Meet the speakers: Ariel Costa
An interview with Ariel Costa AKA Blink My Brain: an Emmy award winning Creative / Animation (mixed-media) Director based in Los Angeles, CA.
Q&A hosted by Mack Garrison.
Read time: 15min
Mack:
Ariel! Welcome. We're thrilled to have you come to The Dash Bash!.
Ariel:
I'm honored.
Mack:
I'd love to find out where Blink My Brain started. What's the idea for it? Where did you get the idea that you can make the weirdest stuff out there and make it commercially viable?
Ariel:
But it's not for all brands. I'm aware of that, but that's okay. I passed the point that I was trying to fit in and trying to make my craft more popular. When I mean popular, I mean more accessible for clients.
I've been working with Motion Graphics for almost 15 years now. It's been a while. During this timeframe I've been trying to explore and do all kinds of animation. I dove my feet into 3D a little bit, and cel animation. But collage was always part of me because I remember when I was a kid, I usually cut out characters from my mother's magazines to make action figures.
Mack:
Oh, cool. That's cool.
Ariel:
Yeah. That was super fun. Eventually, I started to draw my own characters. I had my own studio back in Brazil. I ran my studio for four and a half years. I figured that I was becoming more of a manager, a business guy.
It's natural because if you have a studio, of course you need to count on smarter people to do the job for you because you're going to be busy doing other stuff, taking care of people. It's more about making everyone in your environment happy to produce good stuff.
It’s better now, but during the time, motion graphics was something very new for the entire world, and especially in Brazil. The agencies back there, they didn't know how to work properly and how to ask for some motion graphics work. So that made my life at the time very miserable because we already had the Motionographer and all the websites.
We used to have way more websites at the time, to get references, to be inspired. I was feeling very hungry to produce those kinds of things.
The combination of not having the opportunity from the agencies in Brazil to do that, and my managing role that I had to take at the time made me very miserable inside. So, I was not happy at all.I wanted to develop my craft. I wanted to do something cool. I was always looking for everyone's work and getting inspired. I said, okay, now I want to be doing this stuff. I want to produce. I want to create.
I decided to leave my studio. I built up a website, with a bunch of fake ads. Now I know that people call it spec works, but at the time, it was completely fake stuff. I put a bunch of well-known brands in there, like Nike and stuff. I did some side frames, just so I can show people what I was capable of doing. I just wanted to send out some portfolios.
I bought a flight ticket to Los Angeles. I just said, okay, I'm going to just toss the coin and see what happens. I sent work to a couple of studios and said, "Okay guys, I have this ticket already. I'll be in LA next week. I would love to schedule a conversation with you."
Luckily for me, at the time, professionals like motion graphics artists were in a very high demand, but there was not a lot of people doing this kind of stuff. I got a call for a couple of studios. I luckily got a job. I came here to the United States. I worked for this nice studio called Roger. From Roger, I felt like I needed to expand more of my stuff because to me, it's always about learning. It's always about connecting with people and trying to absorb the skills. It's about evolving. I don't want to be better than anyone else. I just want to be better than I was yesterday. I'm doing it for me, for myself, for my soul. I want to learn. I feel happy, I feel alive when I'm learning something new, when I'm out of my comfort zone. I decided, okay, let me just give it a shot. I'll send some of my stuff to Buck. I got a nice response from Buck. Then, I luckily was hired. I worked at Buck for two and a half years. Then again, I think I was not designed to be staff.
Mack:
Sure.
Ariel:
For some people, it works and it's fine. Whatever works for you. It's not for me because I like the freedom that I have, to do whatever I want, to have my time.
Anyways, Buck, I feel like it was the school that I never had in my whole life. I had the chance to meet such amazing people, not just talented folks, but incredible people and friends that I carry up to today.
It was an amazing experience for me. But after two and a half years, it felt like, okay, I feel like it's time for my next leap. I know that I don't want to be searching for another studio for me to work.
Blink My Brain, it started as a joke. I wanted to create the Blink My Brain as a website of references.
Blinkmybrain
I wanted to do something like that because Blink My Brain, to me, is something that you get so focused on something that you love. You were watching those references. It just got paralyzed. You were asking for someone, "Please. I felt like my brain just froze. Please, can you just blink my brain so I can come back to life?," something like that.
