As Joe finished the website and showreel, he was able to slot his work into the presentation that I had shared with everyone to work on, and the slides have since been altered and as a result look much cleaner and better laid out.
Final Presentation Slides
Prior to presenting, we discussed who would talk about what and we thought that it made sense to talk about the work you had worked on and the area we were going to specialise in within the company. So I was in charge of talking about social media and the pages I had set up, were as Emma was going to introduce the company, Joe would talk about the website and finances and Ciara the business cards and how we were going to approach clients.
I feel the presentation went well and I think it definitely helped that we discussed roles before hand, as it meant we didn't trip up or interrupt each other. I also feel it was a success due to the lengths of research we had gone into in terms of competition and finances, and we really considered all aspects of our brand and how we were going to present ourselves and get our work out there.
The only concern that was mentioned was with our title logo, and how some of the stray pixels could be misinterpreted as accented letters, which may be a slight issue with international clients if we ever worked with any. It is something we would definitely reconsider if we are going to pursue our company further.
As we had all completed the tasks we had been assigned, we were now in a position where we could drag and drop our work into a presentation. The only thing that we had to consider in more detail were the finances. Joe, Emma and myself (Ciara was unable to attend our meeting, but still contributed over messages) sat down and researched further into the costs we would need to get started. We were already aware of how much the rent for the studio was going to cost as well as things like software licences as we had made note of these previously, but things like business insurance and optional equipment we quickly looked up. We even went on GoCompare to try and get a more accurate business insurance quote, but at the end of the form it said they would be in contact with us at a later time regarding a quote which wasn't particularly helpful at the time. In the end we just took an average number as an estimate from our Google searches.
GoCompare Enquiry
I put all of our costs into a spreadsheet so we could clearly see the amounts we would need to be earning/what it is was we would be spending, and used Mike's 'Cost of Living' spreadsheet as a guide for working out tax, as I personally had no idea how to do this or what we would get taxed on, and because of this I included two total expenses figures, one with tax and one without.
Expenses Spreadsheet
As Joe was working on the website and showreel, I took charge of making the initial slides for our presentation. I made sure to keep the style consistent throughout the slides and with our logo and brand so it would look more professional.
As a group we had to decide where we want to be based, whether this be in the UK or abroad. We were all happy to stick to the UK - though we briefly discussed Ireland as there's a tax break there at the moment - but we thought it would be best to research studio spaces that were available to us and for what price before we decided on a location.
We discussed different cities we'd be happy working/living in, such as London and Manchester, and looked on websites such as Gumtree and various property websites for potential studios in these areas. We found that a lot of the studios were very expensive and the cheaper, more affordable places weren't suitable for us. We were hoping to find a studio that was reasonably sized that would have space for desks and all of our equipment, but a lot of what we found were open plan office/desk space rather than studios, or they were just too small for four of us to work in.
Few Examples of Websites Looked at / Search Results
In the end we decided on Duke Studios in Leeds. We found that the prices were reasonable for everything they were offering with their 12 month contract, studio space. We emailed them asking for an estimated price for a 4 people studio and they replied with (-), which would definitely be ideal, especially as we like the look of the space.
Studio Spaces Available at Duke - Email from Duke Studios
We also thought that the location was ideal, as Animation in Leeds is beginning to grow. Not only this but it is easy to travel to and from, so we could easily attend festivals in nearby cities such as Manchester so we can network.
Now we had decided upon a logo, I was able to make a start on setting up our social media pages. The first thing I did was set up an email that I could use to set up or pages, and that we could all use as a company. From here I was able to set up an Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and Facebook Page.
Initial Pages
I made sure to keep the channel art and colour schemes consistent throughout, as well as things like company descriptions, though these changed slightly depending on the website and character limit. I plan to upload a showreel when we have one put together, and potentially a few pieces of work so we have something to show on our pages.
In our last meeting we assigned each other roles, this included what we would do for the company and the work we need to complete for setting up our company and presentation. My title is Marketing Manager, and I shall be taking charge of social media and making sure our work gets out there, so my first task is to make our sites. In order to for me to do this, we had to decide on a logo and the colours/style we were going to brand ourselves with. Emma was left in charge of creating the logo, but asked for a few quick sketches of what we all had in mind, so she could take the best elements from our designs and make a refined, final logo.
My Initial Designs
I started by looking at different pockets and tried to keep the designs simple, so the final coloured product would look clean and professional. I also looked briefly at having a character sitting in the pocket as I thought this would help get across that we were a fun company.
Emma's Refined Designs
Emma produced a series of designs based on our ideas and input, but in the end we decided we wanted to go for a simple pocket design, and try to incorporate the pixels into the design. Joe created some tests with example fonts and colour which we all really liked, and in the end went for the design that Joe had come up with.
Joe's Designs
I personally thought it was a good decision to go with Joe's designs, as I like the simplicity of them and they look much more professional than what we had previously come up with. I also like the decision to stick with the one colour gradient - we had opted for the green/blue - as it doesn't over complicate the design, and it makes it easier to brand ourselves this way.
