Jeremy Prasatik from Dallas, Texas, has set up his own studio called JP33 that does it all - print, web, apparel, branding, online marketing/email campaigns, application interface and product packaging. Jeremy wears his influences on his sleeves, but we won’t hold it against him because he does a good job at doing it right. Check it!
Graphic designer Denny Backhaus recently moved to Amsterdam to attend design school. By the looks of his work so far, we think he’ll do okay.
Jose Maria Roca from Barcelona, Spain, showcases his imaginative and intriguing work over at ROCA estudio. Enjoy!
Our industry is the fore-runner of hype. We praise the few that grab our attention and shun the rest. We need something new every day. We are obsessed with finding fuel for our creativity. We're moving too fast!
Please, we beg of you, stop and smell the roses every once and awhile. Chances are you will notice something just as good -- if not better -- than what you thought you needed to see. Timo Boese is one of those people.
You might not be looking for him, but he's right there at the top with the others, you just have to slow down enough to see him. We actually stopped and sat down with Timo to ask him a few questions about what it's like to be the guy stuck in the rose bushes.
Timo Boese | Lowerground: Hehe! That's true indeed. But maybe graphic design has even more exciting aspects than being a crane operator. Right now I couldn't imagine any other realistic job I'd like to be doing for the next several years. There are a lot of mini jobs included in many different fields of design that keep the whole job very interesting. I am free to do what I like and I can try things I haven't done before, figure them out by myself and see how things work. And I can always blow some stuff up later.
TB: I get up at half past 9 almost every day. Then it takes me up to 2 hours to have some coffee and get ready for the day. During that time I review my emails, read some news and maybe check files that I rendered or uploaded overnight. Around 10 to 11 I head to my office or where I am working on location. I work till 8 or 10. I do take a break for lunch and some surfing and chatting breaks. In the evening I try to quit work and spend some time with my girlfriend and my friends doing all kind of things, excluding sports. I might check my emails or render jobs before I go to bed. This is around 1 or 2a.m.
TB: I don't think so. I got into graphic design from drawing. I don't know how exactly the translation from analog art to digital media began. But it felt like something that I did all day so there was no break in between.
Getting paid for what I did also began quite early. I did a lot of technical illustrations for books and magazines. That translated into scanning and illustrator. I did layout jobs as well and while I was studying designs I got into motion graphics.
There was definitely a project that convinced me to get into motion graphics. I was watching some short films in cinema and I saw Grammy Winner by Designer's Republic. I was completely confused afterwards. I couldn't sleep because that video was running around my brain. I contacted K7! records to send me a VHS tape and watched it over and over. I had no clue how to accomplish what they did in that video.
I got rather ambitious about learning motion graphics, starting from flash, to video editing tools, to compositing tools, to 3d tools. It took half a year or so to learn the basics, then I took a video course at the university. I tried to create an abstract 3D music video clip. I had no idea what I was doing, but it worked out somehow. I got so much positive feedback that I gained the confidence to stick with motion graphics, although (for me) producing the video clip was just some kind of software experimentation.
TB: I do not draw as much these days. I used to draw a lot because my neighbor and I were so impressed by Joe Johnston's and Ralph McQuarries' works that we wanted to do the production paintings for the upcoming Star Wars Episodes in the nineties. Well, that did not work out somehow.
I do a lot of sketches to keep things in mind and to arrange projects visually. I also draw for projects demanding hand drawn footage. But I have no real ambitions to start drawing just to draw. And I never liked painting, I was never good at it.
TB: Of course a compromise must be found. I like working with clients who get in contact with me because they like something I did and rely on me to do something cool for them. But everybody has an opinion of what is the best, especially clients who know a lot about their brand and the way it should be treated. Fortunately motion graphics is set relatively free from style guides so I think there is a lot of space for compromise. But there is no special way for dealing with that matter I think.
TB: The opening is really the best part. Seeing all of the artist's works arranged together for the first time, meeting a lot of people, and being in a nice environment, music... and free booze.
TB: Besides money and fame, I simply like to do the kind of work that I do. I have to keep myself in good mental shape to stay motivated and that requires vacation, free time and sleep. I also do look at other people's work - books, movies and images. Technical improvements are also interesting.
TB: The process starts with the briefing. Then I like to have some time to think about it. You get a rough idea of what you want to do with the project. Within the next several days you think a lot about it and figure out all parts of the project and all things that could eventually become a problem. I write down all that stuff and do some sketches, collect some mood samples and look for and think about what audio I could use. It's nice to have audio in time so you can plan the tempo and all kinds of other things.
Next, I do some style frames in Photoshop to specify the look I want the video to have.
Then I do the 3D and compositing parts, depending on the project.
Last, I do the editing, music synchronizations, and effects rendering. The audio is then reworked again with the addition of some sound effects and some small details.
TB: For the most part, I do, yes. If there is a story that is told I do envision the project in my mind and specify the general ideas during the storyboarding process. Details, slight changes and looks appear while working on it. But I think a motion piece is hard to imagine sometimes. A specific idea could be very good, but turn out to be impossible to convert to a movie. But I never start working on a motion piece without having any idea about how it will unfold.
TB: I listen to music all the time. I don't think it fuels my creativity. It's just a basic necessity like, for example, having a chair. I don't listen to progressive music during the day. If I have some time I try to get new music, which happens about once a week. I check the albums and add several tracks to playlists that turn out to be very long. It's very nice to have several 12 hour playlists you can play.
TB: Wikipedia. Travel. Music. Leisure. Internet. Swimming. Food. Pictures. Guns. Drinks. Freedom. Devastation.
TB: Barnett Newman and Deep Blue.
TB: Not so much. I don't have a lot of spare time right now so I try to get away from the computer whenever possible. Aside from my large projects, I keep myself busy with little projects that involve illustrations or some designs. I hope I can find some time to care more about personal projects.
TB: Do what you like to do. That should be what you are best at. Don't just follow any current design trends and don't imitate what everybody else is doing right now. Be ambitious and patient. That might work. And don't take yourself too seriously.
TB: There is quite a lot going on now. Friends of mine and I just set up a motion graphics company. It's called Shape and we are based in Berlin. More on that soon. Besides that I am working on several nice motion and illustration projects right now. Everything is fine I think.
Thanks a lot for the interview!
Like what you see?
All works above are produced by and copyrighted by Timo Boese | Lowerground.
To view more of Timo's work, please visit his online portfolio at www.lowerground.com.
You can also catch up with Timo's more personal life at the Lowerground Blog.
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