had just one project, I’ve always needed to have another one in the works.

I’ve been really fortunate/lucky to have remarkable overlaps in projects where a problem that we’re having in one project is solved in another project. I feel that being focused on just one project makes you soft. As an interactive producer, you need that objectivity to come back with a fresh perspective and a new and better solution.

Q: What does your dream team look like?
Creative Director to own the style and vision

User Experience Lead to own the structure and logic of the design

Technical Lead/Solutions Architect to own the platform limits and understanding

Designer to make it all look fancy

User Experience Designer to document the results and ideas

Animator to put all of our ideas into motion and give them life

Project Manager to track decisions, resources, and commitments from everyone

Client partner who is willing to listen, collaborate and be honest with their feedback

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
At the outset of the project, we discover and document the guiding principles to create a solid foundation for all practice areas like creative direction, UX philosophy, technical approach, etc. If we ever have anything that contradicts those core principles, we either use those principles to alter the solution, or we reevaluate the principles. If we change our guiding principles, then we need to check all the work to that point. It takes some work, but it’s all in front of you on paper (or PDF), and it’s worth the payoff. The final document should read like one cohesive, logically structured argument, taking the reader from concept to completion.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
We’ve been practicing for the past 6 years to bring these experiences to a television platform that will do all of the things we’ve been dreaming of. I’m so excited that this time has come. Now we can get started. With the rise of cloud computing and personalization, and the abstraction of the information in between them, I feel like the services we offer will have to account for that abstraction. We’ll have to design for two Webs, the general Open Web and the “Trusted Web” or “Authenticated Web.”

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Write it down. Tag it.

Scholz & Volkmer: Peter Reichard

2009-09-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is Peter Reichard and I am the Executive Technical Director at Scholz & Volkmer in Wiesbaden, Germany. My agency designs and realizes digital communication solutions for clients like Mercedes-Benz, Panasonic, Coca-Cola, Leica and Swarovski, among others.

Our commitment is to provide clients with 360° digital communications. We therefore cover the areas of attention (e.g. banners, virals), information (web specials, corporate websites), dialogue (CRM), transaction (shops), use (digital products), support (brand communities) and referral (referral marketing).

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 passion for the digital area began with a fascination of computer games, just like it did for many other people. When I was 15, I had an Atari ST and developed small and actually pretty bad games for it. But what fascinated me right from the start is that you can create something reactive and interactive – out of practically nothing.

While studying industrial design I became aware of the fact that for me, developing and programming was as much fun as prototyping with the saw and milling machine. Well, maybe even a little more – because I later quit college in favour of web development J.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I am convinced that fun is the mainspring of every good solution, especially in the area of creative communication. You only get motivated through positive results. For me, important factors are to have a team that’s fun and capable, a scenario in which everyone respects each other and where you face challenges together.

How we keep our team informed? Well, first of all, I think that it is necessary that people are curious and always interested in coping with the new technologies they have to use every day. At Scholz & Volkmer for example, we have our Intranet called ‘Inhouse’, where colleagues share new highlights with each other. These can be just hilarious viral clips, but also new technology, marketing ideas and so on. With 100 co-workers, you can gather lots of information this way.

Other sources of information and inspiration are fresh talents like freelancers and other agencies. Last year, we also organized a Summer School program: six international students were invited to work with us for a month. I think that such opportunities benefit both sides immensely and offer the possibility for cultural and functional exchange.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is willing to communicate. And is bold and gutsy.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Well, I have two kids. So I know what a challenge education can be ;-). In my opinion, education is, first and foremost, dependent on trust. It is more a process of growing with each other than taking control over someone else.

For me, basic principles are: don’t promise anything you can’t deliver. Speak clearly and always at eye level. Establish objectives and consequences. Stay fair…. and have fun!

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Wow, that’s a difficult question. But if I had to make a decision, I would say that at the moment, my highlight is a project we realised for Adidas a couple of weeks ago. We developed the world’s first interactive online live event for the sports brand in collaboration with German soccer club FC Bayern Munich. The well-known German actor and comedian Christian Ulmen slipped into the role of soccer fan Frerk Ohm. With Frerk, we produced a five-day interactive web-tv-show where users took control of what was happening: they could submit the craziest tasks on the website and Frerk had to compete in and complete them – live and on-location in Munich.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
If I had a choice: just one. I find it difficult to focus and concentrate otherwise.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Actually, I haven’t managed to find the Swiss Army knife for organizing my projects. But lots of little helpful tools: Redmine, Moleskine, Mac-Mails to myself and so on.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
That depends, of course, on the project on hand. But in general: two or three people that burn for an idea, that are able to arse around but are also capable of putting their thoughts onto paper – or into the computer.

That could be anyone, really, regardless of their education or current job position: designers, programmers, managing directors, project managers, conceptual designers and everyone else I’ve forgotten.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We use a standardised document for this: the Creative Brief, where all relevant and important information and objectives are gathered and documented on just one page.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Well, I guess that the number of communication modes and channels will expand even more and that agencies and brands will go further and further away from communicating on just one single platform.

Furthermore, I could imagine that two things will keep becoming more important: advertising as pure entertainment as well as extremely user-focused communication.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Although I am already over 40 I’m afraid I don’t really have much wisdom to share yet. Thus I would rather like to quote my wife’s grandmother: Life has no guardrails. This may be a simple fact – but is at the same time a sentence you can interpret and think a lot about. My personal version would be, for example: There is no definitive security in life and be prepared for everything that comes.

And one last thing: It’s not just a job but a big part of your life. So - act responsibly. And…have I already said something about having fun?

Fantastical Elements

2009-08-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi my name is Jonas Eliasson and I work as a Sr Technical Manager for Fi NYC (www.f-i.com) which is an digital advertising firm. Fi is also the owner of the social media platform, Kontain.com which I have been working with for the last two years.

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 school background is a Bachelor of Computer Science where I used my spare time to develop Flash applications. At the time (2004) very few people realized you could actually do "real" applications with Flash. This naturally lead me to want to work for an Interactive Agency instead of a traditional Software Company.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
The source of inspiration usually changes depending the project I am working on. for the last 2 years I have worked a on Kontain, a social media platform (www.kontain.com). I am working mainly on the server side and its written in Java so I listen to Java Posse’s pod cast (http://javaposse.com) There you will get the latest Java trends and news. Other things we do in Fi is to have monthly presentations/walk-through of Fi and personal projects. These are often technical and are a great way to get new ideas and inspiration.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Full ownership, from back-end technology and implementation to front-end concept and design. And I like long projects. 6 months or longer is ideal. Sometimes we have clients sit in-house with our team during the mission critical parts of the project. I think those are the most fruitful projects.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
At Fi we use Agile software methodology for larger projects which means we break down a project in smaller estimated tasks which you then fill into iterations. An iteration is usually two weeks and ideally the developers only have to think about the current iteration.

If the two week iterations are being delivered on time, you can expect to meet the projected delivery date. However, if you do find the team is not able to finish the iterations on time, the iterative process allows you to catch and fix potential problems early. This method also give the client more control by allowing them to change projected tasks without affecting the overall project time-line. If anyone is interested in reading more about Agile methodology you can check out this link which goes through our process in more detail http://www.kontain.com/fi/entries/25191/fi-goes-agile/

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I must say Kontain.com is the most inspiring project I have worked on. It has all the parts of a project I like. It’s an Internal project which means full control, it’s been ongoing for two years and finally, it is technology challenging. It’s really great to see people use the platform daily and it generates a completely different commitment level for the whole team than any other project I have been part of.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on size. Currently I work on one big project. But a few smaller at the same this is no problem.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
As I am a tech lead and usually have a producer on the same project I focus mainly on two tools. The most important one is Rally (www.rallydev.com) which is a web based application for project, requirement and QA/defect management for agile software development. And of course we use BaseCamp for general team communication and knowledge transfer.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
- Core team

* Producer
* Creative Director
* Interaction Designer
* Interactive Developer
* Application Engineer

If you have that base you know you will get a really stable and creative project both from concept, prototyping to technical architecture and system design.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Its really important to define a clear Statement Of Work (SOW) document. If that document is solid the expectations should be the same from both ends.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think Web applications will keep progressing to all hand held phones and other units such as game consoles. It will create a whole new type of demand on web agencies. More standards, browsers, operation systems that your application, site has to work on.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
A great way to build client relation in my experience is to have a few key players on the client’s team sit in your office working together with you and your team. It can get tricky with privacy but you can build a really strong bond in the production team that might help you to land that retainer contract.

Mr. Brooks

2009-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi. My name is Frank Brooks and I’m the Director of Production for DDB West in San Francisco.

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 guess you could say I kinda fell into it. A degree in Forestry that lead to National Geographic Television which lead to stints in commercial production, eventually landing on the agency side. My first experience with digital was at Wieden & Kennedy freelancing on Microsoft and CKone. I moved from there on to Hal Riney and Leo Burnett gaining experience in film production. I’ve always found the intersection between film and interactive an interesting place to be. It’s no surprise that we are graying the lines between digital and traditional production. Our agency is evolving into that space as more creative heads that way and as we push to find better solutions for our clients.

How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Scouring the internet for what is new and different. I find The FWA (http://www.thefwa.com/), iPro and Design Charts (http://www.designcharts.com/) to be a few of the good resources out there. Beyond that, pushing ourselves internally to discover things for the creative’s as they are coming up with the ideas. Trying not to be bound by the same ways of thinking.

What does your ideal client/project look like?
I’d have to say the most recent experience with McAfee was pretty ideal. For a client that has never done something this big before, there was a lot of trust at the onset of the project – which helped create a collaborative environment. The project itself evolved into a feature length documentary with an intriguing subject (the business of hacking), and our production/digital partners where first rate. Everybody involved wanted to make something great, which I think shows in the final product.

How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I’ve always found being honest and up front a good way to go. It’s worked out well in most instances.

What was the best project you have ever work on?
It depends, they work on different levels. Lately, I’d say McAfee’s Stop H*Commerce project we recently completed in conjunction with Tribal DDB. Everything on that just worked – great director (Seth Gordon) and digital production (Firstborn) - and the team was inspired. You can check it out at http://stophcommerce.com/. We have another project in the works for Greenpeace that I’m excited about as well.

How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
To be honest, I believe in less rather than more - no more than two. I find producers to be an important creative addition to the process - which is hard to do with too many projects on ones plate.

What does your dream production team look like?
A realistic production schedule, combined with something never been done before, add an enthusiastic team who believes in what we are doing and a willingness to do what it takes to make something amazing.

How do you ensure that your client’s best interests are met?
Making sure they feel part of the process. I’ve found some of the best work we’ve done is when we’ve had a trusting client who believes in the creative idea as much as we do. When those things are in place, most of the time the clients come out happy.

What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think we will continue to blur the lines between traditional and digital.
I am seeing longer form content ideas surfacing. Clients seem to be re-discovering the notion of “brought to you by” or “sponsored by” messaging, along with development of a longer form piece. It’s a trend I hope to see more. Oasis “Dig Out Your Soul In The Street”, Philips “Carousel” and Sagami Condoms “Love Distance” are some of the recent good examples.

Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers?
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club”
-Jack London

Tools: Behance Action Method

2009-06-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Overview
At Behance, we believe that there are too many ideas, and not enough action. Based on interviews with hundreds of the world's most productive creative professionals, Action Method Online was designed as a radically different approach to task management; a simple system for making ideas happen.

Design is a critical element of the Action Method. The products and services developed by Behance to help people practice the Action Method are based on the belief that good design is great for productivity; and that progress in any project ultimately comes down to simplicity in taking action.

Features
All of life can be divided into "projects" - the categories we use in our minds to separate and make sense of what we need to accomplish (e.g. "the party I'm planning," "client X," "event Y," "finances"). The program's based on the idea that a few fundamental elements are necessary in completing these projects:

- The Action Step: a task that needs to be completed
- References: notes, sketches, designs, etc that give your Action Steps context
- Backburners: fantastic ideas that you'd like to act on in the future, but don't quite have time for at the moment
- Discussions: enable you to manage ongoing conversations with a variety of collaborators

AMO combines these elements into an intuitive interface that can be accessed directly via the web.

For more, see here http://www.actionmethod.com/Tour

Benefits
AMO is simply one of the most easily adoptable task management systems out there; it's based soley on the fact that action should be at the center of any endeavor.

Razor Sharp

2009-06-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Michael Delahousaye BD Director of California, Razorfish. Razorfish is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world. We counsel clients like Levi's, Mercedes and MillerCoors on how to leverage digital channels such as the Web, mobile devices, in-store technologies and other emerging media to engage people, build brand loyalty and provide excellent customer service. Our client teams provide solutions through strategic counsel, digital advertising and content creation, media buying, analytics, creative, technology, user experience and Social Influence Marketing.

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?
N/A – BD Director.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Pick 5 leading bloggers and read their every word.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like? CPG Company with at least 20 brands.
Digital AOR

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
SOW

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
HP Global pitch

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
5

Q: What does your dream team look like?
Account Planner, ECD, Tech Director, Sr PM

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Dig deep into every project plan and push for the best possible ideas.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Digital agencies are going be lead agencies with many types of clients. Clients are going to learn to think digitally.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers. Digital advertising is about brands giving their target audience something of value. Traditional advertising is about giving the target audience something to remember the brand by.

Northern Fare

2009-06-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I’m Adrian Gunadi, a producer at TAXI Canada.

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 brush with production actually started when I was in university. I remember sitting in a film pre-pro. This one girl jumped at the chance to be the producer. I was so surprised. I think I said something like, “Why would anyone want to be that?” Ahhh Jennie, I think you got the last laugh in the end.

My first seven years in the business were spent as a broadcast producer in Australia (Ogilvy) and Canada (BBDO). Gradually though, I became restless for more mixed media opportunities so I made the move to TAXI. The first thing they did was throw me on a year-long ecommerce project as the lead. Talk about baptism by fire. I will say this though, everything since has been comparatively easy.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
The most compelling advertising lies at the intersection of popular culture, business, non-commercial art, technology and social discourse. No one person can stay on top of all that. My solution? I try to surround myself with people who are much, much smarter than me in all those areas.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The dream would be an integrated project that has significance beyond advertising. Something that might still be relevant 10 years after launch. Projects like Tap Water, Million, Earth Hour and 15 Below.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Don’t baffle a marketer with jargon. Break everything down into its simplest elements. So many people forget that tech talk has to be dished out in small doses, like penicillin. Recognize when their faces go blank and their eyes glaze over - that's when you have to stop, because it's counter-productive to keep going.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
A Blue Shield project about how Californians are suffering in the absence of universal health coverage. Live stunts drove traffic to a microsite (www.letsshieldcalifornia.com) where users were invited to pass on a message to Congress. The core elements were linked by outdoor, live read and banner components. We launched at the height of the election race last year. In just 11 days, we smashed our yearly traffic estimate and pulled in over US$1.8 million in P.R. Almost 1,400 user petitions were sent by real people to the U.S. Speaker of the House. The whole thing was orchestrated by a small team of five creatives from mixed disciplines, working between our NY and Toronto offices.

On a personal level, I recently won a competition traditionally entered in by full creative teams. I recommend any producer to try something like this at least once in their career. I think there's tremendous value in learning first-hand what goes into concepting, writing, art directing, designing or coding a campaign. It can only make you a better producer. And recently I had a go at cobbling together my own site (adriangunadi.com), just for a lark. It was fun to play the client for once.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Lombardi said it best: “We didn’t lose the game, we just ran out of time.” Lack of time, not budget, is the biggest creative-killer. So my personal preference is to work on fewer projects, which in turn allows a more hands-on approach. Because of that attention to detail, I've done everything from building full creative decks, to writing copy decks in a pinch, to presenting finished work to clients when the rest of the team couldn't be there.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
My brain and my tongue, mostly. Everything else depends on what kind of project we’re talking about.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I prefer a team that is always changing. It doesn't help the end result if the same producer is always working with the same creative team because everyone falls into a rut. That's just human nature.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Don't just focus on the written brief or what they tell you verbally. Sometimes it's the stuff that they don't say which is more important.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Digital advertising has to be functional to make a lasting impact. Look at what people are using: iPhones, iPods, Google maps, Facebook, RSS readers, email, Wikipedia, Nike Run, Wii Fit, PVR, Amazon recommendations, Skype. They all have one thing in common: each technology added a new dimension to people’s daily lives. Advertising has to match that level of service or become obsolete.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
On any given project, a producer has to figure out what’s best for the project; what’s best for the creative team; what’s best for the client; what’s best for the agency; what’s best for themselves. How good a producer you are ultimately depends on how you stack these goals.

Can You Dig It?

2009-06-11T04:27:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is April Benton. I head up production and client services at Metajive Design. http://www.Metajive.com

Metajive is a full service interactive agency specializing in experience oriented web sites and online strategy. We have a team of 5 plus a french bulldog to keep everything light! Our clients come from all industries (Burton Snowboards, Gap, Sony to name a few) so because of the variety we approach each by first defining their web strategy and main goals.

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?
Let's see ... I started out doing events for a couple of ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area, one event that I was hired for my title was literally a 'wrangler'. I then moved on to an Ad Agency in SF doing typical account work but after a taste of that not so glamours account life I quickly headed back to my 'snow roots'. Next moving to San Diego and working for a Action Sports publishing company, there I ran a gamut of their Snow, Skate, Surf and Moto events as well as their other marketing efforts. Interactive production was always in my life ... mainly because my husband was doing design and flash freelance work so I always heard about the inefficient producers and annoying account people so I figured that I could do better!

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I'm actually really fortunate to have a team that really stays on top of knowing what's going on and being done out there. They all have a lot of years experience and are exceptionally knowledgeable about what's happening in our interactive realm.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Truthfully? A client that will let us do whatever we want, has a huge budget and pays on time!! Good joke, eh?!

In the real world there really are just not enough of those types of clients. So I'd say our 'real world ideal client' would be a client that most importantly is a real person with real ideas and open mind to listen to other idea - we want to be able to respect this person and they respect what we do - of course! Ideally this client would listen to our advice of what to do and not to do, trust that we will lead them down the right direction and really just let us do our jobs!

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
As far as expectations we do our research and find out what their competitors are doing and then set the expectation of how the site should look, flow and really compete. We educate our clients on what can be done and most importantly what can be done on a scale that is suitable for their audience and budget.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
We just finished an online media kit it was great because we'd worked with this same client years before on a similar type of project so they understood what it would cost, what they could do and had very realistic goals. It was the most enjoyable and stressless project that we've had in a long time.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It really depends on the scope of the projects. If it's a straight design and HTML website we can knock those out in no time, if it involves a big CMS system it takes a bit longer then add in Flash or After Effects and it becomes more time invasive. Currently we have an average of 6 to 8 projects going on at once and of course the are all different sizes and in different stages of completion. As well as random maintenance, additions and banner ad for existing client sites.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
We're a small and mighty team so pretty much our current team is our dream team. But if I were to put together another team it'd be run like this ... senior level designer, senior level flash developer, junior level designer that can also do HMTL code. A high end PHP/ back-end developer and a strong account person that will push when and where needed.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We spend a good amount of time in the beginning defining what they need, what makes sense and then we layout a tight plan and then we just make it happen.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Our industry is constantly changing, we can't wait to sink our teeth into augmented reality but really even something like that is just one more tool to allow us to get our ideas across. Change is part of the game in interactive so we are happy to be mixing mediums and pushing the limits. Incorporating After Effects, 3D and creating a seamless environment for our users to enjoy. We are sure the tools are going to get better but the game will still be the same.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I've learned that it's very important to keep the office well stocked with snacks and beer! Nothing screws up a project like a persnickety designer with low blood sugar. And nothing gets a client more stoked than keeping the fridge stocked with their favorite beer ... this also works well for motivating designers and developers to work late on a Friday night!

Dare To Do Daring Work

2009-06-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hey, my name is Bill Allen, I'm the Head of Interactive Development at BooneOakley. BooneOakley is a full service advertising agency in Charlotte, NC (pop. 6). We've done work for a variety of clients in a number of categories. Ruby Tuesday, CarMax, Bloom Grocery Stores, MTV2, HBO, Continental Tires, NASCAR, The Charlotte Bobcats ... the list goes on.

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?
Well, I started painting at Rhode Island School of Design and that led me to printmaking which led me to photography which led me to computer manipulated photography (Photoshop 2 baby!) and then on to applications like Director. From Director and early CDRom projects I started learning basic web technologies like html, flash...etc. At a certain point I took a freelance gig with an advertising agency and I got hooked on the environment. Been with it ever since.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We have a small shop so we don't really need sophisticated tools for sharing information, no Basecamp etc. Mostly link sharing and sticking your head over into your neighbor's space. "Come look at this".

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Well like the website says "For those who dare to do daring work". Ultimately is it worth it to spend a ton of money on something with mediocre results? I'm sure every group will say this but we want to work for people we respect and who respect us, and trust us. Trust us enough to know that we don't just throw crap against the wall and hope it sticks. We think really, really hard about our crap and when we throw it...we're positive it will stick.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Well, being able to identify what problem they are trying to solve really helps, and then you can tell if what you're doing actually addresses that problem. That and ask lots and lots of questions and get answers.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The latest one, http://www.booneoakley.com . When the original idea surfaced I knew it was going to be great because A. It terrified me and B. I knew it was completely doable. The only real challenge were the ones usually associated with internal projects: Decisions, Finding Time, Scope Creep. Remarkably without a whole lot of structure it pulled itself off wonderfully. Mostly due to the nature of the project, the creative team could work directly on almost all of the site including the annotations. There wasn't a technical hurdle in place. That was refreshing for all parties involved. Also, the frenzy around the site has been a lot of fun. Some very strong opinions but overwhelmingly, and quite surprisingly, they're very positive.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Given the size of our shop we usually have a couple of smaller projects going at once. If the job is gigantic we tend to farm out to development shops of appropriate size and skillset. We've also set up several ongoing maintenance jobs that have to get done every week, emails and banners with dynamic feeds etc. The nature of campaigns now gets pretty mixed up so digital development is sometimes the focus and sometimes it's just a garnish.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Uh, solid LAMP loving DB developer, I think that's a solid foundation to build on. A great back-end developer, who can rock stuff like AS3, Flex and overlap with the DB dev, also might know iPhone and a couple other technologies. Thirdly, some kind of front-end designer / animation rockstar. And last but not least someone to crack the whip and keep them away from the Call of Duty 4. This team would work in tandem with a creative team that would drive things conceptually. Ultimately they would all get along but it can be tough getting the personalities and egos to mesh and respect each other.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Think...lots...really hard. We do our research, we try to put the teams in the best possible position to do great work. And if we think we're doing something that isn't going to help them we say so. The smart one's listen, sometimes they have very valid reasons for doing what seem to be crazy things and once they explain that to us it's easier to go do what they want us to do. Talking helps a lot.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Wow, I almost don't want to say because I want us to get there first :P. I think W+K's production of Battlegrounds, that 1vs1 basketball tournament a few years back, was a harbinger for me of where things where headed. Seen a few failed attempts (Cavemen) but ultimately I see content production in all our futures. Quality production tools are so readily available. Cheap Canon Rebels are going to have video soon. The booneoakley site showed that you can put tools directly in the hands of creatives and develop something compelling.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
It is rare that I've been unhappy with myself when I've gone well beyond what I thought was necessary to get something just done, but instead stopped and polished a project up, actually thought about if it could be better and took the steps to make it better.

ALSO...

As far as development goes, make a habit of being thorough, name things consistently etc. and always be aware that you're not the last one who will ever have to touch your work. Be thoughtful, comment your code, think of others and how your code "reads".

