D-Fuse:
Escape from Stasis
Improvising to Make a Point
The D-Fuseniks honed their motion-design chops in London’s veejay subculture, a club scene where visual improvisation rules the night and an anything-goes attitude trumps any rigid pretensions of professionalism. “One thing I noticed at live performances, though,” says Faulkner. “You can instantly tell people’s work just by what computers they use. If they’re using PCs, generally they’ve got atrocious design standards.”
With Mac computers as its visual jukeboxes and mixing consoles, D-Fuse developed a distinctive style — fueled by a strong desire to experiment, yet informed by a sophisticated design sensibility — that travels easily from steamy dance floors to avant-garde art galleries to button-down corporate events.
“We’re fortunate that now, even our corporate clients tend to give us the license to do our own thing,” says Faulkner. “When BMW came to us for the lasers-on-the-lake project, it was because they see themselves as a brand of innovation, and they saw us as a group doing innovative things. There was no specific creative brief — we had complete freedom as to how we could interpret imagery of their cars.
Beck Beckons
Similarly, Beck approached D-Fuse for his “Guero” project because he’d seen a copy of “D-Tonate,” a DVD they’d created along with a global cast of electronica composers. “Suddenly we were working for a big record label, Interscope, and we expected the reins to be extremely tight,” Faulkner recalls. “But they surprised us and said, ‘No one at Interscope is going to interfere with this work. The only person who’s going to have any comments is Beck. We’re employing you as artists to interpret his music. So unless there’s something he doesn’t like, he’s not going to change it.’ And he didn’t. It’s been the most open job we ever had.”
Today, D-Fuse finds itself in a privileged position — in demand by paying clients to do high-profile design projects, yet also able to pursue their own art for art’s sake. “Because we’re pioneering in approach to our work, we’re a little bit a fish out of water,” says Faulkner.
“We’re almost too art-based to be commercial, and too involved in the commercial world to be art-based. We’re somewhere in the middle ground — which is great, because it lets us spend about 70 percent of our time on art-based or very creative projects, and 30 percent on commercial work. Generally, most of the well-paid work comes from commercial clients seeing our R-and-D projects, so there’s a symbiosis between the two.”
Icing on the Cake
“We quite like the combination,” Faulkner adds. “We’re not averse to commercial work; we actually enjoy it. It’s nice to diversify and do different things, to serve masters other than ourselves. Otherwise it’s like eating chocolate cake all the time — you’ve got to take a break.
“We keep talking about where we want to be in the future — and the truth is we’re very happy where we are. If we won a million pounds tomorrow, we wouldn’t change a thing.”
D-Future
What’s on D-Fuse’s horizon? “We love trying out new technologies,” says Mike Faulkner. “We have a big project in the pipeline next year, which is essentially remaking a film. And we’re very interested in high definition. We’ve got a little high-def camera, and we’re quite excited by the ability of the Mac to handle HD. While other people are arguing about this new technology, Apple already has computers that can burn high-def DVDs. That’s crucial for us. It keeps us ahead of the curve, dovetails with our strengths and our reputation — on a very economical basis.
“Macs are perceived as being expensive, but given their powers to keep us on the technological edge, they’re actually quite reasonable to run and use. They’re a fantastic value for the money.”
