www.containerplus.co.uk
Luise Vormitta (left) from Container Plus came into Stockport college and spoke about the company she has set up along with Nicola Carter (right). They had met whilst studying together at Camberwell University and decided to set up a company when they had graduated.
ContainerPLUS is a multidisciplinary art and design collective specialising in creating fantasy worlds across a range of 2D and 3D platforms.
The designs are mainly illustration based.And I think the majority of their work is absolutely beautiful - It is very pleasing to the eye. The design below has been entered into a T-Shirt design competition being held by Wagamama - A Japanese style restaurant. Their noodles design I think flows nicely. It is this style of work Luise was showing us in her presentation along with installations, photography and set designs etc.

Luise strongly put the point across that her company collaborates a lot of the time with other designers specialising in a variety of subjects - such as animation for example. She also admitted to us all during the presentation that working with other people is not really her style, but she realised somewhere down the line that it was necessary if she wished her company to succeed.
One piece of work that Luise showed us in the presentation that I was really interested in was an 'Art Car' Installation where they were invited to decorate a car and the two boards surrounding it - I cannot for the life of me remember who the client for this project was! If anyone can remember please let me know! Their work consisted of projecting an image of a womans body onto the car and space surrounding the car and used this projection to act as a guide for them to illustrate over the projection. What I also liked about about this work was the fact that because the womans knees were projected off the rectangular board they decided to add the knees to the board using extra material - which made it different from the other 'Art Car' works.

Container Plus also made a website (in collaboration) for a boutique advertising agency called 'The Assembly'. They made everything by hand - out of cardboard! The scene is beautiful and is done in a really nice style. They collaborated with other people to help animate the homepage and make it quirky! The only downside Id like to mention about the design of the website is that once you click on an area such as 'about us' or 'contact us' it has no way of getting back to the homepage ... there is a blue arrow pointing at the title 'The Assembly' which i took to click if i wanted to go back to the homepage. But it didn't do anything. I found it a little confusing and i started to get annoyed with the layout of the site!
http://www.theassemblyagency.com/


Luise also explained to us that she had tried expanding her company by inviting 3 more people to join them - a photographer, and two young set designers. Patricia Niven who is the photographer, had the same level of commitment as Nicola and Luise, but the two young girls who were the set designers didn't really have the same level of commitment as the others and after a year of joining the company everybody decided that things had gotten too complicated regarding decision making etc and so the two set designers decided to leave and set up their own company.
Currently the Container Plus consists of the two illustrators and a photographer and collaborate with other people along the way as they need them - this is working very well for them and the company is a success because of their radical changes.

Luise also mentioned that the business is a success because she doesn't let her personal feelings get in the way of her professional work. An assistant sometimes joins them on certain projects as an extra pair of hands. This girl personally annoys Luise, but she knows that for the good of the company she needs to have a professional working attitude towards this girl. Personal feelings should not get in the way of good work.

To end the presentation, Luise focused on advice on how to deal with collaborating with other people. Make sure everybody gets to have a say about their own ideas and a say on other peoples ideas - conversation is the best way. Learn to listen and make sure people listen to you too. This was the advice she ended with and I found it admirable the way she presented her work and gave advice to us all throughout the whole presentation.