As part of our series of interviews 'under the arches', Carl, Senior Creative Producer, reflects on the last 30 years here at delineo and wonders what the future may hold.
How has the agency changed over the last 30 years?
Computers! Back in the day, everything would be done on a drawing board – if you wanted a box that was 10cm by 11cm you drew it with a very expensive pen, they were £5/£6 just for a nib, and that’s in the mid 80s. Everything was done in black and white and anything you wanted in colour would be put on an acetate overlay. The process was so much longer than it is today. The artwork that used to take two to three weeks now takes roughly two to three days, and back then, work wasn’t immediately ready to go! Everything is instant now, and mistakes can be fixed a lot quicker and easier.
Another change I’ve seen is obviously the jobs people have lost over time because of the change in industry – five people back then would be equivalent to just one creative today!
And how so since the introduction of #digitalfirst?
There’s definitely more animation, whether that’s simple animated gifs or videos. Certainly over the last couple of years generally there has been a lot more of it, which is obviously a reason why we’ve made the shift. We’re still doing a bit of everything at the moment, because we’ll provide whatever it is the client asks for. The way I work hasn’t changed, I think the move to digital first is more about the end product – that’s the real difference.
What can you not live without in the digital world?
Apart from my computer, of course. I can’t live without keyboard shortcuts – it saves so much time!
What do you think makes delineo different?
Because I’ve been here 30 years, I don’t really have much of a comparison! But I think really it’s the people and the culture. We’re not restricted to our own departments, especially now that we’ve moved sites, it makes the work process much smoother and we can communicate much more easily.
So, what does the next 30 years hold?
I like to take each day as it comes. I'm not one for planning too far ahead but i'm looking forward to longer weekends at some point! It'll be interesting to see what's changed in another 30 years though.