Unity 3D

2009-06-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Q: 3D on the web is one of the more popular technologies being used in campaign sites, what makes Unity different than say Papervision3D?
Scope, size and quality of games that operate within the browser or running at fullscreen. From MMOs like cartoon network's Fusion Fall to causal game experiences featured on shockwave.com or blurst.com - Unity is a leading the class in 3d in-browser content experiences. Unity has a full 3d editing system, features Ageia PhysX, support for 3rd party back-end solutions (such as Smartfox, or Exit Games - for MMOs) and cross platform capabilities to publish on the PC / Mac / iPhone / Wii and additional consoles.

For new end-users, The Unity web player features near seamless install process that does not links guests off the website, nor does it install 3rd party applications (such as a toolbar)

Q: What are some of the best ways the Advertising Industry can use Unity to tell better stories?
If your clients are looking for a rich 3d content experience - Unity can provide that near console quality experience in browser. Please navigate to our gallery for examples of games which have been released by some of our developers. http://unity3d.com/gallery/game-list

Q: How does Unity position itself amongst other web based technologies?
With cross platform capabilities, a clean web player install process, and proven launched content, we are well poised to appeal to both AAA developers (please look for an announcement in the very near future :) ) and students as Schools and Universities are adopting Unity to complement their educational game programs.

Q: Outside of gaming, what other industries have adopted Unity as a story telling technology?
NASA, US Government, Architectural firms for visualization, Aerospace industry, NYU (human anatomy visualization) to name a few...

Q: How closely has Unity worked with the Interactive industry to help educate and integrate its technologies?
Game Developers are our core market. We appear at GDC, CGDA, as well as host our own Unite event. We've been featured in EDGE magazine, and have Ads running in several gaming publications.

Q: What does the future hold for Unity 3D?
What's in store for Unity? New platform support, growth for our company (we're currently staffing up our offices in EUR and US) and new developers coming on board.

Lunch Time

2009-06-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

Q: What is Lunch and what was your motivation for starting the company?
Being agency side for so long, most recently at TAXI and Grip, and through my colleagues in the industry it became glaringly apparent that there was a gap in the market in terms of clients and agencies knowing who they can call for what types of work.

I’ve been really lucky throughout my career that I’ve gotten to know a lot of incredibly talented people. I’d co-founded an industry event in Canada called Inter-action where we’d been sharing work and encouraging dialogue and collaboration. It was really a natural progression for me.

I absolutely love this business.

Digital production has been close to my heart for 12 years. I’ve tried to achieve a certain production value throughout the years with production partners and as a producer and executive producer and it really came together as the next logical step.

I’d been thinking about creating a different kind of model for a long time, and I started to talk to people about it and the feedback was solid. Lunch was born out of the idea that producing and creating great digital work should be as easy as one phone call. Lunch is a time where people meet, and talk.

I think clients look forward to their time at the agency and agencies look forward to lunch, whether it’s with production partners, directors, pre-pros, screenings, edits. Etc. It’s a fun time. I wanted something that captured that, and was approachable. All to often digital is scary. I think for me this is an effort to really pull back the curtain and make things easy for everyone, whether they come from the digital space or not.

Lunch is about ideas.

Lunch provides representation for artists, illustrators, directors, design and animation studios, audio houses, editorial talent, flash, web and application developers, production management and consulting as well as technical services. Not only are we there as reps, but we’re there to provide production services and manage the work if required. We can package a whole production from start to finish, or provide a la carte services.

It’s totally up to the client and the nature of the production. We’re setup to do absolutely anything whether digital or otherwise.

Q: How do you determine the best way to distribute projects across your network?
I’ve had the luxury of building some pretty incredible relationships with an amazing group of people so in that sense because of the number of productions we’ve been involved in together, we have a great sense of capabilities. I know what they’re great at, and I know where their interests lie. I always say, I wouldn’t necessarily want to work with someone I didn’t want to talk to on the phone.

So initially the starting line up is based on companies, I’ve really, really enjoyed working with. I’ve won Lions with some of them, Pencils with others, and we know how to work together. I’m excited to bring that to the table.

I love building teams.

It’s about the creative, what’s required, and who is best suited to doing that work. I’ve always looked at developers as directors, you want them to bring something to the table, a treatment, ideas etc. Projects will be paired with appropriate partners.

Sometimes partners will work together, yes, even competitors, or sometimes we’ll all have to talk, and sometimes it’s up to the client. It was important to me in building the network that we had a mix of the right people. People had to be willing to work in a different way.

I think that speaks to the interactive approach vs. traditional, we in the digital space are pretty accepting of sharing and collaborating. It’s how a lot of us got to where we are, we shared. Inter-action reminded me of that, pulling back the curtain on the smoke and mirrors that can exist in terms of the technology was important to me. It’s not about finding work for those she represents, it’s about finding the right work, where everyone makes a meaningful contribution in an open and honest atmosphere to create something amazing.

Q: What excites you most about this new model?
I think I’m most excited about the types of projects we’re seeing and having the opportunity to be on the same side of the fence as my partners. I’m really excited to help in bridging the gap between art and commerce.

There’s so much that can be done in so many different ways, looking at getting clients more educated and arming them with information is probably the most exciting for me.

I’ll also be holding workshops for producers who’d like to cross the floor into producing digital. That’s been one of my favorite things in the business is working with broadcast producers, traditional teams and print producers to get them up to speed on how we work.

The ability to work with some of my favorite artists is also a thrill, we’ve partnered with a gallery space and retail space in order for us to offer more variety and venues for immersive. Representation of artists like Kozyndan, TADO, Tara McPherson, and Junko Mizuno is absolutely surreal for me, these are artists I collect.

I’m thrilled to be able to bring them to a new audience. They were a key piece of the puzzle for me because they affect creative so greatly. Huge inspiration. To be honest, there isn’t a lot I’m not excited about right now. I’m looking forward to the years ahead. Lunch is about stripping away all the technical jargon that alienates so many clients and putting the right people together to create something amazing

Q: How are you going to manage work flow across multiple teams that have similar skill sets?
The model is really based around a central conduit, which in this case is me. It’s like intake. Projects come in, and obviously with all of the partners I work with, I have a sense of what their bandwidth is like, who needs what, who’s looking for what and who’s managing what.

The majority of them have in house producers and coordinating and working with them to assist in the execution of the work is critical. It’s certainly something I’ve had a lot of experience with, being a director of production agency side it was imperative that workflow was flawless across multiple partners. It’s all about communication. Lunch has a standard process, and structure that helps to standardize workflow, but it’s the same thing I’ve always said to my producers when I’m agency side – talk.

Q: Are you able to mix and match talents across the various teams based on individual skill sets?
Part of the beauty of lunch being a network is that the teams can work together. It provides an incredible capacity as well as a place to collaborate and work together. I pursued partners that were forward thinking, truly collaborative and ready for change.

I think that’s been the amazing thing so far is the partners getting to know each other and their excitement in being able to work together.

Again, I’ve had the luxury of knowing and working with them all, so I’ve always had ideas of who would get along with who and what might go with what in terms of service offerings. It’s amazing to watch it all come together and see them in a room together. I keep calling it the Voltron of production.

Lunch is really about stripping away all the technical jargon that alienates so many clients and putting the right people together to create something incredible.

Q: What does lunch look like 5 years from now?
I think the evolution of lunch will obviously mean expansion to different markets, with different partners, with more producers under the lunch umbrella, robots? :) It’s been so funny so far, it’s such an opinionated community (to which I am completely included).

Lunch is about keeping things simple and approachable. Easy. So I hope we’re still like that, but as I always say I’d like to finally be off of the computer by then and controlling everything with some kind of universal controller. It’s funny, I launched the lunch site last week (www.thisislunch.com) and some people got it, others commented on how “old school” it was.

It’s definitely a play on the average site of a development shop and the digital production world in generally. We never have time to build or own site because we’re too busy working on something great for someone else. So in that sense I hope all that’s the same in 5 years is the website.

For All its Worth

2009-06-01T04:50:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I'm Hank Leber, founder of Agency Nil and recent graduate of the VCU Brandcenter (MS, Mass Communications). For those who are unfamiliar, Agency Nil's model is, "Pay what you think the work is worth once you get it. Nothing up front."

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 story is not ordinary - much like others who have wound up in Interactive. After undergrad at William and Mary (English major) I toured in a rock band for 5 years, full time. We had a very good time, played with many of our musical heroes, and sold a lot of music. I ran the business, which included art direction (posters, cd art, stickers, merchandise), web design, copywriting/music writing, and lots of stuffy MBA kinds of things.

We were the generation of musicians caught in the whirlwind of a post-Napster era (2001-2005) where music was becoming free but no one knew how to make it work yet (and, arguably, most people still don't). But there are some smart folks out there trying to fix it - how can I not mention Bruce Flohr and his plan for Radio Head's In Rainbows release? Pay what you think it's worth...hmm...

Anyway, we had a major record deal fall through and were left with a tough choice. (Chose to stop). Grad school at VCU seemed appropriate - some business, some art, and a lot of advertising/communications training - right up my alley. And it was a fantastic experience. I got exposed to the wonders of interactive digital technology and studied the social aspects of the internet from the inside and the out.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Twitter and Tumblr have become increasingly relevant to my staying up with the times. They're great as long as you're following the right people. I keep telling others who are confused about Twitter, "It's not about, 'I'm eating this awesome sandwich right now.' It's about, 'Check out this really smart, obscure link/article I found.' " And of course, I've got my daily feed of blogs coming in. BBH Labs, Scobleizer, Noah Brier, Kawasaki, PSFK - too many to list, really (and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings if I didn't mention them). There's just lots of smart stuff out there. And the filtration/feed system is getting better every day.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Ideal is a dangerous thought. I can more easily tell you this: Projects go well when I've got an open-minded (read: less totalitarian and more eager to learn) client who wants to get out of comfort zones, take a few chances to make things new, and doesn't mind the thought of letting something develop over a bit of time. A lot of clients expect a social or interactive solution to be immediate, as though we could air-drop 100,000 sheep onto their fenced, green pastures.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Story, story, story. Setting up a viable, sensible layout for the landscape you're working in, business situation, and most importantly - behavioral needs and qualities your work will be based on is key. If you don't set the scene right in the first place, you'll have a confused, nervous client instead of an excited one. And that's trouble. Once you get a receptive client, setting up realistic timetables, expectations, and projections will go over much better.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I wound up writing the strategy for the launch of Budweiser American Ale last year while interning at DDB Chicago. It's not the sexiest 'interactive project' story, but it was great to work on the top level with great creatives, a big old fashioned budget, and web developers that could really crank it out. The site could have been way more interactive and socially minded, but it was a year ago, last summer. That's an eon, essentially.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
The Agency Nil model is set up to handle lots of projects at once. Since the employees are mostly between-jobs ad people and recent ad school grads, there are a lot of potential team members to put on projects. I get emails every day from people wanting to work for the agency from all over the world. Personally, I don't like to get invested in 4 or more projects at once - it's a brain space issue, and quality of thought goes down. I trust my teams to lead their projects a lot of times, though, which makes it easy to keep more things going if need be.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I'm a big fan of creative technologists - specifically focusing on the strategy behind an interactive execution and whether or not it's fulfilling a specific need in the consumer. An interactive designer is good to have, especially when paired with a smart programmer who knows how to work fast while working smartly. And I always want to have an out-of-the-box-minded copywriter on board to to any writing and also to be the effect/vibe coach. Most of the time if it isn't cool it isn't going to work. The team can be comprised of all of these parts, fewer, or more - to me, the most important part is that everyone is thinking strategically and that all minds are on the same page working toward the goals. If that happens, a whole lot can get done with fewer people.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Interactive work needs to fulfill a definite, established need in the consumer. Not to be confused with a made-up or hoped-for need, as is the case many times. I'm talking about Maslow's Hierarchy here - old school stuff. The basic human needs like self-actualization, communication, survival, reassurance, information - all of these are behind any successful interactive execution. And if the need is perceived, or hoped, the thing fails. Think of Second Life, or Wal-Mart's social network try a while back.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The notion of too much noise and overcrowding in media seems like the most likely factor in shaping the new Internet and advertising. Everything will be so filtered and feed-ed and customized that a brand will have to either A) become as human as their consumers and provide relevant, interesting content instead of just messages or B) utilize Ad Exchanges to give their placements a sickening, scary amount of relevance based on each of our surfing histories. Big Brother is watching, and he knows what kind of underwear you'd be interested in buying.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I don't think I have much wisdom. But a belief I'd like to share: all of this new technology, apps, i-this, i-that, web 3-point-something, they are all all just new vehicles for ideas. There is no replacing the value and utility of simple, great ideas. And we mustn't lose sight of that; if you can't get the idea out on a sheet of paper with a line or two, then start over.

Urbian Legend

2009-05-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Gary Willmott, Producer/Partner of Urbian in Cape Town South Africa. Urbian is an independent Online Creative Production Company with a sole purpose of doing great work! Although we are based in Cape Town 80% of our projects are from the UK delivered from some well known agencies such as TribalDDB , Analog Folk.

We are a team of specialists (think Ocean's 11) which we formed in 2005. We do motion and interactive in all its hues and shades, but combining the two is what makes us tick! We research and develop things all the time. We eat food almost every time we meet and some of us have grown mustaches. The Jingle sums it all up.

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?
Started off in my early school days with a friend who managed to get a copy of 3D studio ( DOS version). I got so hooked, that I left school to focus on 3D animation and ended up finishing school from home. I was doing some great work but got frustrated with the machines back then, my good old 486 just took forever to render decent animation. So I ended up taking on online projects to finance myself to get better machines. It just snowballed from there, from HTML to flash, working as a Interactive Developer at numerous agencies around Cape Town. Eventually got tired of working for companies that limited my growth. I formed Urbian with a partner who had similar views with me, to do SICK ASS Projects! Nothing ELSE!

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
There are the normal blogs that I subscribe to via Google Reader, Twitter Feeds, theFWA.com etc. But I must say after a good surf or kitesurf I get ideas flooding in, there is something about being in nature and getting away from the machine that helps produce fresh ideas.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
An progressive educated client with a good knowledge on what makes this online social world tick makes the world of difference. That's why we have opted to mostly work for UK clients as South African clients are still very far behind in their thinking. Had a client who runs the marketing on wine farm the other day request an Augmented Reality, I was gobsmacked! It gets so ridiculous sometimes, I have even been thinking about putting clients on a course before we can do work for them :P

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We go through a very detailed and story-boarded process as much as possible at the beginning of every project. Making the client aware of what they can expect but more importantly what they can't expect.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
We just wrapped up a project for the Glade Festival 2009 (http://www.gladefestival.com/2009/ ) . We built an interactive map where users are able to navigate through the festival line-up via scrubbing back and forth on the timeline to see which artists are playing where and at what time. It was a pleasure working with Ans and the team there, they completely respected us, and when they gave input it was always appreciated and made sense. We fell so in love with the project that we built a competition mechanic that generated so many hits, that the server fell over twice.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
2 active projects, 2 in a start-up/wrapping stage. Anything more than that and you end up just managing the project instead of adding value.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Microsoft Project, Goplan, Springloops, DropBox, Google docs. Keen to try out "omniplan", any recommendations?

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Urbian, seriously. Even if I had to work for a company again, not too sure where else I would want to go.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Education, Communication. I think the biggest key is not to use certain technology for the sake of using it. But finding the right mix of ingredients that suits a project.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Its in a weird place, even though I feel like user generated content is going to fall-over, I still think its got a long way to go.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Work to live as apposed to living to work, try it yourself and you will notice your work just gets better. Here is a freebee: Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Integrity. Communication. Honesty.

2009-05-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I’m Paul Marobella, the Managing Director of Wirestone/Chicago. Wirestone is an independent, national marketing solutions agency with offices in 6 US cities and over 175-people across our creative, technical & strategy groups.

We were born digital in the year 2000, when 5-disparate agencies were brought together to make Wirestone. We develop targeted customer experiences that manifest online and offline but all have the common thread of activating a brand’s most influential group(s) of customers and an infusion of powerful marketing technology that supports the programs.

We work with mostly global, leading brands across various vertical segments including: Nike, Motorola, Microsoft, Oakley, hp, Intel, SKYY Spirits and Apple.

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 have been in the digital game since the early 90’s when I was a wee-lad at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. I had the chance to be on a steering committee for the company to infuse digital and multimedia technology into how the company conducted business. Anywhere from how the brand leveraged something called the internet, to their partnership with Healtheon and then overseeing the implementation of a digital selling tool for the sales force.

I fell in love with the new media channel and left the friendly confines of my hometown, Boston for the arch enemy city, New York to be a part of the movement. I worked for a company called i3 for a while, selling big brands on adding a digital line item to their budget and met a guy named Tucker Greco in NYC that owned an agency called Greco Ethridge Group – we teamed up and integrated digital production and strategy into his then-current traditional agency model.

GEG went on to win Agency of The Year for that approach in 1998. I come from the strategy, account side of the house and while I have threatened my teams that I am going to learn Flash and Silverlight to show them up, I haven’t gotten around to that, yet. We have awesome digital production teams here at Wirestone that inspire me everyday.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
These days you have be a knowledge-management ninja to keep pace with what is happening out there. Google Reader is a personal tool I use to parse through the thousands of blogs available and that keep me posted on how people are using technologies to further a marketing initiative.

Twitter has become an invaluable tool to track smart people and group them through Tweetdeck into categories of skill-sets. We keep De.licio.us groups where we share case histories, articles and blog posts with each other through the agency. With travel budgets scaled back this year, attending conferences are at a minimum, unless of course it is a Microsoft-conference since we are Gold Partner.

We encourage our people to dive in and learn new technologies and propose how they can add value for our clients, whether Microsoft Surface or 3D technologies like Rhino.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It would entail long stays in Monaco with poolside planning meetings, realistic timelines and the ability to be both a business-driver for our client and raise the profile of Wirestone.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I have people that are smarter than me working directly with our clients to balance their expectations with their key business-drivers and what is humanly possible. It doesn’t always work.

Often, people are held hostage by unrealistic expectations due to never having completed a project like the one we might be doing for them. On the flipside, I often feel like agencies are also victims of the knee-jerk reaction of over-scheduling a project that stops and makes you go hmmmmm, when you see a schedule.

It seems the bigger the agency, the longer the schedule. I’ve always wondered what that relationship was about. The timelines should be discussed before the agency decides to take on the work – it makes everyone’s life easier.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I had the chance to work on The Central Intelligence Agency & their Association of Former Intelligence Officers. If I told you what we did, I’d have to…. well, you know how that ends.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I never say no to a project that is reasonable. But, at the same time I have an awesome team that I work with to spread the wealth. These days, being grateful for work is the magic elixir to having a positive attitude in our business.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream team would consist of people that could do my job at any given time – meaning they are smarter, more informed and probably better looking than me. I have worked with some very talented people over the course of my career and I’ve found that having a solid, well-informed technical lead is the cornerstone of success.

People that compliment my skill-sets is what I look for when I am building a team. I love to have people that run the spectrum from insights into the consumer through to how the technology will create value for the brand.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Integrity. Communication. Honesty.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The irony here is that when I was asked this question 10-years ago, the answer would be the same because I believe that our business STILL has not adapted. We still have big agency people and networks that talk a big game but when you meet them, you can still tell that they are brainwashed in the ways of the old agency model.

I still think that the biggest inflection point in our business is yet to come and nobody has cracked the code. To me, I see the day of the consumer truly self-selecting marketing communications and getting closer with a total personalization across all media. I still like to be marketed to, I just want to see things that make sense for every dimension of my personality and I am a complicated dude, that’s for sure.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
There is one word that I live by, especially these days – Believe. Believe in yourself, your ideas and the people around you. We need positive energy in the world and we each play a role in filling this universe with energy. Boy, hope that wasn’t too new age!?

Brand New

2009-05-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is David Lucas and I am an Executive Producer at Brand New World. Brand New World or BNW is a creative agency that integrates design, branding, advertising and technology to form stronger connections between brands and their consumers. BNW is also fun place to work. We play instruments, joke around, and produce great work.

When I interview people I usually dress up in a costume. It's a great stress test and it tells a lot about somebody's personality.

I once showed up to a interview with a top hat, whip, and chair. The interviewee got on the ground and started growling like a lion - I hired him!

Ok…maybe that didn’t happen, but it really is a great environment and we do have a lot of fun here, I've been with the company for nearly 2 years.

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.
Prior to BNW I was a freelance producer and talent manager. My credits include projects for online, mobile, broadcast, off-broadway, and film/tv. I started producing live action, eventually bridged over into music, and then 3D, graphics and VFX. At the same time, I also managed the careers of several bands, comedians, and directors. I gained interest in digital in 2005 and crossed over in 2007.

My first foray in digital was writing a Social Media Plan and producing and seeding web video for a record label.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I stay on top of emerging technologies by reading blogs, trade magazines, listening to Podcasts, and attending meetups and shows.
I'm also a member of the NY Tech community. Garysguide.org compiles a wealth of useful information.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client/project right now would be a multi-platform campaign for an organization championing the cause of literacy. I'm also interested in experimenting more with interactive video.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I get our account managers drunk. Works every time.

Q: What was the best project you ever worked on?
I can't really say one in particular stands out. I've been blessed to work with really great clients. For me, a good client makes all the difference.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
As EP I oversee all jobs company wide. I mainly focus on developing jobs and setting the tone for my cohorts. When we're overloaded, I'll step in and produce a project from conception to delivery. How many projects can I handle? Well it really depends on the scope and type of project/platform. I've easily juggled 6 or more projects (which I don't recommend.)

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Equal parts - Dan Akyord for the comedy, Bruce Lee for the ask kicking, Tesla for the innovation, and Casanova for the charm.

Q: How do you ensure your clients best interests are met?
I find extraordinary, multi-disciplined, producers and get production involved as early as possible.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
My magic 8 ball is broken - sorry.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers?
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere. - Michel de Montaigne

No Fool

2009-05-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Kathrin Spaak. Producer at Perfect fools. “Perfect Fools is an award-winning international digital creative agency. We deliver interactive and integrated online campaigns that captivate target audiences, challenge expectations and get results.”

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?
Background; Studied and worked in film and TV production where my interests for telling a story grew.

Studied and worked as an html programmer. Learned about the deep, sometimes dark and interesting minds of programmers and designers.

Studied sociology. I think everybody who works with people should read a few points in this subject. I’m very interested in how peoples minds work, their habits, their actions, their dreams and how they interact within their context.

All these ingredients put together plus the need for being a part of the main decision making finally made me a producer, it fits my personality perfectly.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I listen to the people in the office who sleep in Star Wars pajamas, talk Klingon, and colour things in when they are sitting on the toilet.
It is these people who help me understand where we are going and I act as interpreter when clients talk powerpoints and my people talk grids, kerning and USS Enterprise.

High heels and a stick works well for the team motivation, whose life consists of pixels.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Mature woman in her prime, looking for a dedicated man with brown eyes and lots of money.

He allows lots of freedom and loves to experiment and has a lot of faith. If you are the one, I will make your dreams come true.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Most of the education comes when we have to explain to the client why something is not possible at the time or when we give them different alternatives and the arguments for these. Then if you feel that you have to bring the ABC of the Internet book, we do just that. Most important is to have constant communication and listen to what the client needs. And also have the ability to sense when the client needs education even though they might think they don’t.

A pre-study is a good start to set the right expectations both for the client and for ourselves.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
kspace.kswiss.com

Why?

Found a dedicated man with Brown eyes and French accent and big wallet.

He had a lot of faith, dedication and will for experimenting.

Thanks Diego.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It all depends on the size of the projects.

One big and a few small at the same time is good.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Look at the staff list on www.perfectfools.com

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By listening to the best professionals in this industry.

Both from our side and from the client side.

The clients knows their product best, we listen to them and they listen to us about interactivity and communication.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I am not interested in a vision i'm only interested in here and now. This is the industry of change anyway.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Anything that can be digital will be digital.

