Lasso Studio Interview
In this conversation, Mack Garrison interviews Lindsay and Alan Lasseter, co-founders of Lasso Studio, about their journey in motion design and branding. They discuss their early experiences in the field, the challenges and joys of running a creative studio as a married couple, and the importance of authenticity in client relationships. The Lasseters share insights on their unique creative process, memorable projects, and the significance of trust and community in their work. They also reflect on their experiences with major clients like Apple and the lessons learned along the way, emphasizing the value of connection and collaboration in the creative industry.
Takeaways
Lasso Studios was founded in 2020 by Lindsay and Alan Lasseter.
Their early experiences in motion design shaped their creative journey.
Balancing work and family life is a priority for the Lasseters.
Authenticity is key in building client relationships.
Trust between clients and studios enhances project outcomes.
Memorable projects often stem from strong client connections.
The creative process is unique to each project and client.
Community and connection are vital in the creative industry.
Lessons from working with major clients can reshape studio practices.
Events like Dash Bash foster learning and collaboration among creatives.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Lasso Studios
02:02 Early Experiences in Motion Design
05:02 The Birth of Lasso Studios
07:07 Navigating Work-Life Balance as Partners
09:07 The Unique Style and Process of Lasso Studios
11:59 Authenticity in Client Relationships
15:09 Memorable Projects and Client Connections
19:47 The Importance of Trust in Client Partnerships
24:00 Lessons from Working with Major Clients
29:01 The Value of Community and Connection at Events
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
Hey, what's up everyone? This is Mack Garrison, co-founder, director of content over at Dash, and we've got another speaker series interview with the talented studio, Lasso Studios, a husband and wife partners, Lindsey and Allen Laseter. They are co-founders and co-creative directors of Lasso Studio. I'm sure that doesn't get complicated. Co-creative directors, no butting heads there. Out of Nashville, Tennessee, since 2020, they've worked together to merge their passions and branding, design, and animation.
serving clients ranging from local clients and nonprofits they believe in to powerhouse brands, including Apple and more. As partners in both business and life, they are building their studio intentionally to balance raising a family, building the life they desire and creating a foundation that can hold steady when life shifts in major and unexpected ways. Ooh, I'm excited. Allen, Lindsey, so good to see you all. I know you both. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today and introducing yourself to the dash bash.
Audience.
Lasso (00:58)
Absolutely. Thanks for having us, Mack, and inviting us to the Dash Bash. This will be our first time. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (01:02)
Is this really your first time? my gosh. One,
disappointed you haven't been before. But two, incredibly excited that y'all are gonna be joining us this year. I think folks are really in for a treat. I've known you both now for a long time. Lindsey, you and I are in the producers channel. We talk regularly. And Allen, I swear Allen, I tried to hire you for like years. You're the most booked up freelance contractor I've ever met in my life. I think literally for five years Dash tried to hire you and we were never able to do it because you're always booked up.
Lasso (01:31)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (01:32)
Well, let's hop into it. I'd be curious from y'all's perspective. It's always interesting to me in motion design because it's such an eclectic mix of people from different backgrounds who kind of find their way into this space. I'd be curious from y'all's perspective, what are some of those earliest moments of motion design? When did you kind of realize, this is a cool field to be in? And I could toss that. We'll start off with you, Allen, and then we can go over to you, Lindsey.
Lasso (01:58)
Yeah, think my first, my truly first experience with motion was actually, I was just kind of thinking about this earlier, was working with a company I used to work for full time. That's right. Red Pepper, here in Nashville, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but I had a friend who knew After Effects and he had shown me a little bit of stuff and Red Pepper needed someone to just like make some little graphics move for like a...
Mack Garrison (02:13)
nice.
Lasso (02:28)
type video for some company and so I like jumped into like some really kind of simple what is it kinetic type kind of stuff so that was kind of like yes totally yeah and so I kind of that was like kind of my first kind of dipping my toe into the waters kind of memory and then my
Mack Garrison (02:38)
yeah, classic, classic. It's the gateway animation to animation is kinetic type.
Lasso (02:55)
My first full-on motion experience was doing some intro titles for a Google conference in Nashville in, what was that, 2013 or something like that, That was another thing where I had just a little bit of experience. The project fell into my lap and I was just thrown to the deep end. That was like it.
Mack Garrison (03:05)
wow.
Was your background always
design, Allen? Did it start kind of with design and creative and then there was this kind of like moment or two that you got into the motion side of it?
Lasso (03:26)
I was more like specifically like live-action like I really wanted to like be a director like for like live-action like film that kind of thing and I just kind of yeah stumbled into motion through that.
Mack Garrison (03:28)
Mmm, okay.
super cool. And I feel like I feel like everyone's got that friend. It's like, hey, look at this cool thing I made. You want to do something similar? You're like, yeah, that sounds kind of fun. How about how about you, Lindsey? What was kind of your early experience with the animation space?
Lasso (03:43)
Total it. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, it came through Allen. We met at art school and we literally lived across the hall from each other. And that's how we got introduced. And Allen was studying film and I was studying graphic design. We both had transferred into college. This was kind of like our second go around, right? Of like the first thing we were both studying. Allen originally studied graphic design, though, too. So I think it's interesting all the overlapping. And so, yeah, really for motion.
Mack Garrison (03:54)
nice.
Okay
Lasso (04:17)
And I think what I remember most was like recognizing how much power that could have. Like he mentioned the agency job that I had more in the advertising realm. But what was really cool for me in experiencing it was seeing Allen's shift and discovering it was something that he really loved and recognizing like it was a direction that he could take because.
Mack Garrison (04:34)
Mm.
Lasso (04:39)
Just being able to watch him develop his skills for it was really my real introduction. And yeah, like to your point of like someone sharing what's inspiring them, I feel like that was a really special way to be introduced to it and to get really inspired by a world that was definitely not my own.
Mack Garrison (04:53)
I love that.
What was the college that y'all met at?
Lasso (04:57)
It's called Watkins College of Art and Design and Film. Yeah, yeah.
Mack Garrison (04:59)
How cool. Nice. Do they still
have the art design program and all that stuff still run strong? Cool.
Lasso (05:05)
They do. I'm actually teaching
my first class there. They're part of Belmont University now and so yeah it feels fun to be kind of back into yeah college world.
