One of Transistor’s key client service decisions was to go bicoastal. “We chose to open a studio in New York because some agencies and networks demand it. They like to meet face to face. Once they are comfortable and trust us, it opens up the door for them to do work with our Los Angeles office, too. The more we are known in NYC, the more calls we get from West Coast clients,” says Plummer, who heads up Los Angeles while Meena runs New York. Weinshel, who lives in Chicago, is back and forth between the New York and Los Angeles offices for all business development activities. There’s a synergy between the offices and the directors. Projects can begin on one coast in one medium, and shift to the opposite side of the country to be rolled out for a whole other purpose, as when a NY director does a TV spot that an LA interactive director reimagines as a website. Transistor also collaborates with its sister company, Backyard Productions, as well as a variety of advertising agencies, marketing companies, and other design firms. Transistor’s larger size makes the studio eligible to handle larger projects for corporate clients, while the exciting work attracts other creatives in the industry who would like to collaborate.

MTV’s Todd Apmann responded to Transistor’s work for his network, saying, “All of us here at MTV are very excited and impressed. The numbers were amazing.” The network plans on future collaborations, as does Wieden + Kennedy. Jen Cardenas of Message Advertising put it simply, “These guys are rock stars.” Clients aren’t the only ones who are enthusiastic about the studio. Transistor’s design directors have received much recognition, including accolades from BDA, First Boards Awards, ResFest, The New York Art Director’s Club Young Guns, Golden Addys, People’s Choice Awards, and several film festivals.

WHAT ABOUT THE WORK?
Transistor Studios’ work succeeds on several levels: technologically innovative, visually arresting, slyly humorous, and utilizing interesting narrative arcs. A culture of experimentation keeps the studio fresh. Plus design directors are not restricted in their ideas by their own technological and production expertise. “Whatever they dream up, we’ll figure out how to make it,” says Plummer. And dream they do, with projects like Anders Schroder’s recent Isle of MTV show packaging, James Price’s new Coke commercial spots, and Saiman Chow’s Black, a short film for an Adidas viral marketing campaign—all are works that illustrate Transistor’s unique point of view.

The studio’s most notable projects spotlight their design directors’ individual styles using well-composed layouts and unexpected movement of graphics, images, and quirky musical cues. Many times entire 3D worlds get created as backdrops and stages for the clients’ messages. Often, a low-tech/high-tech fusion of techniques leaves the viewer slightly off kilter. In conjunction with astute pop culture references and dazzling visuals, the sum total pushes the edges of what’s possible in motion design.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT STUFF?
“Exploiting technology was instilled from the beginning,” according to Meena. “We built on the fact that you can’t do great design for the screen and complex motion graphics pieces without loving technology.” The studio employs a wide variety of hardware and software, including digital still cameras, DV cameras, scanners, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Flash, Maya, and Cinema 4D. Some projects take advantage of more traditional tools and techniques like green screen photography, stop action, and cell animation. “Whatever it takes,” says Meena.

The potential seems limitless. “We realized that with the right software, we could do literally anything we wanted,” notes Plummer, “We could create and output our work to any medium—broadcast, web, or print. We knew that if we had the best designers in the business we could do everything.

“Having design as the core of our business, instead of just technology or production, allows us to evolve alongside new technological developments that require design. There are new media developments every day. Media content will always need to be designed and branded,” he continues.

The future looks bright. Technological developments are creating exciting new opportunities for all kinds of design for the screen. When asked recently where things are going in motion graphics, Matt Pyke, Transistor design director and guru at Universal Everything (U.K.), says designers need to create “work that is adaptable to mobile and iPod video screen sizes, and all the way up to HD.” Plummer agrees, saying, “Motion design has become popular because it exists in so many places—from billboards to television, the internet, and cell phones. Motion graphics are everywhere.”

View the videos featured in this article.

TRANSISTOR STUDIOS | www.transistorstudios.com