Northern Tribe

2009-05-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Pat Elia. I'm a producer at Tribal DDB in Toronto. I'm in my third year at Tribal and 6th year working in the interactive world.

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 went to university for history with the plan of becoming a teacher. But after I got my degree I was already weary of the subject and couldn't see myself teaching it for the rest of my life. So I then went on to pursue a post-grad in technology and interactive production because I thought it was the exact opposite of history, as it represented the future. Pretty deep. I know.

I literally started working the day after I finished my post-grad. I landed at a small online marketing company where I was responsible for managing dozens of monthly contests for Conde Nast publications. It was a great place to cut my teeth and I met a lot of good people. I then moved on to another small place where I did a bit of everything - microsites, email, and some heavier backend jobs. Then one day Tribal called, and here we are.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I've always been a bit of a nerd - in the sixth grade I dressed up as DATA from Star Trek for Halloween. There. That's now on the internet.

So naturally, technology is one of my main interests. I prefer to get my information from a few trusted sources rather than scan hundreds of potentially garbage RSS feeds. DIGG, Slashdot, and Techcrunch are some of my favourite sites. And even though the last few issues have been pretty weak, Wired magazine is still my go-to.

In regards to keeping the team informed, I like twitter as a means for sharing links. We Tribal-ites are also big fans of the old fashioned sending-links-through-email. It's tried and true and won't fade away like the next social networking fad.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Clear brief. Enough time and money to do what’s required. Quick approvals. Clean launch.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I think the most important part is to first get a grasp of their knowledge and comfort level with interactive. Making assumptions at this stage can really bite you in the ass later. Unfortunately, I've learned this from experience. One of the things I try to do now is to physically get a signature before each phase of a project is completed to make sure everything is clear. I find when people are asked to sign their name on something they take more time to understand the situation and ask any questions.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
That depends how you define best. For me that means enjoyable, and my most enjoyable job was crushmoviecrew.ca. We had 3 custom miniature sets built and populated them with miniature scale models. We then locked ourselves up in a studio for three days shooting every little piece from every possible angle. To save on catering costs, one of my duties as a producer on this gig was to make sandwiches for the crew. We also produced the sound effects ourselves, which was a good time. The burping zombie sounds are courtesy of yours truly.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
1 large, 2 medium, and unlimited small.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I like the following:

- a creative team that values function as much as aesthetic

- a dev team that can give good input toward the design and also produce clean code

- bonus points if everyone plays nice

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I try to work closely with the account team to keep me in check, as my first instinct is to protect the agency's best interests (usually budget related). But when it comes to creative or tech concerns, I try to look at things objectively to assess their value. I also imagine the budget as if it were my own money to make sure it gets spent properly.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
You remember that movie Tron? It'll look like that, but with more widgets.

But seriously, I think the next big thing will be touch screen applications. We've seen how big of a hit it is with simple iPhone apps. With full size screens and beefy processors, the possibilities will be endless.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Making websites should be fun. If you're not having fun then something is probably wrong.

Channel Agnostic

2009-05-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Andrew Walter, VP of Content Delivery at EVB.

EVB is a channel agnostic agency based in San Francisco – we come up with good ideas that can manifest in any media. For example, in the past 6 months we’ve launched rich flash sites (Toyota 2010 Prius with Saatchi and Saatchi LA), a video content management delivery and distribution system (adidas.tv), Print campaigns (Smuin) and TV (golf channel). And of course we’re best known for our viral work such as Make Me Super for Kodak, Freak Your Mind for A&E Networks and Criss Angel and Elf Yourself with Toy and Office Max.

The best way to get to know what we do is to check out our work: http://www.evb.com/work  

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?
 Well, I’m not really interested in digital production…I’m interested in mass media. I started as a sound designer, sound engineer and media theorist and spent a chunk of my 20’s working in radio. Digital was a new medium that was just forming, so I attended the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU to learn about and experiment with it. With the focus we had on group work I quickly learned that there were better designers, writers and programmers, but I was pretty good at forging through strong egos and individual’s needs to drive a project to a unified vision.

That led me to run engagements for a management-consulting firm and then into advertising with Ogilvy in New York.

Basically, I like working with really smart people to solve broad problems that encompass aspects of business, design, technology and user needs. With this work I get to do that every day. And I get to make cool stuff.
 
Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated? 
They help me stay informed and motivated – that’s one of the awesome things about smart, passionate people. Over the past 12 or so years that I’ve been involved with digital media I’ve built up a great network of people who are always sharing work – be it industrial design, advertising, technology or art.
 
Q: What does your ideal client/project look like? 
Honestly, As long as everyone is collaborative and we can be clear on all fronts (individuals, client company and agency) about our goals then the project should be great. The key is making sure we all know what our definition of success is.

Rather, what kills a project or project experience is when there are hidden agendas. For example, I had one project where the team was making no progress to get the client to really see the opportunity they had. We would come up with great stuff, and we could not get it approved nor could we get clear feedback as to where it wasn’t working. I finally spoke to the client directly and found out they got a bonus if they launched a certain number of programs within a given time frame – so our project needed to launch without exception by a certain date. Once we understood that the rest was easy.
 
Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project? 
Constant and very clear communication all the way through is key. I find most people are very understanding as long as they have the opportunity to help make decisions and choices – but they aren’t when backed into a corner. You also have to know who you are talking to, the experience they have and the level of information they need - and then tailor your communication to them.

Templates help as well.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
 Probably working with a financial services company to use web technologies to re-define their client management processes. It allowed them to reduce their staff costs/client by about a third. That was a meaty one.

 Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
 Totally depends on scale, but I have personally had about 15 going at once. But that wasn’t really comfortable.
 
Q: What does your dream production team look like? 
The people, skills and size change on need, but it’s made up of smart people who want to do great work. And they have no problem telling me why I’m wrong…though they also know they have to listen to me ;)

 Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We’re in client service – our client’s best interest has to permeate everything we do. We need to be constantly talking, evaluating and reviewing to make sure that what we’re doing is servicing their goals – and that those goals were captured correctly at the outset.
 
Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like? 
One word: Ecosystems.
 
Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The most important thing you can do is learn how to learn…and then keep that as a practice. After that - retain humility so you can recognize when you might actually be wrong.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Wunderman

2009-05-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company. 
My name is Daniel Farinella and I’m the director of Flash animation and multimedia development at Wunderman New York. Wunderman is a global relationship marketing agency focused on creating and maintaining impactful conversations between our clients and their customers. Surrounding myself with a truly passionate group of professional developers and animators, my team and I are constantly pushing the limits of digital development through new and different types of digital media and programming. I appreciate the skill and dedication of my team, and marvel at what they accomplish daily.

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?
Majoring in 3D modeling and animation at the New York Institute of Technology, I learned the theories of good design, motion, and typography early on. After graduation, I was faced with the harsh reality that jobs in the 3D space were indeed scarce in New York City. I wasn’t willing to move to the west coast at that time in my life, so I began to accept positions in other areas of the computer graphics field. Throughout the next few years, I worked in a variety of disciplines such as package design, magazine layout, photo retouching, video editing, motion graphics, and interactive art direction. All along, I became quite proficient in the required applications for each of these disciplines.

I was introduced to a new application called Flash and was instantly impressed with its capabilities and how it could create animation at such a small file size. I devoted the next few weeks learning the ins and outs of this new application. Once I became proficient in the tools available, I began to apply my knowledge and training in 3D modeling / animation to my projects in Flash. I was hooked. This short learning period was enough for me to decide that a career in Flash was right for me. From that point on, I was a Flash animator / developer and nothing else. I spent the next few years freelancing for an array of different advertising agencies. I paid close attention to how each agency organized their projects and talent. Being exposed to so many different organizations, I was able to form an educated opinion of how I feel a Flash development team should be run.

After jumping around the New York agency circuit, I finally found my way to Wunderman and I really enjoyed it. Today, I still like working at Wunderman for the same reasons that I liked it when I joined: the projects are good, the work is consistent, and I really like the people. In 2006, Nick Moore took the creative reigns here and expanded the New York office’s digital offering. Nick offered me the opportunity to build and direct a team of Flash animators. This was a great opportunity, but just having a group of Flash animators churning out banners wasn’t what I felt the agency needed. In order for Wunderman to stay competitive and in line with the evolution of interactive / digital media production, I needed to do better. I searched out and hired a small group of passionate multitalented animators and developers who are truly passionate about their art. I provided them with quality equipment, a healthy dose of motivation and as a team, we achieved my vision of a fully functioning multimedia studio. Now we provide Wunderman with a vast array of services that include Flash animation / programming, custom application development, motion graphics, video editing, sound / music production, and enhanced presentation services.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
My team and I are all multi-talented animators, developers, and overall digital artists. We all have a passion for technology and can’t keep our fingers off every new piece of software to hit the market. In my own case, just having the right team is the key to keeping them informed. On many occasions, they are teaching me new things they have learned.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
It’s hard for me to pick out which project was my favorite, but I’m sure every director interviewed on this site can tell you which project was their worst.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client is one that is willing to push the boundaries of digital media. A project from this client would include every different discipline my team is capable of, but used in a well thoughout and cohesive manner. Just because we can do it doesn’t mean it’s necessary.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Clients are sometimes uncertain about the technologies they require to achieve their goals. I always make myself, and my team, available for internal and external client consultation.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time? 
I pride myself on organization and having a great team. I believe this increases my ability to take on more projects than one might expect.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream production team looks exactly like it does now. Everyone on my team is an expert in Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and other base computer graphics applications. Some of the team members are proficient in AS 2 and 3 while others are video editors, motion graphics artists, and digital musicians. We’ve got a well-rounded team that breaks the conventional silos you’ll often find in the typical development department. The strength of having this type of multitalented team is that a project can be worked on by multiple developers at one time. This style of teamwork helps us cut down the overall production time and enables us to make the tight deadlines that plague the advertising industry.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I do this by working closely with directors from other key areas of the company. Formulating a tight plan and paying close attention to the clients’ goals before a project kicks off, makes it easy for my team to focus on the technical aspects of their projects.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It’s always hard to tell what the future holds. I see the popularity of both video and social media being the main influences that will drive the types of projects we will be creating in the near future. As for the next phase of our industry, I hope to see Adobe and Google sort out the issues surrounding making both static and dynamic Flash content searchable.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Flash development is not simply a part of the production process, but a major part of the creative process. How a site functions and moves can easily dictate the mood and overall effectiveness of a project.

A Technical Point of View

2009-05-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company. 
My name is Juan Charvet, and I am a Lead Developer for VML (http://www.vml.com) where I manage a team of rich media developers to produce 360-degree campaigns centered around rich interactive components for adidas, Jagermeister, ESPN and more.

VML is a digital marketing agency that focuses on creative, and it has handfuls of interactive teams that excel in a variety of disciplines to successfully back that creative.

Unlike small boutiques, VML completes the whole interactive spectrum, from business analysis, UXP, SEO services, systems design/development, rich internet application development, mobile, QA and more.

The best part of it is that while the VML network is 700+ people wide with a home base in Kansas City, our NYC office houses 50-60 at any given time, so it makes us feel like a smaller shop with Midwestern charm and a heck of a lot of capabilities.

 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?
 In late 1997, I came across discounttiredirect.com while shopping for new tires online for my beat-up car. They had a nifty Shockwave application that would allow you to choose your car make and model, and it would filter their inventory to the wheels and tires that the user could install onto their car.

I remember being awed at the responsive feedback that it offered me through personalization; it was instant gratification at best. So I thought, “This is a great way to sell wheels and tires. Someone’s got to do the same thing to sell cars.” At the time, I was taking classes in 3D motion graphics and advertising, an had a multimedia class coming up on my schedule.

When it started, I produced a digital brochure developed in Director to promote an Audi Quattro. On top of adding the standard elements found in a car brochure, I added motion graphics, visualized car specs, and the ability to customize the car in and out. My satisfaction in combining all of this media led me to transfer to a new school to focus solely on interactive, and since then I haven’t looked back.
 
Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Word of mouth is king.

I get multitudes of links sent to me over email and instant messaging, and I am just as quick to forward them out if what was sent truly impressed me. Also, Google Reader has become my best friend lately. I’ve subscribed to a great range of blogs and tweets that offer their entries as RSS and have them syndicate right through my phone.

This keeps me inspired and in the know about my peers, the industry, and other things I am passionate about at any given second, whether I am walking down the street, on a subway, or waiting in line for lunch. And the topics of these blogs are priceless.

One piece of advice is to never limit yourself to keeping in touch with only what’s going on in the interactive industry. Other industries, such as music, live performance, photography, architecture, fashion design, and industrial design - well, they’ve all gone interactive, too.  

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on? 
I’d say that in my experience with VML, all of the work we’ve done with ESPN has risen above the rest, whether it be College Gameday or our upcoming work with this year’s ESPYS. College Gameday especially was an incredible challenge and experience for us.

The primary objective was to capture the experience of being one of the fans during the show’s live broadcast and recreating that experience online. If you’ve ever been to see College Gameday live when it comes to your city, you’ll know that it’s a morning of utter craziness.

The show is centered on location where the two best rival teams are playing that week, and there are equal amounts of fans rooting for each team. The hosts of the show each bring their own magic as they spotlight the teams and analyze the outcome. With all of this in mind, we went on location to absorb the full experience, capture key moments of the show, and produce some behind-the-scenes video content of the cast and crew for the site.

At this time, we realized that producing the online experience required us to build an extremely modular environment where we could replace the team flags, helmets, crowds, and general site colors each week depending on which teams were playing.

On top of this, we were launching new video content, stats, and fan signs almost every day, and we at times didn’t know the destination of the next show until three days before! This encouraged us to design an intelligent content management system and define a set of roles within our team to make sure all the latest content launched and performed smoothly throughout the whole season.

At the end of it all, we realized just how far we could push regularly updated content to make it as engaging as possible. As a matter of fact, all of our ESPN clients truly appreciate engaging creative and rich media, and they have always been open to our ideas.

Best of all, they’ve got a superb technical team behind the scenes managing and funneling the endless content that is housed on ESPN.com. We get to take advantage of having custom feeds made for us, place high-bandwidth media on content delivery networks without having to worry about costs – it’s the works.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is one that can collaborate with us on our ideas and artistic directions but regard us as the experts for the recommendations and directions we provide. He/she is open-minded to new ideas, but adheres control to their own objectives and demonstrates it through their decision-making process at all times.

The ideal client is eager to learn all facets of the end result and trusts us to be honest when we communicate something cannot be done or must be done differently. Best of all, the ideal client is one in which I never have to double-check my personal composition on. They accept us for both our accomplishments as well as our shortcomings and have a great sense of humor that they’re not afraid to use when they need to call us out.
 
Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project? 
Most of our clients are pretty savvy, but we want them to make an investment in learning about how we work. We help by creating a personal relationship with them so that they will in turn be encouraged to learn about us. Once we build this trust, it’s all about being honest and CONFIDENT when keeping them in the loop about the direction taken to meet any objectives, the tasks at hand in order to produce it, and the deadline. I cannot stress that last statement enough.

Clients have a great way of sensing whether you’re sure about yourself when you speak or not. So even if you are being honest but not so sure of yourself, chances are you’ll get shot down.

When new design or functionality comes into play, we do our best to work with our clients before setting the priority list in stone. Mainly, it boils down to whether or not the request has an explicit impact on the ability to measure the experience and objectives. If not, they usually agree to add it in at a later date.

On the other hand, if it is integral, then we educate them on the contingencies that this new addition surfaces and work with them to compromise between the other tasks at hand.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time? 
Personally, I can produce 5-6 projects comfortably at any given time, and have probably had up to between 9 and 12. I prefer to lead my team and divvy up the tasks to the team members that I believe would benefit most from working on them, and then I usually am fully committed to developing on one or two large-scale projects. Beyond that, my mind starts getting fried and I get all confused on what I need to develop for whom.

 Q: What does your dream production team look like?
 My dream production team involves a variable number of people pending on the scope of a project. Each of these said people care about what they’re producing as if it’s their own baby. It’s easy to see who on a team is passionate about producing impeccable work and who is eager to fall short.

I don’t get the truly passionate types confused with the people who are excited about the content of what is being produced. They need to demonstrate excitement for the context in which the content is distributed, because that is what they are producing.

Open communication is just as important. I’m often as easy to critique work and state my expectations of people just as I am to give praise and encouragement. But team leaders shouldn’t be the only ones with the passion to speak their mind. All team members need to have their own voice, and they need to take advantage of that.

To produce successful interactive solutions, each team member must be a natural problem solver in all aspects of life, whether it’s designing a business system, mathematical equation, or dealing with issues in their personal situation. If a person seems drastically problematic or incompetent dealing with a specific situation, I can’t deem them to be an excellent interactive producer because they cannot control their own real life interactions with themselves or others.

Lastly, each member in my dream production team needs to have some involvement in networking with the industry. This will empower that notion that it’s not about what they know, it’s who they know, and that will afford my team to acquire additional resources at any given time.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
 All projects go through a discovery phase in which we discuss the measurable challenges and objectives. We document this into both a creative brief and a fairly detailed functional specifications document that maps out every single business rule and requirement to a part of our design.

Through the creative and production process, constant, direct communication is key. While its usually required that channels of people are involved in every step of the way, questions are answered easier when they are most approachable through one-on-one time set aside over a phone call or email.

I encourage clients to meet with us as often as it takes to make them feel comfortable. Providing that level of support has really made some of our clients believe in us. Then at the end of each large project, we invite our clients to a debrief so that we can have an light-hearted discussion on how the process went, what was learned, and how what we learned could be applied to future projects.
 
Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
 The last few years have been focused on a four major things:

1. creating, harvesting, or syndicating interesting content
2. optimizing the content for search visibility
3. distributing the content through an rich and engaging interactive experience
4. tracking user interactions and measuring the results of users’ interactions within these applications.

Over the next few years, I believe we’ll see each of these verticals continue to get pushed. I can see database technologies that are designed to store, access, and cross-reference content in non-conventional ways. They will perhaps even allow for non-owners to access certain branches of the database for a charge.

Content will also start becoming available for purchase on a micro-payment basis. I believe there to be a struggle on finding standardization on SEO but believe that a universal ground can be reached, and parallel to that, tagging and tracking systems will become more robust.

Above all, the largest change in the coming year or two will be the way we distribute content to users for display and feedback. We are starting to see single sets of content being distributed through different user interfaces designed for different display types, whether it be for an LCD monitor, internet-enabled television, smart phone, architectural projection, or piece of clothing.

The big challenge here is whether to continue building separate visual interfaces for specific devices or whether there is a more efficient process to hit all of these birds with one stone. Our industry, at this time, will become responsible for the gateway in which all media is accessed. Alas, the rise of the creative technologist. The world is at our fingertips.

 Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The interactive industry moves and changes faster than you can blink, and this intimidated me. I feared myself to be one day obsolete as the tools available to me were and are still becoming more and more accessible to the younger generations. I finally (and only recently) ended this fear by accepting that I would never be able to excel in every single facet of interaction design.

Instead, I analyzed what I believed to be the PROCESS for success through an interactive project, embraced it, and demonstrated it. At this point, I now know how to preach the process, where and how I want to contribute to its success, and what tools I need to know it.

Digital Kinship

2009-05-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Andreas Tagger – co-founder / CEO / creative director of Brothers By Choice. Brothers By Choice is an independent, SF based boutique. We do all kinds of work from integrated campaigns to visual identity to something as small as an e-mail blast or a print ad. We started in January 2007 with my business partner and fellow founder and creative director Nei Caetano da Silva. We’ve been lucky enough to work on some really great brands since we started like World Wide Wrestling Entertainment, ESPN, Autodesk, Seagate, 2K Sports and Sagatiba.

We started the agency at a time when we were really, really tired and exhausted of agency life and all the inefficiencies and egos and general bullshit. We had been dreaming of doing this for a year or two before we actually made the final decision to try our hand at crafting our own agency. Nei and I were both working at an agency where he was the creative director and I was the senior art director. I got laid off, so Nei quit the same day I got laid off, we got really drunk, and on the next day started working out of his living room launching our site. We actually had the agency logo done about a year before, so we didn’t need to spend that much time figuring out our identity or how we wanted to position ourselves.

We really started the whole thing to enrich our lifestyle and continue being creative, but on our own terms. People often ask about our name, or if Nei and I are brothers. The name “Brothers By Choice” is summation of the idea that if you aren’t doing something in your life by choice, then you shouldn’t be doing it at all. It sounds silly to ask yourself if you are doing something on your own accord, but it’s easy to overlook if you analyze all your actions during the course of one day. We try work with our society of Brothers and Sisters in a collaborative environment, from friends, to partner companies, to clients.

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?
Since we don’t do production in-house, we don’t really have interactive producers. The interactive producers are brought in by the companies we choose to partner with. Some of them can improve, some of them are awesome. We try to pick companies we think we can grow with, so most of the time we’ve had great experiences and the interactive producers really help us set expectations for the client and manage workflow.

Producers have a hard life in my opinion. A colleague and I were just discussing how producers are essentially shit on 24/7 by the creatives and agencies as a whole. Out of the producers I worked with at agencies, and spent a lot of time with, one had a heart monitor and anxiety attacks, and the other two were hardcore alcoholic workaholics. All of them were really strong people and had to deal with major bullshit, so I give them a lot of respect. Beyond making sure a project got done on time they needed to manage or baby sit a pack of narcissistic children and make sure the agency was making money. You’re basically getting fucked by the agency executives and creatives, and I don’t think anyone every thanked them or even noticed their hard work. It’s kind of sad really.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We read Wired magazine and stuff like that, and we are all techie guys by nature. Our friends will pass along cool links to us, and we are always talking about technology or fiddling with IPhones or playing Xbox 360 or being gadget geeks. I think the technology just finds us naturally. It’s like doing magic or something discovering something supernatural, so we like it.

We might actively seek a certain technology if an idea warrants that kind of attention. We recently did a project for WWE where we need to find a way for consumers to edit video online, so that was interesting to see why or who we would partner with to get the consumer experience we were looking for.

As far as motivation we like design books and pretty aesthetics wherever they are. Our clients motivate us, since we are a small agency and have direct contact with the client during all phases of any project. We are always trying to do a good job for our clients and grow the business, because at the end of the day we love the feeling of being a “good boy.” It sounds silly to say, “I’m a good boy” or “good girl”, but I think everyone craves this basic need of feeling loved and accepted and nurtured. It makes us giggle when we can wear this badge, because it takes a lot of effort to be a good boy or girl.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Any client where you can become friends or laugh with, and any project that makes you feel proud and engaged creatively. Having repeat clients is really rewarding as a small business owner. A lot of our clients have turned out to be really cool people, so it’s more like working with friends than working for some depersonalized corporate monster. It needs to feel light and fun. We like projects that are integrated and keep us challenged. A project with a film component, web component and some kind of ad component like print are always fun to work on, but I think any project can have its merits in one way or another. It’s also good when you get projects that don’t have a timeline that is unrealistic.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I think it’s pretty simple. Honesty. You need to be honest at all times. A lot of people like to bullshit their clients and put on this used car salesman schtick and say “yes sire, anything you desire.” We treat our clients like people. If something is not possible, you just say, “I’m very sorry, but we can’t do that for you.”

Clients often come to us and say “can you do x,y,z by tomorrow?” We say no we can’t, because it’s not a realistic timeline, and you’re going to end up with something you’re not happy with. Then we ask them why there is such a rush. Over promising and under delivering is the worst situation you can get your self into, so most of the times they listen to us. We don’t lie to our clientele.

