Each week we chat about the tools of the trade with one outstanding creative to find out exactly how they do what they do. The questions are always the same, the answers, not so much. This week: No-Domain.The Creators Project: Who are you and what do you do?
Joaquín Urbina: I am the founder and creative director of the audiovisual design studio No-Domain. The studio’s interested in conceptual image creation and we like to approach it experimentally, working with cross-media, always combining analogue and digital. In almost all our projects you can find still graphic artwork merged with live animated motion pictures or clean photographic frames fused with abstract, non-perfect defragmented textures.What hardware do you use?
Mac vs PC discussion: We try to be beyond that, we work on Mac. For video and photography we have a Canon 5D for house projects. When shooting for advertising we usually work with Red One, Alexa or Phantom. For texturing and image degeneration we love to use all kinds of vintage gear such as super 8 projectors and cameras, VHS and old tube TVs. For live visuals we use old MiniDV handy-cams, Akai midi pad controllers and secondhand optical garbage. For audio we use samplers, drums machines and synthesizers (MPC2K, Nord Modular, Waldorf Micro Q, several KORG gadgets).What software do you use?
We use Photoshop and Illustrator daily, After Effects for animation, editing and compositing, Final Cut for editing and sometimes CINEMA 4D. Also, Modul8 for the digital part of our live visuals. For audio we use Cubase and Logic. Apart from that there are millions of little apps we use for specific tasks. For example the other day I discovered SketchUp, a very simple software that in no time allows you to previsualize scenes, sets and cameras.Music video for Narwhal’s track “Whirling Ceremony”, directed by No-DomainIf money were no object, how would you change your current setup?
A Thing-O-Matic, a machine for 3D Printing. And lots of old secondhand analogue stuff such as video mixers and efx generators.What fantasy piece of technology would you like to see invented?
I would love to have a static bike-carousel-machine, as a cyclic source of physical energy and mental creation, that allows you to do projection, shooting, scanning and process images at the same time.Is there any piece of technology that inspired you to take the path you did?
Specifically, a scanner without a doubt. And in general I think any machine can inspire you with both the achieved result and also with its own form. Design and mechanisms contain aesthetic, rhythmic and even narrative qualities. That itself can be considered a source of inspiration.What’s your favorite relic piece of technology from your childhood?
When I was around 15 years old I found an old Carl Zeiss image enlarger in the neighbor’s garbage. I built a dark room that became my door to photography and then to image manipulation, and that led me to graphic design. I still have it at my mother’s house.
Joaquín Urbina: I am the founder and creative director of the audiovisual design studio No-Domain. The studio’s interested in conceptual image creation and we like to approach it experimentally, working with cross-media, always combining analogue and digital. In almost all our projects you can find still graphic artwork merged with live animated motion pictures or clean photographic frames fused with abstract, non-perfect defragmented textures.
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Mac vs PC discussion: We try to be beyond that, we work on Mac. For video and photography we have a Canon 5D for house projects. When shooting for advertising we usually work with Red One, Alexa or Phantom. For texturing and image degeneration we love to use all kinds of vintage gear such as super 8 projectors and cameras, VHS and old tube TVs. For live visuals we use old MiniDV handy-cams, Akai midi pad controllers and secondhand optical garbage. For audio we use samplers, drums machines and synthesizers (MPC2K, Nord Modular, Waldorf Micro Q, several KORG gadgets).What software do you use?
We use Photoshop and Illustrator daily, After Effects for animation, editing and compositing, Final Cut for editing and sometimes CINEMA 4D. Also, Modul8 for the digital part of our live visuals. For audio we use Cubase and Logic. Apart from that there are millions of little apps we use for specific tasks. For example the other day I discovered SketchUp, a very simple software that in no time allows you to previsualize scenes, sets and cameras.Music video for Narwhal’s track “Whirling Ceremony”, directed by No-DomainIf money were no object, how would you change your current setup?
A Thing-O-Matic, a machine for 3D Printing. And lots of old secondhand analogue stuff such as video mixers and efx generators.What fantasy piece of technology would you like to see invented?
I would love to have a static bike-carousel-machine, as a cyclic source of physical energy and mental creation, that allows you to do projection, shooting, scanning and process images at the same time.Is there any piece of technology that inspired you to take the path you did?
Specifically, a scanner without a doubt. And in general I think any machine can inspire you with both the achieved result and also with its own form. Design and mechanisms contain aesthetic, rhythmic and even narrative qualities. That itself can be considered a source of inspiration.What’s your favorite relic piece of technology from your childhood?
When I was around 15 years old I found an old Carl Zeiss image enlarger in the neighbor’s garbage. I built a dark room that became my door to photography and then to image manipulation, and that led me to graphic design. I still have it at my mother’s house.