I always loved this name. I decide, okay, and I want to go as a freelancer, but I don't want to go as a regular freelancer. I wanted to be more like a problem solver, rather than just a tool.
I don't want to go to studios and just be the after-effects guy, pulling buttons here and there. I want to operate more as, it's a one-man studio. I always tell my clients, "I can operate according to your project. So if your project demands me to hire more people to help me out, I can scale and I can get those people. I can get a producer."
I just want to be a problem solver. I want to just offer my services as more of a creative director. Also, I can provide you all the tools you need, but without the hassle.I don't want to compromise myself, of having a studio again and becoming a manager again. I'm okay if I can become a manager for a couple projects, but I don't want that to be my main role.
Mack:
So prior to starting all of this, this endeavor, what were you doing in Brazil that got you in motion design?.
Ariel:
Man, I always knew that I wanted to do something involving creativity. I had a lot of phases in my life. There was a point I wanted to do comic books. There was another point that I wanted to do painting.
Something that I carried for a very long time, when I was trying to discover myself in a creative way, is my desire to become a live action director. I always wanted to become a live action director because I wanted to tell stories.
It’s Ariel!
There was something about the camera, the lenses, how it can capture and frame an action or something. That was very appealing to me. It was more like, deep inside of me, I always loved the design of a shot, the design of the composition, the lighting, the entire thing. I love the structure to create a very appealing image, something that was very, very, very nice. In Brazil, we don't have a lot of... of course, at the time, didn't have a lot of film schools. I ended up doing media art back in Brazil. They have these television programs where you can be behind cameras. Eventually, you can move yourself to a director to the commercials and stuff like that. That was my main plan.
They have a channel in Brazil, that’s just for colleges. So, every college has its own show in there. So, I got this internship there. The only role that they had at that time was to create the promo, the graphics and the opening for the shows and stuff like that. It was after effects, this weird software that I had to learn in, I don't know, two weeks. It was fun. It was a fun, scary moment. But once I figured out the possibilities, I completely fell in love with its abilities. In my mind was, okay, I'm able to make cinema here without needing this big crew.
Mack:
So you're running your own shop again. I know there's probably things you want to do differently. You knew what you didn't like. You wanted to lean into what you like, which I'm sure comes back to this very unique style. Did you know that when you started Blink My Brain that you were going to lean into this particular style?
Ariel:
Nope. That's the thing. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know what I was, who I was. That was two different things. First, I knew that I wanted to become independent. Once I decided to leave Buck, I did what everyone that wanted to get work to do. You do a portfolio, make a portfolio.
I made my portfolio. I showed to a couple of friends. They told me, "Ariel, that's cool. It's an amazing portfolio, but I feel like this portfolio, it's not you. This is Buck."I look at and say, "You are absolutely right. I love the work that I did at Buck, but it's hard for me to show to other people what I can offer because this is not my portfolio." There's a bunch of other people working on the same project that I was working.
So, I decided to come up with a personal project and something that I was... it needed to be completely different of what Buck was doing at the time.
Then I brought back the collage kind of thing. It's something that, it's not shell animation, it's not so organic. I wanted to do something monochromatic. Buck, it was all about colors, all about gradients and stuff. Then I decided, okay, I want to do a piece of art. I was watching Seven, Dave Lynch. So I thought, man, that could be cool. That could be really, really interesting.I came up with this concept of... it's not more like a storytelling, but it's more like a concept. It's a representation of the seven deadly sins. So I decided, okay, let's do something different. I want to do something very provocative, very shocking and something that it's not... I want to be totally the opposite of what Buck is doing because Buck was doing something that was very, not just...How can I say? Of course, it was beautiful, but it's kind of kids friendly. I want to do something very, very opposite, very aggressive, very-
Mack:
Edgy. Different.
Ariel:
It's like a statement. I'm here and I'm not here for bullshitting. I just wanted to show attitude. I just want to show something different. So, yeah. Then I created these project scenes and I put it out there. I was really, really surprised with the reception.
Sins
Mack:
I'm assuming that it just starts to grab and garner attention. People are like, what is this? Did you land some big clients right off the bat from that?
Ariel:
Yeah, from that. Luckily for me, I brought back to life this passion for collage. I found, okay, now this is something that I really enjoy doing. I want to do something more focused into that.