It’s important to try and educate your client about what you can and can’t do, because everything is always going to come last minute and there’s never enough time. Any client that cares about an agency will take the time to understand you, and respect your process. If the client isn’t growing with you and is treating you like a whore than it’s a sign it’s not a good relationship. It’s not a good creative breeding ground either. Business is important to us, so we try our hardest to make sure the client is happy. We try very hard to get the client to avoid certain pitfalls which hurt the creative process and their insurance policies. Clients come to agencies not only to do good work, but to advance and protect their own marketing careers. You need to be good to your client, and they need to be good to you, otherwise no one is gaining anything and everyone is wasting their time.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Probably the work we did for Sagatiba. We did a lot of brand positioning for them, got to shoot for two weeks all over Brazil in this sort of hellish vacation, got to shoot mixology films all over the United States and meet a lot of cool people. We partnered with some really cool companies and there were so many players that it was a rewarding experience. Currently we are launching their web presence internationally, which is challenging and also really exciting to work globally.

We love working with WWE also because they send us cool tee-shirts and laugh when we show them pictures of us playing with dangerous weapons in our office. I like clients that will randomly email things other than just work email, like funny pictures of kittens and weird kids that are giving them the bird and stuff like that. Having a sense of camaraderie with your client is really fun.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I’d say four to five projects at our current level. But that number could increase or decrease depending on staff and partners. We’ve handled about four projects simultaneously and it was doable, but stressful also. You need to be clever with how you handle your day.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
We more or less have the flexibility to work with any production team or company we’d like to, so it’s any partner that would be perfect for the project at hand. Hopefully it’s someone that we can grow with and work with in the future, and have a really great experience with. We’re always looking for that because most of the day is at work with your associates. Sometimes budgets and numbers can interfere with reality or who you would think is ideal or perfect, but most companies are pretty cool and level, if you are just honest and tell them up front you can’t do it for that price.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By setting expectations, giving good client service and creative that solves the problem at hand. I think clients like being around creative people that are quirky and can solve problem and offer unusual perspectives.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Hard to say. The ad rags really like to sensationalize this question. Most of everything they say is all bullshit. I think the industry is folding in on itself. Technology has played a large role in making people and the industry, as a whole, uncomfortable. The economy has really made people uncomfortable, considering we are facing the second economic downturn in eight years. It’s awful.

Personally, I think the big agency model owned by holding companies is a bit like the modern banking crisis, except there’s probably not a bail out plan in place for when they crash. The holding companies thought they could just acquire a bunch of interactive shops over the past four years and then get the traditional ad shops to tell the interactive shops to make ads for the internet. I don’t know how well that’s working because the ad guys don’t get the internet and the internet guys want to conquer the ad guys. I’m guessing there’s a lot of backlash with this acquisition model and a lot of unhappy investors. I can just imagine at some board room, someone said, “We really need to diversify our holding portfolio.”

I’m really, really hoping there’s an era of independent shops that large to middle sized clients will migrate to, realizing that they are going to get a much better level of service and better creative. I hesitate to even call them “ad agencies” because this new breed of business could come in so many forms and be like weird changelings. Maybe it’s a shop where the guys are brilliant at Flash and also After Effects and make amazing videos and sites. Maybe it’s a shop that focuses on connecting with consumers in cost-effective ways to connect consumers with modern technology.

Big ad agencies have so much inefficiency and fat, and that’s why people get laid off the second a client decides to put an account in review. The big ad agencies will do anything that they can to hold on and pretend they know what’s going on and use people. It’s sort of like the current state of the record industry. I can see a lot of lower tier agencies on the holding companies roster being dissolved for non-performance felonies.

I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on, or where things are going next. At this point, I’d guess it’s about retension of control and adaptation. The shops that can work multi-disciplinary are the ones to watch as the next big players. I don’t think you can really survive as an agency anymore and say “we don’t do interactive” or think saxophone is good. Sadly, a lot of shops that say they “can” to the press, simply hire another company to come up with the ideas for them, so it’s really a little inefficient and pathetic. TV is also dying. I think the clients are slowly coming to the realization you don’t need a couple million dollar production of thirty seconds of image to connect with consumers anymore, but they are still a tad bit tepid to accept reality. There’s a lot of money being wasted, and lot of hungry agency alumnus in the field.

Another thing I can see changing is the idea of geography. When people think of Europe or South America, the assumption is they can’t have that reach, but it’s possible. I can see a lot of smart European or South American agencies stealing business from the United States and vice-versa. There’s very little need to sit down in a physical conference room with a client anymore. There are very distinct advantages for agencies to not have staff working on location as well. People are used to the notion that if you are located in the United States, you work in the United States, but email brings everyone closer.

Eventually, I’d love to see the development of an advertising union. I think it’s bullshit that agencies take for granted that workers can work all night and not get paid for their time. It’s a little stupid, and I’m shocked it’s not illegal. The companies don’t care about the people who are spending less time with their girlfriends or boyfriends or kids. It’s not fair, and there are ways to accomplish the same amount of work in less time by working efficiently. Think about how cool it would be for workers to go on strike because the agencies are exploiting their workers? The world needs the Jimmy Hoffa of advertising in the next ten years. Just turn off the ad machine for a while.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Advertising is not art, it’s a creative process. Engage in the process, do your best, and then try to get over yourself.

Advance Jordan

2009-04-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Eric Jordan. I am the Chief Creative Officer for 2Advanced Studios, an interactive design studio based out of Southern California. 2Advanced Studios was born in 1999 and since its inception has completed well over 600 projects for various clients including AOL, Ford, Activision, EA Games, Google, and many more.

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 originally wanted to be a comic book artist. I used to scan my ink illustrations into the computer for the purpose of coloring them in Photoshop. Eventually I found myself designing fliers for electronic dance music parties and dabbling with HTML. At some point, I found myself creating these screen-by-screen animations in PowerPoint where I would line up various designs, attempting to string it all together into a kind of story-driven animatic. Suddenly, Flash came along and it changed everything. I was right in the middle of the revolution when it hit. That was the start of it all.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I have a lot of close relationships with the right people in the right places. This helps me stay on top of new products and technology coming out. Our relationship with Adobe is great. We often get to meet with the Flash team to provide insight into how our studio operates, how we use Flash in production, and how we think the technology could be improved. Everyone stays motivated on their own, so I do not typically have to get them hyped up on raising the bar. We only hire designers and developers that are highly self-motivated and WANT to take things to the next level on every project.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client/project is one where the focus is a product or service that we can get excited about and where the client will allow us as much creative freedom as we need to properly do our job. Sometimes a project can lose momentum if the client tries to reign in our creativity and doesn't let us find the sweet spot. Projects typically go smooth and successfully when we are given room to explore and break new ground.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Having successfully delivered 600+ projects, we try to help our clients understand where we are coming from when we try to steer them in a particular direction. It might be surprising to many that, although we are considered a "Flash" studio first and foremost, we often do not push Flash as a solution. Most clients would not benefit from a Flash solution and so we try to educate them why their project would best be married to a different technology. Sometimes this proves to be an uphill battle, but we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't at least try to help the client understand our position and our recommendations. Simply going along with what the client tells you they want would be irresponsible and could ultimately end up causing a project to fail miserably. We've seen it happen on more than one occasion.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The best projects are always our internal ones, mainly the 2Advanced website. The whole team gets together and brainstorms like crazy, living on Redbull and loud techno for weeks at a time, often sleeping under desks or not even sleeping at all. It's always an intensely creative time where everyone is working in both synchronistic harmony and utter chaos at the same time. It's always a surreal and rewarding experience.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
The team can typically handle around 5-6 projects at any given time without blowing a head-gasket. We've done away with the typical red-tape and bureaucratic processes that typically weigh companies down, so we're pretty streamlined and we are able to work rapidly while maintaining quality. We try to limit the amount of projects we are working on because quality is a big factor for us, and we never want to see that fall by the wayside.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
A team of multi-talented people is ideal. It's great having people who specialize, however there are times when their skills might not be in high demand because the types of projects we are working on may be skewed in another direction. It's not very beneficial to the company to have people twiddling their thumbs in a corner. To have people who can morph and transform based on the types of projects we have going helps keep everyone productive and engaged in what is going on. It is not out of the ordinary for us to have a programmer working on 3D animations, for example.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
First, we make sure that our side understands what the client wants to achieve and that everyone on our team has a clear understanding of how we are going to get there. Projects can often miss the mark if there is miscommunication or if someone doesn't understand the big picture. Even if someone is just doing a button design in Photoshop, they have to know all about the project, the client, and their ultimate goals. Making sure that everyone involved, from point A to point Z, understands this is key.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think we will see the Flash platform being extended to other devices and other industries, particularly set-top boxes, airline seat screens, and mobile devices (such as Flash for iPhone). Skilled designers and developers will have a whole new market open to them, without being cornered into the niche of web development. They will be able to apply their talents to a whole new range of mediums.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
If it's a "job", you aren't doing what you love.

Barcinski & Jeanjean

2009-04-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
We are Barcinski & Jeanjean a two man gang based in Amsterdam. We specialize in cutting edge experiences. That includes websites, installations, games. Anything goes, as long it's cutting edge and there is something to experience.

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?
we both started as HTML coders/designers then we moved to hard core backend coding for a while until we discovered Flash. That opened up a lot of new creative worlds for us. We started experimenting with design, interaction and motion, and use our coding skills to create the impossible.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We don't want to do anything twice. In order to keep us motivated we are always looking for something new. Emerging technologies or traditional techniques from other disciplines such as film and animation are great sources of inspiration and fun. We spend a lot of time looking for new challenges and when we can't find them we simply create them ourselves. Look at Vectorvision, we created this one because we wanted our text to look good in 3D.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Most of our ideas and solutions come during the creation process. The ideal client, therefore, would be one that can accept not knowing exactly what the end result will be. That requires a lot of confidence on both sides. The client needs to be confident that what we do is right and we need to be confident that the client will be able to understand what we are trying to achieve.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We try to be very clear about what can and can't be done. We believe anything is possible, one way or the other, given sufficient time and budget. So it usually comes down to how much a project is worth to the client.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Our own website. We were totally free to do whatever we felt was right. And since there was no deadline we could spend as much time as needed on finding the best solutions and giving attention to detail. And we feel that really shows in our website. But there's also a downside to not having a deadline. As we are both perfectionists we had to draw a line at one point and say "Now it's finished", otherwise we would still be working on it today.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Many, but we usually try to do only one at a time. That allows you to really focus on a particular project and give it enough thought to maximize it's potential in all aspects.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
The dream production team consists of wide range professionals that are both specialized and "broad". In other words each of the team members is not only a genius in his own discipline but is also genuinely interested and inspired by the talents of others. Team members should work together more in an "artists collaboration" style rather than in factory style processes.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We are not trying to sell our clients anything, we work with clients that come to us because they like our style. We will do everything not to disappoint them and be honest about what they want. For example, sometimes clients express the explicit wish for a 3D website while in some cases it's far from being the best solution. As much as we love doing 3D websites, it's important then to convince the client to let it go.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It's a very interesting time right now, just when we though that our industry had matured we got caught by surprise. The economic crisis, the exponential growth in mobile markets, the growing casual gaming market. It all forced us to reconsider our priorities and focus. We see many opportunities along the way.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible" - M.C. Escher

Champagne Wishes and Digital Dreams

2009-04-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Champagne Valentine is a creative digital agency devoted to expressing interactive and beautiful experiences across all applications. The creative visionaries are Anita Fontaine and Geoff Lillemon and at the moment they are depending on a close circle of friends and fans for production and support such as myself, Dexter Randazzo

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?
One day I went to Boston on a sales trip and Geoff and Anita came speeding towards me on a machine and we went swimming in Walden Pond and I have been enticed with the digital experience ever since. It is them and their aesthetic that inspires me to work in this medium, no the medium itself.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I talk to people who are smarter than me

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It's creatively open and financially rewarding.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Starting from the beginning with a clear creative object, schedule and budget is always the way to manage expectations.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Our current website

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on the project. But I would say 3 - 4 comfortably.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Again, depends on the project but Ideally I like to have the creatives overseeing, not executing. And a good production team so no one is over worked. I believe that everyone should have one role and the production should be seamless and streamlined.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By maintaining their expectations from the beginning and also making sure there is streamlined communication. I'm also a firm believer in going a little bit above and beyond all of the time.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think it's going to be a confusing shuffle for the next year but that more and more the industry needs people who can handle all aspects of production. And our industry needs people who can relate to an audience and reach them in a way never seen before.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Get away from the computer, buy some flowers, sip some bubbly, enjoy life.

Open to Change

2009-04-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Jason Sutterfield with The Martin Agency where I function as the Director of Technology and Production. My primary responsibilities are management of our digital production studio, and assisting in new business and cross training within our Integrated Production and Design group which includes all mediums of advertising.

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 started my career in adverting 13 years ago as a developer. During my development years I worked within a lot of developmental silos including front-end and back-end development, game/lingo development, Shockwave, Flash, server management, production design, etc. I moved into a role of project management/producer approximately 8 years ago. I truly enjoy having my hands in all aspects of project life cycle.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Having a strong, tight-knit group that loves to share is key! Google Reader has become a great asset to our team. We all follow our own RSS/blogs and then with the stroke of a key are able to share with each other a story or topic and then continue the conversation with our points of view. Between everyone in the studio I guarantee there isn’t a topic covering technology, production or advertising we’re not aware of. Twitter has also become a way of life of ours: not only to communicate with each other, but also to more broadly share key topics that might benefit the agency as a whole.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It is our responsibility to lead the client in whatever endeavor we approach them with. It is our job to help them understand the limitations of a technology or advertising exercise. The ideal client is one that is open minded to new ideas that might have not been executed before, and also one that will consistently push us to drive the idea further than even originally imagined.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The agency’s relationship with the client must be trustworthy: period. If it is, you’re then able to carry on a realistic conversation and set expectations throughout the project accordingly.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
At any given time our group is juggling upwards of 50+ projects in different phases of the production lifecycle. We attempt to level our producers in a way that they’re able to focus on the quality and delivery of the end result.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
A team that is nimble and agile in response to the consistently changing demands of the project. If we’re able to keep our teams small, informed and focused we’re able to produce amazing work.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Integration among our offline production partners is key! Integrated campaigns are a way of life now and we need to constantly drive to find efficiencies across all mediums to provide world class work.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be open to change; perhaps even daily change. Our industry is evolving so quickly we must be open to new ideas; new leaders; and even more importantly, new client demands.

The Future is Friendly

2009-04-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Catherine Eve Patterson and I am the VP of digital production for McCann. We are a small, but growing guerrilla outfit in a large, monolithic agency endeavoring to do great digital work with our clients. In the last six months we have produced apps, sites, campaigns, animations, platforms, the works. I'm really proud of the progress we have made.

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 born in San Francisco, moved to NYC when i was two months old, Vienna when I was two years old, and India at seven. That started me on a long road of trying to make sense out of various cultures with varying degrees of mayhem. It certainly introduced me to the concept of relative morality. I arrived at boarding school as an American teen who had never lived in America and got busy making and producing weird art of all kinds. This took me to NY, London, Paris, Nice, SF, Spain and Brooklyn. I worked as a producer, writer and developer in theater and independent film, migrated into gaming, then streaming video/mixed media/experiential stuff, always kinds of interested in the convergence of tech and art and the ways people used these elements to create community and narrative.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
It helps if you're an insatiable data junkie. I also recommend having smart creative geeky friends and colleagues who like to freak about cool new things and blog and spam the hell out of each other with inspirations of all kinds, especially unexpected ones. For team building, I regularly take my team out for cultural outings to see important art films like Quantum of Solace and Fast and Furious. We also go see Buckminster Fuller shows. We work around the clock more or less, often in multiple countries, projects and languages--so we relax as much as possible when the opportunity to do so arises.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
What's so cool about working with digital clients, where budgets are sometimes still quite lo-fi, is you all get to be brave and problem-solve in very creative ways. You really have to come up with some bootstrap solutions which can yield amazing results. An ideal client for us would be one who had a great brand and was open to and eager for the chance to develop a true digital platform around the work-this might take the shape of any media--broadcast work, video, experiential, apps, you name it. The idea is to find a way to translate a super cool idea across a bunch of existing and emerging media channels

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Structure is our friend. We are big fans of the conservatory model of art school-you have to learn and understand and apply structure to be able to break it. We use it to define process, flow, deliverables, the works. This way we have a baseline to map back to if it all starts going horribly awry at any point. We also help clients get oriented in the digital market space by looking at what's out there with them, and trying to help with what we think a road to success might look like. Whether they take our advice or not is a different question. But all is love.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Producing digital work for The Phoenix Mars Lander Mission with Principal Investigator Peter Smith from the University of Arizona, Jet Propulsion labs and NASA. Those guys really know how to produce some amazing s***.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on the scale-usually no fewer than 3, no more than 12 or so. From tiny tiny to very large, enterprise stuff, with a team of like-minded producers.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Like the one I have, with a couple add-ons from old haunts. Smart, funny, fearless, unstoppable, patient and kind.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We try to show them that we're in it for the long haul with them. Clients are understandably nervous making forays into new digital digital ventures, so we try to baby-step stuff as needed, always trying to work with them to produce best-of-class creative digital that has "legs", to use the old-school phrase. Stuff we can build on instead of throw away. It's been a pretty successful model thus far.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Some day people will create analog selves and doppelgangers to get away from the full transparency model we're headed into. Until then, as walls to media erode, and full transparency gains, it'll be the non-stop narrative we produce for. I am looking forward to producing work for smart fabrics, homes, digital bill boarding of all kinds, dirigibles, hand-held media, customized apps, robotics and digital assistants of all kinds.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The future is friendly.

Interactive Aristocracy

2009-04-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Heather Reddig and I'm the Executive Producer at Your Majesty Co. We're a creative agency founded by Swedes and based in New York, dedicated to excellence in advertising, design, and communications. Your Majesty has quickly been established as a well-known interactive agency, partly because of the reputation of the staff but also because of numerous award-winning productions for clients such as Cisco, American Express, Yahoo!, Vitamin Water and The New York Times.

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?
When I was a child, I was sulking about not having an Atari when all my friends had one. To shut me up, my dad taught me how to build my own games on a Tandy 100, using BASIC. I signed onto prodigy.net around 1990, and I was totally sucked into bulletin boards, and I've been stuck on the internet ever since. I graduated with an English major and film studies minor, and just kicked around at various jobs - from waitress to record store girl to insurance broker to animal caretaker intern at a zoo. The first job that was pure internet was working as a web project manager for an insurance company. I did the PMP/Six Sigma thing for a bit, but really wanted something way more creative. So I moved to New York and got into digital advertising. It seemed to be a natural fit for me - I got to be surrounded by creative people, interested in the same things I was, and essentially nerd out all day.

I'm going back to school this Fall, I've just been accepted into the Masters of Media Arts program at the New School. It will be tough sometimes, I'm sure, to balance work and school, but I think it's going to be rewarding. I'm excited to learn about media from a theoretical perspective rather than a business/production perspective, and I'm looking forward to a cross-disciplinary focus across all types of media - film, audio, digital, social, etc.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We're a pretty small group, and we're constantly passing things around to each other through emails, etc. We're also an eclectic bunch, with all sorts of different interests and talents, so our inspiration is not just limited to emerging technologies, but music, fashion, design, art, film, books, politics, ad campaigns, history, current events, economics, stupid online videos, photoshopping eachother's faces into ridiculous photos. I also have a huge mess of RSS feeds that I try to keep up with. And finally, my friends - word of mouth is key.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I like clients who know what they want and are looking to take risks. I also like the projects that involve a bit of everything - video, audio, 3D, post, mobile, installation, etc etc. I also like informationally-heavy sites, where information architecture and user experience is very important. Being in a small agency, I get to be a part of pretty much every project from start to finish, which is great, because I get exposed to all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't necessarily be aware of in a big agency.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
This is why project documentation and communication is so important. I author or co-author almost all of the project documentation, from proposals to SOWs to detailed project plans to functional requirements and IA to technical specifications. Some clients are familiar with all of that, others, who may be working on their first web project, don't know what to expect. I make sure that every client understands the documents that they're approving, and if they have any questions at all, to please please please ask me. My goal is to make every client feel comfortable asking me any question, even if they think it's dumb, because it's so much better to be over-communicative than under.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I'm not trying to avoid playing favourites here, but tend to like whatever I'm working on now the best. I'm happy to have a job where I get to do something new every day - it's the nature of the digital space.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It really depends on the project. I like to have a lot of stuff going on at once, as I get to be exposed to more clients, products, ideas and technologies. You also become more efficient in the day-to-day stuff, and sometimes the snap judgements you make are the best decisions of the project. But slowing down and concentrating on fewer projects is nice too.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
If I could add a few people I've worked with over the years to the team I work with right now (creative and development), that's it.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I think what defines a producer is the ability to critically assess a project, to be able to identify and manage not only the when and what and how, but also the why. Understanding why a project is being undertaken is the link between not only the producer and the client, but also the producer and his/her internal teams, and also ensures that no one loses sight of the big picture.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
If I knew that, I'd be rich already. But I like to think I'm prepared for anything.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Always look for that one thing in every project to learn from.

Studio Blirp

2009-04-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is Andrés De Mula. I’m the creative director of the Studio “BLIRP”. I’m a graphic designer and animator. I have always had a passion for animation and design and I think the best way to combine both is by the motion graphics.

BLIRP was founded by my friend Rodrigo Díaz and I. We specialize in character and concept design as well as in motion graphics.

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?
The first film which surprised me when I was a kid was Tron jajaj. I found it so odd, it’s so typical of the 80’s that I think it would be in fashion nowadays. I went on watching cartoons until I met Totoro by Miyasaki, and then I discovered the world of the anime and I ended up in Tokio some years later. There I visited de Gibli Museum and also Toei. Then I decided that was what I wanted to do. At the same time my taste for the Bauhaus and typography grew more and more. Nothing better than motion graphics as an answer to the mix I have inside me.

We love Studio 4C and Lobo, it’s so good what they do!

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Watching a lot of material all the time. At the studio on Fridays we do something we call “blirping”: we invite friends who are designers or just people interested in the subject and we watch motion pictures and motion cartoons and a lot of Stash. By the way I tell you that number 55 will show the studio and our work.

We also watch, read and know about the latest news thanks to the Internet. We don’t need much motivation since we all love what we do, but we think that we still have a long way to reach where we want, but we are just starting and we hope we’ll have more opportunities to achieve better things.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client for us would be MTV and Cartoon Network because it seems they give you freedom of expression. They are our favourite channels.

The project we would like most is to make an animation movie in which the character design, backgrounds and story are created by us.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We live in Mendoza, Argentina. Our client is absolutely unaware of all the axial work involved. Every time we do a job we have to explain why it takes so much time and how we do it. We generally explain everything in meetings before beginning to work.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
At present we are working in two top-secret projects which we love, with two studios in Buenos Aires: with Pepper Melon and DGPH. They make fascinating vinyl toys and they have asked us to make an animated piece for Cartoon Network or Nick, (not decided yet) but it’s top, top-secret: so shhhhhh...!

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends on the complexity of the project. Some times one, two or three, but not more. I like to supervise every piece of work, the others do, too. We are obsessive with that.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
We all get on very well and it’s so pleasing to work in BLIRP that I think I already have my dream team, but it would be better if we were more. But it’s difficult to find qualified people to work in the studio because Mendoza is a small city and there are not places (schools, colleges) that prepare for it.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We give the best of us in all occasions encouraged by the passion for what we are doing.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Since technology is becoming cheaper and easier to work with, I think that talent and the studio style will be the most importat. In this world which is so globalized everything looks alike and that’s a bit scary. In my opinion, originality in the production methods and aesthetics will be looked for.
On the other hand, virtual reality is also something worth exploring: I imagine myself designing worlds in a not far away future.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Cheer up! It seems impossible to think that animation studios can appear in remote places of the world (if you knew where I live, you would know what I mean). My advice is that you have to be enthusiastic and persistent, read a lot and watch all kinds of movies, learn and experiment without fear. We have only one life and we must be happy.

