Face to Face with... WoodShop

Industry veterans Trevor Shepard, former CD at Elastic, and Sam Swisher, ex-producer at Public VFX, recently moved to Culver City to open their new design and animation company in the famous Helms Bakery building.

Having initially launched WoodShop from their respective homes, they went all out on the interior for the new space, even bringing in North Californian reclaimed Barn Wood (the WoodShop name was conceived before finding the space) to add to the vibe. Having begun working on initial jobs before even moving in, we felt they deserved a sandwich break and here, ask them about the new venture and their new surroundings.

You’ve both got a lot of experience in the industry, but why is now the right time to launch WoodShop?

A partnership is very much a relationship… you can only date for so long before getting married.

Did you always plan to begin working from home?

It was definitely a conscious decision we made.  It was all about creative and personal freedom combined with a work/life balance… that and the fact that we had a job booked the day we decided to start WoodShop with no financial backing for start-up costs. Looking back on it on now, maybe we had no choice at all.

Why did you decide to keep the look and feel of the old bakery?

We kept the integrity of the bakery in that it still has the industrial/factory-like feel, but we completely overhauled it, updated it and made it contemporary. We threw in state of the art technology and made an executive conference room we had always dreamed of. We also wired it with real-time transmission, so clients can have extra space beyond the suite.

Was it always in the plan to pay much attention to the physical look of the place?

Aesthetics are another cornerstone of what we do. We’re designers and therefore everything we do is thought out and planned for with quality, craftsmanship and inspiration in mind. The space had some incredible bones with a stunning buttress ceiling and raw concrete floors; we just enhanced what was already an incredible environment.

The company will create work in different disciplines, but are there any jobs you prefer or will be looking for in particular?

Absolutely. Those that bring a sense of design and creativity and allow for clever use of live action and animation – tools we’ve been honing throughout our careers.  We’re looking for good, clean, fun.

How important are collaboration and creative partnerships for you to succeed?

It’s a vital cornerstone of WoodShop: whether it’s agency, director or editor, we pride ourselves on fitting into any creative pipeline – the earlier the better – and definitely with good people who we like and trust.

We have a solid partnership, which ends up showing up in our work.  Deciding how we wanted to run this new company, we found that it was ultimately an extension of how we like to live our lives. Thus the mutual respect we have for each other as friends is a model for how we communicate and work with our clients.

What inspires you both, and do you think working in a 1930s bread factory will contribute to your creativity?

Helms Bakery is a campus of creatives—furniture designers, photographers, set designers, fine artists, landscape architects and world-class chefs all work together in the span of one block. We find working in and amongst other artists to be a very inspirational community… that, and having a neighbour in Father’s Office (the best gastropub in LA) is huge.

You thought up the WoodShop idea while out cycling together. Do you often ride together and does it help the creative juices flow?

Cycling is a big part of our lives, yes. We love to travel and explore and what better way to do that than on two wheels? Flowing juices while riding is not such a wonderful image.

Are you anxious at all that working together might spoil your leisure time?

Work to live… bikes can be expensive.

In reality, anyone who knows us knows that we bring a bit of leisure to the rigor of work. We’re super focused, but we also know when it’s time to put the pencils down.

Where do you see WoodShop in a few years’ time?

Who knows? Think about how boring it would be if we did! Hopefully, still here working with great people, doing great work.