In order to gain inspiration for our own company and to find out who our competition was, I have researched a handful of 2D animation companies, both large and independent. I started my search by thinking of advertisements that were especially creative/narrative driven to accommodate for the interests of both Emma & Joe, and Ciara. Adam&EveDDB
The first I thought of was the Christmas John Lewis advert "The Bear and The Hare", so I started my research there. The company that produced the animation is Adam&EveDDB and I soon found that they are not at all a small company, but in fact have around 200 employees.
They have worked for a large range of clients, the majority seemingly being for products but have done the odd piece for different charities. Though, it is not just animations they have produced for their clients. They have made illustrative ads for different clients and campaigns, and a lot of their work is also live action, so seemingly have a wide range of skills and capabilities.
Client List and Company Overview
Overall: The company doesn't seem to be focused in terms of media and their approach to briefs, but instead seem more inclined to produce advertisements.
Martin Agency
I found out about Martin Agency from a featured ad I saw on one of my social medias about Oreos, and really liked the art style so wanted to find out more about who made it. I discovered that Martin Agency have produced many advertisements and illustration ads for Oreo before, but I just didn't realise who they were produced by.
Client List and Company Overview
Wonderfilled Oreo Advertisement
The company is again a very large one that employs over 500 people from around 27 different countries, and much like Adam&EveDDB they produce a variety of work that seems to lean more towards advertising, though they state that they have capabilities in strategic planning, digital work and data analytics.
Distant Future
An Animation company that specialises in 2D and 3D animation, producing work to ensure "audiences remember their experience". A large company that has produced work for the BBC, National Railway Museum, Twenty Twenty Films and other clients, ranging from logo animation to motion graphics and visual effects.
Farnell Element 14 - Distant Future
Fettle
A small animation company based in Pennine Yorkshire, made up of three creatives that have a "passion for character animation, strong design and telling great stories". They have won a number of awards and produced work for clients such as Cbeebies and Citv.
Founded in 2005, Kilogramme is an award winning animation design company based in Manchester. They focus on 2D and 3D animation and will "take you from initial concepts and ideas, right the way through to the finished product".
Blue Zoo
Blue Zoo is an multi BAFTA winning animation production company that are based in London. They specialise in character animation, and produce work across all digital platforms.
Studio AKA
This independent studio is based in London as is known internationally for their "idiosyneratic and innovative work, expressed across an eclectic range of projects".
A company that specialises in animation, CGI, motion graphics and VFX, with a team of more than 100 artists in their offices in Noho and Brixton. They provide a range of services from advertising to TV and film industries.
Comic Relief
Golden Wolf
Golden Wolf is a "solution-focussed production company bases in London's Shoreditch".
Here is just a small selection of companies and work that I like. I found when I was researching that generally the studios either specialise in a certain media or method, and apply this style to a range of different types of animation/briefs (for example, charity work, advertising, tv and film), or they have a particular client or output in mind but create the work in a variety of different ways. The latter was more common with larger studios, so I think we will be able to be successful by being open minded about the briefs and clients we take on as a company, yet being somewhat restricted by method.
I also like these studios not just for the work that they produce, but because of how they presented themselves online. The way they introduced themselves was very professional yet friendly and inviting, especially Martin Agency. In their about me they say "We are creatives, UX planners and number crunchers. We are mustaches, fixed gear bikes and cardigans. But we are also Jeeps, top 40 lists and the occasional selfie. Our goals are not just about dollar signs or rewards for our shelf (though we like those, too). Our real goal is to help clients find and tap into new energy for their brands", and I like that they have been able to get across their values and goals as a company while keeping the character and 'funness' of the company and employees. I would very much like to encorparate this into our own company, especially as we are striving to be fun and narrative driven.
Myself, Joe, Emma and Ciara have decided that we are going to work together on our new PPP brief that requires us to set-up and pitch an animation company. I thought this was a good group to be in as we all seem to have similar work ethics and the work we produce doesn't seem to be drastically different in terms of media and program preferences. We also didn't particularly have preference for what area of animation we want to specialize in either, which I thought was initially going to be a good thing as I thought this would allow us to be quite broad with what work we could produce as a company. We soon realised that because we didn't have a preference our options we TOO broad, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of what we could do as a company.
We sat down and made a list of all the things we were interested in and what skills we thought we possessed, and we realised that 2D was a common element in all of our lists, and that we all liked using Photoshop and After Effects, so thought it was a good idea for our company to specialize in those areas. We also decided that we will tackle all areas of animating, as we are all capable at post and pre-production as well as the animating itself.
Now we had decided how we were going to make work, we then had to decide on what it was we were going to produce and who for. We discussed what it was we were passionate about and what it was we wanted to make, and I soon realised I have absolutely no idea. I have so many interests in so many different areas (Eg. games design, stories and film & TV, advertising, info graphics) that I was willing to go with group majority vote on this one; I basically just want to create. Ciara mentioned that she was interested in advertising, but was more interested in the adverts that are creative and get their information across by using a story, whereas Joe and Emma were both interested in storytelling. In the end we have chosen to be open-minded with what kind of genre the work is, but it must be narrative driven. We are going to be STORYTELLERS, that are "serious about having fun".
