Vagus Magazine Summer 2022 Feature Story
Get it Studio is a 3D design company created by Sandra Golay & Alexandre Armand, a pair of former graphic designers and art directors.
Lausanne, Switzerland
Aapo: The Ancient Mayan Boxer
They focus on working with clients to create 3D designs that suit the brand or creative vision of the client, and they have recently begun to add Motion Design to their portfolio.
When did you two start your creative journey together?
Sandra: We met while working together in a creative agency ten years ago. We had a creative and romantic crush! After a while, I decided to quit the agency and work as a freelancer. It worked well, but I only had graphic design projects, and all I wanted was to create images and short videos. As Alex has the same aspiration, we started doing some side projects that led us to create Get it Studio five years ago. In the beginning, we mainly did stop-motion videos since we both had some knowledge of photography and were very interested in creating tangible set designs. But most of our projects were cancelled when Covid hit the world in 2020. So we decided to move out of our photo studio and started learning 3D. Our goal was to create the same quality of images but without the cost of producing stop-motion videos.
How did you come up with the name ‘Get it Studio,’ and what does it signify for you?
Alex: Sandra found it! I was telling a lot of dad jokes and always asked afterward, “get it?”
Since we wanted to produce primarily explainers, we thought that this name for a studio would be self-explicative - and people like it! Now, sometimes people call us “Get it,” no more Sandra & Alex.
What attracted you to 3D design?
Alexandre: The possibility to recreate exactly what we were doing with set design and stop-motion. Being able to modify a scene easily, the scale of an object, and modify its colour or texture is very satisfying for me. I love that we could apply our knowledge of photography techniques (lighting, camera, lens, field of view, depth of field) to a 3D environment.
Sandra: I love the freedom to test and iterate, which was much more time-consuming with set design and stop motion. I don’t always visualize exactly what I want to do at the beginning of a project, so I like to have the flexibility to try things, especially when it comes to colour and textures.
36 Days of Type - G (2021)
SOM 2
36 Days of Type - P (2021)
36 Days of Type - K (2021)
Why do you participate in challenges like the 36-days of Type challenge?
We love challenges! Getting out of our comfort zone helped us to grow a lot. It’s a real motivation for us; pushing the limit of your creativity is fascinating. We tend to over-plan, and sometimes we lose ourselves trying to find the perfect idea. When you have a deadline each day, it’s impossible to lose time; you need to finish by the end of the day, every day, and that’s quite liberating. Even if you are not happy with the final result, you have to publish it. Also, it’s a very good exercise because once you have set your constraints, you still have plenty of space to explore your style.
What colours and elements do you often use throughout your work, and why do you include them?
Sandra: I have obsessions that come and go in our work, like tubular shapes, frosted glass, pleats, and inflated stuff. They appear on each of my mood boards even when they have nothing to do with the project! I guess we are still trying to figure out our style. I feel that it comes with time, so we keep experimenting to find what works best for us.
You’ve tried out a variety of textures throughout your portfolio; how do you think textures alter a design?
Alex: It’s the most important part of a design. You can create an incredibly detailed model, but without a detailed texture or with bad lighting, your image is kind of boring.
We are not the best at modelling, but we know how to light a scene or add depth to a model by choosing the right texture.
Aapo: The Ancient Mayan Boxer
36 Days of Type - U (2021)
36 Days of Type - T (2022)
BEHIND THE SERIES: Nakagin Capsule Tower Memories
A series created during an artist residency at Almost Perfect Tokyo - a creative residence in a 100-year-old rice shop.
Background Info: Over the early summer months, Get it Studio participated in an artist residency at Almost Perfect Tokyo. They created artwork that responded to the dismantling and destruction of the Nakagin Capsule Tower located in Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan, a mixed-use residential and office tower built in 1972. Due to aging, the tower experienced many deteriorations over time.
How was your experience during your residency at Almost Perfect Tokyo, and did you learn anything that influenced how or what you design?
It was amazing! Initially, we wanted to create surreal images of what could be the future of the dismantled capsules in digital space, but after having met two official guides of the tower, we changed the subject. The two guides told us many stories about the tenants living inside the capsules. It was so interesting that we included some of these stories in our work. The focus was now on the social aspect of this destruction and not only on creating beautiful images of interiors.
Nakagin Capsule Tower Memories - Artist Statement
"Nakagin Capsule Tower, a building that looks like it’s made up of boxes sitting on top of each other, is being demolished in a way that will allow its distinctive design to be preserved. Some of the building’s 144 capsules will be sent to museums around the world, while others will be used for accommodation in different locations.
It is with great sadness that we learned of the Nakagin Capsule Tower’s imminent dismantlement and destruction. Indeed this notorious landmark of the Metabolism Architectural Movement has always stimulated and fed our imagination. Its importance goes beyond its conceptual structure, and despite its removal from Tokyo, it deserves to be celebrated.
Therefore we ask ourselves, what has and will become of the recent and current tenants? What of their habitat, our imagination, and the dreams we had and still have regarding the Metabolism Architectural Movement?"
Below are some images from their series 'Nakagin Capsule Tower Memories'
Is there something you had to overcome to be where you are in your career now?
The fear of financial instability - you never know when your next job will be and if you will be able to pay yourself at the end of the month. It can be nerve-wracking. You also have to put yourself in the spotlight and try not to care too much about what people think of you.
Have you learned anything about business & creativity/artistry that you’d like to share with others?
Always challenge yourself, but for your benefit. Our creative field is continuously evolving, so you need to be ready to learn new skills.
What do you envision for yourselves and your work in the future?
More and more personal work while still working on commercial projects. We want to develop our style, but that requires a lot of time and sacrifices in our free time.
Through creating art, what have you learned about yourself?
Creating a whole series for a personal project is quite overwhelming. You can do what you want; everything is right or wrong. Only you can say what’s right for the project. We were used to working with clients for a specific budget, so it was quite hard for us at the beginning of our residency in Tokyo to start creating projects. But once we made some radical decisions, generating ideas was kind of fast. We loved this first Art experience and will surely pursue this kind of work.
36 Days of Type - Z (2022)
Aapo: The Ancient Mayan Boxer
Check out more of Get it Studio's work on their Instagram profile (Instagram: @get_it_studio) and their official website: get-it.studio This interview was originally published in Issue 6 of Vagus Magazine: Velvet Magic. A longer version of the interview is available in the magazine.
View the full digital Magazine on our ISSUU and MagCloud profiles. Order prints of Issue 6 on MagCloud.