Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerry Nelson.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
TL;DR: Like most motion designers, my journey to get where I am today looks more like a bowl of spaghetti than a straight line. Nobody says, “I want to be a motion designer when I grow-up.”
I cut my teeth on design in the underground. I was deeply involved in skateboarding, hardcore punk, grindcore and death metal in high school. I tape-traded, put out several fanzines and even had a death metal tape label for a short time. My first time through college, I went to Columbia College Chicago, with a major in illustration and a minor in photography. During this time I went to a lot of shows at the Fireside Bowl and put out some ‘zines and contributed to others. I also had a drum and bass label with my brother and put out a few records in the early 2000s.
I worked as a photographer for several years (real estate and portraiture) and moonlighted as an illustrator and designer. I didn’t know it then, but all my creative interests were instrumental in my development as a motion designer. I hit a couple of rough patches after 9-11 and ended up back home for a bit. I decided I needed a career change. Since I had some money from an accident when I was younger that was earmarked for college… it seemed like the perfect time. In 2004, I went to SAE Institute (accredited by Middlesex University) for multimedia in Byron Bay, Australia. I was stoked because one of the teachers was an animation lead on Lord Of The Rings.
This school was the first place that all my creative interests converged and made sense in the larger picture. At SAE, everyone goes through the BMC (Basic Media Certificate) in the first 3 months. They teach several disciplines at the same time to show how they all fit together and to give you a solid foundation for your chosen path. Audio mixing, web design, 2d & 3d animation, video, and graphic design fundamentals are all taught in this crazy crash course. Most everything they taught during this time I still use to this day.
The other big turning point that happened to me in Australia was a field-trip to Semi-Permanent Design conference in Sydney. There I saw a video for Bombay Sapphire presented by Psyop. This changed everything. The fluid ink world building and smooth transitional reveals in that video captured my attention. I was like, “I want to do that!” It felt like the first time I had a solid direction that satisfied all my creative interests. I also saw some really great work by Qube-Construct. They were doing some an innovative mix of 3D and 2D design for interactive, commercials and print. My head was swimming with ideas when I left there.
When I got back to the states, I got a job interning at Arc Worldwide/ Leo Burnett in Chicago. I did everything from project archiving to video editing, to PA on shoots to animation and design. After a 6 month stint, I got hired full-time. I worked there for 7 years, working my way up to the title of Sr. Motion Designer. The work in a big agency can seem glamorous from the outside, but the reality is that we got a lot of creatively frustrating internal work. Ten for the meal, one for the reel, as they say. During the last few years, I started freelancing on the side under the name Feast of Attack.
Eventually, I left Arc/Leo and went freelancing fulltime. I did some rebranding as Attack Motion Design/ Attack Studios and that’s what I do now fulltime. I have a small pool of talent that I can access to staff up for bigger jobs, or handle everything myself. I work with ad agencies, post-houses, and also work directly with clients and brands.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve definitely had some bumps! My first job freelancing fulltime after I left Leo, got put on hold one week into the job. It was supposed to be a 4-week job, the security of that payday is what gave me the confidence to jump feet first into freelancing. So here it was, all falling apart after the first week. I thought I had made a terrible mistake! So I had to scramble to get another gig. After scouring Craiglist, I landed a two-week gig at roughly the same rate as the job that was on hold.
After that was finished, I was lucky enough to have the initial job call me back to finish up. So you just have to make it work. There’s a ton of hustle involved in freelancing and running your own business. If something is wrong, it’s up to you to make a system that fixes it. I have a folder on my computer that’s called “Survival Guide”. It has all kinds of notes and little systems for how to handle when something goes wrong. I put a lot of those things into my contracts. Now, booked time that is canceled or has un-scheduled downtime is subject to a fee.
There are trends that are very specific to the field of motion design that is changing and making the industry tougher to navigate. There’s automation video sites, templates, and crowdsourcing that has eaten up the lower end of motion design. There’s no meat on the bone for that kind of work anymore. The other thing that has changed since 2008 there has been a steep decline in big budgets for broadcast commercial videos. That really has taken a toll on of some of the bigger studios.
The bright side is that there are other industries that have been underserved throughout the years that are picking up the slack where broadcast has left off. Motion work for big pharma, trade shows, and tech start-ups have seen an explosion of growth. There are also newer formats like AR, VR and projection mapping to get excited about.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Attack Motion Design – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
When most people ask what we do and I say, “motion design”, they don’t really know what that is. I used to just say we do “commercials”, but then that opened a whole new can of worms and it’s not really the bulk of what we do anymore anyways. In simplest terms, motion design includes any on-screen graphics, text, and illustrations that are animated in a video. Attack Studios, makes animated stories with brains, guts, and heart. We specialize in broadcast motion graphics, 2D character animation, 3D logos, trade show and explainer business videos with an emphasis on fun, high energy, and slick design.
With most animation companies you just get a video and getting people to watch it is your problem. Our approach is excellent visuals & story, with your goals in mind through the whole process. If you’ve never done a video before, we’ll walk you through our process. We pride ourselves on giving clients lots of individualized attention. We are a turnkey animation solution and deliver it with smart marketing & SEO. That gives you the biggest possible exposure out-the-gate, so your video can make a positive impact on your business. I’m really big on educating the client and I’m always putting up new articles on our blog to help clients understand the nuances of animated video and how to get the most out of it.
Sometimes people can be timid because they know the problem that they have but don’t know what they want creatively. I love it when someone tells me that! Those can be some of our best clients! That gives us a chance to design from scratch and bring some originality into the mix. That’s when we really do our best work.
The thing I’m most proud of as a company is the all people I’ve helped and the fact that the overall quality of our work has continued to go up. Some other proud moments in my career have been:
⦁ Worked on an Oracle/ Iron Man 2 movie tie-in commercial that was featured in a segment on the Colbert Report.
⦁ Helped win a D&AD White Pencil Award for Leo Burnett by editing and contributing motion graphics to a video about Recipeace, a day when people put aside their differences over a meal.
⦁ Worked on video exhibits for the Museum of American Revolutionary War.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The big change next year is to focus on getting the right partner involved to take the business side to the next level. I’m looking for someone that has experience on the producer side of things to help take some of that off my plate. We are also looking to get a bit more selective with our clientele. We want ambitious clients that are going after awards and are challenging market leaders.
Pricing:
- I tend to use a hybrid method of 2d and 3d for the explainer videos that I do so the average starting price for a direct to business client is $15,000 for a 2-minute explainer video, taking anywhere from 6-8 weeks to complete. This includes: • Fully original script concept • Customized artwork • Meets brand standards• Music, SFX and Voice-over • Professional mix and finish • Mix 2D and 3D elements designed from scratch • Basic Marketing & SEO • 2 rounds of revisions. Day rate for any additional revisions.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://attack.studio
- Phone: 773-369-9583
- Email: jerry@attack.studio
Image Credit:
Randy Korwin
Brian Michael Gossett
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