Mack Garrison (05:14)
That's super fun. That's great. You go find a major that you love and you find a life partner. I feel like that's a, that's a huge win from going to school. So that's great. So y'all are, y'all are dating, you're creative, you're doing all this stuff. When was kind of this moment that was like, maybe, maybe we should start a studio. Maybe we make this more. Cause if I'm not mistaken, you were both kind of independent contractors for a bit, or maybe Lindsey, you were in house for full time. Like when was it this idea of like, let's, let's pull together a studio.
Lasso (05:22)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean it was 2020 and I think for most people that was when like life, like oh life could be different kind of revelations came up and so for us I think a big reason was we had had our daughter at that point and I did have like worked in agency, boutique studio, in-house as a creative director and
was working freelance for probably about six months before that. And it was like proof to us of like, we can work in the same space, like, and know that we could still have a good relationship. And so really an opportunity came to us very beginning of 2020 for rebranding Nashville Design Week. And yeah, it was really a casual, I was telling Allen about it and it was like, wow, it would be really fun to take like what we just genuinely love.
Mack Garrison (06:25)
Fun.
Lasso (06:34)
being like branding and identity systems and motion and illustration. And there was so much freedom with that project. It really was a dream in that way of like a lot of trust. We are getting to create something that is for the creative community itself. And so there was so much freedom. And I think that was honestly the best way that it could have started out for us.
Mack Garrison (06:52)
Nice. It's
always good when it starts on like a project that you really love, right? And when it goes smoothly, you're really proud of it. You're like, dang, could I just do this more? Like, how do I do this more? You know, I find it so interesting, just being partners and working together. You know, how do y'all navigate that work life balance? Is it one of those things where like you kind of leave work at work and when you're off, it's like, look, we can't talk about the same work because we always talk about work. Or is it just part of life that that is just always around and y'all kind of just lean into that?
Lasso (07:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, we kind of, think it's just kind of a juggle and we go in, you know, ups and downs of like being really good at the, you know, leaving work at work thing. And then we get into times where it becomes all consuming, you know, just kind of depending on how busy things are and what any given project requires. But the ideal is, we keep our work to pretty specific work hours. And, you know, we try to like be pretty intentional about hanging out as a family.
as much time as we possibly can and in those times work just doesn't come up naturally and then by the time we put our kids to bed we're like we can't we don't have any bandwidth to talk about work. it kind of lends itself to having a natural separation there.
Mack Garrison (07:51)
Sure
That's good. I'm glad
y'all aren't like that super, super couple that's just like on point all the time. Cause like I get home and I have to disconnect. just talk all day, do stuff all day. I'll just like, you know, veg out on the couch with my phone. So glad to know that y'all are human as well and doing that too.
Lasso (08:15)
Yeah, it's been interesting just like over the years learning how to communicate with each other in that way and like even helping each other of like remembering like hey this is not the time for this like we can move this to tomorrow and and supporting each other too of like we really did start the studio so that we could have like this balance that wasn't existing previously and so it's nice to be able to support each other in that.
Mack Garrison (08:24)
Yeah.
I love that. Well, I got y'all's website pulled up and I'm try to do my best to describe what I'm looking at on y'all's work to audiences listening to this. But you you have such like a funky style and I don't know how to describe this other than it one is incredibly unique. It feels old but modern, right? You're tapping into this kind of retro feel but it also feels really progressive and forward focus. It's such a good unique mixture of like compositions but there's such a sense of brand.
and branding that comes into it, of course, as being a brand studio and emotion studio. You know, how do you all I'm so curious about y'all's process, you know, because I think there's a lot of typical motion studios out there that might feel a little bit similar on their process. But for a group that has such keen insight on branding, maybe you could walk me through just like what does it look like on a project when you get something and it may be a high level.
Lasso (09:34)
I mean, it really depends on the client and on the end result. And that puts us into like, okay, who's owning since we're both creative directors and deciding like how that should go about. really, I think.
There is so much behind the scenes of like the years that both of us have been like honing in and especially for Allen as like the illustration that he brings and just his unique approach to motion. It feels like there's a lot of beauty of the work that's been building to that so that it can come more naturally in our process now. And we definitely like whether it's like a brand forward or a motion forward project, like we're like, okay, this is essentially the steps that we're gonna start moving in towards. But really, I think one of the big
things is connecting to the intent of the project, connecting deeply to the clients and creating a good flow with them. then, I mean really for the creative, I think one of the most important things is trying to get into the mindset and the flow where we can actually trust our own instincts.
Mack Garrison (10:30)
Mm-mm.
I love that. Anything you wanna add to that, Allen?
Lasso (10:34)
Yeah, I feel like one of the other things that kind of makes our process unique is that like, think, and this is something we're still kind of trying to figure out is...
Because when we first started, really saw ourselves, what was exciting to us was being able to not be a studio that does motion and also branding, but have those things integrated from the very beginning. And we've had a few projects like that, but obviously it's a little bit more of a niche kind of, you know.
market I guess for that. So that kind of makes things interesting. like when we don't have a project like that, like how do we keep like, how do we keep it like collaborative and working together as opposed to like, well you go do this, I'll go do this kind of thing. So that is something that we're kind of constantly having to think about a lot. Sure.
Mack Garrison (11:02)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Honestly, I think everyone is to a certain degree on like systems and process
type stuff. It's one of those things like you're like, you find something, it works super well, you keep doing it then you're kind of at this new place where you're doing new work and you're like, man, maybe we need to tweak this a little bit, right? I think something that I get from both of y'all just immediately is just so much authenticity, just even in our conversation today, I've met both of you in person, you are who you say you are, I can just get the vibe of how it's like working with you.
You know, how much do you feel like that aspect of it plays in, you know, to the work you do? Like if someone's out there thinking about starting their own studio, like, do you feel like it's pretty important to kind of understand just like your vibe and how you work and kind of your personality equally as as important as the work that you do?
Lasso (12:07)
Absolutely. I think that is one of the key components of like when people are hiring you like they're not just hiring your studio they're hiring like the essence of what you're bringing and what the relationship while you're working together can be like so I think that is such a key component.
