We changed the game, but we are still the same.
During this extraordinary period, we all experienced a time of suspension. To overcome the uncertainties of the moment, we at Studio Visuale tried to do our best—in a new way—with all the tools of the future that the internet offers and with a secret weapon recovered from the past: time. While we wait to embrace you all again, one by one, we gather here a few short stories about how we tried to remain the same Studio Visuale while changing the rules of the game a little.
Operational everywhere and in every way
We were born smart, but it wasn't that simple: working from makeshift emergency setups, from the garden, from the terrace, with the cat on the keyboard, with kids who couldn't care less about work hours, and after going to the studio at night to retrieve the hard drives with a thousand fears.
Isolated at home, but always together with you.
A fully smart rebranding
It seems proven that during times of crisis, people are more inclined to revolutionize everything. For us, confirmation came from this rebranding experience for a food company.
Before the lockdown we had two initial meetings; the people we were working with seemed very dynamic and ready for change, but we didn't expect them to be so much so as to complete the project in record time entirely via conference call.
Below, a small infographic shows just how much more efficient the process turned out to be in smart-working mode.
The advantage
By avoiding 2,000 km of travel and more than 30 hours of driving to reach the company's headquarters, we had the chance to focus more on our work and save time.
The result
New logo, new typefaces, new visual behaviors.
Changing everything is always possible, you just have to really want it.
Few images, but plenty of ideas
Turin, Milan, Padua, Venice, Vicenza, Belluno, Treviso. We would have been far apart regardless, but thanks to conferencing and screen-sharing software, everyone was able to fully express their part of the work. The main challenge of this editorial project was showcasing a luxury product in locations that weren't available. The approach we followed throughout the entire quarantine period was to produce new images starting from available archive material and 3D models.
With the whole team, we produced new studio shots – following defined safety standards – and then created digital photo compositing. Without anyone leaving their home. Now all that's left is to wait for the printers to return to full capacity so we can go to print.
From manuscripts to print. Between Venice, Subiaco and London
Just before the lockdown, we had the incredible fortune of visiting Subiaco to shoot images of the Monastery where the first book in Italy was printed. The story of the transition from manuscript to print became an educational video for a major European research project. Curiously, one of the contributing factors behind the spread of printing was also the plague, and the need to find more industrial methods to replace the work of the scribes who had been lost to the pandemic of the time (déjà vu?).
Phone, Zoom, Meet, Teams, Skype? It works with anything.
All the editing, post-production and motion graphics that made the story clear were carried out remotely through numerous review sessions with our contacts directly in Oxford. We used every kind of software, and things have genuinely improved a lot since the days of Skype, but the real secret for us remains: commitment. Everyone has to get their own work done ahead of time, and (virtual) meetings should only be for making decisions. It's remarkable how distance has made decision-making processes even faster.
Hands-on, but only virtually.
The topic is product personalization and made-to-order production, but in practice it's about replacing the tactile experience at the purchasing stage. This web configurator was developed over recent months and finalized in these past weeks, and it has proven to be the perfect tool for today's (and tomorrow's) commerce. Digital tools now have the opportunity to evolve further to improve the user experience and fill the gap left by trade fairs.
And without photos? A catalogue illustrated mainly with renderings
Irinox is a company we love; we've been working together for several years, and this lockdown didn't interrupt our projects. To reaffirm the brand's leadership and communicate the revolutionary new Next product, we chose to produce powerful renderings with rigorous geometries. The visual narrative, underscored by vector graphics, explains the movements and forces at play behind every technological choice. The materials produced for the catalogue are ready to become videos and interactive tools.
Tell us about your quarantine and let's discover together what to do for our future
If there's one thing we really missed, it was human contact. Smiles, handshakes and face-to-face conversations with people. For a simple chat, or just to tell us about your idea, don't hesitate to get in touch. It's a difficult time, but it also offers opportunities for change. And if we don't change everything now, when will we?