The idea of creating this contrast between the vintage, like old photos, with the modern, put them in a digital, manipulate, mix it up with something else and create something, give a different life to an old photo. To me, it was very interesting. After that, I received this email from Warner Music. They saw this piece, Sins. "Man, I saw this piece and I feel like you could be a good fit to do a music video for a band," at the time, like Green Day. I saw, man, really? Oh, that's cool. So, I did a little treatment. They liked it. Then I did the music video for Green Day.
Green Day
After that, my name passed along inside Warner and went to Rhino, which is a sister company from Warner. They usually take care of the most old school bands. At the time, Led Zeppelin, they were about to release their... it's a box with the best of the best of shows.
Mack:
Oh, yeah. Like a box set. Yeah. Yeah.
Ariel:
Yeah, a box set. It's a BBC release. It was something big for the company. They wanted me to create a music video for one of the songs. That would be part of the campaign of release.
They invited me to do something for Led Zeppelin, which was awesome for me. It was surreal. Even today to me, something that I cannot believe that I had a chance to work with Led Zeppelin. I thought it was impossible because they're no longer a band. But it was a great moment because even though they're no longer a band, the brand Led Zeppelin, for me to working with them and getting feedback, from the band, it was amazing. After that, I had a chance to work with some incredible other clients, that I'm very grateful to be on this journey. Yeah.
Led Zeppelin
Mack:
So you come up with this edgy aesthetic. It lands the Green Day music, lands the Led Zeppelin endeavor. I'm sure stuff starts to roll in. Now all of a sudden you're in this. You've defined the look for yourself. You've created this edgy persona.If you look at your website right now, the first thing that you see is fuck average. That's the first thing that you see on the site. Right?
Ariel:
Yes.
Mack:
I mean, it is bold. It is in your face. I always find myself giving critiques to students who are trying to get in the space. "Put the work on your website that you want to do. If you don't want to do that work, don't put it on your website."
Ariel:
That's it. That's it, man. That's it.
Mack:
So, here I am looking at your site. It's got this aggressive but confident mentality. There is a very clear style. Now you're in it. So, I'm assuming that the clients who do reach out to you now, they get it. They don't question that aggression that comes with it because that's who you are. Is that right?
Ariel:
I did a couple of projects that were still simulating what Buck was doing and was trying to understand that. I was pushing myself. I think it was a naive and very young part of myself, trying to discover himself. I was trying to compete with people on Instagram and say, "Oh my God. Now that guy did this. I need to do something similar, but better or similar but with different colors."
I was seeing projects that other people were doing. Oh my God, I wanted to do that. Why didn't I come up with it? It was a battle that I was having with myself. It was a very poisonous kind of thing, relationship, with me and my work. I was not happy at all with that.
Once I started to stop caring... not caring, but stop trying to be someone else, I told you, okay, now I want to do what I want to do. I don't care what other people would think about my work.
I want to do what makes me happy. I'm going to stop doing this, and I want to do what... I'm going to stop mimicking other people. I'm just going to be real to myself. That's when I found, really, joy.
Of course, I still see work of other people and I think, oh my God, it's amazing. It's beautiful. But this is not something that I want to do. This is not something that I want to mimic. I love seeing other people’s work out there. Now I feel like I'm more mature. I know how to appreciate other people's work.
Mack:
Well, it's really interesting because social media can be amazing because it connects us with all these artists, all these different shops, all these studios. You get all this great inspiration. You see this amazing stuff. But it can also be toxic because all you see is amazing stuff.
Ariel:
That's it. That's it. It's light. It's light. It's beautiful. My creative process, every time that I'm trying to create a concept for a project, I'm just seeing things that, it's not related to motion graphics. I'm just seeing science books or anything that is nothing related to the work we do. That helped me a lot, to see the possibilities that I have. I'm not limited to just one thing. I can spread my stuff elsewhere. It's fun.
Mack:
You've done such a good job of creating this space for yourself and who you are, your brand. You have a very distinctive style, and you're happy with the stuff you're making. I know that as creatives, one of the things that we all navigate with and struggle with is burnout. Right?
