Interview with David Stanfield, Motion Designer and Director
On animating with purpose, balancing career with family, and quitting your job …
Could you start by giving us a taste of your work — perhaps something you’re grinding on now?
Sure! I’m so stoked on the main project I’m working on right now. It’s a two-minute animation that I’m directing every aspect of — from visuals to music and sound. I’m handling concept, design, and animation, and my brother Matt is creating an original score for the piece. He’ll also add sound design once the animation is locked. Matt’s kind of a genius, not that I’m biased.
The project is an animated overview for the nonprofit Food for the Hungry. They do all kinds of work for people who need it most in the world, addressing issues from extreme hunger to women’s literacy (read more about them here). What’s really awesome about them is they approach issues from the inside out, giving community members the tools (and thereby, ownership) to make positive change for themselves. Food for the Hungry also goes to parts of the world that many others just won’t go, either because it’s logistically difficult to get to, or the problems are so complex it’s hard to know where to start. They’re not interested in short-term “band-aid” solutions, which actually aren’t solutions at all.
I also just recently wrapped up working on a collaborative project for my good iFriends at Coat of Arms that I really loved. It’s about epigenetics, and how the genetic makeup of twins can actually change over time based on life decisions. Matt did the music and sound, and I think it’s a really unique video.
I’ve also just wrapped up some fun work for Zendesk, animating their creative teams designs for some web animations, and am about to start on some new work for Facebook, animating my good friend Matt Stevens’ illustrations.
When you’re working, what’s your ideal setting?
I think my ideal work environment is a shared space with other people who create things. I don’t really care if they’re animators or designers or developers or quiltmakers. I’d love to be in a space some day with maybe three or four other folks who are actively making things. If the work overlaps and collaboration happens sometimes, all the better.
Whose work out there are you really digging right now?
I really love Allen Laseter’s work. Everything he does is amazing and to me, sort of perfect. Also the work of Yukai Du, Jay Quercia, and Chris Anderson … they make me want to keep going and quit, simultaneously. Lastly, Matt Smithson of Man vs. Magnet (former Charleston resident) makes amazing art, both still and animated, that challenges and inspires me.
What are the digital tools and programs you use on a daily basis?
- Design: Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects
- Animation: After Effects
- Audio editing: Premiere
- Proposals, moodboards, initial design style presentations: InDesign
- Storyboards: Procreate app on iPad Pro, Boords.com for storyboard creation and edit
- Invoicing and time tracking: Paydirtapp.com
- Script collaboration: Dropbox Paper
- Group collaboration and notes on videos: Frame.io
- File sharing and collaboration: Dropbox
- Scheduling and internal bookkeeping: Google Docs
- Team Project Communication: Slack
- Industry discussion: Mixed.Parts
- Asking for help: Twitter
OK, let’s backtrack a bit. When did you first discover animation as your calling?
For me, everything started with design. I stumbled onto graphic design as a junior in college when I took an Adobe Illustrator class to satisfy an art minor requirement. I fell in love with it … making images from scratch using vector art, starting with a blank page and needing nothing but an idea and this one piece of software. I spent countless hours in the Mac lab at school, just making stuff in Illustrator. It was all terrible — but it was my gateway to graphic design.
My first job out of school was for an action sports magazine doing design, layout, photography and some writing. I was part of a small team, so by nature we all had to do a bit of everything. I immersed myself in graphic design, typography, layout, composition, etc. I didn’t know it would be the basis of my work as a motion designer at the time, but looking back, I’m really grateful for those years.
After a few years, that job shifted to doing all kinds of design for print, web, and even TV show packages as part of an in-house creative department for the larger parent company (a cable TV network). I’d been developing a growing interest in motion graphics, but now I was actually seeing it close-up in my day-to-day life. I started designing for show packages and all kinds of graphic elements for TV shows, specials, and blocks of programming. I would pass my designs off to an animator, and the animator would bring them to life. I started getting to speak to the animation more and more. And because of all this, I developed a burning desire to learn how to animate.
I wanted to be the one making my ideas come to life, from concept to final execution.
Around the same time, my good friend Blake and I had started playing with stop-motion animation, and we would make silly films for fun. They were light-hearted, but stop-motion is a lot of tedious work, and we put a lot of time and sweat into it. We ended up making a spot for Best Buy as part of one of those dumb Internet contests people used to do. We didn’t win, but we had a blast, and it forced me to learn motion tracking and the basics of After Effects animation in about a week! I loved that experience with Blake, animating little characters we had designed to tell a story we had mapped out. After that, I was hooked. I couldn’t NOT keep learning After Effects.
