From IP in China to Female Creative Directors

John Munro, creative director and co-founder of Immersive gives us his hit list of hopes for 2014.

IP being respected in China
So far we have had 3 of my designs blatantly copied and although we are in good spirits about it, it’s still a shame that it’s happening constantly. 

Fantastic design work is coming out of China, but IP will have to be respected in order for Chinese designers to develop a strong practice (equally so for Westerners trying to enter their market), as creativity needs time to incubate and develop without the constant threat of having work copied.

Chinese companies are calling for stronger protection and the legal system is also being constantly updated, so hopefully positive changes are afoot.

The quality level of creative content being raised
Immersive has been championing the use of cutting edge, high-end animation and film in corporate presentations, product launches, broadcast and live events for the past 8 years, but even now we still see the majority of these events with decent sized budgets still not investing in high quality creative content. 

We still see many corporate events where logos are still spinning around on simple sets of cubic blocks that are mapped with animating outlines... with little thought given to creating original responses. Even with broadcast events that pull in millions of viewers, the content is often done on-site or in two weeks of production time. There is a vast misconception that simply paying for huge amounts of LED and projectors is enough to make a show or event look great. Its the quality of the content on those screens that is the key, not just big bright kit.

More female Creative Directors
I hope more women Creative Directors get championed in 2014 and that women will be encouraged to get into the design profession in other fields than fashion and production. 

 

Neglecting to take creative input from and hear from half of the consumer/user/audience leads to poor design… case in point: if a female was more highly involved in the new Routemaster bus design process then we wouldn’t have ended up with a design that allows for the public to look up women's skirts as they step up to the second floor!

More client de-briefs
There are lots of meetings in the early production phase of a project, which is a great thing when creating a shared vision with our clients; but once the project has been delivered, everyone runs back to their respective studio/ office to take care of the next project, rather than spending time on looking back on the project while its fresh and discussing what would have made it a smoother ride and what was leaned by both parties. Often the work we do at Immersive is on the absolute cutting edge creatively and technically, so for us this is really important to make sure our repeat clients understand our process more and how we can streamline and improve for the next design outcome.

A portable teleportation device.
Start the day skiing in fresh snow in Colorado the morning, scuba diving in Costa Rica in the afternoon, pick up some sushi from Japan on the way to drinks with friends in London in the evening. 

Failing that then at least a Scalextric set for my business partner and our Managing Director Mark Calvert!

 

Immersive are currently represented by Partizan Darkroom