Your Shot: Flume ‘Infinity Prism’
It’s not everyday that creatives really get the chance to let their visionary wings sore – so when electronic musician, Flume, approached Sydney-based collective, Toby and Pete, they jumped at the opportunity to work with him. Tasked with building an ‘infinity prism’ and all accompanying visuals for the star’s show, Toby and Pete director, Toby Pike, admits that it all got on top of them at times. But what’s a bit of hard work when you have 18,000 fans going mad for a project that you’ve worked tirelessly on? Addison Capper finds out more.
LBB> What kind of brief did Flume's record label, Future Classic, present to you and what were your immediate thoughts when you saw it?
TP> Future Classic came in with Flume roughly three months before the release of his album at the end of last year. They were looking for a visual icon to share the stage with him that would become instantly recognisable as being 'Flume'.
At the time, I don't think anyone could have predicted how successful Flume would become. We had heard the singles and a few new tracks that would be on the album and knew they had all been very well received. As the hype around him built, so did our excitement to be involved with the project. It wasn't until the album was released that we started to gather a sense of how big this project would become.
LBB> What was the research and design process like for a project like this?
TP> We looked at the previous artwork created for Flume – they were very iconic, kaleidoscopic images. So we used this sense of repeated geometry when developing the prism. The technical side also took a lot of research. We love playing around with new technology but we did find ourselves a little over our heads at times on this project. Luckily, our trusted network of specialists had the knowledge bank to ensure our concepts and designs came to life.
LBB> How long did it take from idea to conception?
TP> It's hard to put a time on this project as it's something we'd been discussing loosely with Flume for a number of months before we really got into it. There would have been roughly three months of development time with a team of ten.
LBB> With this project not being for a corporate brand, were you freer to be more creative in your work?
TP> Definitely, but this is due to our relationship with Flume and Future Classic. We worked really closely with the guys and we developed a shared vision for what we wanted to create. Flume, is not only a great musician, but he also has a very good eye and clear direction of how he wants to be visually represented.
LBB> What has the reaction been like from the crowd's watching Flume?
TP> Overwhelming to say the least. Flume's music has been so well received. His fan base is massive. The show premiered at Triple J's One Night Stand to a crowd of 18,000 and to a live television audience. It was a nerve-racking experience. Thankfully everything went smoothly... It has to be one of the highlights of our careers. Nothing like 18,000 excited fans to make you feel awesome about a project you've been working tirelessly on for months.
LBB> What were the biggest challenges that it threw up and how did you overcome them?
TP> The workload. There was just so much to do. We could have approached the visuals in a far simpler manner, but we made a decision to give it our all and worked tirelessly to produce something that we're extremely proud of.