180Producer

2009-04-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Paul Sutton and I run Interactive projects out of the Integrated Production department of 180LA. We are part of the Omnicom network and were created by 180Amsterdam about two years ago. Our clients include Sony, adidas, Bombay Sapphire, and Boost Mobile.

Previously I started the Interactive Production group at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and worked on Volkswagen and truth at Arnold Worldwide.

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 initially wanted to get into the creative side of advertising – first a designer and then a writer. My background was always in digital since I started learning HTML out of a book years ago for my very own Geocities page. I was really fond of advertising and specifically Arnold Worldwide’s work for Volkswagen in Boston so my pursuit led me to their office.

The only position available was as an Assistant Producer in their Interactive Production department and I took the job in the hopes of eventually jumping to the creative side.

I quickly realized that my creative abilities would have a long way to go to catch up with anyone there, and found digital production to be a fun challenge on its own.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
By reading a lot of blogs on an array of topics – technology, cars, politics, and food – often times I find content that applies to a project I’m working on in the most unlikely of places. Also, comments and discussions relating to a topic are very valuable and can explore similar topics tangentially.

To keep strong communication with my team, I get out of e-mail and passive discussion methods. Speaking with someone in person brings up a lot of questions that neither of you may have realized even existed. It also gets their heads out of a complex spreadsheet, ActionScript project, or burgeoning e-mail box.

E-mail or IM best serves the purpose of resolving the nitty gritty issues of a project but it’s still important to understand the bigger picture – why are we doing this? Is there a simpler solution? Are we maintaining a strong creative product for the client with the decisions we make?

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A lot of people I talk to or interview say they would love to work on a brand that makes “cool stuff”. For me, however, it’s all about the clients. A flexible client who gives you room to work and create the best message for them is more important than the actually product that’s advertised.

For example, a brand perceived as boring might have some great clients who are actually looking to elevate their brand. In this case the agency can go beyond a typical campaign and can get involved in retail placements, product research and development, and PR. At that point the relationship is truly two ways and extends beyond simply replying to a campaign brief.

Suddenly, a boring product no other agency really wanted to work on can become popular or innovative as a product of the relationship.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
In the past I have seen some producers try and hide things from the client – either in a 35 page deck of wireframes or small print in a Statement of Work – that is sent through by the Account Service team. It’s important for the producer to walk clients through estimates, wireframes, or SOWs and lay things out clearly in a conversation.

Thus, the producer can go over potential areas where client involvement will be key or certain decisions will be necessary. Often when this dialogue is represented by a chain of forwarded e-mails the importance of the message becomes diluted.

I feel more confident my point of view is relayed accurately when I’m able to directly express it to key clients.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I worked on a Volkswagen project to introduce the new GTI – it pushed me into areas I had little experience. In about a month the site had to be produced to include digitizing a GTI, creating 3d renders of every available accessory in several angles, casting and shooting for a multiple path video, and pulling together an engine that would let users customize their car and watch a corresponding customized video.

Working on a time sensitive project (the launch tied in with the Olympics) with a high-profile for the client allowed me to get quick decisions made and put me in a situation where I had to learn all about 3d scanning, rendering, and retouching on the fly.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It’s best to be busy – projects range in scope, of course, and tighter timeline projects eat up hours and time quickly. The most I have worked on at one time was 9; I would have been comfortable with about half of that.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
People who are smart and flexible are ideal. Some producers who have worked for a while come in with institutional inertia preventing them from looking at projects objectively. These producers scoff or shoot down ideas that they have not worked on before and seem foreign to them without taking the time to do any research.

The best producers I’ve worked with refuse to say “No.” They offer alternatives and can manage the uncertainties of production without discomfort.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Communication is key. Ask the hard questions that everyone in the room is thinking but no one wants to say – “What’s the plan if this campaign doesn’t go viral” or “Is this campaign best served by producing so much work?” Decisions need to be informed and agreed to as a group.

If at any point your team and client is not aware of a certain path the project is headed towards the producer has an obligation to relay that information.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It’s been headed towards a content based model for a while now and will continue to head there. We’ve gone from beautiful animations on microsites to 140 character twitter feeds. From a client’s perspective, I think the projects that are coming out now better suit their needs than using technology for technology’s sake.

There will always be campaign specific content on sites; the longer term process of evolving a client’s website with utilities and content that a consumer is looking for will have greater importance.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Production is production is production. Less so lately, but it seems that Interactive Producers are seen as magicians who work behind closed doors. Great producers can achieve some level of success in this model as work still gets produced, but less experienced producers will often go down the wrong path at some point and leave the client feeling burned.

It’s these experiences that subject Interactive jobs to greater checks and balances, and with good reason. To avoid this, watch how broadcast or print producers work. The communication is all open – pre-production meetings with the client and the vendor on the same phone. Or a shoot where the client sits next to the agency and decisions are made together.

Interactive Production has to be more transparent; waiting weeks between client reviews tends to indicate to me that something is wrong. Prototypes and pre-vis can be shown; or music, sound, or copy. It’s ok to disagree with the client on decisions and explain why, but they need to be included in the process.

By doing this, the client suddenly is a more involved stakeholder and feels a greater ownership of the project. They are more satisfied with the end result and will also speak highly of the agency to the other members of their team.

Creative Cartelle

2009-04-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

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."

Jetting Upward

2009-04-03T04:53:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company. 
My name is Brent Gairy and I’m a project manager at Off-Site Services. We are a web development studio that partners with all manner of creative agencies to create great online destinations. I’m also a partner at SalientDrift.com, which specializes in creating websites for music and marketing clientele. 

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 got my first start in digital production subtitling Japanese anime tapes back in 1996 as a means to make a few dollars in high school. I went to college to do computer animation but once I saw Photoshop and Authorware I changed majors to multi-media and never looked back.

After college I interned at Domani Studios and then freelanced for a number of years doing a lot of work in the music and fashion industries. Over the years I transitioned from design, then production, and now I’m firmly entrenched in the project management side of things.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated? 
I’ve always been fascinated by emerging technologies and I tend to consume all manner of information pertaining to new trends. Therefore, I would be lost without Google Reader, Evernote, and Twitter. I’m blessed that my team is always ready and able to learn a new API or application; it makes my job slightly easier.

 Q: What does your ideal client/project look like? 
My ideal client is someone who has:
A vision for their project/brand.
A realistic budget.
Someone who is willing to learn about the web.
Is open to challenging the status quo.

 Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
 I feel developing a relationship is paramount. If your client doesn’t trust you and believe you have their best interest in mind; the project will not go smoothly. Sometimes, I’ll show a client a competitor’s site and explain the pros and cons of that website and how it can be improved. I often send clients emails of interesting articles or websites that might be helpful. Most importantly I try to be available to answer any question a client may have.

Managing expectations sometimes means telling client things they sometimes don’t want to hear. In those cases I have alternate solutions to soften the blow. Saying “no” sets the stage for bruised feelings. It all comes back to the trust thing again.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
 I have worked on quite a few great projects. However, I would have to say the portfolio site I worked on for Little x was a high-water mark for me as a producer. I got the opportunity to work with my college mentor, as well as, several childhood friends. Even today I get compliments from people in the music industry when they find out I worked on it. 

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
 I would say about 8 projects at a time. I’m often working on two large sites, including various smaller projects on a daily basis.  

Q: What does your dream production team look like? 
It would be a multi disciplinary team that has worked with one another for a number of years. Working with people where I am knowledgeable of their thought processes, helps me to focus on the client and get their deliverables completed. 

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met? 
We are in a service industry. This means always informing the client of the big picture goals along with where we are in the development process. At the end of the day their work isn’t a portfolio piece, its their livelihood.  

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
 I recently saw Microsoft labs 2019 video, and the way the internet seamlessly blended into reality struck me. We need devices and services that disappear and let people become more productive and creative. I can’t wait to see the technological cross pollination that will make this future a reality.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Interactive is more than technology, its closer to a bespoke tailoring. People should be able to see and feel the attention to detail in your projects.

One Hundred Fifty Percent

2009-04-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello! I’m Erinn Farrell, and my role here at space150 is as the Lead Project Manager – essentially I have the privilege to not only be involved on Client specific projects, but I’m also part of an amazing group of people who are committed to success across all of our clients and improving the role of Project Management in relation to our clients and internally.

The project management team is just one of many cogs that makes our company, space150, so successful. space150 is the first hybrid agency to join the best practices from art and design to science and technology, thus combining ad agency creativity with software company adaptability.

We maintain this harmonic blend of design and technology in order to create meaningful digital relationships. space150 utilizes a multidisciplinary team of strategic, creative, technology, usability, and media professionals who will collaborate to create user experiences that are consistent with your brand position and business objectives. Check us out at: www.space150.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?
Prior to joining space150, I worked as a consultant for Accenture Consulting with Oracle Systems and Best Buy. During my tenure, I had the opportunity to lead the testing and development effort on various large-scale retail product launches, including call center, item and warehouse management, and point of sale solutions. In addition to myself, other members of the space150 PM team have come from traditional advertising, photography production, and technical development.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
At space150 we are blessed to have so many disciplines and team members that keeping up with technologies is so easy because a ton of information comes to us! Our teams are eager to learn & experiment, so if an opportunity arises we are sure to do some investigation and then work with our teammates to determine how to utilize the technology or process.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Our most successful relationships have been with Clients who are interested in partnering to determine not only how a website looks & performs, but also what the business needs are & what solutions are most intriguing while being appropriate, and who are most committed to keeping an open mind!

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The more communication up front the better! We are sure to include an explanation of our process, time lines, milestones, etc. in our initial conversations with all Clients and work to create documentation that supports our process while conforms to the Clients needs as well.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Honestly, I have had the opportunity to work on so many great projects it’s hard to choose! I did however truly enjoy the rebuild of www.starz.com – this project included everything thing from strategy, design, requirement definition, and a ton of development – the entire project was about a year in length but it was a blast all the way through!

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It obviously depends on size and scope, but I’ve found that the number of projects matters less than the number of clients. I try and assign around 5 Clients per Project Manager – allowing them enough projects per Client to really understand not only the Project deliverables & but the larger Client goals as well.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I already have it; my dream team is space150!

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Communication with the client and internally; a high level of visibility for all members involved, and frequent check-ins/meetings/reviews to be sure the client & space150 relationship grows along with the project.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think the next big challenge is going to be how do we do more with less. Monetarily with the economic client, but also physically with size of mobile devices – the challenge will be how to remain as creative, as cutting edge, as agile, as opportunistic with less space, money, and often time.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
You need to let the team determine the leader you are going to be, not vice versa. The most successful teams and relationships I have built are those informed by the people around me. By being open & understanding of personalities, working styles, and pressures I’ve been able to adapt my leadership style to what is most necessary for that particular Client/Project/Team.

Also, you need to know that success is different for every situation – so be prepared to define what success means and what you can do to ensure it happens.

Sterling Silver

2009-04-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello all, my name is Harry Crane and I head up the newly created Television Department at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency.

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 originally started off as a media buyer until I was recently appointed the head producer of Sterling Cooper's newly formed television department. The department is pretty small right now, it originally consisted solely of me until I expanded the department by adding a script reviewer.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Well since its initial launch in the U.S. in 1940, TV commercials have become one of the most effective, persuasive, and popular method of selling products of many sorts, especially consumer goods. We are still in the pretty early stages of TV and there is a long way to go before we start to see what this square box can do. For now I watch tons of commercials and even try to think of ways to adapt what some of those folks in Hollywood are doing on the big screen for the small screen. Its pretty neat if you think about it.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client would have to be a brand that is willing to think outside of the box and take a risk on putting more of their campaign dollars into television or broadcast as we call it in the industry. A client who can see past the obvious limitations of what the current state of Television is and realize that as early adopters it is we who are now pushing the envelope and who will take this new platform to the next level. Trust me when I say that it will be the innovators in this new platform, the clients who take a chance, who will adapt to it quicker and ultimately be ahead of the game when everyone else jumps on the band wagon.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Well not many people really know what the Television is truly capable of in terms of being a new platform for advertising in more robust and creative ways. Sure print is great, but TV has so much more punch. What I try to do is to give them a bit of a background as to what the technology behind Television is all about but then I give them a glimpse into the future! That is when they get excited. True perhaps I do set some pretty high expectations but I am just so darn excited about creating content for an emerging platform.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Well I must say I am a bit biased because it was the project that landed me in my new position. It would be the Belle Jolie project I worked on with a copywriter here at Sterling named Peggy Olson. The reason this was an ideal project is that I took the risk of proposing to a representative of Belle Jolie that the cosmetics company sponsor a controversial viral television drama. The rep declined, but Bertram appreciated my initiative for forward thinking and let me start our new Television department.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I would say about 3-4 at any one given time. I am a department of one so for now we send the creative out to a production team outside the agency who will then pretty much do whatever we ask. They are pretty quick with this stuff and have all kinds of cool editing equipment, I sometimes like to go watch, they love it when I show up!

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Well that is pretty simple, it would start off with Don Draper who is one of the most mysterious men I ever met but no one in this industry can get into the minds of the consumer like Don. Then I would probably want Peggy Olson on board because the stuff she comes up with is golden, that girl has a real knack for copy writing. Salvatore Romano is a must have because what team would be complete without an art director? I would definitely want to include Ken Cosgrove who is a great account executive that manages the client in a way that keeps them out of our hair. With a team like that you cant lose!

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Well, I will tell you a little secret, its the scotch and cigarettes. What we do is we kind of get ourselves going at around 11am, the stress level gets pretty high at around 3pm but we just take things up a notch and a few doubles and a good pack and a half smoked usually keeps us pretty calm. Our clients actually send us cartons and cases for the office, it keeps us creative folks calm and lets us think clearly when we are coming up with ideas.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Oh there is a lot on the horizon. I think we have only scratched the surface of where Television is going to be in 20 years from now. I go to conferences and hear a lot of the chatter about new channels that have more content to advertise against. But these channels will be special, they will have a niche purpose to cater to specific audiences, imagine that. We can advertise directly to demographics that we are able to target through these niche channels. Its a long way off but innovations are being made every day. GE is actually working on something called Porta-Color, apparently all TV screens will be in full color but I think it will be a while before signals are actually broadcast in color. I know that there was a group who had developed a color system that was compatible with existing black and white sets and they recently passed FCC quality standards, with RCA developing the hardware elements.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Well I have to say that my wife has been instrumental in motivating me to be more ambitious at work. She says that advertising is a growing industry that will explode pretty soon. So I try to listen to her as much as possible and stay focused on my new department. I never get discouraged and know that my time to shine will come soon. So stay focused.

Digital Visionaire

2009-03-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Alex Alonso and I work as a project manager for the Visionaire Group. We are an award winning digital agency offering creative solutions via websites, ad display and emerging media.

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 start in digital production was more of a means than at end, at first. I started in Advertising (broadcast production) and when my wife and I wanted to move to NYC the only interesting opportunity at the time was as a junior producer for a small interactive shop. At the time I had little exposure to Flash and most of my personal online activity was utilitarian. So needless to say, I learned a lot there and quickly became more engaged with digital space as a whole.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Every project offers a unique conglomeration of minds/talents and naturally you learn things you otherwise wouldn’t just by rubbing elbows with them. There’s also a select group of digital partners that make it a point to share information about new software developments which may help us achieve something new, as well as ground breaking executions that inspire.

We have been testing various ways to internally share information. It’s still evolving and sometimes finding time to share is the bigger challenge. However nothing works better than tapping someone on the shoulder and saying “hey check this out”. Fortunately our office space allows that kind of closeness to communicate quickly and effectively. Ultimately, getting to know each team member (personality, skill set, what motivates them, etc) is key to individual and corporate success.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is organized. Knows their strategy and objective and doesn’t deviate. They also let us lead the creative process while providing feedback that refines, not limit. At the very minimum the ideal client should be friendly but professional.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Clear, consistent and honest communication facilitates both.

Education is tailored to each client and project, so it varies. For me it starts with knowing my client and understanding their perspective. From there, I can say what needs to be said in a way that the client will not only understand but [hopefully] be receptive to, whether it’s something technical or conceptual. Our creative directors are great resources and I consult with them whenever I need to and that helps me formulate a balanced response.

Setting expectations requires a global view of the project with a thorough understanding of the parameters (time, budget, schedule, resources, specs, etc) and actively communicating rather than making assumptions. I find that most problems start because someone didn’t communicate; they made an assumption. So I do my best to communicate anything and everything relating to a project so that the client stays informed. It involves many emails, meetings and/or visuals but as long as the message gets across you’ll avoid problems down the line.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I cant really peg one as the “best”. The ones I have enjoyed the most are those where I have been challenged to do something difficult. And of course, the ones where the client absolutely loves what we do from the beginning (which is most projects).

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends on the scope of each project but generally 5-8 is the max I would prefer to take on.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
The one I have now. Our team is so solid technically and creatively and works well together. Everyone is different but complimentary in the skills and views that they bring to the table.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By doing my job honestly and with integrity.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
We’ll see more of an integration of the different media that are already converging, but more so with the prevalence of video because of increasing bandwidth. Another influence is the social aspect of the web with continued growth of online social networks and micro-blogging services like Twitter. As they continue to evolve so will the way marketers reach their consumers.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be diligent in your work.

Kontain Yourself

2009-03-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

Introduce yourself and your project.
My name is Yaron Schoen, and I am a lead designer on Kontain.com visual team. Launched in November 2008, Kontain is a free social media platform offering users a destination to quickly, and easily share their digital life (thoughts, photos, videos and audio.) At it’s essence, Kontain is a mash-up of Blogger, Flickr, Youtube and, increasingly, Facebook.

What were the goals for the new site?
Kontain is a product of Fi. That being said, Fi was founded upon the principle of quality-over-quantity, with the overall objective of making the web a better place. Kontain is a manifestation of everything Fi has been building towards since 1999.

As a team, we are all active members in a variety of social platforms. While there are some tremendous experiences available today, we all feel there is room for improvement in the way we interact online. With Kontain, we are trying to provide an easy and more aesthetically pleasing way to upload, manage and share media. Our CEO, David Martin, had the idea for Kontain for ten years – and we finally had the opportunity to make it happen over the past two years. There are no true limits to our goals, so ultimately, I will say they are large and I will leave it at that for now.

Where did you guys get your inspiration for the new site?
The inspiration and concept of Kontain was the catalyst for Fi. David Martin always wanted to build one exceptional place online to house, experience, organize and share media. The pitch process to clients for Kontain ten years ago lead to a demand for client-side digital projects, and as a result, Fi was born. Kontain’s features, on a surface level, are nothing new. We are focusing on the small details throughout the experience, and in doing so, we feel there is a void in the space that Kontain does, and will continue to fill.

What story were you trying to tell with the new website?
Kontain.com is not a story about Kontain, but rather the tale of each individual user. The idea is to let the user's content speak for itself; Kontain is merely the picture frame. We are continually improving the interface to complement and enhance the users story, not compete with it. While exploring Kontain, we want to provide the user with a media-rich viewing experience across a wide variety of subjects.

What technical, logistical or budgetary challenges were presented during the project?
Hi, my name is Jason Borbet, the Business Director for Kontain – I will take this one. First, there are always challenges with a project of this size and scope. Our tech team built the entire front and backend for Kontain.com. As a fully hosted solution, we were able to really cut our teeth and drill into the mechanisms behind the web. Kontain has integrated partnerships for Content Distribution (Akamai), Transcoding and Application Hosting.

Logistically, on the business side, we had to create an entire organization for Kontain – Kontain LLC, Fi’s sister company. On the production side, we had to overcome the same obstacles you face with any large scale production – efficiently and effectively utilizing your resources in an agile, long term development plan. As for the financial challenges, besides fully funding Kontain ourselves, we now clearly understand how to manage and strategically negotiate with the parties required to sustain a large, fully-hosted UGC destination.

Effectively ramping up Kontain.com and creating a new entity, while simultaneously managing Fi’s work flow and goals was no small feat.

Is this site your main form of external communication?
Interesting question, I am going to interpret this as our main form of communication with the outside world. For Kontain LLC, Kontain.com is our primary point of communication. For Fi, we have f-i.com, Fi’s Twitter Account, Kontain.com/Fi – then of course, as mundane as it sounds, emails. Holistically, Kontain.com represents our effort to communicate with the online world at large by delivering added-value contribution.

How valuable is the new site to the agency?
Kontain set the foundation for Fi, was subsequently created by Fi and is now a valuable company in its own right. Kontain offers two valuable points for Fi; 1. Kontain.com is a powerful proof-of-concept for Fi’s understanding of, and capabilities within, the social media space; 2. We learned about the mechanisms and foundations of the web, and we have now fostered powerful partnerships with the companies responsible for making the internet work.

Juxt The Facts

2009-03-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I’m Devin Silberfein; a Senior Project Manager at Juxt Interactive in Newport Beach, California. We’re an interactive boutique that has been turning out cutting edge, exciting and fun work for all types of brands over past ten years. After recently being acquired by Event Marketing specialists George P. Johnson, we’re looking forward to growing our expertise beyond interactive advertising and marketing to event-based experiences as well.

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?
Like many of my colleagues, it happened by accident. I’m embarrassed to admit I made my first website using Adobe Photoshop 3.0 and a text editor when I was in high school, but I never considered it as a career. I went to school for Film & Television and took my first job encoding and editing videos for TWIinteractive, the interactive media arm of IMG, the sports marketing company. I was responsible for videos on websites for Tiger Woods, the Williams’ Sisters, US Soccer and more. Eventually, my personality and communications background steered me towards project management. Despite my mother’s belief that I’ll someday return to television production, I have no regrets about the transition.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I’d like to say that the 100+ feeds in my reader keep me on top of new technologies and creative breakthroughs but unfortunately (fortunately?) I’ve been too busy to catch up on everything. I think word-of-mouth is actually more effective for me these days. Everyone has a link to the latest, greatest thing. We all help share what’s interesting on the web whether that’s through technological means, such as social bookmarking, emails and IMs, or through the more traditional watercooler conversation method (“Hey, did you see that new site that Skittles did?”).

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
This is my personal checklist. The more items I can check off, the better it’ll likely go:
1. Client’s expectations are in line with the budget and schedule
2. There is enough budget and time in the schedule to do the project the RIGHT way (you said “ideal”, right?)
3. We are doing something just far enough outside of our box that it’s challenging and exciting, but not so far that it’s terrifying – well, maybe a little terrifying
4. Client is accessible and understands what’s involved in the production process
5. No need for legal review (again, “ideal”)
6. Everyone on both the agency side and the Client side believes in the idea and are eager to see it done well

Q: How do you educate your Clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Like any relationship, I think this comes down to trust and honesty. I don’t like dancing around issues out of fear of tarnishing the relationship. When challenges arise on a project, I prefer to address them with the Client on the belief that they’ll respect me for being straight with them. Ultimately, my job is to get projects done well, on time, and on budget and I think most of my Clients recognize that some occasional bluntness is really in the best interest of the project, which is to say, in their best interest.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I think my favorite project is a DVD-ROM I worked on for USA Hockey several years ago that helped teach coaches and parents around the country the proper way to teach ice hockey skills. It may not sound like the most exciting project, but I am a die-hard hockey fan and it was a blast working with the governing hockey organization in the US. They were a great Client who was extremely excited about the project and I got to hang out in an ice rink for two weeks as we shot over 400 drills. It ended up being a commercial success and I even learned a few things to improve my own game along the way.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I definitely prefer to have a few things on my plate at once since I get bored easily if I’m working on just one large project. It’s hard to say an exact number since projects come in all sizes and get busy at different times in the production cycle. Currently I’m working on 3 large projects and 2 smaller ones but they are all at different points in their project plans. I think I’d be crazy if they were all kicking off at the same time, or worse, launching together.

