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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Mate Steinforth
By Spraygraphic | June 4, 2008
Spraygraphic’s Chuck b. interviews artist and designer Mate Steinforth about his freelance design projects, PSYOP, and demonscene.
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Spraygraphic interview with Mate Steinforth
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
MS: Hi, I’m Mate Steinforth. I’m a Designer and Director working at the production company PSYOP . Next to my professional work I always try to spend time on collaborative projects, directing animated shorts and short clips.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
MS: I’m originally from Germany. I lived in a lot of places in Germany and in Madrid in Spain. Now I’m living in New York.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
MS: I work mainly with digital media. Usually I work directly in the computer, which means in Photoshop for most of the time. I used to draw a lot, but since I started working unfortunately I have less and less time to spend drawing. Although I keep drawing ideas and sketches, I’m always planning to go back to draw a lot.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
MS: It depends a lot if it’s a personal project or a project I do at work. For the latter, it usually starts with a brief we get from our client. So that means we already start with an idea in place which we take and try to evolve. So the first thing to do is start thinking about how to best communicate the ideas the client wants to bring forward. If it’s a personal project it is a lot more open. It could be anything, so I let myself inspire by whatever surrounds me. A lot of stuff I see online, but also the physical environment, like the city I live in. From there I usually take a mood I try to develop further and make into a piece.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
MS: I take a walk. That usually helps.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
MS: I surf the web a lot. I also try to go to exhibitions and look at books. Most importantly I try to get inspired by my surroundings. The every day life’s details that seem dull at first can hold the most inspiration.
SG: Can you tell us a little about demoscene ?
MS: The demoscene is a bunch of computerfreaks who want to do the most amazing graphics possible on the box. Originating in the crackerscene of the 80’s home computers, like Commodore 64 and so on, people tried to push the then comparably slow machines to do more and more impressive stuff. Eventually the scene split into the illegal cracker scene and the purely legal demoscene. There are coders, graphic artists, music artists and organizers who form groups who release the so-called demos. Programs which produce amazing graphics in realtime. They look more or less like an abstract music video, just that the video is not a pre-rendered animation but it’s computed in real time, on the fly, while you are watching. I used to be a graphic artist in the scene, using old graphic programs like dpaint on the amiga computer. You would pretty much draw your image pixel by pixel, more like you would now do it with an icon, probably.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your work with PSYOP.
MS: At PSYOP I am working as a Designer and Director for Animation in Advertising. We start a project, as mentioned above, as a pitch. That means our client comes to us with an idea of what they would like to do and ask us, and a lot of time also a couple of other production companies, to come up with a nice treatment for their idea. So we prepare a couple of Styleframes. Those are essentially illustrations of how we imagine the spot would look like. This is essentially what I do at PSYOP, drawing those styleframes. I use Photoshop a lot, but really it could be done with anything. If the idea works best with a pencil drawing, then I might use just a pencil. If the client likes our ideas and styleframes best, then the job gets awarded and production starts. Depending on my role on the specific jobs, I either design and/or direct. Either way a lot of work is continuing doing styleframes for scene in the spot to communicate to the client and also our animators how the spot should look like.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your experience working with clients like, Nike , Red Bull , Mastercard , Nokia , etc.?
MS: Some of those projects were pitches we didn’t win. In that case the companies probably never even saw the work. It’s mostly agencies that contact us, so if we don’t win the pitch it’s only them who saw it. Sometimes also the companies themselves, of course, as they have the last word on the decision who gets the job.
Of the names you mention, Red Bull and Mastercard were pitches I didn’t win. For Nokia I worked on an in-store installation for the Nokia Flagship stores together with Matt Pyke from Universal Everything . Recently I directed a spot for Nike. They contacted us directly, which is rare, but it worked out pretty well.
SG: What kind of deadlines do you work with when producing this kind of work?
MS: The deadlines for the pitch work are usually pretty tight. We’re talking about 3-5 days. And even this is already very good compared to a lot of broadcast work, where sometimes you only have a day or two. Either way that means you pretty much only have one shot. If your first idea doesn’t work, it already gets pretty tight. That puts a lot of pressure on the designers, especially if they’re pitching a lot.
SG: Do the companies come back to you and say "change this" or "change that?"
MS: Yes, always. It’s always a process. This is something I had to get used to when I started working professionally, but it is very important to understand that what you are doing is always just a base for discussion, never a finished piece. Because you could pretty much always improve some aspect of it. When you keep that idea in mind it becomes a lot easiest to deal with changes.
SG: How much are you willing to change? Is there some kind of negotiation process you go through?
MS: There is always a little bit of fight involved, because everyone wants to push his or her idea. Ideally it all adds up to become something better, but of course sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth. It all works out best if the people involved are reasonable and constructive. But those two attributes are of course never 100% in anyone. I’m happy to change stuff if there’s a good reason to do so and if it’s good for the final piece. A lot of times it feels like changes a random though. It’s a fine line, and it’s so much about communication.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
MS: At a couple of festivals, websites and in some books and DVDs. I presented at some conventions, which I really enjoy.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
MS: The next conventions I will be speaking at are Inspire08 , OFFF Lisbon and Flashbelt .
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
MS: My dream art assignment would actually be no assignment at all but a lot of money to do whatever I like. So any patrons, please eMail. In that case I would take time to develop a fantastic concept for a piece. Probably video, maybe installation. Recently I’ve been interested in narrative structures, which I haven’t used to a big extend in my work yet. So maybe just a surreal short film.
SG: What is your favorite color?
MS: Yellow.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
MS: As a kid, the first artist which I can remember to have been influenced by was probably the Peruvian fantasy art painter Boris Vallejo . I just loved the way he used color in his works. Some other great influences of the time was definitely computer game graphics from the Bitmap Brothers and Psygnosis , to name a few. When I got older I liked the usual designer’s inspirations like Giger and Escher . In the late nineties, I was really blown away by the music videos by Chris Cunningham . After that it’s hard to tell because it split up in so many branches that it’s hard to keep track of discrete strands. There are a lot of people who’s work I appreciate and respect a lot, but not necessarily a singular person which inspired specifically.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
MS: I read WIRED , I recently subscribed to it. I’m reading the book Art & Physics by Leonard Shlain . It’s pretty inspirational. The author tried to tell the story of the development of art and physics parallel, influencing each other. I just bought the book the messengers about the art of Annete Messager . I really like her pieces.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
MS: I did, I think in school. It’s at my parent’s house, I guess.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
MS: Here in New York everything is about work and I haven’t yet found a place to hang out.
SG: Any final words of advice?
MS: Keep being open to new influences, go out and actively look and explore the world and let yourself be inspired by it. There’s so much amazing stuff around that it shouldn’t be too hard.
Topics: Artist Interviews, Graphic Design, International-Art |
