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Studio on the Rise: Chicago-Based Lift Motion Design Offers Clients Something New
The literary giant Ezra Pound’s dictum was that artists should make their creations new, whether that meant an entirely new thing or a new treatment of an old thing. The artists at Chicago-based Lift Motion Design seem to have eagerly taken that advice to heart and work hard to make sure their clients take risks to make their projects new, even if that can be a challenging task in a recession.
“It’s the risk-takers that are winning out right now,” said Lift’s Creative Director Jason White. “They’re taking massive risks and they’re getting a bigger return. It’s those that are willing to do something different that are either going to come out on top or at least be praised for trying.”
Just over three years old, Lift is a design boutique, a creation of White and Reid Brody of the Chicago post house Filmworkers. The company works on its own and as part of a team with Filmworkers and Vitamin to produce work for clients such as national broadcast accounts ABC, CBS, Fox and SPEED, advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett, DDB, Energy BBDO, DraftFCB, Cramer Krasselt and video game developers such as Robomodo.
“Design within a traditional post house structure can flourish,” White said.
With a staff of eight, Lift focuses on bringing fine art and design to advertising.
“The best thing we have going for us is that we have a very tight team,” White says.
“We’ve hand-picked an elite corps of Chicago motion designers and animators. We’ve created a positive culture here and can rock out a vast spectrum of projects.”
Though still operating with a boutique mindset, Lift Motion is expansive in the scope of its creative interests. While its core work is motion graphics design for advertising and broadcast, it has recently begun to explore opportunities in interactive games and web media.
Branding is also becoming a substantial portion of Lift’s business. Their latest effort was a massive re-branding for Filmworkers Club brand and it’s locations.
While it’s a small shop, Lift has the advantage of being able to provide the services of a much bigger design house by tapping into the Filmworkers network for such resources as high-end visual effects production, telecine, film and data processing, and digital finishing. So they can tackle large-scale branding projects for broadcast shows while maintaining keen attention to small details.
LIFT OFF
White, 35, came to Filmworkers in 2006 with the goal to build a team within a year that could compete nationally. He came from a fine arts background but most recently had served as the creative director for Daily Planet Ltd., Chicago.
“The switch from the fine art culture to advertising one was a very big jump,” White said. “I moved from traditional media, drawing and painting, to digital media. That’s a change but it helps me maintain a unique perspective.”
But the jump worked for him and the leadership he brought to Lift has allowed the company to take flight. They thrive on repeat business but attract new clients daily.
“We work in tandem with Filmworkers, not only on our projects but to integrate design into existing projects,” White says. “We’re a design-centric team. Everything we do stems from our passion for design.”
Visitors to Lift, whether potential clients or job applicants enter a custom-built out space within Filmworkers penthouse at 232 E. Ohio Street. As the company has grown, the space has grown too.
ALOFT
The modern environment for advertising, despite the ever-increasing ability to monitor and track, is really like the Wild West, White believes.
“We have a chance as designers to basically invent something new,” White said. “Taking advertising out of the living rooms is one of the best, most fun challenges today.”
The traditional 30-second spot still exists, just as it did, but flexibility on the internet combined with in-store displays and other types of printed advertising means that the designers at Lift and elsewhere are trying to think off the screen.
“Multi-platform work is something we’re really embracing,” White says. But it still begins the same way, and clients can still get that at Lift.
“It starts with a storyboard, with a pitch and it goes from the pitch all the way down to every detail of a campaign, to the web banner, to the print ad,” White said. “It’s a lot for a small team but we’re very able.”
New advertising opportunities also mean thinking shorter than the 30-second spot.
“A lot of the changes right now have to do with bandwidth,” White thinks. “We’re finding ourselves having to condense 30-second spots down to five seconds.”
Their skills and good track record with agencies have netted them a substantial number of clients, White notes, though is cagey about future projects. Non-disclosure agreements mean that he can’t say what’s coming or whom it’s for. He’ll only say Lift has some “big” things coming.
THE SKIES AHEAD
The future business prospects for Lift are good, White notes, but attracting and retaining clients is tricky and stiff competition keeps them on their toes.
“We were passed over by a major client because someone making the decision liked a clip, two seconds, on a competitor’s reel,” White said. “That’s how competitive it is.”
But the volume of creative business is increasing with the boom in technological innovation that started with the internet.
“Avenues are increasing,” White says. “You also take it outside, get it out of the screens and onto interior and exterior displays and combine with print advertisements and billboards.”
Broader reach is, perhaps paradoxically, also combining with ever-more-narrow audiences.
“It’s so focused now, everything’s so niche that you don’t have to broadcast to everybody at the same time, you can really narrow-in your audience,” White said.
Now, advertisers must speak to a few, and speak effectively and that’s where Lift excels, White believes.
“It leaves a lot more space for design, specified to the taste of a clearly defined target audience ” he said. “We’re known for being a think-tank of design, we love R&D and being on the concept-side of an idea. We assist agencies, collaborate with them to land more business and that collaboration is one thing that I’m working very hard to further.”
Creating partnership from concept to completion means a better end creation that lands repeat business , White said. “We thrive off of the challenge of enhancing good creative to take it to the next level.”
Whether it’s a single ad campaign or watching the three-year growth at Lift, a sentiment of White’s seems to bear true.
“When one person has a dream and a sketch book, an idealized team in mind, and it actually comes through, it’s a pretty amazing feeling,” White said.
//www.liftmotion.com
- Added: 11/16/2009 6:18:57 PM
-Andrew Schneider
