Michael Fullman: Find the Fun and Hold Onto That
Michael Fullman takes his fun seriously. It’s good business. Images: c/o VTProDesign.
VTProDesign’s three-step creative process sounds pretty simple. Imagine. Invent. Implement. But, as Thelonious Monk once said, “Simple ain’t easy.” The experiences VTProDesign creates are anything but simple–they’re mind-bending.
There was the Ray-Ban x Coachella Sensorium, a trip through the Sonoran desert where time and space both became liminal and ephemeral, and the only thing that mattered is the moment at hand. This mission involved beaming festival goers across several different landscapes in the Sonoran Desert. Then there was the Cheetos Hands Free House they built at SXSW last year. It was based on a single dilemma: Cheetle, aka the thin film of dust that forms on your fingertips. VTDesignPro challenged guests to imagine a world where that wasn’t actually a problem and designed one of their most ambitious projects ever, a house where no guest had to use their hands for anything. (Lots of audio and projection mapping!)
If this work sounds like a lot of fun, it is. It’s also good business. With digital revenue growth in the advertising industry up by 28%, the demand for immersive experiential marketing is on the rise. And 81% of both B2B and B2C marketers are currently planning in-person events. VTProDesign’s digital-physical presence captures the best of both worlds. The organization has grown from two to 65 people and recently joined forces with global creative company BUCK to expand in what is one of the hottest spaces for brands.
Here, Michael Fullman, Chief Creative Officer at VTProDesign, takes us inside his company’s process to blend the physical with the digital, how the pandemic pushed them to own more of what they make, and how he thinks and works in dimensions (It’s influenced by his work in theater lighting design.)
The scene from the Ray-Ban x Coachella Sensorium. Images: c/o VTProDesign.
Why join forces with BUCK?
We believe in the mission, and it means access to talented people all over the world.
As we've grown, we've been looking for how we keep producing innovative work. Finding like-minded groups was important to us. Since we started 12 years ago, we’ve grown from two employees to 65. And so, the work that we do has shifted and changed. This opens us up to new voices and thinking that is important to our growth.
How would you describe what your company does?
We’re something between a production company, interactive studio, design studio, and an agency. That led us into the experiential marketing and immersive experiences space. Our focus is on owning the space of experience, regardless of the medium. Coming out of the last few years, it’s an exciting time to reinvent what experience is; What’s a meaningful experience in the workspace? In marketing? Whatever it is. Our product is the product of experience.
Tell us more about your growth.
We grew during the pandemic, which was interesting for a company based on the in-person experience. The pandemic focused us to look at how we can apply our talents differently. Prior to the pandemic, we produced a lot of digital work that didn’t feel genuine to our personality and brand. So we started to develop work that combined digital and physical and married online presence with how people get together in person. We started to use the web as a tool for interacting with something physical and tangible. That approach has produced a good amount of opportunity for us.
The pandemic also pushed to own the design upfront and what we put into the market. Pre-pandemic, about 50% of what we put out there we designed from the ground up and 50% we provided a supplemental service or executed something technically complex for clients. Now, we flex more on bringing design and innovation to the table directly for our clients. That has led to a fundamental shift in the projects we go after and leads to work that excites us.
People crave the in-person experience more than ever and we can show clients that, if they add a digital layer to the in-person experience, they can expand it to a wider audience and gain more value from what they’re making.
There is an entrepreneurial mindset there. Is that something you develop and nurture within your team?
That’s important to how we operate and our culture. Part of that comes from the business we work on: We take risks, challenge ourselves and will pick up a project that other people wouldn't take on because of the technical or time challenge. For those, we will put forward an idea that maybe people haven’t solved, but we know we can. Then we work with our entire team to figure it out. Staying on the edge opens up new opportunities.
In the Ray-Ban x Coachella Sensorium, take a trip through the Sonoran desert.
Time and space become liminal and ephemeral, and the only thing that matters is the moment at hand in the Ray-Ban x Coachella Sensorium.
Your work is multi-dimensional. How do you think and work in dimensions?
In college, I worked in theater as a production designer. That taught me about the conceptual design process and thinking about how all of these moments fit the narrative. My specific focus was lighting design. In lighting design there is a weirdness to it because you’re crafting something seemingly intangible and then you try to make it tangible. Light has a physicality to it, shape and texture that can serve different purposes. I still remember the day that I suddenly realized the physicality of light, and the part that plays over time. From there I have moved more into thinking about how all of these moments fit the whole and complete the picture. It all goes back to making the intangible, tangible. Then how that tangible piece fits into the larger thing.
The Cheetos Hands Free House is a place where no guest had to use their hands for anything.
Audio and projection mapping are keys to navigating the Cheetos Hands Free House.
What’s your usual starting point for your ideas?
I do a lot of visual research the same way I did in college, starting with an aimless goal. Everything goes on the wall during my visual research, then I start to pull things away and find the pattern of what I’m attaching it to. This could be color, environment, character, whatever it is. From there I'll start to build the concrete foundation to the visual narrative that I've put together and then further develop it, which requires a lot of writing. When I did this in school, we didn’t have Pinterest, so I would go to the library and photocopy a bunch of books, and literally sit on the floor with these images and start getting rid of things. I do the same now, just digitally.
How do you pitch your ideas to clients to get them to think in ways they hadn’t before?
The most important is always listening to your clients needs. Often in a creative industry it’s easy to be attached to your needs as a creative. But what you have to really find out is what your client is attached to, then abstract that so you have a point of connection between your idea and their concept or passion. You must have a common bridge. That all starts with listening.
What have you learned about leadership and guiding creative talent?
In our organization, you have to be passionate about building an organization of mentorship and growth. The development of culture has been a big part of that. We don't like to say that someone is a culture fit. We think of everyone as being culture additive. A culture should evolve and grow and everyone has somewhat of a hand in the development of that culture. It’s like a stewardship of the culture.
If you go back to the beginning when VTProDesign was just you and one other person, what advice would you give yourself about building a creative company?
Don't take stuff so seriously. The creative industry is a challenging place because you're playing with ego, precious output, and things that people really care about. As a younger creative, I looked at everything as being more threatening than it was. Find the happiness and joy in what you’re doing on a daily basis and that can open yourself up to new ways of thinking.
So stress about some things, just not everything?
Not everyone is going to like your ideas and that's okay. It’s natural. Bruce Lee said, “Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.” When your cup is empty, you can experience and learn new things. There is always something fun. Find that fun thing and hold onto that, rather than all the negative stuff.
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