It’s a muggy week here in London. Yesterday the temperature topped 30°C, today the air is thick with electric anticipation. The sky is dark and grumbly. This is the occasionally oppressive London summer. Our windows are flung wide, in an attempt to dissipate the heat from the thirteen human radiators working inside our little studio. This is how full it’s become:
23 June, 16.28, by Timo
Thinking and doing continues. Dimensions 2 is being refined, thought about, refined some more by Tom, Alex and Matt Jones. It’s nearly ready.
Alice (who incidentally has already been sitting in two different desks since joining as we shuffle around) has been working on a studio project which I’ve just taken a look at over her shoulder. It’s looking great. More will be revealed shortly on that.
Chaco is beginning to coalesce and the material exploration work is really taking form this week. Timo and Joe are making, creating, and will later be filming. Matt J is writing. Nick has spent most of the day in our meeting room calibrating, lining up, tweaking. Andy has been busy doing similar with some other bits of the project, as well as buying and testing lots of bits and bobs from our good friends Maplin and Farnell. He just bought a new soldering iron with SmartHeat technology and has reassured us all this is a very good thing indeed.
Being from a primarily digital background it’s been refreshing and eye-opening to work on SVK at this crucial final stage where we’re getting it ready to go. The many steps involved between printing and launch have taken time. Lead times are long when dealing with physical products. Whilst we wait for the necessary shipping processing tasks to be completed we’re not sitting on our hands. We’re writing, tweaking, photographing, designing, coding and testing. Lots of testing. Nick, Alex, and especially Matt Jones have been very busy on these elements. Matt Webb and Kari have been masterminding our customer service strategy and tools. It’s all very close now.
Nick, Jack, Denise and Timo are sitting on the sofa discussing barry slightly breathlessly. Deciding what’s important and what’s next. It’s the one project I haven’t put my arms around yet. It’s as though I’m saving it for last like a delicious truffle.
I’ve been here for four weeks now, getting up to speed with the studio and getting stuck in with day-to-day organisation, making lists of immediate priorities on live projects. I’ve also doing some metawork outside of this, tracking project spend, and forecasting resource for future projects for the next six months with help from Matt Webb. It’s exciting. So many good things to do.
This week we’ve been listening to The Minutemen, Jim O’Rourke, and we’re currently listening to Tony Tribe’s version of Red Red Wine, part of a suitably summery reggae mix by Alex. Later in the week I’m going to sneak some Janelle Monáe onto the speakers following her super set at Glastonbury on Saturday night.
Fat raindrops are falling, people on the pavement outside are scurrying past clutching umbrellas. The studio lights have become brighter than the sky.
Thinking and doing continues.
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