The Neighbourhood Feed Archives for November 2011

A lot of our work in The Neighbourhood involves an acute eye and attention to detail.

Lately, Jon Hey’s been standing outside shops with large floor to ceiling windows, manoeuvering himself and trying to pinpoint a viewing angle that gives equal visual weight to both the reflection in the glass and the view inside the shop.

Trying to see both this combined reflection and the view beyond in an instant is not that easy, because there are different focus points.

He tried this for 3 reasons.

Firstly, he’s inspired by Richard Estes - a 'photo-realist' artist whose work demonstrates the artful balancing of both reflection and transparency within a single composition.

Secondly, he’s always had a fascination and a frustration with trying to represent glass in architectural renderings. More often than not there's a requirement to show glass with maximum transparency to allow greater emphasis to the view beyond. The general perception is reflections are distracting and unnecessary, but instead they can tell so much more about the architecture and it's environment.

And thirdly, because that’s the kind of meticulous pursuit that sums up how we do things round here!

Our Senior Project Manager Vanessa is moving to pastures new this month. She is following her heart down to Brighton after finding the man of her dreams (ahhh!)

She doesn't so much leave big shoes to fill than lots of big shoes - there were 10 pairs stashed under her desk at the last count, we never imagined a person could ever need so many!

And so we welcome Kathryn, a multi-talented, multi-tasking Project Management Ninja fresh from TT and Hot Animation.

What attracted you to The Neighbourhood?
Firstly it was the work, the showreel blew me away! I love the different styles of animation, and the innovation and imagination. When I came for my interview I could tell it was a fun place to work, great people, great atmosphere and a great company ethos. Even being evacuated due to a fire alarm, just seconds before my interview couldn't put me off!

What have you been working on lately?
I've been working on the second series of an award winning children's TV show called 'What's Your News?' It's a news show for kids, presented by some crazy animated ants and an anteater called Antony. Obviously.

Favourite film?
Most recently I loved The King's Speech.

What's on the stereo at the moment?
Take That. It's a good job they're cool these days. (really?)

Unusual talent?
I can play the theme tune to Juliet Bravo on the piano.

Give us a quote of wisdom.
Smile and the world smiles back to you. Cheesy, but true. If you haven't done it in a while, why not give it a go.

It was a sad day, but one we knew would come around.

We called time out for Chris Gray's fine 'Welcome to The Neighbourhood' mural, which has adorned our wall for over a year. We said our murals would have a 6 month shelf life so lasting a full year is testament to how much we loved it.

So we welcome the multi talented Leeds illustrator Mr Matt Saunders, offering his unique quirky take on ‘the neighbourhood’.

Goodbye lost tribes, hello cat houses. Like houses, but with feline features of course!

Our Michelle’s a bit of a craft junky, and loves tinkering away on lots of different projects... if it involves art supplies, strange ideas and lots of mess then she’s there!

Over the last year she’s set up a small online presence under the pseudonym Bisabuela selling handmade jewellery, designed and made by Michelle right here in Manchester.

She tends to use resin in a lot of her work, as well as wood, fabric, real flowers, colourful paper ephemera, hand drawn elements and upcycled vintage bits and bobs.

Take a look at her blog which runs alongside her Folksy and Etsy stores, where she likes to write about what she’s been learning, or other work that inspires her by along the way.

Role at The Neighbourhood: 
Project Co-ordinator 

What are you working on at the minute:
Loads of exciting projects with some fantastic new clients. More internally, I’m working to help develop our internal processes for the architectural visualisation team.
 
Main aims of the brief:
To work with the team to find ways to improve our working process to enable more transparency and efficient workflow as we continue to grow as a studio.
 
Challenges overcome:
Well, I’m still relatively new to the studio so thoroughly understanding the existing processes!
 
Where can we see the finished project:
In a workshop near you! It will vary from project to project, but across all of our visualisation jobs there will be an element of the ‘processes’ involved.
 
Chippy Friday or Biscuit Wednesday? 
Both please. Thank you.

What are you doing at the weekend?
Looking for a new bike for my London-Paris cycle next year.
 
What’s the best thing about working at The Neighbourhood?
The future. There are so many exciting opportunities and new developments on the horizon, and the studio really nurtures everyone in it to grab these opportunities and make something of them.
 
What’s next?
Wait and see…

Our monthly lunchtime inspiration sessions took a new twist this month with a fitting Halloween theme.

Among the ghoulish delights being shared were an edited history of Ray Harryhausen's monster creations, some finely crafted pumpkins (the Lionel Ritchie one was particularly scary!) and a vintage Queens of the Stone Age video from Shynola.

We also discovered what happens when Dracula and Blaxploitation movies collide (Blackula!), the unexpected results of making an oversized paper mask of your own face, and a beautiful French CG short about the Grim Reaper's mischievous son who invents a more efficient way of collecting souls.

We are looking forward to the next themed session - Christmas anyone?