Meet the speakers: Sekani Solomon
An interview with Sekani Solomon: an award-winning Creative Director based in New York City
Q&A hosted by Cory Livengood and Ashley Targonski.
Read time: 15min
Cory:
So, you're kind of a unique case in that we were going to have you speak at the Bash two years ago, and it didn't work out in large part due to Covid. I think our readers would really love to know a little bit about your background.
Sekani:
I guess I was always interested in creativity and just arts in general. And so when I was younger, let's say around 10 or so, I was always drawing Dragon Ball Z, or cartoons, or my favorite anime at the time. And then when I was in high school, I was like, could I really perceive this as a career? It seemed like the answer was no. So I actually dropped art. And then around 18, we were rebuilding our school website, and I was like, well, I used Photoshop several years ago, maybe I could help with this. And then I kind of reentered the space, and saw that they had significantly more resources on the internet, how to learn this stuff. And it was suddenly a lot easier.
And so yeah, I just kind of jumped in and went crazy, just doing a lot of photo manipulations. I think back then that was the hype, and then decided to take that on the next level with learning After Effects. My mind was blown, because again, at that point this was a foreign thing that I'd never seen anyone do. It's always something I wanted to do, animate. So that was mind blowing for me. And then that evolved into Cinema 4D. That's when I started incorporating some 3D elements into the work. At that point, it was time to apply for college. And so growing up on a small island [Tobago], if you really wanted to have a promising career, at least in the arts, you have to leave. And I knew that.
So I started off actually not being convinced that I wanted to do art. I didn't think that could be a viable career option. So I applied to schools for a software engineering degree, and then actually switched to graphic design and then motion media after I discovered SCAD. I ended up getting the scholarship from them, because I had a portfolio of work already because I was just kind of obsessed, and doing it in my spare time. Got a scholarship locally from Tobago. And so I ended up going to SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. And then during my time there, I had four internships before I graduated. I worked with Loyalkaspar, Gentleman Scholar, The Mill, and Imaginary Forces, and decided that Imaginary Forces worked similarly to how I did, where they wear a lot of hats and jump all around the production process. And then in 2018 I worked at Apple, so it was my first time working in house at a tech company, which was a whole new world. It was eye-opening because I hadn’t worked directly for a brand, and so seeing people at least there work less hours, and could value their time more with a higher day rate.
Sekani is an award-winning Creative Director based in New York City
Cory:
One of the things I wanted to ask you about a little bit was what drew you to move over in-house? It sounds like briefly with Apple, but more specifically I guess recently with CashApp and now Block. And what do you see as the pros and the cons of that approach? And clearly you've stuck with it for a while too, so is it something that you like?
Sekani:
Yeah, no, great question. I think seeing Apple was great, but at the time it didn't feel like someplace I would've stayed full-time, just because they're such an established company, and the checks and balances are so rigorous. Not necessarily ideal for me, but back of my mind, I was looking at what Microsoft was doing in the space. And I was like, wow, it's really cool to see a brand like Microsoft adopting this small New Age 3D motion design approach to showcase their work. It would be cool to begin to try to start something like that at another company if the situation provided itself.
And so later on that year at the end of 2018, I got a message on LinkedIn about this company called CashApp, which ironically I wasn't familiar with at the time, and I was at Buck at the time, and their offices weren't too far from each other. So I did a little interview over at the Square office and then walked over to Buck. And the conversation I had with them was just talking about where this brand could be and how we could interject 3D and motion graphics into it and elevate it. And the idea of being at the ground floor and being able to help shape something was really enticing. Though they had zero 3D pipeline, zero 3D infrastructure, there was nothing.
Snippet of the whacky things Sekani has rendered at Cash App.
Sekani:
So literally starting from the ground level when you're talking about processes, even equipment, pipeline, everything had to be built from scratch. But I think doing that on top of having a brand that was very creative allowed a lot of flexibility.
Cory:
Yeah. A willingness to let you do your own thing to a degree, or at least shape some of the stuff, versus being stuck in the Apple way or whatever company it might be, right?
Sekani:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Which allowed me to express myself creatively while pushing a brand. And I used to do a ton of short films, or personal projects, just because I didn't feel like I could get my creativity out there. But now it's like I don't even feel the need to, because I put so much of that work into these projects.
Cory:
Can you talk to us a little bit about what is the relationship between Block and CashApp? I know that's sort of a recent development.
Sekani:
That's a great question because my role has actually changed. I no longer work at CashApp specifically, at some point we wanted to create a parent brand per se, just because the company was scaling and we had acquired a few companies, so we already had Square and CashApp, and we had a acquired TIDAL, the music streaming service, and then we had two of our business units called TBD and Spiral. And so we still had the Square name, which we called the seller business unit, so it wasn't really clear. So we figured maybe creating a corporate brand, to help kind of clear that up. Just to return ownership of the brands back to the business units. And so I was pulled into that project, which was a beast to say the least. But yeah, let's just say it was incredible, and I was the only 3D person on it per se, so I worked on the logo launch film, so it was a very intense project.