And yeah, I remember like early days of my career and you know, places that I dreamed of working and eventually did get to work where they were just like, really, I want, you know, ideally we're not working together late at night on a project. Those times come sometimes and I want to work with someone that I'm going to have like just really good feelings about. Like we get to make that choice. So yeah, absolutely.
Mack Garrison (12:38)
Right.
I love that. go ahead, Allen.
Lasso (12:51)
Well, no, no, yeah, I don't have much to add other than for me it just kind of comes down to I think I think of it, try to keep it simple and just try to be honest in every part of life. And this mode where you start feeling like you have to perform or project a certain image, it just puts so much pressure on you. And so for me, it's like, yeah, just...
It's like hard sometimes because even when you're trying to like there's like a trap you can fall into where it's like well I want to be seen as authentic and so then you're like Doing a little dance to like make people think wow. I'm so honest I just try to like and I think we've kind of built this into our city like just try to be honest like in everything whether we're talking to a client whether we're talking to other
studio owners or whatever. A lot of the stuff kind of falls into its place itself if you just kind of approach it.
Mack Garrison (13:44)
falls into his place
or falls flat. feel like I've made some jokes on some like corporate client calls and they're nothing there. I'm like, okay. It's a test.
Lasso (13:49)
Yeah, there you go. There is always that. But even that, I
mean, I would rather that than like have to, again, like uphold this like kind of image, kind of project. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (13:57)
Right, man, that's so accurate, that's so honest and
so much truth to that. here's a good question for y'all. You we talked about the Nashville Design Week and just how that felt like such a good project and a perfect fit for y'all and really was a jumping point into becoming Lasso. I'm curious, looking back at your career thus far, if there's any other projects you're really proud of, either from a creative standpoint or just that.
client relationship we're talking about where the work looked good. Maybe it wasn't the best out there, but there was such a good relationship that was really enjoyable. Anything else stick out to you all besides the Nashville Design Week project.
Lasso (14:30)
Yeah, I've got my answer. I'm curious what yours would be. The thing that's come into mind is it's funny because it's one of the projects that we had a little bit lighter kind of involvement in.
at least in proportion to all the work that was done with it because it was kind of a collaboration of different creative studios in Nashville but really cool little wine bar restaurant in Nashville called Bad Idea. got to collaborate with some super amazing creative people here in town and like a lot of our work and before we started our studio like the...
huge majority of my work as a freelancer was with people outside of Nashville, which is awesome. And I still am so thankful for the ability to be able to work with people all over the world. But there's something really cool about doing some work for a place in town that's trying to do something cool in and of itself and like seeing the work come to life, like in brick and mortar and seeing people that you live close to like interact with in that kind of way. So that's been, that's been a really cool one for me. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:23)
I love that.
Lasso (15:24)
Yeah, honestly, like the first time that we went and like actually had a date and ate there. Because from the first time we had the conversation with the owner, Alex, he actually reached out to us because of Nashville Design Week. That's how he found out about us.
Mack Garrison (15:36)
cool, nice.
Lasso (15:37)
It was just a perfect example of someone who is like, we want what you do. I want what you do and I'm just going to trust you to do it. And it was really encouraging too, just to witness him as a client doing that with so many other people that are a big part of the Nashville creative community and people that we consider good friends. So yeah, I would definitely agree with that one.
Mack Garrison (15:57)
I feel like it's one of those things and I'm sure you all have been asked this question as well. I think every creative kind of gets asked it at certain point. What is, who's your dream client? Who is the ideal client you want to work with? And my answer, and it sounds like I would echo the same sentiment is always like, it's less about like the industry or the client. It's like, is there trust?
Do we have a good working relationship? Because you can make anything exciting and fun if there's that partnership of like, let's get into it. I love your style. This is what I know about it. This is what I our customers want. And you have that back and forth. That trust is so key.
Lasso (16:29)
Yeah.
100%. And I think it's been fascinating, like all the different types of clients that we've been fortunate to work with and being able to channel in to that element. And I think that you can, as we've been doing this over the years, it's like we can like tell, you know, even from like very first conversation of, you know, is that there, knowing what questions to ask, and then if it's not a good fit, like sending them to someone who we think it would be like really great for what they need. And so yeah, it's.
that's so important and it's such a gift when you have it.
Mack Garrison (17:02)
There's such a vibe on that initial conversation and I love that. I wanna pull that thread a little bit. What are some of the questions that you ask right up front that you feel like kind of sets the tone on like whether this could be a good relationship or not? Is there any that come to mind? It's like a go-to question y'all ask over and over.
Lasso (17:18)
Yeah, I think it really is more like getting a personal connection to them of, know, we've tested and I handle like new business development and connecting to our clients and potential clients. So letting it be like less formal, honestly, is where I feel like it helps a lot. And just really just asking questions and letting them speak and not controlling the conversation so much and, you know, letting it...
letting them dive into like, why do you want to do this? Why does it matter? Like being able to connect to them personally as a human, I think is really important of again, kind of that vibe check of like, hey, if we're going to be working together for like months on end, like what's it going to be like for us to talk each day? And oftentimes you really can get a sense of that right away. And even just knowing like confidence level and clarity for them. And is it a space where like we can support them and just really getting that like energy along?
which I think really helps because yeah, we would we've definitely had projects where we've started to move forward in the conversations of working together and that there's essentially just a series of flags of like hey I don't know that that we are really the best partner for this and even just protecting our our time and energy more to know like sometimes even the largest budgets are not worth it if it's gonna spend our lives and our days into chaos
Mack Garrison (18:35)
Yes.
It's also, think
this like scarcity mindset that unfortunately exists for a lot of us or people who are just starting their own studio or freelance career that are listening to this. It's like, is that next one there? If I say no to this one, is that okay? And I think all three of us would agree that you have to recognize those flags and act on it. And our regrets that we have from our careers, I would surmise come from the one we didn't react to those red flags that we saw.
Lasso (19:04)
Yes,
absolutely. Yeah, and like you said something a minute ago about thinking, because I think it's so easy to when there's like a prospective project coming in, you think about the point of signing the contract and locking in the project and you never think about like, yeah, day after day for a long time working on it. Like it took me forever to actually start remembering that that's most of what we're doing is like working with other people. It's not about just winning the project.
Mack Garrison (19:31)
Yes.
Lasso (19:32)
So yeah, that's definitely cool.
