As 2020 came to an end, many hoped we’d be able to leave COVID-19 behind us, although the aggressive Deltra strain was on the horizon. In 2021, the fear of the unknown seemed to have dissipated, yet lockdown fatigue and a higher infection rate brought a new set of challenges to overcome.
For the first lockdown in 2020, we lugged our heavy PCs to our homes to continue working. Sharing heavy video files was slow and cumbersome. Syncing files to the cloud was a sluggish process, and having multiple people on a project took significant planning. Our home internet connections were struggling to keep up and it was frustrating to say the least.
When faced with lengthy 2021 lockdown, we were recommended an app called Parsec. This brilliant piece of software was a game changer, allowing us to remotely connect to our studio PCs from home.
Now that we're out of lockdown we've adopted this workflow for the foreseeable future, offering our team the flexibility to work from home or the studio.
This updated way of remote working allowed us to scale up our team during the lockdown, bringing onboard two new team members, Mulanne Phan and Sylvia Leo, both UTS graduates with agency experience.
Mulanne is an illustrator and animator who won a Yellow Pencil from D&AD New Blood, an accolade of the highest calibre awarded to the most promising student talent. She was also awarded a distinction at the 2021 AGDA Awards for her Zombie music video.
Sylvia brings illustration and animation prowess to our team, and she’s also a talented portrait and street photographer.
Adobe After Effects Splash Screen
This was a highlight of our year, and an incredibly high profile project for Never Sit Still.
The splash screens of Adobe's Creative Cloud software are seen by users every single time they launch a program. So when Adobe commissioned us to create the splash screen for the new version of After Effects, we jumped at the opportunity.
We feel privileged to have contributed to the 2022 release of Creative Cloud, showcasing our creative skills using Adobe's creative tools.
If you haven't already, check out our case study.
Orb Award at The Design Conference
Winning the inaugural Orb Award at The Design Conference in Brisbane was another highlight for us.
We're extremely proud to have been awarded as Best Small Agency.
The Orb Award is different from others because it's about much more than creative output. This accolade recognises culture, D&I, gender equality, business strategy, work hours, staff salaries, even financials.
It's incredibly rewarding for our studio to be acknowledged for more than just our work.
Our work and industry involvement
We kicked off the year with a new identity system and website to lead us into 2021 and beyond.
Despite the pandemic being a major part of our lives throughout 2021, we feel fortunate that our studio has had a productive year. We’ve continued collaborating with many of our Australian clients, and we’ve strengthened our positioning in the US market.
We’ve worked on projects for Adobe, Pinterest, Spotify, Oculus, Coinbase, Microsoft, Athena, Culture Amp, Employment Hero, and many more.
This year Mike was invited to be a judge for the AICP Post Awards.
Zoe and Mel ran a motion program for third year students as part of the highly regarded Visual Communications degree at UTS.
Ben and Mike showcased our work to local studios delivering in-house presentations for Enigma, Frost Collective, Smack Bang and SAE College.
Outlook for the year ahead
As the pandemic rolls on and the Omicron variant creeps into the community, we're not sure what's in store for 2022.
Taking on board what we’ve learned over the last two years, it's business as usual for Never Sit Still, and we aim to keep collaborating with our clients on their exciting projects.
Stay safe, get vaccinated and have a fantastic festive season. We look forward to working with you in the new year.