Creative Association

To me, there's more to just the name of a studio, or media group, or creative collective. There's association. Either good or bad, it's there. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the studio name "Bad Robot"? For me, it's Star Trek 2009, which is a fantastic movie and instantly associates Bad Robot with something great. "Giant Killer Robots" with Fantastic Four; "Industrial Light and Magic" with Star Wars and Indiana Jones; and now "Weta Digital" with Lord of the Rings (and now Avatar).

MindBend Studios has been my cover name for all my creative endeavors since the beginning, since around late 1999. I still like that name and I still plan on using it. However, I have felt the need for a different identity when it comes to motion graphics and visual effects in film, something that raises an eyebrow and causes a question from the viewer. It doesn't need to be epic, or cause the viewer to say "OMG!! That's awesome!", actually I would prefer it not to. It just needs to be able to stir a double-take, to show something to the viewer that is unexpected. That's enough to take interest, to associate everything that follows to that first unexpected moment.

This year is going to be a year full of changes both professional and personal, and I think I'm going to enter this new year under the guise of "Angler Digital", although I'm not 100% on this. I'm already working on a graphic that involves the Angler's lure swinging across the screen to reveal the "Angler Digital" logo. This is definately something that will make people say "W... what?".