Company Profile: Dreamer Productions

Sydney's Dreamer Productions is a creative leader in design and art direction.

The boutique agency began life in late 1999, founded by James Cooper.

James completed his Vis.Comms Degree specialising in Graphic Design and worked for four years in motion and print design for GMD, Mesh22 and Omnilab. He also freelanced for broadcast house Garner MacLennan Design.

A move to London saw him land some golden gigs, such as Designer/Art Director through Stylorouge, specialising in music graphics. Clients included the likes of EMI, SonyBMG, Warners, Universal and a string of indie labels. James' work featured on many artists’ multi-media campaigns and album covers including Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Westlife and more.

He came back to Oz and founded Dreamer. The 'Dream' team also includes Producer/Studio Manager Amy Kelly. The company motto is 'creative collaboration', and they work across a myriad of forms and styles.

We asked Dreamer's Producer and Studio Manager Amy Kelly about life inside their creative cocoon.

Can you describe your physical offices, your creative space?
Our studio at Dreamer is a light and airy space located in a townhouse in the Inner West. Our shelves are packed with an impressive and continuously expanding design library. And our walls are covered with examples of our work and work that inspires us.

Can you describe an "average" workday for your team (if there is such a thing)?
There definitely is no "average" day and that's part of the excitement of working at the studio. On any given day we could be working on a number of projects ranging from album artwork for anyone from chart-topping major label artists to underground indie acts, out of the studio on location for a shoot, developing concepts for our latest book cover brief, pitching ideas for corporate branding and website design. The list goes on and usually changes on a daily basis!

Do you have boring or vivid desktop wallpaper?
There is a collection of wallpapers and they change frequently. But always vivid - never boring. James (Creative Director) seems to be regressing, as his this week is an old Woodstock poster. I'm originally from Ireland, and this week I have a shot of the Cliffs of Moher in the west of Ireland.

What' the biggest challenge Dreamer has faced so far? (artistic or otherwise)
The biggest challenge Dreamer has faced so far, starting up as a small company, is that our workload has grown far quicker than anticipated. We started off with some smaller, but very rewarding projects, on the books. Within 9 months Dreamer had acquired a much longer list of clients and hence had bigger projects and in larger numbers coming our way. So our challenge has been to balance these projects in such a way that we can still guarantee the best quality work while not missing out on any great opportunities!

With so many design companies out there, how do you and your team distinguish yourselves creatively and at a business level?
There is a lot of competition in the creative world and distinguishing yourself is vital. Creatively, Dreamer is different in that James Cooper (Creative Director) formed Dreamer after two years working in London as a designer/art director for high profile entertainment industry clients.

James has established Dreamer with the desire to bring this international experience and skill set to the Australian market. We strive to offer the best design solutions for our clients and always aim to devote plenty of creative time at the crucial initial stages of a project. Similarly, we focus on the attention to detail necessary in the final stages.

At a business level, we offer a boutique service. Clients know exactly who is responsible for their project both in terms of creative and administration and can deal one on one with designer/producer to ensure deadlines are met with the best outcome possible.

What advice would you give design talent entering the game?
The one piece of advice we would give is to work work work. Design as much as you can. Work on varied and different projects. Work with and around as many other talented designers as you can to learn from their ways of working (even if you don't always agree with them!). The design world is always changing and expanding so the greater the range of skills you can show a potential employer the better.

What's the most rewarding thing about the work you do?
The most rewarding thing about working at the studio is bringing something into the world that didn't exist before, particularly when the end product is something both the client and we can both be proud of. We still get a kick out of seeing our designs on the shelves!

Visit Dreamer at www.dreamer-productions.com. And all you musical artists out there, you might want to have a chat to Dreamer about your first (or next) album cover!