- When we first formed Blind,
I don't think I had a grand vision as to
what it is that we wanted to do.
I knew that I wanted to be in business for myself,
I needed to find clients,
but what we did it wasn't a lot of structure to that.
(techno music)
But I knew, forget print, forget corporate identity,
forget everything else that I wanted to do
or what I was planning to do.
That was all cast aside because this whole world of
animating, directing little characters really excited me.
And that was it, I already knew at that point
this is what I needed to do.
But here's the thing, it wasn't until much later on
that we figured out motion design was something
that we can concentrate and should concentrate on.
And that came out mostly because of marketing,
having issues with how to market ourselves,
trying to be all things to all people
made it very difficult for us to find work.
Earlier on we wanted to direct the live action
and that was an exotic thing.
And we had to send DP reels and write
all sorts of things to support the fact
that we could shoot the live action.
We always wanted to do more,
we wanted to control more of the process
and there are always issues of things
falling between the gaps,
the hand-off between the live action, director,
the editorial company, and then the motion design firm.
Everybody would blame everybody else
so we thought let's provide an intense solution,
at least in the commercial world,
where we're taking care of everything
from the live action, to editorial, to the post work.
And it became a thing from proving it every single time
to just a fact that everybody just accepted.
You didn't have to prove it any more.
And then this thing called the internet happens
and it starts to transform every single thing.
This is like 1999 when stupid money was being thrown around,
I saw all these graphic designers making five,
600, 700, sometimes as much as $800 a day.
So that wave pushed everybody's salaries up
and I think it was great for everybody.
Now fast forward a couple years,
it being a time when post production facilities
are shutting down,
there's downward pressure from agencies
and clients of all types to do things for less,
yet still want the same kinds of things.
And then there's upward pressure from freelancers
who still want to charge the same day rate
that they've been getting.
So as a small size company,
we're getting crushed from both ends.
So you can see there,
these kind of forces are working towards
us figuring out how to do things differently.
So we knew if we didn't change and pivot
we would soon be out of business
as many companies have.
But that's an assumption on our part.
The question is, we have to spend time defining the problem.
So we need to have a better definition of this.
Define the question.
Matt, you and I, Greg you guys know,
this is the magic of what we do.
I take great pride in bringing in young designers
who are looking to learn, to grow,
to get real experience.
And also seeing them grow personally and professionally.
And I can tell the ones that are
going to do really well.
They have a leadership quality, they're very optimistic
about what it is that they look at.
Problems aren't problems per se,
they're just things to be solved.
And so it's no coincidence that
the two creative directors that work here
were former students of mine.
- Like everything is some kind of learning experience
where we have to figure something out together
and work as a team.
And that's something that makes me really happy
and I think that Chris is an excellent leader
in terms of trying to strategize and not only
just tell you what to do but like bestow
information and wisdom upon you.
- He's constantly pushing me.
Him himself he's always about improving
his process, his method and always chasing after new stuff.
In turn just being around that,
I'm kind of doing the same.
So I never feel very stagnant
or kind of settled down here.
I constantly feel like I'm challenged in this environment
just because of what Chris has done.
(hip hop music)
- We have a set of core values at Blind,
one of which is to embrace and drive change.
And for some time I think it's just something
that's nice to say and to think about,
but there's a quote that I think puts in perspective.
Change is inevitable, progress is a choice.
As creative as we are,
as much as we like to say we're problem solvers,
really hold on to old ways.
Old ways of thinking, old process,
because it's most comfortable.
And if you get into a time crunch,
you're going to fall back onto these techniques
that you know have worked for you in the past.
But the internet is a disruptive force,
it changes everything.
So what we want to do is to make sure
everybody here is not ever so comfortable
with the way they do things.
So that when a new idea emerges,
an opportunity presents itself as in
say with Desktop Video, or something else,
whatever the new thing might be.
That they are not only open to it
but they're going to embrace it and incorporate it
and we can move forward.
We've been looking at it
like almost going backwards in time,
looking at everything that we have to offer
and trying to find a solution where
we can help clients out from the beginning to the end,
not just working with a finish script or TV spot,
but to conceptualize that.
And in order to do that we needed to
incorporate strategy into our practice.
And that's been the arc
that we've been on the last two years.
(inspirational music)
So with change comes a lot of heartache, headache,
but also comes a lot of opportunity.
Instead of focusing on
the money not being what it used to be,
because it never is,
focus on what opportunities are available to you.
Today with YouTube, with Vine, with Twitter,
you're able to develop an audience,
communicate to them directly,
and you can reap the rewards of that.
There are filmmakers, designers,
guys like Andrew Kramer who's able to
share his knowledge with the world,
share his process and do it in an
entertaining, educational way.
And he's able to sell his product that way too.
J.J. Abrams, director of Star Trek
and all these wonderful things soon to be Star Wars,
he saw those and was a fan of the tutorials
and then he hired him to do the titles for Fringe
for Star Trek.
That's a pretty awesome thing that can exist now
where you can have dialogue with all sorts of people
in ways that you could have never done before.
There's so many opportunities there,
especially as the tech gets better,
I think that's a whole other opportunity,
a whole new world to explore.
And one that I think designers
can play a really important role in.
If you're willing to go down that path.
And I for one am.
(inspiring techno music)
To me, to be a designer in 2015,
it's the most exciting time to be alive.
Sure there are a lot of changes
that we're going through right now,
and a lot still has to be resolved,
but the opportunities are infinite,
if you know where to look and if you stop
complaining about the way things aren't anymore.
Let go of that.
Look at what you have to offer.
I look at myself and say I can help clients
tell a story and deliver it on any screen,
whatever size, it doesn't really matter,
it could be linear, it could be non-linear,
as in interactive music video.
It could be a static frame, a poster, a logo,
something like that.
But what I have to do is I have to be willing
to step up and be able to talk
in real business terms with them
what their goals are.
I got to stop being a graphics person
because design is much bigger than graphics.
My name is Chris Do,
and I'm the founder and CEO of Blind.