We chat with the colourful trio at Codea Studio about how they came together; their super cool side project @eeeeeeeeee_disposablecameras (that's 10 e's incase you're wondering); and their number 1 piece of advice for students - 'jump off a cliff, and try flying' (metaphorically of course!).
Where did you study and what were some of your first jobs?
Well, we're three people so each experience it's a bit different. Two of us studied in Design College here in Barcelona, and the other studied Cinema and television. College is strange, you learn a lot, of course, but at the same time it's impossible not to have the sensation of wanting more, or not studying at all. In your 20's you have too many inputs, life is getting bigger, and college could be out of your preferences. It's a bit of a paradox: you want to learn, you want to live life, and sometimes feels like you can't do both at the same time, but in fact you can, it's the same!
Our first jobs were quite related with our studies: one of us started a music label and was shooting videos at parties. And then one of us was bartending like 40 hours a week. It's the usual thing, right?
Then, just after graduating two of us started working together in a more professional way. It was basically shooting videos to try to earn money: parties, small companies, as we already said. Alex had the idea in his mind, he thinks big and with an eye on the future, so he knew he wanted to start a studio, to build a company from scratch, just with our passion to do things: design, video, advertising, whatever our head was into.
What does a typical working day include for you right now?
Waking up, always late, large coffee, breakfast, smoking, another coffee, maybe some water, thinking, discussing our thinking, smoking while thinking again, meetings, more discussions, the sensation of not having anything and right after the sensation of 'we fuckin' got it', a bit more of discussion and coffee and smoking, some procrastination, of course, checking the time, checking in on your boy/girl and friends, eating, try to stop thinking and sleeping. And in the meantime, we work.
Give us the elevator pitch on what you do
Well, it's always hard to define what we do in a few words, but we take this as a good thing. We work on creativity, of course we could put ourselves in between walls and say, ok, so we work on advertising, we shoot videos and spots, we design, we do motion graphics, we write our own stories, we love stories, and we always try to reach for the concept that fits the goal. We're not an agency and we're not a production company but everyone labels us as these two kinds of companies. We don't know, we're open to do a lot of things: so at the end it's better to just say that we are Codea Studio, whatever it means.
Tell us about any collaborations you have been working on / side projects
We would like to introduce you a project that one of our partners, Alex, launched with Cris this year at OFFF Barcelona called "EEEEEEEEEE Disposable Cameras." It’s a project based on creating limited edition disposable cameras designed by different artists and illsutrators around the globe. The idea is to bring back film photography on it’s more straight forward format.
Values stand for informality and fun as opposed to the professionalism and seriousness found in high-end cameras. We're turning a disposable into a collectable with a design value. We see disposable cameras submissive and intuitive with a unique aestethic - Find the beauty in light leaks, out of focus pictures and fingers on the lens. We’ve collaborated with Venyason, Grain Supply Co., Pebeand with more artists to come!
Stay tuned at: @eeeeeeeeee_disposablecameras ( 10 E's :) )
Nick Cave said it perfectly: "it's better to act on a bad idea than not to act at all". It sums it up. It's part of our jobs, of creativity: there's so many ideas that you end up not doing, but it's because we try to have a lot of them, to follow them, that at the end some of them become a reality.
What advice would you give students starting out?
To make mistakes. Nick Cave said it perfectly: "it's better to act on a bad idea than not to act at all". It sums it up. It's part of our jobs, of creativity: there's so many ideas that you end up not doing, but it's because we try to have a lot of them, to follow them, that at the end some of them become a reality. And this is it: ideas that become something, that are worth our time and other's.
So yeah, we would recommend students to jump off a cliff. And try flying.
What's the big goal in the next five years?
To consolidate a style based on the absence of style. We explain it. There's always like the kind of work that is hitting, the trendy way of designing, creating and everything. And it is ok; we sometimes follow these unwritten rules. But at the same time we search for originality and personality, in all terms: what we do, how we do it and why we do it. So a dream would be to have a style, but in so many different ways of doing it, that it would seem different every time.
A writer would say to have an own voice, but never repeating the same words.
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