I am on almost all social media platforms as ambientmilk or a variation of that name, including my work email address, I chose this name a couple years ago and have considered changing, but between all the lecturers and professions I have asked the verdict is still 50/50 so I will continue asking around I think. This is of course more a name tailored towards my online presence and not the name I would send to a studio to be hired or have on my CV but would remain as my website and email until I decide to change them.

I wanted to come up with a visual brand to tie my website and my social media presence together and to make a recruiter or clients journey to my work memorable, this also hopefully becomes recognisable online well as interesting and fun for inciting new viewers.

I wanted my branding to be bold and fun but nothing too polished, I chose the primary colours with different levels of saturation because while fun and bouncy, when formatted correctly can look professional without looking too childish.

My Website

My website ( www.ambientmilk.com ) is up and running as of now, and was adapted from my illustration course, hence still showing some illustrations while animation is the main focus. I wanted to keep it bold and simple, but still fun of course.

The landing page is a greeting and my showreel, you can have about 7 to 10 seconds to convince someone looking at your website to stay and continue looking, so I will have put my best generalised showreel front and centre. I have a separate animation tab that explores my different projects in more detail, like films I’ve worked on, the roles I’ve played and personal projects, as well as an ‘about me’ and contact page.

Business cards

I have had very mixed advice on business cards and in summary they are a must for filmmakers, going to festivals and attending animations meet and greets and such, but not on the whole really necessary for animators, especially those aiming to advertise online or freelance remotely. 

That being said I have of course made my own; 

They use my branding/website colour scheme and display my style and contact info, they are smaller than the average business card, I have not realised with these designs the text is absolutely too small for the card and will probably alter that for the next batch. 

Networking

Making materials and an online presence is fun and enjoyable to curate but sometimes animators (me) need to step outdoors; festivals have been an amazing way to watch the animation and motion design network in motion (pun intended), even when I hadn’t much to show, it was motivating to see all these people doing what I wanted to do, and even when I had been to nervous to approach others, it helped me to know where I sat within it and see more clearly where I was aiming for. I have been to Inmotion London twice now as well as Motion Manchester and plan to go to more of these types of festivals, more importantly I’d like to attend smaller gatherings of animators such as bar shorts and BAM in Bristol as I think it’s more personal and maybe slightly less daunting to have a meaningful conversation with someone.