Q: What does your dream production team look like? 
Charlie’s Angels with a lot of AS3 experience.

Q: How do you ensure that your Client's best interests are met?
This relates to the question about managing Client’s expectations. Dialogs with the Client at the beginning of a project to help establish those interests and align expectations will definitely help you pave the way. Once you understand that, it’s a matter of making sure your team understands it as well. I try to make sure any directive, request, feedback or revision expresses not only what needs to be done, but why. Ultimately, this helps keep everyone involved in the project and also contextualize Client feedback, which otherwise might seem unfounded or even counterintuitive.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
From a trend standpoint, it sounds cliché to say but mobile is the next big thing - but I don’t think it’s arrived just yet. Much like the dot-com era, I think we still need to discover how to use mobile platforms for practical applications instead of little “isn’t that cool?” type apps. It won’t be enough to create a iPhone or Blackberry app that is downloaded by x amount of people; successful applications will be tracked like mainstream web properties (e.g. how long people use them, what they click on, etc). Proven ROI will be increasingly important especially as brands search for cost effective ways interact with consumers.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Always double check who’s CC’d when you hit “reply all”. It happens to the best of us.

Methods and Paradigms

2009-03-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Jordan Berkowitz and I am the Group Director at Undercurrent.

Undercurrent is a digital think tank and consultancy that helps brands and agencies understand and engage more effectively and efficiently with a growing group of consumers who were born digital.

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 started my career working in pharmaceutical media, producing live events and educational programs. Most of the events I produced were documented to be turned into either CD-ROM based educational tools or put on the web for similar purposes. To this day I maintain a huge amount of respect for people that produce complex live events. Inevitably, anything that can fail will fail. The discipline of learning to keep your cool and diagnose problems on the fly was the most important thing I learned. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a universal lesson I would end up leveraging very frequently.

From there I bounced around a bit and finally settled at AKQA where I was a project manager for about a year. This was my first experience in the agency world and it was an amazing opportunity to work with a stable of great brands at a highly respected shop.

In the end, I wanted to do more and found myself looking for a new place with a different take on living and marketing in the digital world. When Undercurrent popped up on my radar I was intrigued by the idea of producing digital strategy and getting away from some of the more mundane tasks associated with building websites. I’ve been at Undercurrent for the last year and a half and can’t imagine another place I would rather be.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
One of the benefits of working with an awesome team of digital strategists is that there is no lack of information on current and upcoming trends. A challenge that we’re constantly facing is not how to stay informed, but rather how to manage all of the information that flows through our office. Some people are big RSS aggregators while others still consume the web site by site (I’m one of these!).

Motivation, on the other hand, is a very different beast. We spend a lot of time and energy making sure that our office is fun, challenging, and a tad unpredictable. It’s also really important to recognize that both motivation and inspiration come at different times for different people. The best processes and structures are flexible enough to allow people to develop work in their own way while also ensuring that we hit the mark with our deliverables. I can’t say we’ve got that 100% figured out, but we’re constantly evolving the way we work to get there.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client is a balance between:

• A risk taker
• Someone who understands insights and how to translate them back to consumer experiences
• Rarely, if ever, uses the words viral, social media, or widget
• Has the power and ability to get things done
• Is fun to work with

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
It’s different for every client we work with. Education is a general service at Undercurrent, ranging from larger group workshops all the way down to one on one sessions. We also send out a weekly newsletter that exposes 3 interesting trends, websites, or online happenings that should be of interest to the people we work with.

To manage expectations, I think it’s all about being honest, setting manageable goals, and measuring the right things. Being brutally honest is crucial; if something is not going to happen it’s much easier to say so loud and clear upfront and ensure you don’t put yourself in a difficult position at the start. Reasonable goals are all about setting the right expectation but also speak to experience and history. Lastly, measuring everything you possible can is ludicrous. If you and your client agree to the points of measurement before something begins it means that you have a basis for evaluating success and have also taken the time to consider what really matters and what doesn’t.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I really don’t know. I think every project I work on teaches me something new about producing. I’d like to say the best projects are the ones that go according to plan, but the reality is the best projects I’ve worked on are the ones that throw you for a loop and return surprising results.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I’m one of those crazy people who will take on way to much work. Ideally, I like to carry 2-4 projects of varying complexity. That’s also the typical load of a producer at Undercurrent.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I don’t think I have a point of view about what the “perfect” team looks like. Ideally, I’d have a team of people with various strengths, each of whom is in a position to play to those strengths while avoiding areas of weakness. I realize this sounds idealistic, but in my experience, people don’t tend to get better at things they’re not good at. Strengths, however, continue to develop and mature over time.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Communication. Is anything else necessary?

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I don’t think it’s going to look insanely different than it does now. We’ll continue to see new technologies that change and augment the way we do our jobs, but at the end of the day we’ll still be focussed on helping our clients achieve a goal, most often selling something.

One area I think will go through major evolution is measurement. The most difficult part of leveraging emerging technologies is that often it’s hard to measure the impact of an initiative. Given the current economic climate, I know that there is significantly more weight being put on proving the efficacy of different communications channels. We are in desperate need of more academic and commercial innovation in methods and paradigms to measure and value things like interactions, conversations, and fans.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Being a good producer is about knowing enough to be dangerous. It’s all well and good to be great at process and management, but as a connector of a lot of disparate pieces, it is so important for a producer to understand not only the what of a project but also the why. Decisions that get made by producers have the potential to impact every aspect of a project so if you don’t understand why you are making something, chances are good that it will miss the mark. To me this is simply about being invested in the work you do. It’s about learning your client’s business so you can be their advocate with your team. It’s also about constantly being hungry for new technologies, new ideas, and new ways to get work done.

Hello Funday

2009-03-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello Monday is a boutique ‘designery’ in Denmark, and in Autumn 2009, in New York. We specialize in innovative Flash websites and visual identities that tickle brains and eyes around the world. My name is Anders Jessen, and I am a partner at Hello Monday. We started Hello Monday because we wanted to build a creative playground rather than a production factory—obviously not an easy endeavor but an absolute necessity to keep creativity alive and to avoid becoming indifferent towards the design. Our office in Denmark is a 350 year-old town-house. It is built in the days where kings and queens ruled the world and the fastest transportation was a horse. Since then a lot of things have happened in the field of technology. I bet that these old-timers would be puzzled if they saw what is going on in their town-house today.

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?
13 years ago, we were the first family in our suburb to get broadband internet access. Subsequently, my dad saw the potential in having a website, and to help him realize this potential, I taught myself HTML. In 1997, something strange happened. Gabocorp launched a Flash website (www.thefwa.com/flash10/gabo.html) that surpassed anything I had ever seen before. I faced the consequences and broke up with HTML. I have background as a market economist, but from that special day in 1997, my heart was beating in key frames.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
A lot of my inspiration comes from music or walking around in the city, observing the architecture, the people, and the nature. In regards to staying on top of emerging technologies, blogs and the FWA keep me updated. We encourage our team to constantly explore new ideas and think of new ways to do things. By allocating time to carry out experiments, we ensure that we always stay on top of innovation.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Perfect clients are ambitious and visionary, and they want to create something that is unique and memorable.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The key ingredients are honesty and openness. Any design process entails different ideas and perspectives and disagreement is unavoidable. Instead of fighting this premises, we try to embrace it. Sometimes, difference of opinion can open up for new, interesting discussions, new ways of thinking and often better designs. If clients feel strong about a specific feature, you cannot force them to take another route, however, if we disagree, we tell them which approach we think is best for them. If they still disagree, at least they are aware of the choice they are making and the alternatives. It is obviously always tempting to take the easy route and tell them what they want to hear, but for us, it has not been the right way to go. Dialogue is the key to any successful project.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Internally, we have an imaginative company called Hello Funday through which we can live out our design dreams. This way we don’t have to wait for the right client when we have a great idea. 90% of the work we will do in Hello Funday will probably be a world wide waste of money but we need this to blow out some creative steam and give wings to some of our many ideas. These include ideas for innovative ways of navigating the web, packaging for candy, edgy illustrations etc. The draw-navigation for red-issue.com was developed in the realm of Hello Funday, and this was indeed an exciting project.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
We plan our time so we have a maximum of three projects at a time. The good thing about having more than one project is that you can let ideas marinade while you work on other projects.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
It is easy to find designers, developers and strategists, however, it is very hard to find the right ones. The perfect team consists of talented, innovative and passionate people.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We talk to them. Then we talk some more, and afterwards we talk a little bit more. Communication is key to understanding our clients’ interests. If the concept is strong and the output reflects the vision for the brand, we know that we have elevated our client’s business.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Two letters and two words: 4D and virtual reality. No, seriously; I have absolutely no idea what the next phase will look like. It will definitely be new and different, and I can’t wait to be part of the development.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
It might sound like a cliché, but it’s important to have fun while you work. For obvious reasons this is not possible all the time but try to do it as much as possible. When you stop having fun, your projects will look accordingly.

Welcome to Quenneville

2009-03-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi there, I’m Trisha Quenneville, Director of Digital Production at Lowe Roche in Toronto, Canada. For over 10 years now I have produced online and offline content at a variety of places, both freelance and full time, but coming to Lowe Roche has only been a good move. Living by the philosophy of “innovate or die”, everyday is an opportunity to push boundaries and produce really exceptional work here. Being one of the few agencies in Canada not to silo web, mobile, social media, and offline experiences from the rest of the core creative services, we offer a unique 360 degree approach to every project and are proud to be different.

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?
In 1997 I was creating targeted maps in a geographical information system for the media division of a giant ad agency. Simply put, I was targeting flyers to peoples homes (yuck!). I got into the digital field after receiving my very first interactive greeting card from the tiny interactive arm of the agency. Sad as it sounds, it was then that I fell in love with the idea of online creativity. I soon managed to switch departments and was officially their new Production Assistant. Since then, I have worked on projects for a variety of ad agencies, animation/production houses and television stations across North America, delving into all aspects of digital production. Looking back, it was definitely a great decision.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Keeping on top of emerging technologies is a full time job in itself! I mostly use my Netvibes, social bookmarking and Twitter, but my secret weapon is really my digital team. We’re constantly looking at, brainstorming and developing ideas for real life or virtual applications. It’s definitely an exciting place to be right now.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Having worked with animation, audio, music, and motion graphics for all kinds of brands, I’m comfortable with pretty much anything. Honestly, nothing phases me in this realm! My ideal scenario is a cross-platform project with high value content. Something that involves planning and executing a shoot, audio record and fully functional website, all with a strong communication strategy to back it up. For those reasons, one of my favourite clients is Purina Petcare Canada, and I assure you it has absolutely nothing to do with the adorably cute puppies and kittens I get to work with.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
When working with clients the best way to educate is to collaborate. An informed client is one that’s fully involved and understands what to expect. Of course, that’s the best-case scenario! For a client that cannot be quite as involved, or not fluent in ‘digital’, I usually start by going through our statement of work. I do my best to explain each process in our timeline and what they should expect along the way. It’s a basic thing, but it works. I'm also constantly advising clients to get online and use the internet for more than checking mail, and often showcase a tid-bit or relevant site to them when sitting with my laptop or iPhone.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Ever? This is a tough one to answer, I have so many! I think it might be the one I’m currently on for Purina but, I can’t talk about it just yet. Another fave was last Christmas working on stellaartois.com. In collaboration with Psyop we created a new theme and global content in lots of languages. It’s a high profile site, so working on this was a challenge, but at the same time, totally exhilarating.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends on the scale of the project, I typically oversee 5-10 short term jobs and 1-2 larger initiatives are on the go at any given time.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream core team is an art director and copywriter working tight with a strong tech lead that has expertise in modern web 2.0 experiences, rich interactive media and back-end integration (either client-side or custom). This way, when it comes to establishing the production or build team, we’ve identified all the creative and technical requirements and can apply the right resources to the job.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
The one and only way I ensure that that the client’s best interests are met is by being a project’s best advocate. It all comes down to formalizing the project at the beginning so that keeping best interests is forefont to the deliverables.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
My ‘vision’ (gosh, it makes me sound psychic) for the next phase of our industry is (as always) a mix of being afraid and excited about new possibilities. Technology will continue to seep its way into the lives of the consumer and grow exponentially. Future generations will be harder to reach, and yet at the same time, be more accessible and connected than ever. It all comes down to targeting. The consumer will effectively be in control of how companies talk to them and brands that decide not to have a 2-way conversation will suffer. Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom, we just have to be smart.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Always understand the risks, but do it anyway.

The Seen

2009-03-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Adrian Morley, Managing Director and founder of award winning company The Seen, started in 2003.

The Seen is a creative design business with strategic thinking and a stand out attitude. We apply creative logic to big ideas. Based in the UK

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 love of type, layout and graphic design was born out of a love for graffiti in the mid 80’s. After watching Style Wars on TV my friends and I were converted immediately.

One of the first in the UK to enjoy a BA degree course specialising in multi-media (at Wolverhampton University) with classes from leading American multi-media experts. This was my first encounter with interactive design as we had projects focussing on dynamic CD rom design and build and early website construction.

In 1992 my formal design career began at Helix, the international stationery organisation, where I was a key designer in launching highly successful nationwide licensed product ranges for Pepsi, Friends, Warner Bros and more. In 1995 at Helix I began my serious journey into online website design.

After launching a fully interactive children’s website for Helix, in 1999 I took up position at Plus Two Studio a small design studio specialising in the Music and Extreme Sports industries. It was here where my full creative website and progressive graphic design work really flourished with some great wide open creative briefs.

In 2001 I was lucky enough to be head hunted by the BAR Honda Formula One Team, as Graphic Designer, working under the leadership of both Craig Pollock and also David Richards (Prodrive & Aston Martin Racing). Here I worked for the Business Development and Marketing departments, helping to secure a number of high profile sponsorship deals for the team and developing a dynamic and interactive post race flash device that was sent out to all sponsors and VIP’s after each race featuring race analysis and driver interviews etc.

I was also a member of the radical BAR Honda ‘Pure Racing’ rebrand project working with a London Creative Director of Tango and First Direct fame. It was through this process that I learned first hand the power and depth of successful branding.

I was also a key decision maker in bringing the award winning Fingal Design group to the team to design and build the team website. They won 2 FWA awards for their two Honda Racing F1 Team websites.

All this lead me to realise my long standing dream when in February 2003 I created The Seen. A multi-disciplined creative design business specialising in Brand Experiences, Graphic and Website Design. Since then a number of well know names have joined the ever-expanding client list including: Aston Martin Racing, Honda Racing F1 Team, Drayson Racing, UK Trade and Investment and more.

To go back to the essence of the question - my love for design including interactive design stemmed from graffiti, hence our company name which pays homage to the legendary New York graffiti artist Seen. Now there was a man all about recognition!

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
The internet is an invaluable source of new tricks and ideas. I think the quality and breadth of design and implementation has come on in leaps and bounds certainly over the last 6 or 7 years. Designers are becoming more complete now with a good understanding of different principles and a heady array of services to offer.

We are all avid readers and RSS subscribers of FFFFound, Smashing Magazine, Surf Station, Fubiz, and most of the Tuts network sites and we follow the following technology resources: Adobe Labs, A List Apart, Script and Style, CSS Tricks and Net Tuts and many more.

If we see something neat we then try to get our hands dirty by trying to recreate the technique.

I make sure all software is kept up to date to take advantage of latest techniques and tricks etc we use majority of Adobe packages.

We are all naturally self-motivated ... no dead wood allowed.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
An entrepreneur who is building up a team around them. All team members excel at what they do and are left to do it by the entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs tend to understand the positive outcome of letting people be free to do what they do best and understand the value of being different and taking a radical step in their design communication and market place. This helps us create progressive yet functional solutions for their business.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Sometimes with smaller clients they can feel the need to have to control what you are doing, which is fine as it is their business you are working for, but at the end of the day if they have no design training and experience this often gets translated into the final production(s). We try to avoid this dilution by offering their solution but at the same time offering our own interpretation backed up with rationale and examples of experience.

A good designer or design team should always steer their client towards the best route. This for us is often as important as the work itself and tends to provide the most successful outcome for the client at the end of the project.

Milestones are essential for larger projects and help to keep all heads on-track, including the client.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Hard to pin point one as they all have different qualities from a design and working point of view, however:

It is always exciting working with Lord Drayson, the British Minister for Science, as he embraces new technologies and features for his racing team website.

Our Honda Racing F1 Team wind tunnel book was good for us as we claimed our first design award and publication for the pulp styled cover design.

Our own current site was a step forward for us and was noted by many web design showcase sites, it is also due to be published in the Web Design Index book later this year.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
5 ... anymore and it becomes harder to apply a deep level of thinking and rationale to our work/solutions.

It’s important to be able to step away and clear the head so I personally enjoy Muay Thai training twice a week and learning off camera strobe lighting photography, the latter still keeps me creative and working with layouts but in a different way (I am a Strobist nut: www.strobist.blogspot.com).

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Red Interactive Agency for web.
Wiz for video production.
Dave Hobby (the Strobist legend) for photography.
Joey Lawrence for post production photo work, this guy’s work is truly amazing.
Peter Saville for ideas and off the wall production possibilities.
Neville Brody for graphics and print.
Steve Jobs for marketing and project launches.

Q: How do you ensure that your client’s best interests are met?
Make sure that we are designing for their target market, that we are also in tune with their business strategy and that the design is on-brand.

I do not design for my own satisfaction or to look cutting edge to other designers. This feel good exercise does not provide suitable solutions for a client.

Our design has to communicate clearly and not be cluttered. We stay on message.

A detailed brand guide is always the essential piece of documentation we produce for our clients and their workforce.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Mid sized studios and agencies may find life tough. Small studios working as collectives seems to be a very flexible, cost effective and successful way forward for both client and designers. However, there will still be the need and justification for the big players - Fitch, Pentagram, etc

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Keep it real - If you’re a designer remember who you are designing for. Design should be functional and serve to win and keep customers or viewers for your clients business.

I love the off-the-wall, pushing-the-boundary type of design that is out there but often this does not serve realistic markets. Communicate to the masses not the minority.

Know when to stop - Like all great artists, painters photographers a great piece of work is one that has not gone too far with superfluous details.

Think deep - Your design(s) should tell a story and have an essence that permeates throughout all communication channels.

Enjoy what you do.

Hugging Trees

2009-03-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company
This is Lukasz Knasiecki, partner and flash developer at Huncwot (www.huncwot.com).

We are independent interactive studio based in western Poland working with rich Flash applications and interactive video mostly for culture / art / fashion world. In a meantime we are organizing a lot of gigs – improvised music concerts and 16mm experimental film screenings.

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 became computer addicted in the early 80s and started programming first Sinclair ZX-Spectrums as a kid. My first game was published as a program listing in 1987 in Bajtek – the only computer magazine in Poland at this time. Following years I was creating and publishing by my own multimedia CD-ROMs for MS-Dos and MS-Windows – sold dozens of thousands of them in the 90s in Poland. After finishing MA at Culture Studies in 1999 I opened small, avant-garde club and kept running it for 6 years, organizing concerts, exhibitions and film screenings. In early 2007, with Arek Romanski – a great graphics designer and animator - we started Huncwot – independent studio devoted to interactive design.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Well, there is no choice. In my short life I used so many computer platforms (Spectrum, Atari, Amiga, Dos, Windows…) and languages (8 and 16-bit Aseembler, Basic, Pascal, Delphi, C++, PHP, Actionscript…) - so learning new technologies is just part of the game. And to be honest – programming Actionscript is a piece of cake comparing to coding in Assembler.

Anyway, the best thing to keep us motivated is trying to design each project completely different from the previous - in terms of aesthetics, navigation and user experience.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
We are not a big studio so we choose our clients very carefully taking only jobs we are really interested in, as we don’t need to feed dozens of accounts and other staff. The only thing we expect from the client is to trust us – as we know our job and will never release anything which we won’t believe in for 100%.

As we mostly work with art/fashion world – people there are really open-minded and we had never any bigger problems with forcing our (sometimes completely crazy) ideas.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Showing our previous work and some of our favourite sites always helps to introduce current technical possibilities to the client. Finally we always try to give more than they expect.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures (www.commonwealth.pl) was a special project for many reasons. There were many great designers involved in the project – logotype and all the prints were made by two of the best polish typography masters (Kuba Sowinski and Jacek Mrowczyk), short films and animations were made by Platige Image – for sure best polish animation studio – and after all – a man running the projects from such a big and noble institution as The National Library Of Poland – Mikołaj Baliszewski – was very creative and helpful. It’s always a joy if you can create something with important and not easy content in this quite shallow world of Internet.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
We try not to make more than 2 projects at one time but you know, it’s not so easy to keep it that way.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Professional and open-minded specialists inspired rather by history of art / culture and beauty of nature than current design trends. Good table tennis players are also welcome as we lately spend hours playing it in our studio.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
You mean Flash Player in 2020? No idea.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Go to the forest and hug a tree!

Novo Mesto

2009-03-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
A: My name is Miro Koljanin and I am owner, founder of DrawingArt - www.drawingart.org, interactive web design and development studio from Slovenia, Novo mesto. In same time I am designer and flash developer in DrawingArt.

We provide our clients with the most innovative approaches to website creation. DrawingArt has become one of the world's highly respected website design studios, known to constantly push the boundaries of website creation to its limits with high level of small details. We have built a strong reputation as a leading website design company by consistently designing and developing websites that are simply outstanding and technically excellent. Our motto is very simple 'You have to stand out of the crowd', and we are determined to make it happen.

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: My story behind my design and development path began 5 years ago when I wanted to present my drawings online to other people. This how I said I need a website and I started designing it and eventually start learning flash and html-css. Before that I was really big fan of flash sites and I was amazed what you can do with interactive approach in this field and that is how my path in web started. Since my first version of my site dedicated to my drawings hit the public I never drawn again. I was changing version of my sites every few months, learning, designing and I really fell in love with it. This how all evolved slowly from drawings site to design and development studio site with the name DrawingArt that still captures my past inside.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Overall I try to stay in focus and read as much news, blogs, ... as I can online. In same time I try different ideas, different approaches from site to a site I do so this how I slowly progress in that field constantly as well. Our work is our motivation ... that keeps us passionate for what we do.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Ideal client ... hehe tricky question ... maybe I can say ideal client doesn't exists but good clients exist but again it is hard to say this client is good, this client is bad or what I would like good client to be. Each project, each client has good and bad sides like we all do but each project is our challenge and passion so we love them all.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Generally through our meetings and our talk I try to explain every detail how it goes. I'm always open with my clients and I always tell them this will take this much time and unfortunately we can not do it earlier so that every client knows why one thing takes so much of time or budget. Usually until now our clients always understood everything when they got explanation and answers on when, why, how much, how do we do it, ... so I think this is the main part of the project to educate clients so that they know what they will get, when and for how much.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
This one is tricky again but if I must pick out then I certainly pick Ciril Jazbec Photography - www.ciriljazbec.com website that we did 2 versions already and it is our most recognizable and awarded website till today that also won 2 times the FWA site of the day award. With second version it was a big challenge to beat first version but I'm glad to say it confidently that we did it.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends on project size but I can say 2-3 flash sites or 3-4 layout designs with 1 flash site together ...

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
2 designers and flash developers, 2 php/mysql programmers and 2 video / 3d modelers. But overall I have to say my current team of 1 designer-flash developer which is me, 1 php/mysql programmer and 1 3d modeler is everything I need now and fits my needs and my clients needs more then perfectly so I'm really satisfied.