Coming from that, I was given a new opportunity to co-lead a new team, a foundational team that lives outside the business units, that work with all the business units at the company. And we're calling it Creative Studio . We created a film called Reimagine that encapsulates what the team wants to do with our partners, essentially reimagine what their creative can be.
Cory:
Oh, exciting.
Sekani:
Yeah, our first piece that we created. And I think it's going to be really interesting because obviously we've seen a lot of cool things come from companies, but typically they're outsourced. So this is a piece that was fully created internally, by internal designers, so quite excited about that.
Cory:
Yeah, that's a pretty big shift from walking into their office and having to build their entire infrastructure at CashApp, to now creating teams and overseeing multiple brands worth of content. That's cool..
Sekani:
Yeah, no, we pulled in some really talented folk recently, Chris Phillips from Buck, aka Phibs, used to lead 3D design over there. And Zachary Corzine, an amazing designer. He's decided to join us as well.
Cory:
Oh, cool. In your work with CashApp, and before Block, just knowing that that was a lot of time and a lot of work, were you involved with more than just motion graphics? How involved were you with things that were outside of the animation landscape?
Sekani:
A lot. From our investor letter that went out, doing the covers for those, I've done a lot of different projects, whether it be maybe a visual for an event we were doing, to animating on a campaign, to in-app imagery. There's a lot of diversity in the ways that 3D and design can show up, which was nice.
Cory:
Yeah. I've also seen that you've done a little bit of work with Maxon and C4D, showcasing things, and doing demos and stuff like that. How do you like working with them and how did that relationship form? A lot of people use C4D, but not everybody gets to go hang out with the people who make it.
Sekani:
Yeah. Actually, it's funny, in 2014, one of my college professors, he was supposed to speak at NAB and he couldn't make it, so he let myself and another buddy of mine, Jason Diaz, go, and we were these young kids presenting at NAB, and from there I had a relationship with them, and presented at a few SIGRAPHs after that, I think 2016, 2018, maybe 2015, and a couple NAB conferences as well. They're great guys, so it's always good to just have that platform to walk through the work and showcase things, which is nice. And obviously when you're a freelancer, it's a lot easier. But I haven't done one in a while, just because I think with the work that I do now, there's a lot of legal constraints and approvals I have to get to even talk through things externally.
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Cory:
One thing I noticed when I was going back over our last interview from 2020, was you and Mack talked a little bit about the NFT space, and I was just personally curious if your feelings on that have changed at all in the last couple years.
And you know, you were, I believe, and not to put you on the spot, but you quoted as saying they're not going anywhere, they're here to stay. And you might be right, but I'm just wondering if between 2020 and now, you've thought any differently about that, in our industry, you've got Golden Wolf getting acquired by Doodle and things like that. I'm just wondering where your mind is at with that sort of space.
Sekani:
Yeah, I do think they're here to stay, but the scale, as you can see, has dramatically changed. I mean, even though it did allow a lot of artists to make a lot of money at the time, a lot of it was just funneled by pump and dump schemes and bros using artists as a way to make money. And if you're fortunate to be used in that way, then good for you.
I think people really got tied up into this feeling that it was all about the art, which in retrospect, at least now to me, it's clear that it had nothing to do with the art, but the value that it could generate, which really just mimics the fine art world under all these Van Goghs and those types of pieces, people pay millions of dollars for them, not just because they're beautiful works of art, it's because they're very valuable pieces, and an easier way to store value then maybe it stocks or something else.
So I mean, I'm sure there are collectors out there that genuinely care about art, but I do think a lot of them are just doing it for monetary gain, which, it's fine, but I think we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking this is just some liberating thing. And I think a lot of artists probably discovered that when they did their taxes.
Cory:
Yeah, no, that's really well put. I mean, it's no surprise it's the same shift that's kind of happened with cryptocurrency in general, and in some ways even calling it a currency these days, it's more like a stock. It's more like that kind of speculative stuff, which is, again, as you say, totally fine, as long as you know what you're getting into.
Sekani:
Yeah, no, exactly. And I think even Bitcoin per se, I think there is a lot of good utility, but no one looks at it for a utility. It's for the value or the money they could make. And it's like people make a use case for it, oh yeah, NFT has a utility. And I'm like, okay, so this puppy will grow ears and legs. I don't know. Me personally, I'm like, okay, this is just a way for people to make a lot of money.
Cory:
Yeah. I like what you said, if you manage to cash in on that, then good for you.
