We kicked off the year with two farewells, saying goodbye to Mitch Eaton, who left the big smoke of Sydney to return home to country Victoria. And to Lizzie Smith, who left to intern with our pals at Buck.
But it wasn’t all goodbyes. We welcomed two new members to the studio; Melany Webster, a talented UTS grad who has flourished since joining us in April, and our newest recruit John Grist, who decided to hang up his freelance boots to settle in with our growing team.
Work
Throughout the year, we’ve worked on more than 60 different projects with over 30 agencies and clients both here in Australia and abroad. We’ve partnered with world class agencies like For The People, Maud, Moffitt Moffitt, Landor, Moniker, Design Studio and Frost, doing work across multiple sectors for companies like Event Cinemas, Spotify, Microsoft, Pinterest, Google, Beem It and Sydney Film Festival to name a few.
We worked on a feature film.
We also worked on our first feature film! A documentary about Artificial Intelligence called Machine, which is currently in cinemas. Margaret Pomeranz gave it a whopping 5 stars, so it’s worth checking out. Our role was to work on the 3D visualisations of neural networks (partnering with Luxx), and working closely with the team at Finch, including VFX Director, Toby Pike, along with the film’s Director, Justin Krook.
Awards, you say?
We won our very first Pinnacle at the AGDA Awards, along with two Distinctions and four Merits from our seven entries. We were super excited that our very own Zoe Crocker was also a finalist herself, for Emerging Designer of the Year. A huge achievement which we’re incredibly proud of. We also entered New Zealand’s highly regarded Best Awards. Of the five projects entered, old and new, four of them were finalists. Our work for VIVID (done with Luxx) brought home a Gold Pin, along with our Adobe Opening Titles taking out a Bronze.
What else?
Awards and work are great, but that’s not all we can do.
As a team we did four talks/presentations, got our model on and ‘werked’ it in our first team photoshoot with Tim Jones Photography, played too many hours of video games together, drank 960+ coffees, raised a puppy, and flew down to Melbourne as a team to attend Node Fest with all our friends and peers.
This year, we’re going out with a splash. Catch us speeding around circular quay on a jet boat before we call this year a wrap! 2019, you’ve been a ripper. See you all next year for bigger, bolder and better things in 2020!