Mack Garrison (19:32)
Makes you a little bit more, critical is not the word, but just focused on the right partnerships. Because again, like you said, Allen, like you're gonna be working with them for a couple of months at a time, potentially. It's like you wanna make sure you enjoy that relationship. You know, one thing I didn't ask y'all earlier, I meant to ask about LASA, where does the name come from? I'm so curious. And you got to put y'all on the spot here, because I know some names sometimes just sound fun, and that's totally reasonable.
Lasso (19:38)
own.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (19:56)
but I'm really curious if there is any, y'all are a brand studio. I feel like it last though has to come from someone.
Lasso (20:01)
Yeah, it definitely does. Yeah, it sounds so silly. Yeah, my friends kind of used to jokingly call me Lasso because my last name was Laseter in high school.
Mack Garrison (20:12)
sick. I was hoping like, I was like, I used to be a cowboy and totally was just gonna
live out less be a cowboy.
Lasso (20:19)
Yeah, that would be cooler. yeah, I think, yeah, I don't remember. I think I maybe started...
I don't know, it was always kind like in the back of my mind. I don't actually remember when we said we should use that as our studio name. Well, it's funny because yeah, like as a branding studio, it's like we even support brands who are considering like, what should we name our company or our product or things like that? And so I think there was kind of a beauty to the fact that like we didn't, we didn't overthink it to that nth degree. Like it felt fun where we did worry or overthink it was like there was another Lasso Studio
in a country that I can't pronounce, but it looked like they had not been operating for a really long time. So for a period, we even just considered, we were like, all right, we're husband and wife, what if we were just the Lasseters? Which I'm so glad that we didn't move forward with that. And honestly, we give credit to one of our friends because they just started calling us Lasso as a duo. Yeah, because Lasso was always there, but it's like, we actually did, so we spent a lot of time like...
Mack Garrison (21:08)
haha
fine.
Lasso (21:21)
trying to go through like a real naming process. There's something about coming up with a new name. It just feels like too, it feels like overthought and like too random. then you're like, just not that Lasso is like inherently any better than any of the other names we came up with, but just the fact that it's kind of has a history. It's like, it just feels more natural. And yeah, like our friends saying, just go with Lasso. It's like hearing it from the outside. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (21:23)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Honestly, I feel like it's kind of that push you need to
have a friend to like take you out of your bubble and be like, look, it's a great name. Just roll with it. Even for us, we had a late great friend, Andrew, who was like, we told him we were flirting with these different names. We were like, all right, we're thinking about Dash. And he's like, oh, there's the day you're born, the day you die. Dash is what happens in between. I'm like, yeah, well, that. But the reality was my business partner Cory and I, couldn't agree on a damn name.
Lasso (21:53)
Yeah.
Love that.
Mack Garrison (22:15)
we kicked around like 300 and we got to that point, we're like sick, know, dash works. So sometimes you need that, that friend to give you that little sidekick of like, you're in the right place.
Lasso (22:18)
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah, it's like the same as like when you're trying to name your kid. And so I'm glad that ultimately it was like, it just feels good. And yeah, I think that that could even just connect back to like how we want like our work to feel and how we want our clients to feel even like, yes, that feels right. It feels good.
Mack Garrison (22:28)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Well, I love that you're like tying it
together, right? We're bringing everyone around on this project. Last one it up. I love it. I love it. Although I would have loved it more if you, one of you was a cowboy. I will say that going back to it, but yeah, that's true.
Lasso (22:51)
We at least live in Nashville, so it's like the automatic connection that
most people outside of the city have, so we've got that in a way.
Mack Garrison (22:59)
So I'm, to change the subject a little bit, I'm really curious. One question I've been asking on these interviews is just about some stories in our industry. Both of you all have been working in this space for a long time. And one of my favorite things about attending conferences like the bash and others is just connecting with other creatives, finding out some stories that they have, like you'll never believe this client one time or we worked on this crazy thing.
Good, bad, or anything in between, I'm curious if you have a story you could share about a project that was either like crazy hard to get done or something just unheard of that you're working on. Any stories kind of bubble up to the top that maybe you could share on here, even if you disguise some names.
Lasso (23:39)
Yeah, mean, absolutely. I think one that comes to mind is the first time we ever worked with Apple. And it was, you know, one interesting thing in starting the studio and that I think that we continue to work through is even just our own mindset of like, we are a studio and we're capable of like doing all that we dream of doing. And even just...
you know, hoping that we could have opportunities with clients at like a larger scale who really value creativity, especially in the way that they do. Like those are ideal clients for us. And so it was interesting timing because I was pregnant with our second child and that that year, you know, we really, it was the first time that we were going to like create our own maternity leave as a company and knowing like, okay, this is, this is a big thing. This is something that we really want.
And so something that was really beautiful about that timing was, you we had created the plan and the vision for what we wanted that to look like. And we needed like a solid project to land within a certain time period and experiencing the fear of like, what is going to land? When is it going to come? And then the beauty of like it, the way that the email and the inquiry came in and the relationship, and then even the beauty of how that team worked with us, because the truth was I was
pregnant and our son was going to come, clearly in pregnancy, it's very hard to say it's going to happen on this date. So from the producer side being like, we just need to be like super clear with you of like, we're planning to shut the studio down for two weeks whenever the baby does come, but we can't tell you, you know, when that is going to happen. And so just like laying that all out at the beginning and experiencing that fear for ourselves, right? Of like, what if us kind of taking away what a studio would typically offer?
Mack Garrison (25:20)
Hmm.
Lasso (25:24)
which is like we're gonna get this project done by X-State.
Mack Garrison (25:24)
Mm-hmm.
Lasso (25:27)
And the beauty of that project was how just human and joyful they all were for us. Like they were thrilled for us. And that was just one beautiful example of how those partnerships can really support like the life that we actually wanted and allowing that project to flow. And it's one that like we're super proud of, but that, you know, just based on the nature of the project and white labels and all those, like it's not one that we've gotten to share before. But that was like a really, I think a much
Mack Garrison (25:51)
Hmm.
Lasso (25:54)
more personal but like really special project that we've experienced.
Mack Garrison (25:58)
I love that so much. I feel like there's always a fear. I think we all navigate this as creatives, because whether it's you have a boss in your in-house, you're a freelancer working for a client, you're running a studio, dealing with clients, there's always this fear as if we don't do something that we might not get the opportunity to do it again, or it has to be handled a certain way.