Sekani:
I've just seen a lot of good artists get looked over, haven't sold anything, and quickly I realized it had nothing to do with the art. But you know what, if you've become notable, it's just the real world art scene. It's nothing new here. People have been doing this for years, so it is what it is. But the thing that I always thought about was, I never saw longevity in it, and we just never knew where the space was going to go. I think 2021 was just a wild year. And even me, I was getting an immense amount of FOMO. I really questioned, what you're doing, it's like okay, you could just sell a JPEG for $300,000. Why am I doing this job? It was pretty wild to see. But who knows? I think for some people, that might be the type of thing that may not happen again. If you were able to cash in, then yeah, I think that's amazing..
Cory:
Well, there did seem like there was this really interesting inflection point where it was, you have all these artists who normally make work for other brands, and for commercials, and for advertising. And there was this period of time where they could just make the weirdest thing they wanted, whatever they wanted, and it could look crazy, and people were really into it.
Sekani:
Yeah. Because then, at that point, you're more so an artist. If you're a motion designer, at least to me, inherent in the world of design is communication and problem solving. This is like, if I'm just making art, that's more like, I don't know, an expression, or you're not necessarily trying to solve something specific. You're creating a story or a narrative, which I think is also fine. But yeah, I guess maybe I've just drunk the Kool-Aid too much. To see the amount of hours that I put into this craft, and at least the job that I do, I like the idea of building towards something. If I could tell the story of this product that could help change the way technology is operated, or better a product, then I like having somewhat of an outcome like that.
I guess maybe at this point in my career, I just like the idea of being able to move, because this is the thing, working at a company, when you work at a studio, you kind of deliver the work, and success is based on the craft and the messaging of the work. But the tech, you could put something out, you see all the metrics and you see how it performs, which I think puts a little bit more pressure, not for it just to be beautiful, but obviously for it to function.
Cory:
Yeah. That's a really, really, really interesting point. And especially when you're at a studio, you put out the work and then you move on to the next one. You never even have to think about that again. Whereas now you're building on top of the last layer, on top of the next layer, that kind of thing.
Sekani:
The craft and the quality is very important, but it needs to also be valuable. And that could depend on a lot of different factors, but it's just something that you have to think about. Whereas if you're a freelancer at a studio, you don't need to really think about it. It's more so a creative director's job, or someone else that's not working on the craft.
Cory:
Do you find your day-to-day these days mostly managing teams of other artists, or are you still getting in the trenches and making stuff yourself too?
Sekani:
I'm doing it all. I'm pretty much still in the trenches, still crafting stuff. I actually have a render going right now.
Cory:
Is that by choice or is that by necessity?
Sekani:
By necessity. This team is really small. The amount of work that we are tasked with is pretty insane. Right now we're working on a series that's minutes long and it's all 3D. But I think the technology that we're expanding on is really interesting. At least for me, it's like I have to be able to work at a macro and micro level. So think big picture about the story in the narrative, and then be able to massage the animation on a specific item or something like that. It's an interesting challenge. You have to wear a lot of different hats.
Cory:
Yeah. That's exciting though. Just to get in the weeds a little bit, out of my own curiosity, because I like Cinema 4D a lot. Do you use cloud render farms? Do you prefer one render engine to another? Or what's your sort of go-to with C4D when it comes to wanting to get the look that you're going for?
Sekani:
Yeah, well, I like Redshift just because I used to use Octane, let's say 2016. It was quite buggy back then, and Redshift came and it was super stable and it had all the tools I wanted. I also used to use V-Ray. So Redshift had a more familiar workflow just because they're both biased renderers, and they kind of have the AOV workflow that I liked.
I typically comp a lot of my stuff, regardless of how good the renderer is, I'll always put it in Nuke. And you can try to do something to push it. And so I usually could achieve the look that I want to, at least close to, between the combination of the render and doing some comp work. But people have been saying really good things about Octane lately, so I'd be curious to jump back into that world and see how it goes.
And in terms of rendering, we are recently just building out some new pipelines. We bought a bunch of computers, and we want to get everything that worked up so we could have just our own personal render farm. It's just easier for us too, because we get to keep all information on our servers and not have to extend notes of third party renderers.
Cory:
Good point. I'm sure there's a lot of privacy concerns with that kind of thing. Plus those cloud renders are great until they're not, and then you're kind of out of luck.
Sekani:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just nice to be able to submit a render to deadline. Just don't have to think about - all right, I got to patch this up, to upload it, and yeah, it could get a little taxing.
I know AWS is developing new tech. You could spin up renders or render nodes directly in deadline, and then there's a render token thing that Octane uses, and it's going to be really helpful in the future where you could render things by blockchain technology, which is interesting. And everything's encrypted, so no one else can see the data, which is pretty cool.