Ariel:
Burnout is something that will happen. To me, it's just like exercising. You might love doing exercise. You might love to work out, lifting weights, lifting weights. But if you train every day, your biceps, you're going to overtrain sometime. You're going to have muscle fatigue out of that. It's the same thing with our brain. No matter if you love what you're doing, but if you are doing in a very constant way and if you're dealing with stress...Because in the end of the day, it's about the client's needs. I know I create this craft, but I tend to do sometimes projects that I'm not creatively proud of, but we have to pay the bills. It's normal. It's part of the industry.
Now that I'm almost in my forties, things that have usually upset me in the past, they don't upset me anymore because I know how to deal with that. I know how to recognize when I'm leaning towards the burnout path. I tend to avoid that. But it happens, for sure, for sure.
Mack:
I think it's just being in tune with who you are, how you're feeling and to acknowledge it. I think sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as creatives, to be creative on demand.
We’ve talked a little bit about your past, the beginnings, what you were doing in the middle years, where you are now. But what I'd love to end this conversation with, Ariel, is a little bit of the future, thinking ahead.
We're in this really weird and kind of unique space of motion design. Technology is making things easier than ever, but it's also introducing some controversial things, like AI, the generated art, the ChatGPT, what's come out. As you think about Blink My Brain in the future, are you excited about these new technologies and how you can use it in your work? Or does it make you nervous with how automated it is?
Ariel:
I have mixed feelings about all of these. At one point, I see that could be a really nice tool for you to create some sort of inspiration or to create color palettes, to create maybe some textures out of that or things like that. But it bothers me that people are putting out something that they just typed in a prompt and they just proclaim themselves as AI artists.
Everyone is free to do whatever they want. Again, I passed the point of judging people, but this could be a really dangerous path, if you think about it.
One of my friends told me that one agency in Brazil just fired 20 people, just to be doing things with AI. So, they're doing AI for commercial release now. They're using the AI creation. This is something that I'm not pro. I like the idea, of course, you can generate whatever you want and just post it, whatever you want.
But again, I feel like this should be used as a source of inspiration and not as a source of making money. I posted the other day that I lost a pitch for a guy that did AI.
Mack:
I saw that.
Ariel:
Yeah. I spent, I don't know, two weeks doing a treatment for that.
It was for a band, a band that's supposed to be all for creativity. It's an art, craft, just like we all are doing the animation. They decided to go with the AI. I saw the result the other day. It was the most generic kind of... The visuals, it's very similar to everything that you are seeing out there. They just generated the same frame five times, putting in sequence. Every scene is just a version of that shot. That felt weird to me.
Mack:
To me, it's the originality that comes along with that, using the tool for inspiration, using the tool to build off new ideas and to push the boundaries of what's possible with the accent to help with that direction.
But as soon as you look at it as a replacement... Like the agency you mentioned, that let go of the 20 staff members, a replacement, the band that looks at it through the lens of, this can be our music video, a replacement.
You get to this negative space. That's where it's this constant churning of just the same old, same old. It's not new. That's what I said. It just feels like it's being borrowed from what's out there. I don't like that.
Ariel:
It's not a tool. It's doing the work for you. You're not doing anything. You're just typing shit in the prompter. It is a tool once you use that as a source of inspiration, again, as you can create. I want to spark some ideas for new characters or for color palette. I just want to see what I can come up with. That is a tool. But once you use the results, the outcomes of these typings into your work and you post it and you say, "Okay, I'm a AI artist," that's not a tool. That's a fucked up thing.
Mack:
I think with the originality of an artist and pushing that and being more different, it even highlights the importance of more artists finding their own Blink My Brain, like you did. Because finding your style, finding something that's unique for you and pushing that forward is more important than ever, as these tools are generating more commonalities in the space.
Ariel:
I feel like to me, I'm kind of oversaturated with this AI thing. I don't even use the Midjourney. I used to use Midjourney for a source of inspiration and things like that, just to come up with some ideas for colors and stuff. But it felt so saturated because now everyone, no matter what prompt you put in there, it feels like everything's the same. So, I just stepped away from these directions. I don't think, again, it's for me. Yeah. I'm not against it, but I don't support it if you use it in the wrong way.
Mack:
Yeah. I feel the same way. It's going to be an interesting future.
Ariel, just wanted to say thank you so much for hanging out with me and we’re excited to have you at the Bash.
Ariel:
It's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing, dude.