You know, it's such a refreshing conversation to hear that story and that Apple treated you all that way. I'm sure that it probably shifted your perspective on what is a purple. Like have you guys gone from that conversation? Has it shifted your mentality even on other projects? It's like, wow, if Apple is doing XYZ, we should have the standard with everyone. If that standard was different before. Have you felt a change since that project on how you treat other projects and handle other clients?
Lasso (26:48)
I I think even we were trying to do that beforehand, but I think there was something unique about how big that project and even just like the opportunity with a more well-known client name was, but that that really was getting to practice, like being honest about who we are. Like we are a husband and wife team and we scale up based on the scale of the project that we have.
And so I think just knowing, like we can be honest about who we are. We can set really clear boundaries too of like this is what we're doing or this is what needs to happen. And so continuing to like build that confidence and to know that we can do it for other clients too.
Mack Garrison (27:25)
I love that, love that so much. If anyone's listening to this podcast, which we hope people are, I don't even know, is this a podcast? Is it a vidcast? It's all of the above, check D, right? I'd love to get y'all's pitch on someone who's maybe on the fence of buying a bash ticket, thinking about coming to see y'all. Why should someone come see Lasso? Why should they come hang with Allen and Lindsey? What are you guys gonna talk about at the event, you think?
Lasso (27:33)
It's all these things.
I think it kind of did again kind of go back to what we talking about earlier. I mean the goal is just to be as honest as possible and to try because you know this is really fun. think this is what's so interesting about this event is that we're kind of trying to focus on and my understanding is that in general like we're kind of trying to focus more on you know the true like authentic part of you know what doing this work is like.
And you know, as a studio, like, you know, it's like we have kind of a mixed, it's okay if we're get this honest here, but there's kind of a mixed like motivation where it's like we want to come and be totally honest. But also, yeah, it's like we want just in general, not just at this event, but more people to know our name.
to get more work and form more relationships and stuff. So it's like going to be a really interesting balance, I think, of like being totally honest, but also like, I don't know, like how honest do you want to be and not like scare people off, you know, because we're messy. It's messy humans.
Mack Garrison (28:48)
We want the field
to continue. People need to continue to start studios and stuff. We don't want to be, you know, tell them how hard it is sometimes.
Lasso (28:53)
Yeah. But it's
like to me, I don't know, to me that's the most interesting thing. Like meeting anyone, hearing anyone talk is just like hearing the truest thing they can say about themselves. So I don't know. To me, I think that's the reason of self to come and hear not only us, but hopefully a bunch of other people talk about the real, the real part of all this stuff. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (29:13)
And it is the real
part about all this. Go ahead, Lindsey.
Lasso (29:15)
Yeah, I just going to add, I think the beauty of these types of events is, you know, clearly you're drawn to it for a certain reason and the people who are speaking are essentially like an expander for things that are possible. you know, our goal, like Allen said, is like, it is messy. It is messy to do the work. It's messy to be a parent. It's messy to work with other human beings in your own studio and other like just clients. And so I think like we were honored to be asked and I think that it felt
It felt like a level up moment of like, like we have been working really hard and getting the chance to like share the real behind the scenes, I think is a real gift. And just allowing people to see here's how they handled it. Here is what I'm drawn to. Here's what I know I want to do in my life right now. Like I've been thinking about that so much lately, especially teaching like these students that are about to graduate and like go out into the world and just being able to really zero in on what matters to you and connecting to people who are.
gonna like you know kind of help you step into that next version even when it feels scary and so I hope in a small way like we can do that just by sharing what what's happened for us so far.
Mack Garrison (30:22)
I love it so much. Community, connection, reconnecting, learning from one another. It's what's so important and what keeps our relationships with other peers so strong in this industry. Thanks everyone for tuning in today. Been chatting with Lindsey and Allen Laseter who are the co-founders and Creative Directors at Lasso Studio, an amazing brand and animation shop based out of Nashville. We cannot wait to have you at the Dash Bash. If you have not got your ticket yet, it's June 11th through 13th, 2025.
We're having an optional third day of workshops this year, two full day of speakers and hangouts. There'll be parties, there'll be plenty of time to network and really just learn a thing or two from one another, which is what it's all about. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today, y'all. Great chatting and can't wait to see you all this summer.
Lasso (31:05)
See you soon!
Mack Garrison (31:07)
See
ya.
Meet the speakers: Aaron Ray
An interview with Aaron Ray: an animation director and designer with an inclination towards illustrative design and character based work.
Q&A hosted by Mack Garrison & Meryn Hayes.
Read time: 15min
Mack :
Hey Aaron, for folks who don't know who you are, a little bit about you and your background and what brought you into motion design as an industry.
Aaron:
So currently I split my time between doing freelance with studios, whether that's art direction, creative direction, or just doing style frames and stuff like that. But I also have a rep for commercial and music video direction, so I'm kind of bouncing back and forth between those things. How I started was early on when I was into skateboarding growing up, just seeing all the graphics and stuff. And this was late '80s and '90s, but specifically the late '80s stuff when I was a little kid, when I first started skateboarding, the graphics were so bold, colorful, gruesome, funny, detailed and illustrative. I had never really seen anything like that.
So I was like, "This is really interesting and I think this might mean I could draw for a living," that kind of thing. I just drew all the time. And then also going back to skateboarding more when I got a little older in high school and college, we were just filming everywhere we went when we were skateboarding. So I got kind of used to using cameras and the idea of editing a video and then probably somewhere out of there, I started to see title design and stuff like that.
I went to college here in Denver and I went to the Art Institute, which is now defunct, and I initially thought I wanted to make live-action movies. But all I had were drawings and my bad skateboard graphics and things like that at the time. I met with an admission person and she said, “maybe you should go into our new computer animation program.” And I said, "Oh, that's cool. That sounds kind of cool." And this was like '98, so this was early, Toy Story had just come out, Pixar stuff was just getting a name and becoming kind of popular, and so the program was really rooted in visual effects for film and 3D character animation.
And so I went into that program and I was pretty unhappy with it because it was very computer based and I kind of learned throughout my time there that I really like more hands-on tactile feeling work. And I liked more design focused work.
It’s Aaron!