Cory:
Are you mostly remote these days with Block and CashApp, or do you guys have an office presence at all?
Sekani:
Yeah. Well, it's fully remote, so you don't have to come into the office if you don't want to, but I try to go in at least twice or three times a week. We have two offices in Soho, one for CashApp and one for Square. But just after two years of working from home, it is nice to actually be around people, have a conversation with people and discuss things. And just even discussing creative: typing feedback or having conversations via Slack is good but also having to, “Hey, are you available for a call?”
It's just so much easier to walk over to someone's desk and have a conversation, you can point to the screen. So just getting some of that feeling is great to have in person than the rapport you build, and that camaraderie you get, it's pretty nice.
Cory:
I wouldn't mind asking you a little bit about maybe some advice for people who are up and coming in the industry. Do you have any pieces of advice or things that you did, you think, in your youth that you wouldn't do now?
Sekani:
I think it's good to start at a studio. I think if you find a good one, it's good to be staff. You get to learn a lot by working with a lot of people. Also, if you're in college, it's good to do internships, because it provides a more risk averse way to learn. I think when you're a freelancer, there's a lot more pressure for you to perform. And so if you're an intern, the expectations are different, it's like, oh yeah, he's an intern. We're not expecting anything crazy. So it's a good way to learn without the pressure.
Also, if you're a motion designer, I think it's better to narrow down your skillset a little bit. You're a 3D motion designer, which does both animation, or in design, design animation, or you do one or the other, or you're 2D, or maybe you do a little bit of after effects and 3D. It's hard when you say you can do both, unless you can really do both very well, and there's 100% people that can, but from a marketing perspective, it's easier to get yourself in the door with a few things. And when you get in there, you're like, well, by the way, I can actually do this stuff, and the other.
Always seek mentors of people you could ask questions to. And what else? Just make a lot of work, make the work that you want to create. But also, and this is a thing I see when looking at candidates, a lot of portfolios are just built on a lot of random tests, or a lot of abstract stuff, without the thinking or design behind it. And if you're looking purely for craft, then that's great.
Cory:
I do think that's one thing that, at least in the portfolios we've seen that come out of Savannah, that come out of SCAD, they seem to do a pretty good job of having students not only showcase the final product, but also showcase the thought process that got them to the final product. I don't know if that was the case when you were there, but it's something I've been impressed with, their program.
Sekani:
Yeah, no, I think that's really good. They really teach you the process of design, and that's where I learned a lot of my chops from, because I never took a 3D class when I went to SCAD. It was all about design and storytelling, and how to build a narrative, and ways to keep things exciting, and that type of stuff. So yeah, I think if you could have some of that process in your portfolio that could show that, Hey, I can not just make things, but I could think about it conceptually, and this all makes sense, then I think that makes it a lot stronger. In your portfolio, that is.
Cory:
That's interesting, yeah, that you learned the software on your own time, and learned more of that fundamental stuff at school.
Sekani:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. School I think is for learning some of the soft skills, and there's so many resources online to learn the software, but it's really hard to find a course that teaches you about the principles of design, and how they're applied, and storytelling. Those more nuanced things are more difficult to learn. And then there's a matter of taste. How you develop that over time. That just takes time. I mean, I think that's where, when you say this person's talented, I think some people innately have good taste.
Cory:
I'm just curious, out of your whole body of work, is there any project that you're the most proud of, or one of the most proud of, and maybe why?
Sekani:
I think the projects I'm usually most proud of, are the ones that, if I had an idea and a concept and I was able to execute on that successfully. Maybe my film, maybe Hidden, is always up there for me. I think I had an idea for a narrative and I saw it through, and I kind of made the whole thing myself, which was just in my free time. Which was interesting, because back then no one was really using models and cloth [like that]. And now obviously that's the trend. So you look at it now and it feels like what everyone else is doing. But I was fortunate enough to release that before it became a fad. But, I try not to be too precious.
Hidden is a short film about self appreciation.
Cory:
Yeah. Yeah. Well that's so important in the industry, you know? Can't be married to anything, especially if you're dealing with a client.
Because I also came from an in-house studio before working with Dash, and I think one thing I realized is, it's very easy for a brand to get stale or one track, because there's a point where you're focusing more on how much can you release, versus what's the quality, and what's the meaning behind it. So how do you continue to push the brand, and what do you think through when you're thinking about that?
Sekani:
I would say it's just about how the team is organizing the type of people that they're bringing in and just knowing what to keep in house, what to outsource. And at some point, if people just have to be honest, what can really be churned out? And sometimes it's better to put out less and have better quality than to just oversaturate the market.
Cory:
Great. Thank you. Well, this has been really great, thanks for chatting with us.
Sekani:
Yeah. Awesome. Thank you guys for taking the time to chat with me.