2. HAVING MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS
Their portfolio is certainly impressive, with a healthy number of multinational clients (PlayStation, Grey Goose) and individuals (including early fan, . lm director Darren Aronofsky). It’s a deliberately eclectic mix, allowing them to weigh up the demands of a bigger client (with any subsequent loss of creative control) with smaller, potentially more creatively fulfilling jobs.

“It’s not an easy balance,” Jugovic admits. “Most of the interesting projects won’t even pay our expenses, while the ones who can pay could compromise our work and lead to a different face of Hi- ReS! It’s a constant battle—but fortunately we’ve managed so far. We’re also lucky in that larger, more corporate clients approach us on the basis of the work we’ve done in the past. We believe that you’re always measured on the strength of your latest project, so we always try to give our best and create the best possible solution for every project.”

“It’s all about engaging in meaningful conversations with your target market,” adds Schmitt. “That sounds like ad-speak, but it’s what we’ve been pursuing from day one. Respect your audience, acknowledge that they are smart and like to be challenged [in the right context], and start a conversation with them. Don’t talk to them as if you were delivering a monologue to an infant. Don’t tell them you know what will make them cool. Let them find out for themselves, and never settle for the lowest common denominator.”

Hence, one of their first widely acclaimed projects, the truly groundbreaking site for Darren Aronofsky’s film, Requiem for a Dream. Eschewing the then widely accepted idea that a film website should simply provide a list of credits or actors’ bios, or indeed that a site’s navigation should be easily identifiable, the site was a revelation, mirroring and expanding on the film’s major themes of darkness, decay, and addiction. Intricately layered, stunningly detailed, deliberately difficult, and obscure, the site was the perfect foil to the movie.

Subsequent film work for movies including Donnie Darko and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers is just as detailed, though the look of each one is markedly different from the others.