Mack:
Well, it's interesting to me. It's like, all right, so you're a kid, you're growing up in the '90s, late '80s, you're loving skateboarding, so it brings you in from the design side of it. And then I'm just presuming here that you started making little random fun skating videos that ultimately brought you into film. Is that right?
Aaron:
Yeah, I bought a camera, a mini DV camera or eight millimeter, and we would just go around filming and editing. I didn't have Final Cut or anything like that at the time. So it was like in-camera editing or eventually we got two tape decks, and I don't know if you've ever done that, but you can run the camera into one tape deck and you're sort of transferring it to another tape deck and a VHS. So you're doing the editing to a tape from tape deck to tape deck.
Frame from the music video Aaron directred for ’Hands/Heart’ by The Raven And The Writing Desk.
Mack:
That's so funny. Are you putting on the classic dad fade where you fade in and fade out at the end in-camera?
Aaron:
Always. Every time.
Mack:
So I imagine the skating stuff, I mean, it's funny how many people I feel like I've talked to that have gotten into this space through skating because really it was kind of pioneers for recording yourself and recording your tricks. And so it got you into that. That always feels very tactile to me. I mean, skating is just rough in and of itself. And the designs on the boards and the decks themselves are really graphic. And so when you get into, it was the Art Institute that you were in Denver, right. And so you get to the VFX, the 3D character animation spawned after Toy Story coming out, which makes a lot of sense because there's this new push and admiration for 3D. But it sounds like you weren't digging it, you weren't really wild about it, but you just kind of pushed through it and felt like, "Well, I just got to get a degree and get out of here."
Aaron:
Yeah, I mean, I got a lot from school though. I learned the tools, I learned After Effects. At the time we were using 3D Studio Max, so I got a good sense of using the tools and understanding 3D. I kind of forgot to mention, growing up, I was really into music, punk music and just independent music in general. And so even before college I was skateboarding and music was a huge part of my life. And when I was in college, it was kind of pre-motion design too. So there wasn't a lot of that. And I think what I was missing is I really loved record covers. I really loved skateboard graphics, I liked filming stuff, but I hadn't really been introduced to motion design yet. And so, I don't know, I think I burnt out and just couldn’t get excited about what I was seeing in school.
In retrospect, I can look back at it now. And the 3D character stuff we see now, I'm like, "Wow, that's so cool." I wish we'd been kind of pushed in that direction versus just the movie VFX and CG stuff.
But music and playing in bands was really a big thing at that point for me. So I wanted to be a designer in the music industry. I wanted to do album covers and stuff like that. So I got this position as a designer for a small record label, for literally no money. I worked there for about three years. But it was a great experience and worth it in the long run, it actually had a big impact on me.
But streaming music started to slowly take over, and you kind of see the writing on the wall that I wasn't going to be able to continue just doing album covers. And I think it was probably around this time that I first saw, you guys remember a studio called Shilo?
Mack:
Out in San Diego or something, right?
Aaron:
They were California and New York City. But they were amazing. I think that's the first time I saw work that I would've considered motion design. There was one piece they did in particular, It was this kind of white cityscape thing. No materials, just white and what do you call it, Ambient Occlusion And the camera's just moving through and it's got this really experimental edit. And there was just this cool hiphop kind of beat that everything was cut to, and there was typography integrated and there were hand drawn doodles popping out everywhere. I was like, "Wow, this is cool." And it was 3D and 2D kind of mixed.
Mack:
That's so neat. I do remember Shilo. In fact, they were an inspiration for me when I was in school. I was like, "Oh man, this place looks amazing. I want to go work here." It does feel like it's a good segway though, from album art into it, right? Because album art seems equally as weird, off the walls, could be a mixed media of a lot of different things.
I'm curious about your take on this, because you worked at that job where you said three years, the first one that they weren't paying you initially and then they're paying you a little bit. And there's a big conversation around the industry even today, right? It's like, "Don't take unpaid internships, don't do work for less than what it costs."
And then at the same time, I hear you say about how much of a big impact that made on you. I mean, I think about some of the work that Dash has done over the years that has opened the doors to other projects. And some of those projects weren't the highest paying gigs, but we said yes to it because they seemed cool. I don't know, just any thoughts on that idea in the space on balancing stuff that you're into versus saying yes to some things?
Frame of Aaron’s work with New Belgium.
Aaron:
I think if there's a benefit to doing something for no money or low money, then I think it's worth it. But I think each person has to weigh those options. For me, I just knew working in music design is what I want to do and this is my foot in the door, so I'm going to do it and I'm going to work hard to do it.
I guess the point is I will do stuff for lower cost if there's a creative benefit or if it will help me learn something new etc.
I’ve had projects before where I’ve thought "I can't believe I'm doing this for this much for the budget, but I think I'm just going to, I'm trying to ignore that and just keep pushing through it because I think the end product's going to be cool." But again I think you have to weigh the pros and cons of each situation because just because you have a cool end product, that doesn't always mean more work or anything though right?
Mack:
I think you made a really good point, Aaron, that you have to judge it against what you're interested in, what you want to do. And something for someone might be too low, but for others it might be the right fit, because I've heard a little adage as well, it's like don't ever undercharge. But we get projects sometimes that look really cool. We want to say yes to it, but they have a third of the budget that we would normally take on. But if it looks cool, it's like, let's do it and let's make it happen. I think it's also a big difference though, in what you're out there to try to do. And I think one of the reasons I love the motion design industry so much is it's really full of passionate creatives.
I think at the end of the day, there is still this desire to make cool badass work. And not all the time some of these groups out there need a helping hand. And if you can do it creatively, I think that's great. So I think ultimately it just kind of depends on everybody kind of where they are in their life, what they want to do.
So, sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the story there for a bit, but it was really interesting. So you leave the record design stuff, you kind of see the writing on the wall, that might not be a long term endeavor, and you had just discovered (Shilo) and this amazing work they were doing the kind of mixed media stuff. And so at that point, you really didn't know too much about motion graphics or motion design itself as a field, correct?
Aaron:
Yeah, not a lot. I mean, maybe motion graphics was a term at that point, but I don't think I was too familiar with it. I guess around that time I was approached by somebody who knew this company that was looking for an art director. And so I interviewed there and I moved from the record label and I got a job at this other place and they were a parent company for a bunch of skateboard and youth lifestyle kind of brands within it. And so I was an art director there where I did snowboard graphics and apparel graphics. I did packaging for footwear and box design and stuff.
