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01/06/06 / 'boards Magazine - June 2006 (Worldwide)

Conduit is featured in the June 2006 issue of ‘boards Magazine.

S’TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

By Barry Walsh

Evolution vs. Creationism. Heck why choose? In this edition, you’ll read about a company that is in the creation business – stretching their limits to craft jaw-dropping work that in many cases melds the natural world with the wildly imaginary. But just as we homo sapiens have evolved from single cells into full-on humans, these creators are devoted to evolution – both in the work they do (incorporatiing broadcast, commercial, viral, print and live-action projects into their repertoires) and in their structures (ranging from global networks to small mobile directorial teams). Without any further ado, here are our natural selections of the latest top work to emerge from the visual vortex.

TAXONOMY

Conduit, Cape Town, South Africa
Directors : Lyall Coburn, David Correia, Marc Ziman
Producer : Sharon Martin

ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES

“We were all friends before we formed the company,” says Ziman. “We didn’t really meet at an office job.” Avid surfers / skaters Ziman and Coburn bonded further with their graphic design / motion / photography interests, and all three Conduit directors came together initially to work on graphic projects for Cape Town’s booming indie music scene.

Coburn, whose work in animation and design had taken him to London and the US prior to Conduit, says their teaming in 2002 wasn’t necessarily commercially-minded. “It was more out of a desire to create our personal work and not be executing work for other companies.” Says Ziman: “It was a nice, natural evolution to go to work with friends and continue to jam on the stuff we were getting recognized for.”

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Early on, the team sought projects that reflected its goal to make Conduit a multidisciplinary creative studio equally adept in design, motion and live action. They garnered attention in the
international mograph community with a 2004 Coke spot (“Refresh”, for HerdBuoys McCann Erickson, South Africa) combining snazzy graphics with backgrounds culled from digital stills. A series of idents for South African TV channel SABC 1, (“S’Truth”) further married photography with a playful, graffiti-inspired graphic element, leading agency JWT & Smirnoff to commission Conduit for its “Mission Download” spot.

And while indulging in personal projects such as 2004’s short film “I Give You My Love”, the team still finds worthy challenges in its spot work, such as their sophisticated yet fun four-spot Jameson’s Whiskey campaign (“Smoother”, “Round Number”, “Angel” and “Everybody”) for TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris. “The Jameson stuff was nice because it incorporated the core elements of graphic design – photography and typography,” says Ziman.

Another recent highlight is The Cape Times “A Riveting Read” for Lowe Bull Cape Town, in which the newspaper’s headlines, cut and pasted into a scrapbook, spring to life via stop-motion and assorted animations.

FUTURE EVOLUTION

From a project standpoint, the team can’t get too specific, but look for music video work to emerge soon. The onus now is to grow the brand internationally, and continue to find projects that would benefit from Conduit’s three-pronged approach. “We’re just really in love with the craft of storytelling,” enthuses Coburn. “Any of the masters we cherish, you can find that good design sense is a fundamental part of their work.”