Dream Teams: The Elements Behind ELMNTL
Post production company ELMNTL has carved a place for itself as a beacon of innovation and creativity.
Since its founding, it has collaborated with numerous agencies and production companies to deliver campaigns for an impressive roster of brands including adidas, Paddy Power, Tesco and Weetabix, to name a few.
ELMNTL’s growth and performance, in their own view, is not to solely be attributed to its founders’ expertise and vision, but also to a commitment to maintaining its independence.
This independence, they say, is more than a business model - it’s the core of the company’s culture and creative philosophy. It’s what allows for freedom of expression and experimentation, without any constraints.
And while there are plenty of elements that make ELMNTL what it is today, we will take a closer look at the two founding partners, creative duo Danny Whybrow and Greg White, who first crossed paths 20 years ago, when Danny had taken over as MD at Blue and Greg was a VFX assistant there.
Greg was assisting in Flame and Editbox and when Danny took the lead, he liked his approach to changing things and managing the facility. “I liked the pay rise too,” adds Greg. “That being said, it wasn’t long until I left to start my clothing label Roux, but we stayed in touch and remained friends… Despite me outright banning him from wearing any of the clothes.”
Greg had “a great way with people” and Danny’s leadership skills were unparalleled (even though Greg jokes that it pains him to say it). They were mutually infatuated with each other and what they both brought to the table, which was the early evidence of what would later become a brilliant creative partnership.
Because of their brief overlap at Blue, Danny considers their crossover at ELMNTL in 2022 to be the ‘real’ start of their story, or more so, the professional story.
“After Blue, we always found time to have a pint and compare notes,” says Danny. “We found a lot of common ground through our belief in simplicity and common sense.” After finishing with his clothing brand in 2016, Greg always made time to walk into Smoke & Mirrors to see Danny, where he worked at the time.
“Danny’s approach to work is very similar to mine. There’s a simplicity to how we operate, without diluting the high standards we hold ourselves to,” he says.
Their shared view on good creativity and work ethic, paired with the pandemic holding a mirror to what the industry had become, created the fertile ground for an independent business between the two of them.
“We agreed on doing right by people,” says Danny. “ELMNTL’s goal was to grow and compete effectively against bigger corporate or private equity-owned businesses. We couldn’t have timed it better.”
So, building the foundations of the company technically became Danny and Greg’s first close collaborative work. That, and painting the studio, Greg reminds us.
“Alongside that, of course, was piecing together the fundamentals that underpin ELMNTL both financially and culturally,” he adds. “There was an awful lot of running concurrently at the start, as we were setting up the office and taking potential project calls.”
At that point, they hadn't officially launched yet, so were making sure that they were taking only what they were comfortable with. “[I’m] fairly sure we didn’t even have a kettle at this point. Danny and I spent a lot of time building desks and choosing cushions, before we were remotely comfortable discussing projects.”
“Tackling this never-ending challenge as a partnership is way better than flying solo,” adds Danny. “We’re different in so many ways, but have a similar set of principles, which fuels our inherent trust in each other.”
And as Greg remarks, it’s always nice to work alongside someone with similar principles - someone you trust absolutely, someone that inspires you, and most importantly, someone that would take the piss out of you. Difference of opinion is unavoidable, but both Greg and Danny put too much value in each other’s opinion to let it even remotely get in the way.
“We have our moments, but we’ve yet to find a frustration or disagreement that a pint of Guinness and a bout of intense piss-taking can’t sort out in minutes,” jokes Danny. With frustrations few and far between, “calling each other a melt and cracking on” usually helps.
Emotion and a love for what ELMNTL does as a company underpins everything for both Danny and Greg. Provided it’s channelled appropriately, “emotion is what has the biggest impact on the decisions we make every day - from the big ones to the thousands of micro ones, that ultimately add up to the way we live our lives,” says Danny.
“This means we never want to take emotion out of the equation when we’re dealing with disagreement - but it’s important that it’s the right emotion. Our least favourite emotion is fear, and we don’t want to let it drive any decision making.”
This brings us to the unofficial ELMNTL motto - ‘Don’t shit yourself’. Often wielded as a challenge that forces everybody in the team to question their motivation, it channels the company’s energy appropriately and is surprisingly effective.
Best work doesn’t only require the absence of fear, though, but also the right balance between the creative and the commercial aspects of the business.
“We’re not the only company that has to strike that balance, but it’s where our unique partnership really comes into its own. We have a natural rhythm when it comes to that balance, so we don’t have to labour over decisions or overthink them,” explains Danny.
After all, twice the number of hours dedicated to making things better equals twice the experience to draw on and covering twice as much day to day.
Greg, too, sees overthinking as the pitfall of good creativity, so it’s important to him that nothing ever feels overthought or forced.
When asked what they’ve learned from each other, Danny is categorical: “Not everyone can pull off a leopard print cardigan.” And, to be honest, so is Greg: “I wouldn’t admit it even if I had.”
Jokes aside, he concludes: “We both bring a little something different to the business but there’s a natural and unspoken understanding between the two of us in terms of what we’re looking to create both commercially and creatively - a bit like a hairy venn diagram.”
