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[ July 21, 2003 ]
Who needs egos when you can have EPOS?
This is the question EPOS founder, CEO and Creative Director Gabrielle Raumberger and her team answer every day, much to the wide-eyed surprise of her clients. And with her clients a little expectation-exceeding is a good thing. A life-saver, really-when you consider that EPOS services the likes of demanding L.A. heavy hitters such as Jennifer Lopez, Barbra Streisand, the Latin American band Man, and a whole score of under-the-radar stars of tomorrow, not to mention such corporate bastions of perfectionism as Microsoft, Sony, and Disney.
How to account for this uniquely selfless "EPOS-system"? Don't try to figure. It's "one of those things," like spreadable marshmallows and the zebra frogfish, for which Planet Earth has no sensible explanation. It's teamwork like you hear about in mission statements. Teamwork like you see on a "team of destiny." Synchronized swimming without the water and ribbons. Not, when push comes to Mac, that EPOS' designers agree on much of anything. They argue like dogs, but if they were so equipped, their tails would be wagging. By and large, the designers Raumberger bring aboard are dogged (npi!) invididualists, each with his or her own set of biases and artistic beliefs. They measure their success not by the attainment of their own personal goals, but by their ability to find the most felicitous solution to a clients' needs. One which can only be arrived at through fierce teamwork.
All this getting along could make you a little sick if you weren't otherwise occupied in having your breath taken away-by some of the best, most original, truly iconoclastic and unpredictable work L.A. produces. Whether it's for big established clients, or smaller fry who just want to look hot. Our interview was held with-what else?-"the whole team." Cliff Singontiko, Eric Martinez, Chad Goodson and Gabrielle Raumberger pitched in and/or interrupted each other as the moment demanded. How do you account for the uniquely selfless ethos of EPOS? I like that. EPOS' ethos. Say that five times fast. [No one can.] Maybe it's the good-luck fountain we have up front, with these frogs that spit out this altruistic water and stuff. Maybe it's because Gabrielle meditates every morning. Maybe it's because we want to win a lot of new business in a lot of new fields, and the only way we know how to do that is to exceed ourselves individually. Does teamwork really make dreamwork? Isn't it better just to work alone? When we say teamwork we don't mean watering down ideas. We mean watering ideas, period. Making them flower. And sometimes it takes more than one brain to make it happen. That's why no one designer ever gets assigned to a project. Once in a while, a finished product actually shows the undiluted work of several designers, but in several parts of the poster, or web site, or menu, or whatever. A lot of our work that gets the most attention is like that, a Best of EPOS, actually, in one single piece.
Endless Possibilities Productions. We don't believe in limits. Metaphorically or practically. Clients are constantly surprised by how we manage, over and over, to "pull things off." You've done a lot of work in the music industry. And we love it, too. But, curiously enough, it's given some clients, or should I say not-clients, the impression that we're specialists. People often think because you've worked in one field, it disqualifies you from others. We think it should be the other way around. It is the other way around. We take the style, the artistic knowledge gleaned from let's say a CD cover, and we apply it to the cover of a restaurant menu. You end up with a restaurant menu that's unlike any others. Or a movie poster that's not cookie-cutter or formulaic, that derives its design from the film's inherent qualities. Do you see branching out in the next few years? We're already branched, we're already a big spreading oak tree of ideas, only many outsiders don't know it yet. I'd like to see us take on something really different, like a fashion industry rebranding, or a corporate i.d. program, with annual reports, and sports-I'd love to become involved in a sports-related graphics package-print, on-air? Not for the money. Oh, okay, yes for the money. Partly. But mostly for the challenge.
I can't help it. It's just that she's not famous for her business acumen-or she wasn't famous until recently. I stress the "until recently" because EPOS has recently ramped up on our account side, our accounting side. Our accountable side. Who knows, a year from now we might actually allow an employee to wear a suit. Who's been your toughest client? Would you believe? Gabrielle? One of the reasons she left the corporate world and started this place was to be able to pursue her own dreams, no matter how "out there," and she had this brainchild that she was adamant about bringing into this world. It's a game called "The Secret of a Happy Relationship". And we made it happen for her from a design standpoint, created the packaging. Most of us really get off on packaging design. It's already won like a hundred design awards, I heard. Only four, actually. Check out what it looks like on the website. It's really cool. www.happyrelationship.com. Did you design that, too? Yes. We like to work on all graphic design aspects of the clients' job, even if it's our own. We value consistency. It makes our clients more comfortable when they know the place where the designs were created can handle all the different aspects of the job and the different mediums that the images will need to be used in. We're a one-stop shop. - Contributed by Rex Wilder >> See more work from EPOS >> See other member spotlights on the member spotlight index >> Find out more on how to become an altpick.com member |