And that was also a really cool stepping stone I think for me, because again, I'm learning more about the print design stuff still, but it started to get bigger than just doing record packaging. I went to China to do press checks on snowboard graphics, I art directed national Ad campaigns. So I just learned I think my whole experience from college up through this job was just learning different things and they're all really interesting and fun. And maybe, I don't think I was thinking too much about the future really at this point. I was just kind of going along for the ride and everything was interesting. I was learning new stuff every day. But during this job we started creating more video content and stuff. And then I started getting back into using AfterEffects and then motion design. This is actually the period when I first noticed Shilo, but then a bunch of other motion design studios were kind of popping up.
So yeah, I started doing more After Effects stuff and kind of got back into it. And then during that time is when I, actually taking a step back, at the record label is where met one of the partners of my future company Legwork. Actually two of my partners. But I went to this other job and they went their own way and we kind of parted careers for a bit, but it was during this new job when we started talking again, and then we started talking about maybe starting a company.
Mack:
Oh, nice. Were you guys doing moonlighting on side projects together or was it always like, "We'd like to do that," and maybe this company Legwork, what it ended up becoming is how you could do that?
Aaron:
We probably spent six months to a year just planning it out, designing our logos and crafting our “brand”. We all kept our jobs while we planned it. We designed the initial Legwork logo and then we built our first website. We quit our jobs before we launched the website, And I don't know if we were doing any big projects at the time, I think we went cold turkey and quit our jobs and went right into Legwork. And for me it wasn't that big of a deal because I still wasn't making that much money, But my two partners left better paying jobs to start Legwork, so they had more at stake.
Mack:
You're like, "I'm already broke. Why not just keep doing this?"
Aaron:
I wasn't worried at all. So yeah, I kind of feel bad about that for them!
Frame for Aaron’s “Kiss my airs” campaign for Nike Toronto’s Air Max Day to celebrate 30 Years of Air Max .
Meryn:
Do you feel like y'all had a certain dynamic? To start a business with someone that takes a lot on both sides. Do you feel there was, I mean obviously y'all thought about it because there was six months leading up to it. Was there a lot of thought in terms of what Legwork would become in those early days? Or was it just like, "Let's jump and we'll see where we land?"
Aaron:
Yeah, that's a good question. I think I was idealistic about what it would become or what we wanted it to be. And I learned later, maybe nine years later, that if I was to start a business again, there are definitely things that maybe should have been different. But yeah I think the three of us had a good dynamic. One of the partners I was pretty good friends with because I worked with him probably for a year or so at the record label, and we all kind of ran in the same circles and had a lot of the same friends. The other one I also met at the record label, but he was just a freelance website designer that would do stuff for the record label so I didn't know him as well. But all of us came from the local music scene. And so we weren't the best of friends, but I think we were good enough friends and trusted each other enough to be comfortable with it.
But again, I think we were not thinking that far ahead. I didn't think, "Oh, what happens if you get in a fight with one of your business partners or something bad happens?" In my mind I was just thinking It was going to be a small studio where we had cool screen printed posters on the wall. I was just thinking more about what it was, where I was going to be sitting during the day. Being inspired by all my design books around me and stuff. I didn't really think about the business that much. I just thought we were going to create cool work all the time.
Mack:
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I did the exact same thing, Aaron, when Cory and I started Dash, it was like, "Oh man, it'll be so rad. We can just hang out all day. We can make cool stuff."
We didn't talk about the fact that we'd be nitpicking each other's emails on how we write to clients. I mean, it’s just dumb shit like that the first year of any studio as you're working through the business stuff has got to be honestly some of the toughest.
Aaron:
Yeah. Was it just you two at first for a while?
Mack:
It was, we just had the two of us, so there was no third party to make a decision, although I guess Meryn kind of came in and is kind of making some decisions for us now, which has helped. Thank you, Meryn :)
Aaron:
Yeah. Well, so the three partners' situation was what it was and it was pretty good. And I think the three of us actually made sense because I was kind of coming from video and animation and illustration and also print design. But then the other partner was a website designer, and so he knew the website design and development world. And then the other partner had a business degree and he was like at the record label, he kind of managed the books and planned tours that kind of stuff. So he just kind of had more of the business mind. So we're like "Oh, this makes sense." But the crazy thing is one year into that structure, I think it was 2009, we brought on three additional partners.
Mack:
What was the impetus for that? Just cool people that you wanted to bring on?
Aaron:
We needed to fill out what we were doing with additional skill sets. One of our friends was a really good developer, so we brought him on and then we didn't really have a sales person, so we brought on this other guy to run sales. And then we needed another developer at the time that did a different type of development. So we had a front end developer and a back end developer.
“If This Then Domino’s” is a website that uses IFTTT technology that allows customers to automatically order Domino’s pizza every time a particular situation occurs.
Mack Garrison: Interesting. So the early days, you guys, what's really interesting to me is that even though it was kind of like you didn't have a long term plan, you did have a lot of really talented people and even as a small entity, you kind of had these different divisions of the company where kind of people were responsible for. And so how would it go? Did you guys develop processes to work together? Would each person go do their thing and bring information back to the table? Sales guy's like, "All right, I got us a project. Who wants to handle it?"
Aaron: When I think back on it, I was the only one who wasn't really from the website world. And so I think in a lot of ways I was just sitting there kind of doing my own thing and if something came up where we needed to do an animation or an illustration, that would be what I would do. I also was handling a lot of the company branding stuff, so I was just working on the visual side of the company and logos and that kind of stuff. But yes that’s essentially how it worked, but really the 6 of us each made up one part of what a full team on a project would be - so in those days we all kind of worked together on each project rather than one person doing a project and another person on a different project.
Mack:
Interesting. So the early days, everyone has their job, their niche, they bring their experience they have to the table. Were a lot of your clients in the books initially? Was it more kind of in the music space or that same kind of stuff that you had talked about? You were in the kind of album artwork, there was skate stuff, the sort of punk side of things. Was that still a lot of the work y'all were doing in the early days?