Shortly after that, the folks I worked for — who were incredibly kind and generous — let me switch from print and web design to motion design, with zero experience. They kept my pay the same and let me learn on the job. When I had a question, I asked. They were incredibly patient with me. Looking back, it was probably the biggest opportunity I’ve ever been given in my career. They saw potential, and they took a risk on me. I’m so glad they did, because it’s how I learned the foundations of motion design.
Could you share something about your creative process that may be unique to you in the field?
I don’t know if it’s unique to me (one difficult thing about being largely self-taught and on your own is you often don’t really know how others do things) … but I think one thing that’s key to my process is how I communicate with clients. I’m not the most talented person in the world (Editor’s note: I’d beg to differ), so I have to set myself apart by working very, very hard, and by being reliable and easy to work with. A huge part of that is communication. Being upfront and communicating early and often throughout the process has been a big lesson for me. The longer I run my own business, the more I see the importance of clear, thorough communication.
So many problems during the lifespan of a project can be preempted by simply communicating and asking questions early on. I think a lot of times people who are just starting out are timid about asking lots of questions, for fear they might look inexperienced or not knowledgeable enough. But actually, asking good questions can prove to the client that you know your process, but you’re also open to a collaborative working relationship — and that you’re thinking ahead to the end goal.
A few years ago, you left a steady, well-paying job at an agency to go out on your own — not an easy transition. When did you know you wanted to leave?
I had always had this rose-colored idea of “going freelance” dancing through my head. I talked about it for years with my good friend Eric, when I was doing graphic design. We’d go on walks and talk about our dreams of going out on our own. We talked about how we would approach our work, the type of work we wanted to make, the way we’d structure our days, and so many other things. It was all so inspiring, and a really good exercise for both of us I think. We’d have these talks, then six months later, we’d have them again, but we’d still be at our full-time in-house jobs. It just seemed so impossible to me to ever make that jump. (As it turns out, Eric is now out on his own, too, doing incredible work for clients all over.)
As years went by, and my wife and I had our first kid, I still wanted to go out on my own, but my reasons started to shift. Before it was all career-oriented: I wanted to be in control creatively, to work on a wider variety of projects, to establish my own voice with design. I wanted to work on awesome projects for awesome clients, and I wanted to work on things I believed in. After switching to motion design, I wanted to tell stories with animation, I wanted to conduct the process from A to Z, to tell a whole story. I wanted to use music more in my work.
But after my daughter came, it started to be more about how I was spending my life time. Then we had our second kid, my son. I was at a great job, on paper. I was paid well. I was respected. I worked with my best friends. I didn’t think about work after 5 p.m. It was all very comfortable. But the desire to make a change was getting undeniable. I had a 45-minute commute to a job I didn’t believe in or find much fulfillment in. I was working on someone else’s vision. I was away from my wife and kids for 10 hours a day, almost every day.
Around this same time I read two books that had a huge impact on me:
- A Million Miles in a Thousand Years — about approaching your life as if it was a screenplay, with the key question of: If your life was a story, would it be interesting / inspiring / beautiful?
- Quitter — all about quitting a job the right way, planning for it, planning for what comes after, all very practical and extremely helpful for me at the time.
One day the thought occurred to me that I was spending more time making money than I was spending getting to know my kids, who were quickly becoming their own little people. Now, most people who provide for a family have to spend more time making money during the week than they do at home, but I thought, if I have to do that, it might as well be chasing something I’m passionate about. And I might as well be the one who determines when I’m doing that work … which days and which parts of days. And it might as well be something I care about, something that I find worthwhile.
Then I realized something that wouldn’t let me stay at my job any longer:
I could tell my kids to chase after their dreams. I could tell them they can be anything they want to be. I could tell them to take risks and have adventures, even if it’s scary. Or I could show them. (And maybe tell them later too!)
I think many would agree that wanting to make the leap can be quite different from actually making it. How did you do it, logistically?
On a practical note, I began taking on more and more freelance work. I saved up about 6 months’ worth of living expenses. I watched this video of a talk my friend Michael Jones gave about freelance motion design about two times a week — it became my personal pep talk. And I began to put some numbers down on paper to see if this could actually work.
As a graphic designer, I never felt like I could make enough money to sustain a family. But as a motion designer / animator, each project is so much bigger and more involved, and loads more time-consuming. It also tends to be a bit more specialized and niche skillset. Because of all those things it’s more lucrative for me than designing posters, album art, and logos was.
So I basically worked two full-time jobs for about half a year, taking on as much freelance work as my wife and I could handle with a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old at home. And then, in March of 2014, with our third child due in about four months, I handed in my two-week notice at my job. It was easily the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
I imagine that, as a creative, your daily juggling of account management with more artistic tasks isn’t easy. How do you manage the switch from left brain to right and vice versa?