Q: How do you ensure that your client\'s best interests are met?
If we satisfy our client with quality and then if visitors - users of my client are happy and final product is recognizable then we are all happy.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I will say that quality will be much more needed ... Quality matters, specially in my eyes quality is crucial thing for this business. Design ! Design will have even bigger role on everything since that is first contact with user - visitor so design quality, design idea will have even bigger impact. In same time video and 3D will evolve to have even bigger part then now, since connection speed of our internet providers are evolving, good quality or HD video is much more easier to stream over internet from a day to day.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Hard work brings results, quality brings even higher results and satisfaction in yourself. Every passioned work is something we are proud of on the end. So again, quality matters.

Digital Sherpa

2009-03-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Simon Conlin. I'm a Brit living and working in Canada as a Strategist / Producer. Essentially, I like to find solutions for unique problems. I came to Canada in 2001 as a Digital Strategist, possibly the first of my kind much to the confusion of many a HR director. Now that everyone knows what a strategist does, I have changed my title and role to Digital Sherpa to differentiate myself (and to confuse HR directors).

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?
It all started, once upon a time, with playing the Atari 2600, and then I became exposed to playing (& trying to build) games in BASIC using my brother's ZX80 and ZX81 over the years. Starting of with 1k ram & 4k rom was like a gateway drug and was not long before I progressed to harder stuff like Dragon 32, Spectrum 48, Commodore 64 spectrum 128 so on and so on. I was keeping bad company by hanging out with a few of my older brother's friends who were making serious pocket money on the side by making music for games.

The second stage of the evolution of my digital addiction started when I was studying Music technology and learning midi, the history of synthesizers and sampling. I was sequencing with cubase v.1 on an Apple || which became my first exposure to a timeline. I had always enjoyed art and music and was excited about the future of the Internet when the thoughts drifted to visions of how art and music on the Internet could meld as a media. I thought about the future and realized I should investigate to see if this could be a possible career. I had young, foolish plans to set up my own Internet company at a time when a .jpg was rare, a .gif was a luxury (this was long before any rich media, music or video).

The only real serious money being made on the Internet was either building unstable applications or simply buying and selling .co.uk & .com top level domains (which I thought was kinda sleazy and exploitative, nothing really to do with creativity or art). Shortly after this time, around the tail end of Future Splash, I joined a web design company (around the same time Macromedia set up an office in Berkshire, UK) and was lucky enough to see a demo of Flash and it was love at first sight. What appealed to me was that Macromedia had alliances with everyone, while everyone else were feuding. I started telling companies about how flash was going to change the face of the web as we know it. The year was 1997.

The Internet has changed a lot since then and has become everything I had imagined it to be and more. The title of "interactive producer" was never globally recognized until recently (thanks to this blog), so needless to say, I had to wear a lot of hats before becoming a producer / strategist. Some companies struggled to understand how to fully utilize me to the best of my abilities. The role of "Project Manager" to me always felt similar to asking a chef to take someone's food order.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
For the most part, I stay on top by playing an active part in the community, quintessentially I surround myself with very talented people and I enjoy cross-pollinating energy and information between groups. I like to energize groups of people and in turn I get energized. It's something I have done since I was a kid while I watched my brother's friends make music for video games. Back then, I was a valuable part of the team despite not having the dominant skill-set.

I live by being on-line and constantly "plugged into the matrix". Today's news travels so fast with blogs and twitter and video that we've all become information junkies. I like to keep a close eye on developing areas and also attend conferences to network with old friends and to make new connections. It's hard to describe the joy of watching (from a distance) the growth of something like Flash Lite, Flex, Processing, Aviary, PV3D or the adoption rate of FLVs or a bizarre viral adoption of something like Twitter.

I find that keeping myself and my team passionate and motivated comes naturally to me, however, I have encountered many business owners who have misunderstood just how vitally important this is in our industry.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
In an ideal world, the initial boardroom briefing would go something like this:

CLIENT: "So here is our problem...here is our desired goal... let us know if you need any existing assets such as video or text... please tell us how long it could take to build... here is the budget with a buffer... now go do your thing because we trust your vision and direction will get us to where we need to be ...and remember any awards that are won are to be shared with all the teams involved".

An ideal project would include working for a respected brand, or worthwhile human cause, or better still, a combination of the aforementioned. A brand with a cause / charity is most appealing to me, i.e. something that makes a small, positive change to the world we live in. Ideation and conceptualization would be given as much importance as the promotion. Production techniques would include many of the Adobe suite of tools and most likely have some special ingredients thrown in.
Ideally, a project would include some advanced CGI/motion/video assets, a social media campaign and some live event promotional elements. Thought would also be given to the end or continuation of a campaign, i.e. the "after care" or the "follow up".

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
At the very start of the discovery phase, I try to learn if any of the stakeholders are creative or strategic thinkers. If so, I like to include them in my thought process when it comes to overall strategy (long before the execution). If they are not creative thinkers, then alcohol and dinner helps to extract the information you need to make them feel involved with the vision. I find that trust in your expertise (if gained at the start) will carry you a long way, but also I find that passion should be shared by the stakeholders.

If a client can feel that you:

a) have a basic understanding of their business model and their needs
b) care about their product / brand / service etc.
c) have become part of their team (and on occasion vice-versa)

then chance at success and overall client satisfaction has a much higher percentage.

Each party might have a different yard stick, i.e. the VP of Marketing might think number of unique visits is success (even if those people only stay a few seconds); the Director of Digital Media might think an FWA site of the day is the most important; the CFO might be looking for a spike in revenue for that quarter, etc. So, knowing how the client is measuring and gauging success is important in setting expectations.

Education also involves showing clients current statistics and past case studies (not just my own work, but the work of their competitors). I also conduct strategic sessions, deep brainstorming and creative sessions and work with the clients to understand the legal issues or ramifications of taking a certain approach with a brand. Nothing is worse than spending weeks in production only to have the legal department shelf your project at the last minute.
Pre-planning discussions are key to overall success.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
In terms of revenue, one of the first sites I built back in 2001 eventually sold for 5M GBP back in the UK.

In terms of personal pride, building Flash in the Can (FITC) from scratch back in 2002 is the event I'm still well known for in the industry. My goal was to make it a sold-out event and to make the award show known worldwide. I achieved both of those things in my first year as the Executive Director.

As a recent, small client project, my solo production work with The National Ballet of Canada was very rewarding as it allowed me to meld traditional, classical and digital art while allowing me access to some great talent. As part of a viral video contest / campaign, I was allowed to shoot (on HD) ballerinas dancing in public places at a handful of famous Toronto landmarks and then to set the footage to Tchaikovsky music, I can safely say I have never heard of that being done before. It wasn't the largest production I have worked on, however, having full strategic, creative and production control made it the most enjoyable. The project was five times more successful than original target goal.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Three. If I work on more than three, I find that I become flustered and rushed and this leaves clients feeling under-valued and under-appreciated.
I see projects like children and if you have too many of them, none of them get the individual attention they deserve.
I once tried to take on too many projects and felt like the man at the circus who spins the plates on wobbly sticks.That approach is a disaster waiting to happen as you can only keep the plates spinning for an amount of time before your energy or attentions wears thin.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My full dream team would look something like the speaker line up for Flashonthebeach mixed in with SoDA.

My business model is essentially creating teams of people for any given specific project no matter the size. I've spent my career being a talent spotter.
Ideally, I look for team players who possess all-round skills and who have plenty of industry experience. It's also important that they have a great attitude, stay cool under pressure and most importantly, contribute great ideas, passion and input to every project. All of the team members have skills in many areas and specialize in something unique.

I like to borrow a lot of analogies and transposed principals from the music entertainment and food trades when building my teams. For instance, in a band, let's say the Beatles (with the exception of Ringo), each member knows who is playing what, why, when, where and also how. The same is true in any kitchen at a top restaurant. The executive chef knows exactly when, where, how, why and what each other chef is doing when preparing the whole meal for a table of customers.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I gain a deep understanding of the client's business, customers, desired target market, etc. and also keep on top of the current climate of the industry in order to offer the client a solution based on the classical tri-dynamic equation of what is possible based on time versus money versus quality. Once I am retained, I'm available for clients around the clock, and as many producers can attest, we go to bed thinking about a project and awake pretty much the same way. Some may argue that it's not healthy to submerge yourself into your work in that manner, but as an artist, it's a natural "Altered State" (movie reference for those who get it), and for those who don't, think of something close to Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly".

However, that's just one side of business and passion and dedication can only take things so far. I try to research as much as possible beforehand and some examples might include monitoring current climate, conducting competitive intelligence and swot analysis. Another side is also to act as the custodian of the client's interactive budget, so I will also broker deals in terms of support and give advice on areas I am not involved in such as media buy or placement, SEO, SEM, etc., basically, all of those areas where a client can get gouged.

The clients interests become my interests. The project becomes an obsession to succeed because after all, it's not only time and budget at stake, but also reputation.
I think 99% of people who are in the Flash side of the business are there based on passion for the most part. I have never really encountered such loyalty to a software tool. Since working with Flash can be as equally frustrating as it is ultimately rewarding, many designers / developers would never want to see a project fail.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Only the foolhardy could try to predict our industry. Quad- and Octo-processors are released. Wacom, M$soft surface, touch technologies suddenly see the potential in allowing digital media designers to design without a mouse or pen. Social media will continue to steadily grow, obviously, as more and more people join the surge. Mobile will eventually make it to the tip of the CEO and CMO tongues. Mass expansion in user-generated content via mobile, circa 2011; Twitter is just the tip of the iceberg (I think Facebook will attempt to buy Twitter this year, outbidding M$oft and many others while Google will set up their own version of Twitter). Flash lite will enable better mobile experiences and finally, the flood gates will open. The public will eventually demand that the carriers stop holding back on the technology. Adobe and Apple will make headway on "iFlash" as batteries become less of an issue with the final solution being a combination of mutli-interchangeable batteries (think batman utility belt), but also public places, bars, restaurants, coffee houses, etc. will allow patrons to charge as they shop. Should I be making these revelations? Sure, of course! It's not top secret, it's logical. As a consumer, you should be able to make these demands TODAY. Perhaps consumers won't have to wait too long to make these demands because once M-commerce kicks in and consumers are shopping with their phone instead of their credit cards, eventually some young bright spark at one of the major telco carriers will realize that an uncharged phone is potentially lost revenue for shopping.

Can you imagine: "this recharge is brought to you by Visa"? :)

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I have nothing wise to say that won't be soon outdated. Although, I would offer, keep an eye on the past, your mind in the future, and your heart in the here and now.

I also really want to share this quote:

"Art, the end result of perception, wisdom, intelligence, discipline, hard work, passion, luck, accident, and coincidence."
(Source Unknown)

thanks for reading.

Simon is available for questions, comments, payments, sexual advances or general hate mail [at] simon.conlin@gmail.com.

Focus On Quality

2009-03-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Mircea Turcan, a founding partner and creative director of Restate Media, a multidisciplinary, culturally-diverse, strongly opinionated media lab / interface design / software development studio based in Monterrey, Mexico. We are a small (hence, happy) studio that, in good modernist tradition, striving to find the perfect mixture of technology and design to help our clients truly find their potential in their businesses. Generally that leaves advertising out of the picture and replaces it with useful tools, modular web software, great interfaces and a keen eye for details.

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?
Personally, I'm a business manager that fell in love with graphic and interface design. A decade ago I became a lone Internet evangelist among a horde of video and print professionals: after working a while in television, video production and advertising, I came full loop to open a web-oriented studio. My partner in crime, Joe Flumerfelt, is a graphic design graduate who spent time working in video games, design, video, 3D and finally fell in love with web and software programming. Everybody in our studio shares a passion for typography, electronic music, video games, fashion, architecture and the hardcore... so you can imagine the vibe.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We go through 1000-1500 bits of news everyday (anything from RSS feeds, forums, messengers etc.), and share all relevant links among ourselves. As for motivation: we have used chocolate quite successfully in the past...

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Our ideal client is the client that believes that we are his ideal design partner. She’s also 90-60-90, 5’2” and has a great letterpress business card printed on Fabriano paper, all perfectly set in Arno Pro...

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We use a self-developed breed of Agile Development (an iterative methodology for building software on time and on budget, by trimming and prioritizing requirements), which, by definition, makes the client a part of all the major decisions in the project. So, instead of "pitching" the client with great ideas, we make him bear the grunt with us, so that at every step of the way he knows why we took certain decisions. This facilitates decision making and shapes the project along a more organic path: by working “with them” instead of working “for them”, we influence many other aspects of the project, from scope to budgets to deadlines. Just as all of us trust that our client is an expert in his/her field, the client needs to feel confident that he’s working with experts in our field – and while your portfolio can say a lot about you, the unseen part of your offering as a designer is your process. If you have a polished methodology, the battle is half won. The other half is actually coming up with relevant solutions.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Because of its sheer size and scope, I'd probably have to say Good Neighbor. Two years ago, we partnered with another company to build and market a platform for “intelligent homes” that uses a combination of web-tools to provide communication, security, administration, e-commerce/services, infotainment and home automation to houses or apartments in residential complexes. This project taught us plenty of valuable lessons in business-strategy, marketing, finance, and not least pushed our project management and technical skills to new levels.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends a lot on the size and the specifics of the projects... but I’d say anywhere between 2 and 6.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I’m very happy with our current team, so it would probably look quite like it does today.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By focusing on meeting the interests of our client’s clients.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think the industry will transform inevitably in a myriad of niches: large design studios will have to split in smaller divisions in order to attend very specific project types, with increasingly more elastic requirements and needs. Many designers and interactive producers will probably be laid off in the process (which is a good thing, since we will have new players bringing on a bolder, fresher and more diverse industry), and the ones that will remain on board will probably have a broad skillset, ranging from actual design to media production to marketing to copywriting. Because of that, designers will become more and more involved in developing not only imagery, but will shape the actual products and services of the client. And because these clients are sitting on huge data-sets (that grow every day), those who will be able to sort out the mess (aka visualization-gurus and process designers) will have pretty nice paychecks etc. Bottom line: the sooner we’ll understand that pretending to be good at everything is bad for your business, the better.

Another trend that has been going on for a while, but will become even clearer in the near future, is that some studios will probably go on and license components, tools and software that they developed in house to third parties, as a way to boost revenues.

Finally, interface design will play an ever increasing role in interactive projects, especially as things move away from mouse and keyboards to gestures, voice, biometrics and location-based services. So you'll probably see us all embracing more work in these fields.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Focus on quality and more work will come your way.

Siga Sus Instintos

2009-03-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Daniel Granatta, i'm from Spain and i work as Technological Creativity Director at Grupo W, an interactive agency located in Saltillo, a small place located in northern Mexico, an hour from Monterrey and the Texan US border. We mostly do interactive campaigns for local and international clients doing both creativity and production and also we work as a production company when required, most often for Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, which is kind of cool because we learn a lot about new technologies (that in Mexican interactive industry cannot be proposed yet because of technological infrastructure) and methodologies taken in larger companies and adapt it into our own schemes.

We're pretty small (32 people and 6 more coming in the next couple of weeks) and we're trying to remain as that, with people enough to take two or three big projects at a time without wondering if we'll be able to do so. Our main characteristic is that we are insane about detail in each and every one of our projects, so we want to live to that and take care of every work we release, instead of growing so much that we are more worried about money than about quality.

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 always had a computer at home. I remember an old Vic20 and a Commodore64, which are now more of a legend than a reality, but they're for real! So when i finished high school i studied Computing Engineering, although it wasn't exaclty what i expected. Then one day i discovered Flash 3 and started doing my things. It was 1998 or so and when Flash 4 was released I started to apply some of the coding knowledge that i had learn at college (i'm still missing three subjects so i didn't finish it)

The thing is that back in those days using Flash was like being challenged all the time because of the limitations it had so i had lots of fun finding out things and tricks to overcome that limitations, and one day i decided to ran my own Flash-design shop. I was more into it because of interactive capabilities instead of animating so I ran it with two friends for 6 years and we did pretty well, we had our clients, our big clients and also we collaborated with some offline agencies that asked us to develop the interactive part of their off campaigns; we even got showcased by Taschen in a couple of books called "90 best agencies" and another one showcasing their own selection of best Flash sites and spoke at a few conferences and seminars, like Adobe's, OFFF and Mad in Spain. So, as we were just three people, we got all involved in the whole production process, from coding and animating to quality check and controlling versions, kind of creepy today thinking about how much stuff we worked out a day. Even in those days i started to write Flash and ActionScript books for spanish market, so i became well known in the Latin community of developers.

Then one day i felt frustrated and started to think that i was doing the same thing as two years before, then i thought that in two years i'd be doing the same thing as that day, so i decided to quit myself and start from scratch. A few months before my good fellas at Grupo W had offered me to join them, they were 11 people then and they were about to be bought by a large company (thanks to God that it didn't happen), so although at first i said no, in the end i moved to Saltillo as interactive director, doing some Flash programming and taking care of the interactive creativity and techniques applied for every project. I remember my first full project there was our beloved Stuntman (http://www.thestuntman.la) in which i coded the stunt guy, being dragged and all of that kinetic stuff. It was fun and we didn't know yet how successful was that project about to be.

Last October, i quit programming, at least from production projects, and what i do now is about creativity for our campaigns and also studying and learning digital insights, how people surf the net or uses social media apps, so our team can develop creative strategies a kind of R+D process for our present and future projects, involving Flash prototypes, developing FB apps and many other things... in the end 24 hours a day are not enough, but i do really have fun doing that, in fact it's like i always have fun when i change things and start from scratch about what i do.

But as i still love rock'n'roll i'm in charge of every project involving banners when they're needed. Looks like everybody hates banners but i love them, little pieces conceived and developed in a short period of time, so it's more like a rush for me, as the opposite side of doing my R+D stuff.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Grupo W is an amazing story of constancy, hard work and a bit of good luck. We learn a lot using trial and mistake method, so that's kind of dangerous but also rewarding, when you accomplish things just by pushing your own limits, then discovering that you have new limits to push. It was like that for many years (the company was founded in 1999) but now we have grown and now we have a R+D and strategic departments in which we are all the time looking for what's been done and what's happening, reading RSS feeds, tweet's and trying then to filter all of that information to our mexican context. This is interesting because Mexico has now 30 million of broadband connections, which is a lot in absolut terms, but really small in %, as the country has over 100 million people.

It means that our industry is like two-three years behind US, UK or Sweden, for instance, but then we can use what we learn from studying and working for larger agencies into our local/regional market, what makes us kind of state-of-the-art here in Mexico and Latin America.

We travel a lot too, to every major festival everytime we can, both creative (i.e. Clio) and technical (i.e. Flash in the Can) so in the end each part of the team is updated with the latest news in their respective fields.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Our favorite client is the one that teaches us what his brand looks like and tries to push the boundaries of it, being humble as to learn from our digital knowledge. It's an exchange in which each part gives the best of it to the other one. The more it happens in equal terms, the more succesful the project is going to be, because then the relationship is non about client-agency, it's about a common goal set by the two parts. In the end, if you join us for a meeting with some of our favorite clients you couldn't say which one in the room is from the agency or from the client.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The closest the relationship between us and the client is, the easier to work with. One thing that worked out pretty well for us was taking our clients to festivals such as One Show, Clio or Cannes, for them to know what is been doing in the interactive field these days and then expanding their horizons and getting them ready for our proposals. We do not have a manual on how to deal with clients but trust me that nurturing personal relationships is one big giant step.

Another goal to achieve is making them understand that success/failure is relative for a project if we're talking about brand building, because in the end that is such a long road and each failure is a learning to apply in future projects. Also success is relative because it sets high expectations for the next piece or work and this one will be measured not for itself but compared to the older one, even when they are maybe, i don't know, a viral-intended video and a game, which are not comparable under the same terms.

Then, having that bond, things are much more under control, taking each step together and taking the goods and the bads of each project. Then the expectations for the next one are collective, and not just from one side.

On the other hand, when you're not able to build that bond, it's kind of uncertain, as you'll never knew what is really expecting your client even if it's written in a brief document. Then the process becomes more much aseptyc and hard to measure, as the parameters of success or failure are so many that i don't think that everybody remains happy after the whole thing has ended.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I have so many memories but the one i liked the most is one in which i didn't take any part on the production thing, but on the strategy one. The project is "Detective Stripes" (http://www.detectivestripes.com), our last release for our client Unilever-Rexona (although i think it's called Degree in the US and Sure in UK)

2008 was a weird year for us because we won so many things because of our Who's Fermin campaign (http://www.grupowprojects.com/rexonapower) but inside we had many turbulences, as we grew up from 14 people to 25 and that adaptation was really difficult both for the new and for the ones already working there. In fact i think that for a short period of time we lost our identity not knowing who we really were, the ones receiving awards or the ones struggling time after time at home. Then fall came and Unilever-Rexona called us to run their new global campaign (our first one!) and we got very excited about that, all the pre-production phase, storyboards, dummies for filming, etc. After the shooting we all checked the stuff we had and then everything and everyone clicked in the same channel, so although there were many sleepless nights, in the end everybody made their best effort to make the project happen and transforming the bad vibe into good vibe, testing the project all the time and suggesting things like what about this, you could take out that, and so on. I believe that it's pretty obvious the collective effort when visiting the released work.

As i said before, i have many memories about Stuntman or another projects less known as Semillero (http://www.semillero.net), a school for creatives in Mexico City, but not as intense as the Stripes' process.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Due that i'm not a producer in the orthodox way i don't think i can answer the question properly... I enjoy a lot being involved in as many projects as i can, from the creative or the technological side, whatever stage the project is in. When it's banners time then i feel it like if they were different projects even when the campaign is the same, as the specs for each portal is different and technologies such as Eyeblaster are just beginning their operations here in Mexico, so optimizing banners is such a challenge... and even more funny because we're not just in contact with the client, but also with the media agency that buys the spaces in which the banners are placed in.

Then you can count like 4 or 5 projects at a time, being responsible or not about the timings. Fortunately we have various people (Rodrigo, Pit, Alexandra) that are capable of registering the whole production process in their minds so it's very easy for them to identify if we're going fine or if we're going under a red alert. I admire and respect so much what they do.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
More than particular profiles, i feel comfortable working with people that understands that we all have to learn and walk together in this media, because nobody knows shit. That means that everybody should be committed to get the best out of them and don't be scared about proposing new things or complain and let the producer know if they feel that something is not going in the right direction. Transparent people, i think, i'm really lucky to have met a lot of cool people here at Grupo W, all of us kind of weird in a sense, but transparent them all.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Indeed we are so hard between us before releasing anything just to try to meet client's best interests, even from the idea and many times also after the execution, sometimes we've been polishing a project during two or three weeks after the release of it.

When being a producer it's like being a digital Mata-Hari sometimes (working for two bands) and it's hard because you're being shot from both sides, haha, so in the end and in front of the client i prefer giving credit to the team when things go well and take the blame if they're not so well, as it's easier then for the client to channelize their worries and i can modulate them into the different areas of the production.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It's amazing the way that social media has reached our lives. A couple of days ago i was writing at Adverblog.com that in my opinion, the microsite format, as we all know about it nowadays is coming to an end because it reminds me of an expensive interactive version of the old TV spot format. Formerly, people watched TV ads and then they went to the related site, now this kind of site is not enough. Not the information has changed, it's just that there's a lot much more of information flowing, and campaigns running succesful are not using single microsites as a dead end, but as an intermediate level into social media or into another actions from the same brand. In fact, it looks like the Facebook app became the new microsite, as it is easier to share while inside of a social network.

I found out particularly interesting too that the success of many collaborative campaigns is obviously in a deep relationship with the way in which users embrace technology as a habit. That is maybe the reason of why US and specially Japanese campaigns engage people in such an outstanding way, and makes me think of the face that many brand managers would show if we'd propose such things here in Mexico, for instance, haha.

