The studios in London that we visited were all very different which I found really interesting as it helped me develop a further idea about what the industry is like and the many different formats and ways of working.
Momoco
Momoco was the smallest studio we visited but yet had so many successful pieces. Mostly title sequences, the company worked alongside agencies but were mostly independent in terms of clients. The company were very humble about their pieces and yet worked well as a team, Nic Benns who was one of the motion Designers explained how dependant on projects they keep a small team but can bring in freelancers. I found it really interesting in such a sense that it was a nice home grown studio and there was a small team who helped each other out, however I think I'd personally prefer to be in a larger team and making a broader range of work.
BDLG
This studio was my favourite of all the Motion Design agencies/studios that we visited. We were spoken to by Grant Gilbert and Jason who were clearly very excited and enthusiastic about their projects and agency. I really liked the work ethic and environment of that studio and how they process ideas with meetings with the clients as well as involving the whole team with the idea generation and allowing the person with the chosen idea to lead that project. I also loved that they weren't afraid to go back to analogue pieces with showing us 3D printed stop motion animations etc. It was a really nice thing to see not all digital animations as I love the analogue side of making such projects. Grant gave us alot of advice as well as a book of different projects and clients they've worked for. He gave us some tips for our showreel which was to include some personal projects in there to prove we have passion as he believes passion is one of the main traits he searches for in terms of designs and interns.
Nexus
Nexus was a huge studio with hundreds of people working there, it was nice to contrast this to Momoco, but it was overwhelming the amount of different projects and the scale of how many people there were. Luke Youngman was the production assistant with Aardman originally and spoke of his development in becoming a designer and production manager of Nexus. He explained that the process of working is very much on a grand scale and they have certain teams of people that work with the different clients.
Design Bridge
Although this is a branding design agency consisting of mostly Graphic Designers, I independently organised a visit as it was something that I have particular interest in. I found it a nice collaborative way of working as there were some Motion Designers there that worked with the Graphic Designers to produce gifs and adverts for the branding of the products.