The hardest part about running my own studio has definitely been on the business admin / accounting / scheduling side of things. That, combined with juggling multiple projects and overlapping deadlines has been the main source of stress these past three years. I wish I could say I’m more comfortable with all of it now, but the reality is, it’s a whole lot to handle, and I’m the first to say I’m still figuring it out. Add in having three kids in four years, moving to a new city with multiple moves before and after, and moving offices multiple times in the last two years … life has been very full. The word “juggling” could not be more perfect.
I will say I had no idea when I made “The Leap” just how much of my time I’d spend running the business. Answering emails, jumping on “quick calls” that end up taking an hour, invoicing, writing up production schedules, coffee meetups — all of these things take up lots of time, and most clients think about none of them when they think about “their animator” or “the creative.”
I try to do things like invoicing, bookkeeping, drafting proposals, and PM tasks like that in chunks of time, so I’m not stopping in the middle of a creative flow on a project. Something I think about a lot these days is how and when to hire someone to help me, so that I’m more freed up to focus on what I want to do: help people tell their stories with design and animation.
On that note, I’ve heard that hiring the first employee can be the biggest hurdle in a business’s growth. What are the factors you’ll use to determine if and when the time is right to hire?
This is a great question. When do I hire someone? I wish I had an answer. It’s something I’ve been thinking about constantly over the last few months. At what point does it make financial sense to bring someone else on to help carry the burden of projects? Do I want that person to be a junior-level motion designer who is cheaper, but will also require more time initially to bring up to speed? Or would I want a seasoned pro — preferably someone who is way beyond me skill-wise — who I can partner with and learn from?
Or should that person be more of a producer or project manager role — someone who handles all client interaction and scheduling to help me focus more on the actual creating and storytelling? Or should that person be more of a catch-all admin — someone who handles invoicing and new work inquiries and scheduling and everything in between?
These are questions I think about all the time, and I don’t have definite answers to right now. What I do know is that I’m not really interested in growing for growing’s sake. I love what I have going. But what I do want is someone to share the work with, a partner to walk through both the victories and struggles that come with doing creative client work week in and week out. I’ve loved this journey so far, but I think I’m ready for it to be more of a shared experience.
How do you manage a steady workflow as an independent? Or as you once wrote about, how do you offset the Feast v. Famine mindset?
I’m fortunate in that I haven’t had to experience too much “famine” time thus far, but I’m only a few years in. In the big picture, my business is still in its infancy. I know lulls will come. But I think there’s a better way of looking at things than “Feast or Famine.” I’d rather think of busy seasons as “Production” time and lulls as “Cultivation” opportunities. I wrote a two-part blog post about this a while back if you want to check it out (linked above).
How do you market yourself?
As silly as it sounds, I think Twitter has been huge for any amount of success I’ve had thus far. I stay pretty active on it, and it has been my connection to the outside motion community (an amazing community), and as such, it’s been extremely valuable to me. I’ve gotten jobs directly because of recommendations and referrals on Twitter.
Also, I’m pretty deliberate about sharing new work on Instragram, Twitter, dribbble, and Vimeo. I try to make posts that are cohesive across all those platforms, and try to be intentional about how I brand myself online, so that if people go to my website, my Instagram work account, or my Twitter, they’ll know it’s all the same guy, and that they’re in the right place.
I do think there’s a fine line between earnest self-promotion and shameless, slimy self-promotion. There’s part of me that sort of hates posting about stuff I made. “Hey! Look at me! Look at this!” But on the other hand, I am the sole provider for a family of five (soon to be six), and sharing my work is sort of a necessary evil. You could be the best motion designer in the universe, but if nobody ever sees your work, how will they know?
Also, I think there’s a lot of value in writing about your process and sharing it online. It lets people see the way you approach and solve problems, and shows them the level of care and thought you put into your work. It also shows potential future clients that this isn’t stuff that can just be “whipped up” or “thrown together.” That’s something I’d love to be better about!
What have you been most thankful for on your career path up until now?
With regard to running my own business, without question it has been the ability to provide for my family while working in a way that allows me to be in control of my work and how I use my time.
I think most things that are truly worthwhile are not easy, like raising kids that aren’t jerks and working on keeping your marriage strong. Going freelance has been no exception. But sometimes I feel like I’m getting away with something. I love what I do so much. I’m so thankful to be able to say that. I’m also extremely thankful to have a career that allowed my wife and I to pursue our life-long dream of living near the ocean.
But sometimes I feel like I’m getting away with something. I love what I do so much. I’m so thankful to be able to say that.
Also, getting to collaborate regularly with my brother Matt in Nashville has been a highlight of my career. Matt composes original music and sound design for my projects, and I feel like we have a great thing going. His approach to sound design is so intertwined with the musical scores he creates, and what he adds to our projects makes my work look twice as good as it is.
We’re lucky to share our office space with David Stanfield, and we thank him for taking the time to share his perspectives and incredible talents with the SOUTH team. You rock!
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