And finally, there's a LOT of cool stuff already done for mobile devices; it was often said that mobile connectivity was the future but apps weren't worth of that quote. But now, and not because of the content available as a content itself, but because of the content that allows the device to become more of a tool or an interface to get people involved, i think that mobile is now a driving force for interactive experiences.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I wish i had more wisdom (if any) to share but here in Grupo W we try to follow our instincts when working, even if it sounds weird or unrealistic for other people, trying always to push our boundaries even when we're not supposed to. Last year we were ranked 4th interactive agency in the world by Gunn Report, and i think being dreamers instead of realists helped a lot, so as to finish i would say something like "realism is the most refined way of cowardice"... sounds really deep huh? But my advice is that you don't be afraid of struggling, there is a lesson in everything, and someday struggles becomes success as the most natural thing in the world.

Positive Growth

2009-03-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

Introduce yourself and your site project.
My name is Drew Ungvarsky, and Iʼm the owner and Creative Director of Grow. We are an interactive studio whose work combines the highest levels of design, development, and animation—all with the goal of measurable results. Three years after we put up a quick-and-dirty site with a “coming soon” message, we finally made the time to create a real website for ourselves. Check the site out here: GROW

What were the goals for the new site?
We needed a site that shared in detail our work and our capabilities, and it had to do it with the personality and attention to detail our clients have come to love us for. The site also had to be easily updateable and deep-linkable for usability and search indexing. The site is entirely content-managed, so each of these goals is met, and the site can easily grow with us in the future. Sorry, that pun is hard to avoid.

Where did you guys get your inspiration for the new site?
Our temporary site actually gave us great insight into how we wanted to approach our full site. The temporary site reminded us fairly regularly of its shortcomings—namely how insufficiently it showed off what we were capable of. And while we wanted more of a polished look, we still wanted the little details that made the site fun to explore. (If you havenʼt figured it out already, the animals love to play.)

What story were you trying to tell with the new website?
That we have a great body of work for a wide range of clients, and that weʼre constantly moving forward.

What technical, logistical or budgetary challenges were presented during the project?
Without a doubt, making the time for the project was the biggest challenge. And like any internal project, we knew weʼd be our own worst critics, but we tried not to get too caught up with that and ran with what we liked.

How valuable is the new site to the agency? Is it your main form of external communication?
Our work has to speak for itself, but weʼve now got a site that does that work justice. The site is RSS enabled and iPhone friendly, too… so all you producers out there can keep up on the fly!

Guerilla Warfare

2009-03-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Darren Himebrook, integrated producer, director and creative strategist. I've always hated long titles but I've found it's hard to describe my capabilities to a potential Client or anyone for that matter. Right now I'm freelancing and have recently joined Guerilla FX as an Integrated-Director/Producer/Digital Strategist. Pretty much means I'm there to expand their current capabilities-they have a killer team and I've had great experiences working with them on the agency producer side with visual effects, production, post finishing, design and interactive so getting together was really a no-brainer. By joining forces, we have a knowledge base to be really integrated and create amazing work-efficiently-something on the mind of all Clients and Agencies these days. It's nice that we also have the combined experience to be able to understand how to best work directly with Clients and Agencies. We are a truly integrated creative production house right now and we love what we do-all things that make for good business.

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?
All accidental, like much of my background, I've been lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and presented with interesting opportunities. Having great mentors along they way didn't hurt either. I went to Savannah College of Art and Design and studied studied Film & Television and dabbled in sound design. From there, I took two suitcases to NY to get my start; worked hard as a PA with some big Clients as well as my fair share of music videos and features. I got my first taste of producing and digital on the same project, an ARG before the term was know, for Sharp/W+K with Chelsea Pictures and the Haxans. From that an opportunity came up at CP+B, it piqued my interest as I'd worked on some very challenging experiential projects and I wanted to expand my experience within interactive all the while getting some agency experience. The work and the push to make it happen was truly incredible, and it was great experience to work on award winning projects for big Clients and have the support of the agency in doing so. This led me along my career to other agencies such as W+K, really molding me into the creative producer and strategist that I am now. We not only had to get the best work done through impossible timelines and new technologies but we had to be really strategic in our approach to work with such big Clients as BK, VW or Coke. The way I see it, anyone can be a producer but you need to bring something more to the table. The true hybrid talents - producers/creatives/developers/everyone, know that by rolling up their sleeves and really getting involved in the work-understanding it so it can be pushed, creative can go farther, be more efficient with different ways of handling one project and be strategic in the approach. I try to do that everyday, some days are more successful than others, but without trying I wouldn't be a producer.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I'm a nerd. I am constantly connected staying on top of new productions and new ways of doing things and have many plenty of fellow nerd friends along the way that help me problem solve or even to discuss the battle plan on Call of Duty IV. I've found a group of people who are also my friends who share the same passion for doing great work, no matter what our role is in the process. If there's anything I've learned from being a producer is that you are nothing without your team. I've found that I get the best work from people when I treat them with respect-listening to them and let them know what's going on. You have to be flexible with your team as well-for example, if you know you get the best work from them at 1am-let them work the time they want to work if possible or you know someone on your team wants to try to do that animation, etc-give them the opportunity to do so and grow them-they may surprise you and you realize that you just saved a few bucks. It really comes back to sharing a mutual respect that in return, gives you the best work and the most fulfilled team...which keeps them motivated and hungry for more.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I can't say I could name a brand or a specific project per se but what makes something great to work on is the ability to work with a client or project where you can tell that everyone put their knowledge and backgrounds together to create a seamless, solid movement. Where people fulfill their roles and everyone is on their game. It's when Clients understand their brand and how they will need to communicate their offerings or who they are differently these days and we strategically solve it. It's when a project has been put on the back burner because it was deemed "impossible" but then, we come up with solutions to make it happen; that's the most fun.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
This sounds like a trick question, I don't have realistic expectations for myself so it's hard to ask that of a client. When it comes to a new project there is as much of an education for me as for the clients so that becomes the approach for me. We learn and do as a team, clients included, sharing the information, having a point of view and it's my job to provide leadership to the project to make sure that's happening. From there, we hope, we can all have shared expectations, realistic or not.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I've enjoyed every project, so picking one doesn't make too much sense as they've all been so fun/challenging/painful in their own ways. I'm always looking forward to the next project with the knowledge gained from previous projects, and hope that maybe the one that qualifies as "best" is my last project. One thing about projects is that they really give you a chance to make new friends and meeting more people who will challenge you with their ideas, as much as I would love one "best" project the more, the better as it's just a continuation of life experiences.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on the scope of each one and my bandwidth of course. I've been known to juggle 7 interactive projects at one time-some of those being as easy as banners while doing a couple of microsites on hurried timelines dealing with challenges like e-commerce, games, sound etc and working on rebranding a site while working with animations while going out on shoots to make sure I have the right footage...all in a days work-long days at that. I have to say though that comfortably is a state of mind. If I'm working on some really cool projects-I would do anything I can to keep working on all of them.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Whats the project? Video, Web, Mobile? The right team for the right job.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
One word-Communication. Solid communication is the only way to ensure that the Client gets the best work. It is keeping Clients aware of the steps necessary to get work done along with letting them know other ways of completing steps which may make for a better product or create efficiencies. It's about exceeding expectation and bringing more to the table-letting the Client know other ways they can use the creative or new mediums worth exploring. It's understanding their business so we know why it's important to deliver on their needs.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It might look like a building, or a cellphone, or a (fill in the blank) but not to make light of it; it will be collaboration of technology, creativity, design, business. We're being faced with challenges on a large scale globally that are affecting our business to the core. It can be a fearful time for many but is also an exciting time for those who want to collaborate-and innovate. Luckily our industries' future isn't any where near decided so I'm gonna try to have less of a vision and hope it happens with more of a workbench approach-by trying some stuff, taking in what's working and be a part of it.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
While having the knowledge to know how to get the best work done is important, one cannot go far in this business without having integrity. You must be honest and treat others (EVERYONE) with respect. There are the whole set of unwritten rules in this business but, following these simple "rules", integrity and respect, is the secret of creating solid, long-lasting relationships. This is a very small industry and if you do great work, you will have the privilege of doing more great work. But again, simply, be nice.

Wild Child!

2009-03-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is Gelya Robb and I am the executive producer at The Wilderness, a design collective specializing in motion graphics, animation and live action.

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 started out as a broadcast producer at Ogivly & Mather working on large domestic and international TV commercials. I then moved to a boutique audio facility, Q Department, producing music to picture and doing supervision for film. From there I worked with a new media marketing solutions upstart and then relocated to Berlin, Germany where I produced an electronic music show for an NYC internet radio station, VIVA Radio. I've produced projects in the sustainability sector as well. Over the years, all aspects of production have moved in a digital direction, so it's been a natural transition. Now producing technical visual work has brought my career course full-circle. What one sees is the core element of any design project, and I'm very optically stimulated so it's exciting for me to be working in this medium.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I make sure to explore aspects directly related to the field and to remember those not directly related as well, as they can be equally as inspiring and idea sparking.
I constantly communicate with friends, colleagues, and agencies. I read blogs and industry magazines. I check certain websites daily such as Motionographer, Stash, Feed, Creativity, etc.

Additionally, every person at The Wilderness does the same kind of research and we share ideas and discoveries and keep each other informed. We have a weekly meeting solely designated for this kind of idea swapping and to share anything we find exciting. We also all enjoy impromptu dance parties, what's not motivating about that?

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Best case scenario would be a collaboration with people on all sides of the project who are intelligent, jazzed about the work, and open to an assortment of creative solutions resulting in a well executed business strategy. Since we have evolved into a full service shop, our ideal project would require our involvement from the early stages of the process all the way through to the end, including concept, direction, editing and finishing.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
A major part of my job is to balance clients' expectations and goals with what is feasible given the budget. There is a way to make any budget a successful piece. I speak to clients openly about what is possible and what direction will be the most successful given the constraints of the project. At the end of the day, we are in the business of problem-solving!

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Most recently, and most interactive-oriented, are two spots we did for the Ad Council in collaboration with RGA for a sense awareness campaign called "That's Not Cool" (www.thatsnotcool.com), which is being backed by Google and Youtube. Creatively, we had a lot of freedom and the end result is smart, informative and playful.
But there's another "best project" always coming down the pipeline so stay tuned!

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Ideally depending on the size and scope of the projects, we would have three projects in motion at one time, all at different stages of production: Pre, Production, Post. The beauty in being a small, ambidextrous firm, however, is that we can bulk up or slim down, expand or contract depending on the work load.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Every person on an ideal team has a serious technical knowledge of the process as well as an innate design sense. If each person on the team is thinking in both these veins from start to finish, the end result will prove it. We're lucky enough to have a team like that in house.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By openly communicating about big picture goals and the tools available to meet them. This economic climate is an opportunity for us to become more efficient with our production process and more creative with our production costs, which in effect provides smart alternatives for our clients.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Clients and agencies will want to streamline the production process more than it already is, looking to production companies for one stop shopping.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The Wilderness' tag line is "It's Friday Night!" We like to keep things in perspective!

A Liberated Syndicate

2009-03-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, I’m David Landa, Executive Producer and co-founder of FreeAssociation (or FA for short). We are a digital agency operating out of DUMBO, Brooklyn.

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 have always dabbled in the arts since as early as I can remember – but I think it was my early fascination with the inner workings of everyday objects that defined my career. As a child, I was always deconstructing things -- taking apart clocks, electronics or even smashing rocks.

Later, as my art studies became more formalized, I found myself as interested in the act of creation as I had been in destruction. Starting with painting, then writing, music and finally film, I began to use my earlier experiments in decomposition to inform my new journeys into composition. Film was the culmination of this evolution where the decomposition/composition dichotomy would result in true multi-media experiences, and that really amped me up!

I did not get into digital production until after college when myself and my two roommates (FA co-founder Michael Piliero and rockstar illustrator Cassady Benson) were hired to create animated spots for Pepsi. This opportunity snowballed into a full blown career and before we knew it we were producing websites and later consulting on brands.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Staying on top of the trends is a collaborative exercise for the team at FA. Nobody can know everything, especially in today’s explosive media environment. Since we all have our own interests and a healthy curiosity, everyone at FA brings something to the table. Checking in with twitter and blogs are all in the daily routine. A lot of provocative and/or ridiculous links are shared through IM. People take on research work if their schedule opens up or a project demands it. In addition we host weekly innovation sessions’ here at the office, concise lectures on emerging subjects– be it technology, advertising or even an artist we appreciate.

There is no one answer to keeping team members motivated. However listening to their ideas and having a truly collaborative environment is certainly a motivator. People stay motivated when they are vested in the outcome. Otherwise, one’s own excitement is contagious, so I stay motivated myself and am vocal about it!

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
One of the things we have always enjoyed about this business is the variety of project types that come through our door, including what disciplines we might have to bring to the table for a given challenge.

I especially enjoy projects that blend narrative, interactive, broadcast design and content management systems.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Always be honest and forthright. We learned some lessons early on doing hybrid cell/flash cartoon animations. One time in particular we thought it wise to not show the client the animation till near the end with a big reveal-- bad idea. The client loved it, but they wanted the main character to have a wardrobe change. Ouch, that’s a lot drawing!

After that experience we immediately worked to keep clients closely informed at every stage of a project. From discovery and planning phases through production and deployment, everything is tracked in an online client viewing area where we can retrace our steps, remember why we made important decisions and collectively decide the best course of action for the future.

We also use many tools to inform a client as to what the final product will be like. Anything that helps communicate the reality of the project is useful - wireframes, flowcharts, written scenarios, rendered boards and functional prototypes are all part of our toolkit for communicating the experience before it actually goes into build.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The next one. (LOL) Well, honestly, we like to keep it fresh and don’t really look back too much. I loved the Microsoft Idea Wins campaign (http://www.msofficeaccounting.co.uk) we developed with StrawberryFrog and Thornberg & Forester because it was a great idea, a great script and all the pieces were there for an awesome collaboration. Other than that, I am continuously excited by the work we put out and if I ever lost that passion for new work I think that would be the end of my career.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on the scope and demands. I have produced up to nine at a time, but I’d prefer one large engagement. The bigger projects often have more time for strategy, discovery and planning- the most important stages to position for success.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
We believe in the small, agile agency model. That is why we created FA, and that’s how we structure our business. Every project is different, but for a rocking campaign site, I would want: a strategist, a CD, an IA, a designer, a flash animator, a 3D animator, a sound designer, an AS developer and a backend developer.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Knowing what their best interests are is key. I educate myself about the industry at large and a client’s specific business model. I work to understand the brand and its positioning strategy and then, finally, how the current initiative falls under that strategy.

We- along with many of our clients- are very focused on metrics, which are an excellent indicator of traffic and content access. These tools are very powerful for marketers, and an advantage for people working in digital. There’s also the buzz factor, a more esoteric barometer of what the community is saying and the energy around it.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Small agencies making big noise! Lots of collaboration between awesome specialists of every assortment. Expansive, web-based lifestyles. The Rise of India and China in the digital space. But what I’m really looking forward to is when the boundary between biology and technology will be blurred, which will really change the game. And I think this will happen sooner than we expect.

Despite all this innovation and excitement, it’s always good for people to take a step back, breath some fresh air, and get their hands dirty with some paint, scissors, and cardboard, kindergarten style.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
If you’re looking around wondering what your next step will be, then I say take a leap of faith in a direction and through action you will learn what you truly want and how to get it. Besides, any movement is better than no movement.

Welikesmall.com Case Study

2009-03-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

Introduce yourself and your site project.
Hello, we are welikesmall, and our site may be found at welikesmall.com, naturally. Our blog can be found at welikebig.com, so we are an equal opportunity employer. Welikesmall was founded on the premise that we stick up for the little things. Things like small egos, small solutions to giant problems, and small movements for great change. We’re about fewer, shorter, better meetings. No more corpo bullshit.

We love what we do and strive to have a shop that is the best mix of technical and design, we find that our favorite projects are those that are outside of our comfort zone. You know, the ones where you aren't even sure if it is possible. If you have an environmental interactive project or something using RFID let us know... just thought we would throw that out there.

What were the goals for the new site?
We wanted a site that was easily updatable, showed our ability to utilize many different technology's, conveyed our personality, and didn't pull any punches. From a behind the scenes perspective we are gathering all of the interaction that occurs on the site, so that we can add information and new sections as needed.

Where did you guys get your inspiration for the new site?
Besides emo kids and skinny jeans I would say we really wanted something that was easy to use, and functional. We use so many different types of technology every day that we wanted a place to communicate with our clients. We are a very open transparent company, with little to no filter, we tend to call it how we see it. I would say the core inspiration was just honesty, not trying to be someone whom we are not.

What story were you trying to tell with the new website?
The story is one of 4 dudes trying to escape the agency life, and create work we are proud of. Our site definitely has a bit of cynicism to it, and a bit of inside humor from the hilarity that is the state of Utah. While we love living some place where the mountains are 20 minutes from our office doors, this place is straight up weird. Fortunately... we are too.

What technical, logistical or budgetary challenges were presented during the project?
The largest challenge for us was time. We had a spectacular first year, and have not slowed down since we put up our 2 second splash page in February of 2008. We are a small shop, and that makes it really difficult to take the time out from our busy development schedule. The comp for the site actually sat on my desktop for 6 months, and I would open it up every couple of weeks and tweak it. The week after Christmas while many of our clients were busy with their families, we put our headphones on and got it to Beta.

How valuable is the new site to the agency? Is it your main form of external communication?
To date it has been a wonderful conduit for us to rally around. I have to admit there is a certain sense of validation when we see how many projects we worked on in our first year, and a testament to how much can get done when you just put your head down and work hard.

The site is our primary form of external communication; however, it also re-purposes our content that lives all around the web. From the ability to tweet directly onto the site, to seeing what is currently playing on any machine in the office, to the blog's consolidation of flickr images via tags, we are attempting to harness the best of the technology thats out there, and allow it to do the heavy lifting.

If you want follow our twitter feed at
http://twitter.com/welikesmall/

or our site feed at
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/welikesmall-feed

Cliff's Edge

2009-03-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Josh Morse, and I produce stuff for Cliff Freeman and Partners in NYC.

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 kind of fell into it to be honest. Its a really long story, but the short version is I wanted to draw comic books but then I had to pay rent. I like digital because its the most modern media out there. Its a media that incorporates all other media that came before it. That being said, I don’t just do digital production. Cliff is a small boutique-ie shop, so production there is truly integrated, because it has to be. For instance, I just produced a three TV spots shoot in Africa, and now I’m making an iphone app and an adobe air app. Its always something different, and that’s why its fun.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Friends. I have lots of really smart friends all over the place doing all sorts of different things. We like to talk about work. Reading stuff helps too. There’s this thing, the interweb, its pretty good for research.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Anything that is staffed up from the client side to the vendor side with fun intelligent people who really care about the work, not their egos.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I write some pretty detailed pre-bid books about how I’m spending their money and why I’m spending it that way. Then I personally present it before I actually spend it. Sometimes they don’t read them, but I try to make sure they understand the choices being made and the potential compromises involved well before production begins. That being said, I also make it a policy to never say “No.” I’ll say “I dunno, let me find out,” or “if we do that, then we can’t do this,” but never just plain “no.” I’m a producer. If I’m here to say “no,” then I’m not producing anything.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I did a TV shoot in Buenos Aires for Snapple where we covered entire city blocks in bubble wrap. That was pretty fucking fun, and I’ll always remember that, but it wasn’t the best end result necessarily. Cliff Bot is prolly a better example, its why you are interviewing me now, after all. Cliff Bot was really easy for me, all the heavy lifting was done by really smart people who were very much excited by the idea and wanted to execute it to its fullest. Mike and Corey at Welikesmall, Joel Jeffords, Zack Holliday, and Jason Hoff deserve a lot of credit for Cliff Bot. But I’m a big believer that you are only as good as the last thing you did, so that means the best project ever better be whatever I’m working on right now.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I don’t really have a choice about this so who really cares. But seriously, you have to know how much you can do, and how much your company can do. And then try to do a lil more then that, but not too much more that it makes the final product suffer.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I dunno, but it involves a fancy machine that can stop time.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
All I can do is treat their money like my money, do my best to explain everything to them, and hope they understand it all.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I’m pretty sure there will be less money to spend on the same amount of stuff. Therefore, everything is going to be scrappier, and you’d better really love what you are doing or you shouldn’t be doing it.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be nice to people, and respect them, cause they will appreciate that.

Swedish Thinking

2009-03-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I’m Fredrik Suter and work as a producer at Fi Stockholm.

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 encounter with the digital world was playing games on my Commodore 64 (using the turbo tape) and later Amiga 500 as a kid. Later on in life, I got an interest in web technologies and programming which brought me into the field of interaction design and later down the road to the role as a producer.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
My input comes from various places, interesting blogs on the web such as A List Apart and Boxes and Arrows but most importantly from my colleagues. Keeping my team members informed and motivated is the biggest challenge as a producer, and requires you to always remind yourself of the bigger picture of the project and maintaining a positive, constructive attitude throughout the project. There are no simple solutions to that, only trial and error and being honest to yourself. Everybody fails sometimes; it’s what you learn from the failure that matters.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A client that has a clear business strategy striving to translate this into a world leading digital product. To achieve this you need the number one digital agency.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
By striking a fair balance between optimism and realism, translating technical lingo to a language that is meaningful to the client.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Right now, I’d have to say www.ursmart.se Great concept and great result.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Three projects, ideally two.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I already have them in-house J

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By being a good listener and trying to understand what the client really want. Also, reminding yourself that sometimes the client might think that they know what they want but really want something else.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Less is more, quality over quantity. Fewer features but the right ones instead, less information but more useful and relevant information. Less pure campaign sites with spinning 3D bottles and more focus on being where the audience is and finding ways of having conversations rather that pushing a message. The blog format is slowly replaced by a new format that is not based on a reverse-chronological order with focus on the latest, rather by topic or relevance to the user.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Never underestimate the complexity of a project even though it might look simple at a first glance!

A Chat With Cliff

2009-03-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Introduce yourself and your site project.
We are Cliff Freeman & Partners, a full service advertising and communications agency based in New York City. We pride ourselves on do work that works. Getting results is our main focus. Our project was to make a new site for our agency. (Historically, making an agency website is the hardest thing for a creative agency to do. Ironic, huh?)

What were the goals for the new site?
We didn't want to make another boring agency site that was all sizzle and no steak. We wanted to make a site that got results. A tool that would be useful for us and for our clients (and potential clients who wanted to get to know us.) And one that delivered on something we always tell our clients to do: start a dialogue with the consumer.

Where did you guys get your inspiration for the new site?
We are always instant messaging each other. It's how we work. We think it's how a lot of people work these days. So making the site a chat engine seemed completely natural.

What story were you trying to tell with the new website?
Every brand is a dialogue. Engaging people in real time is fast becoming the new must-have. We also wanted to show people that we were all about getting things done. And that we were fast. And that we had a sense of humor about ourselves.

What technical, logistical or budgetary challenges were presented during the project?
As always, we didn't have a huge budget. So we needed to have a great idea that people would want to work on. Welikesmall, a digital company in Utah, loved the idea and we loved working with them. Even though we never actually met them in person. They may, in fact, be bots. We don't know.

Other challenges were the usual navel-gazing stuff that any company has when making its own website. But we got past it. (Our navels are quite clean now, though.) Honestly, the biggest challenge was building this new engine. Welikesmall were all over it and built us a chat engine that logs all input in real time and allows us to change responses on the fly from any computer in the world in just five minutes. Pretty cool stuff. Especially if they are, indeed, bots.

How valuable is the new site to the agency? Is it your main form of external communication?
Not only is it our main form of communications. It is our face. Our first look. And if a client falls in love with the idea of this site, we
know they are a pretty cool client. One we can work with for a long time. So, if we had to put a value on it, it would be in the millions. Of dollars. At least. Thanks again. See you on the worldwide web.