Primal Screen: TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION

Step Inside Design, Sep/Oct 2008 by Porter, Matthew

THAT SOUND YOU HEAR COMING FROM THE PERIPHERY OF DESIGN? IT'S THE SOUND OF AN IMPENDING REVOLUTION-A PRIMAL SCREAM. AAAAIIIIYEEEE! GET READY.

If you asked Atlanta's marketing leaders to name the metro area's mostadmired creative services company, answers would vary. Some might suggest Lorenc Yoo Design, Wages Design, Grant Design Collaborative or Iconologie-all accomplished, to be sure. Knowledgeable sources even might suggest Turner Productions, a super choice, but one that does not service external clients. Agency fans might trumpet the talents of a local ad agency that's still basking in the afterglow of a hot young creative director who's already left for a place where advertising is actually taken seriously. The clueless would offer up the High Museum of Art because they like traveling exhibits from the Louvre and Hermitage with their Starbucks cup (kidding, OK?).

But few would mention Primal Screen, Atlanta's masters of platform-independent, dynamic media and graphics... that is, few outside the broadcast, cable and animation worlds. Those observers had better start mentioning Primal, because its area of expertise-dynamic media-may well be taking over the graphic design world, where communication is rapidly migrating to PDAs and pliable handheld monitors.

THE MISSING LINK

I first met Doug Grimmett, founding partner and creative director of Primal Screen, in 2007 over dinner with friends. He spoke passionately about his efforts to make the Atlanta design community more aware of the potential of dynamic media. Grimmett has been putting his money where his mouth is, too, shelling out more than $10,000 between 2006 and 2007 to bring in notable dynamic-makers for AIGA Atlanta gatherings.

In 2008 Grimmett is beginning to see a lot of progress and change in the design community. Dynamic-graphic designers now hold key positions on the local AIGA board. He's gratified. To explore the changes, Grimmett invited me to drop by his office and learn more about his work and the media to which it is applied.

This is where my re-education began. At first I saw the work as TV, TV, TV. Then I began to see it in terms of new media that I apply to my life: phone, PDA, wireless laptop, camera. After that I began to see dynamic graphics as the future. Those who create and apply them will rule the communication universe, as PDAs and new monitor technologies become more prevalent. Wireless, foldable, lightweight media receivers will revolutionize what we read (view), when we read it and where we read it.

As for myself, I stopped my curbside subscription to The New York Times a year ago, a transition I once regarded as unthinkable. Now enjoyed from my wireless laptop, the online version brings me more content than I ever got from the print edition (especially video reports). Less waste, less costly, more dynamic information. What's not to like? Even the Times will be glad to know I now spend more time viewing content and dynamic-motion ads than I did shuffling through print pages.

THE PROMISE

But Grimmett's prophesy of a dynamic-media world carries an important and hopeful message for the design industry: He reminds me that every popular (successful!) device, product, service or company is entered and experienced through portals, hallways, rooms and tools created by graphic designers. Says Grimmett, "Think about it-from Google to YouTube, from iPods to Wu, it is designers who create the experience, build the interface and give it meaning. Design has never been as important as it is now." Grimmett's message has resonance in these troubled times.

FROM TALLAHASSEE TO TIBOR

Doug and his wife Jane met as design students in Tallahassee, FIa. After various internships and odd jobs in Tallahassee, they moved to New York in 1981. Doug took a job at CBS, while Jane took a position with Tibor Kaiman at M&Co. Jane Grimmett recalls how they both eventually came to work for Tibor Kaiman:

"When we moved to New York, Doug immediately went to M&Co with the hope of meeting Tibor and showing him his portfolio. Tibor was unavailable, so Doug handed his self-promotion piece to the receptionist. As Doug reached the elevator, Tibor came charging down the hall after him, inviting Doug back for a chat. After speaking and viewing his portfolio, Tibor told Doug he regretted that he had no designer jobs to offer him-but he did need a production artist. Tibor asked Doug if he knew anyone looking for that type of work. Doug recommended me, and I worked for Tibor for three years. Meanwhile, Doug worked for CBS for a year before leaving to freelance-including taking projects for M&Co."

"He was my mentor, my greatest teacher," says Doug of KaIman. "He was generous with information, time and life. He showered those around him with that generosity. He reminded me about the difference between experiential opportunity and financial opportunity. Tibor was right, of course. That was perhaps the greatest lesson he ever taught me."

Doug worked a year or so freelancing for M&Co before moving on to Workman Publishing for a more lucrative opportunity. In 1989 the pair decided to leave New York for an ad agency in Chapel Hill, N.C. They remained there, reasonably content, for a few years, but the little Tibor that lives inside Doug's head kept saying, "Doug, there is more for you than a comfortable check and an easy job. There are long, steep roads that lead to breathtaking views. But you must take the difficult path-waste not a moment."