Hasta La Creative!

“Dot is a design and animation agency based in Pune and Bangalore. Since the past 5 years we’ve been creating illustrations and animations for clients like Audi, Panasonic, OYO Rooms, Hotstar and Lime to name a few. Our illustrations and animations are a part of larger ad campaigns and social media communications that help brands engage their users, or reach out to new ones.”

What made you start Dot Design And Motion?
I started freelancing as an animator about 5 years ago. and at some point I took up more projects than I could handle myself. That’s a good problem to have. Instead of turning the projects down, I ended up hiring other freelancers to collaborate and share the workload with. A few months later I set up Dot Design and Motion as a platform to showcase our work as a team. Things have been going great since then.

Tell us about your designers/animators. Did they go into fine art or design schools? How do you pick them up?
Our clients reach out to us for our illustrations just as much as they reach out for animations. So we have a good balance of both in our team. We got in touch with our designers/animators through platforms like Behance and Dribbble. Some members of our team went to design schools like NID, Srishti and MIT Institute of Design before they joined us full-time, and others are self taught. We frequently look out for interns throughout the year depending on the number of projects we have.

How important is the focus on good design in Dot Design And Motion?
Super important – That’s what we sell, so it has to be

What does Dot Design And Motion do which sets it apart?
Creating good designs and animations, and delivering every project on time is enough to set ourselves apart in this industry.

Tell us something about Design in the Digital Era. Do you do any traditional animation?
Yes we do traditional animation – But most clients never have the time for it. We usually deal with 15-20 day timelines for our projects and traditional animations usually take more than a month – All the way from pre-production to the final cut.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in design?
Beeple – He’s a 3D artist based in Los Angeles, and Emanuele Colombo – A self taught animator based in Italy. We follow their work pretty closely and always look out for opportunities to collaborate with them.

Do you work with any advertising agencies? Or mostly directly with brand teams at clients’ side?
Both. We’ve worked with Wieden+Kennedy, BBDO and Ogilvy in the past. Most recently we’ve been working with clients directly. One give us the opportunity to work actively with other creatives in our industry, and the other gives us more control on creative decisions.

Any other Indian design firms that you admire?
Animal and Rocketscience Lab. Super cool stuff.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on graphic design as a career option?
Learn the business of design, start working asap, charge per hour/per day (and keep a track of it), and do not work for free. When we say the business of design, we mean figuring out how much you’d charge for something, how justify the costs, accounting for revisions, advances, taxes, margins, hours, negotiating money, negotiating time etc. Follow the YouTube channel ‘The Futur’ to start learning about these things. And don’t avoid conflicts – With your team or with your clients.

Once you have these basics covered, I think the career option doesn’t matter as much – You’ll do great.

Who would your design team like to take out for dinner?
J-Scott. He’s a freelance animator currently based in New York. We definitely look up to him and his work.

What’s on the company iPod?
iPods – Those were the days We’re currently tripping on tracks composed by Fat Freddy’s Drop (Reggae), Joey Pecoraro (Electronic) and Kerala (Dance/Electronic)

Mac or PC?
PC. Personally, I’m a huge fan of portable workstations. Recently bought the Dell Precision 7730. It’s not as slim as a Macbook Pro of course, but upgrades and customization are much easier on these.

Whats your Twitter Handle?
We’re not on Twitter