Aaron:
Yeah, kind of. So I left my job, the place was called Collective, but I left that job on really good terms. So I gave them two months' notice. I said, "I'm quitting, I'm going to start my own company." And they were super cool and supportive and they gave us work. They had stuff to do that they couldn't really do internally anyway, so they just gave that to us.
One of the brands was this old, I’m sure you've heard of Airwalk. They used to be a legit skateboard brand in the '80s and early ‘90s, but then they turned into kind of an “affordable” mainstream brand, So they brought us on for the brand relaunch website which was a really progressive website at the time. That was one thing about Legwork and Matt Wiggins, who was our developer/partner, he's like this genius developer. Okay, sorry, side note: I'm jumping back again here because this is right when the first iPhone came out…
And the iPhone killed Flash. So Matt, and all these guys came from the Flash development world and the iPhone basically didn't allow Flash, so it kind of killed, developers had to switch gears and start using HTML 5.
And so Matt was such a genius developer that he started figuring out how to do HTML 5 websites that felt like Flash. So we did the first Airwalk projects. And it was just really cool and experimental, we were winning awards for it, and then we also won an award for our own website.
I don't think awards really matter so much anymore, but maybe they do more so in the web world. I'm not even sure these days, but back then, winning those awards, we won at SXSW for our website and then the Airwalk site won maybe a Webby or FWA I think. And that actually got us quick name recognition in that world. So we're definitely known as a web company initially and I struggled a bit because I was from the animation and design side. And it took us a long time, I think to even be known as doing animation. That was kind of an interesting journey for me personally.
Mack:
Well, I can imagine, because as anyone knows who's run the studio, there's ebbs and flows on different types of work. So you know, you may find that you're a particular type of designer, you're getting a lot of type of work coming in, but then there's a pivot and then you're kind of like, "All right, how can I help?" And you're in this kind of space to give me more work, why everyone else is overloaded. And that's going to be a hard thing to kind of navigate. So when you guys, you won, so really the growth came from winning some of these awards, getting the recognition with them, landing some other jobs and then landing those bigger jobs got you more recognition and it kind of became more of a snowball effect on how stuff came in. Is that more or less how the growth happened?
Aaron:
Yeah, I think winning the SXSW award for our own website, I think within a year we had a rep for the studio, like an LA based rep. And so they immediately introduced us to bigger agencies. And then we started doing a lot of work just with bigger agencies, almost right off the bat.
Mack:
That's really fun. Well, especially, I know there's a lot of folks out there who talk about whether they want to be repped or is that a good thing or a bad thing. It sounds like for you all, that was a real big key in moving forward and taking on some bigger projects was the award and then getting representation. Do you think that's accurate?
Aaron:
Yeah, for sure. I think times are, I know it wasn't that long ago, but I think times were different in the industry then too though.
I think the industry was less saturated with small and mid-size companies back then too. So I think we were a bit of an anomaly because we did interactive and animation. So that was definitely unique for the time. I even think now it's a little unique and I feel like if I do ever start another studio, I would probably do that again.
Mack:
I think being, at least from my perspective, is a little bit shifted cause we are a general studio. And so I like the idea, I mean, we're still in the lens of just animation or live action, but we still, we're not just 2D, we do 3D, we do a bunch of things.
I think variety is important, honestly, I think what keeps animators on their toes, you talk about your partners having to learn like HTML 5, kind of pivoting completely and then it discovers a new way of doing things. I think that's how studios evolve and last is you have to mix it up a little bit
Aaron:
Yeah, I think you're totally right. Having those two different disciplines when we were slow and on one side we could make up for it on the other side of the company. But in terms of the motion stuff, it was a gradual growth. And we got bigger and bigger projects on that side. And then I think by the end, it's interesting, I talked to a lot of people, some people knew us only as an animation studio then.
Mack:
Huh. Interesting. So, I don't want to spoil anything from your talk that could be coming up.
Aaron:
I think I've already spoiled half of it.
Mack:
Well good. Well, this will just be an accent then to what's coming up. So Legwork continues to grow. You guys talked about the beginning that you really didn't have any kind of a long term plan. It was just like, "Oh, we'll do this. This is good. Oh we'll do six partners, this seems good," right? And you grow a little bit. Did people kind of come in and out for a bit at Legwork? Did some of those partners stay? Was it kind of fluid where folks were coming in and out of the studio for a bit?
Aaron:
In terms of partners, we were pretty much all there until 2016. Having six partners sounds insane to me now, but we did a really good job of working together for that amount of time, which is a pretty long time for six people to stay friends and business partners.
In the beginning we didn't really have any employees. We had a couple interns, maybe a year or two years in, they came on And our first intern became an employee and was with us for 8 or 9 years!
And it's funny, I think one of our selling points early on, and this is no offense to producers because I fully changed how I think about this over the years, but my partners were like, "We don't need producers, we're a small tight-knit team. We're all pretty senior level at this point and we can just do the work. We can talk directly to clients." And I actually think a lot of our clients liked that. And I think that was a bit of a selling point for us for a while. But as we got bigger and bigger, we brought on bigger and bigger projects we brought on producers. And I would never do that again, I value producers so much now. It's insane.
Mack:
Well as soon as you spend 75% of your day writing emails instead of working, you're like, "Wait a minute. What happened here?
Meryn:
And a level of objectiveness that's just like, it's really hard to separate yourself from the art or what you're making and that layer from the client to you, a little bit of protection from yourself.
Aaron:
Definitely. Even now, just working as an independent, I have the producer at my rep company and he does most of the corresponding work. We'll do meetings, creative meetings and stuff like that. But when I do a check-in, I'm like "Here's my deck, here's my stuff for the day" and he’ll send it over. Often when a producer is the middle-person, they're just passing an email over and then getting the feedback. And sometimes that can get muddy if the producer doesn't communicate it correctly. But it's been great Rob the EP. And I actually really like that process because I can stay kind of focused on just doing my work.
Mack:
Well, there's a lot more to talk about here, Aaron, but I think it leaves a lot for what's to come, the presentation. And I know Meryn and I both really enjoyed chatting with you today and getting to know a little bit of background. I'm super excited to be hanging at the Bash this year.
Aaron:
Awesome. Cool. Well, thank you both very much. Looking forward to meeting in person and I’ll talk to you soon.
Meryn:
Awesome. Thanks, Aaron.