Chicago: Digital Kitchen

Since transmogrifying itself from a production house into an agency hybrid, Digital Kitchen has cooked up some tasty transformations that blur lines between mediums.

Last June Chicago creative shop Digital Kitchen returned from the French Riviera triumphant after claiming the Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions for its visual installation and branding work at LA’s Cosmopolitan Hotel. But more than just another statue to add to the trophy cabinet, that award was a testament to the success of this agency and production house hybrid.

For while Digital Kitchen now churns out creative to equal the best traditional agencies out there, the company started out as a boutique motion graphics offering and, after shooting the Emmy Award-winning title sequence for TV series Six Feet Under, turned its hand to live action too.

“We were in that production company space for quite a few years,” recalls co-ECD Camm Rowland (pictured, right). “Most clients were agencies doing TV commercials, but throughout that whole time we felt the best work was stuff where we came up with ideas ourselves – such as the title sequence work, which a lot of people knew us for. That was part of the impetus to become a creative agency. It was already one of our strong suits, we just weren’t being hired to do that, and it was also response to the changing advertising climate.”

And so, though Digital Kitchen began creative work on the AT&T U-verse project back in 2006, it was three years later that they made the full transition from production house to agency and started working directly with clients on everything from concept through to execution. With a sister office in Seattle and a base in Los Angeles, the company now functions as a fully flexible model, working with its own clients while still collaborating with traditional agencies too.

The Grand Prix-winning Cosmopolitan project was a job where Digital Kitchen could flex its full creative might. Approached by the hotel to develop the concept, design and content for the giant screens enveloping the lobby, this visual language also informed the rest of the signage in the hotel.

“The challenge,” explains fellow co-ECD Anthony Vitagliano (pictured, left), “was to find the voice of the brand and manifest it through all these different portals that the guest would experience throughout their journey and stay. It was a great project because it was a pure manifestation of brand through art and film. Thematically it was about breaking down the barrier between film and architecture and interior design, and trying to blur that line as much as possible.”

Partnershipped projects

 But Digital Kitchen is similarly at home partnering with other agencies, as a recent project with Wieden + Kennedy Portland highlights. To showcase Dodge’s Journey vehicle, the two shops worked together to hide three real cars across America before leaking hints to their whereabouts on YouTube and eventually revealing the lucky winners who found the cars – and got to keep them – on the Dodge YouTube Channel.

“It’s an advantage coming out of the production world,” believes Rowland, “as you know the costs and how long things really take. And so when we’re pitching creative, the people pitching are the ones who actually have to build it, so I think it’s a good place to come from, where you’re not throwing ideas at the client that they can’t afford.”

Digital Kitchen hasn’t belied its titles sequence roots either, and over the past few years has crafted openings for shows including Nip/Tuck, Dexter and HBO’s True Blood. For the latter, the shop also created award-winning marketing campaigns for seasons two and three, and working with entertainment is still in its veins. A mobile project this summer for the launch of the film Transformers 3 culminated in an interactive movie poster that utilised augmented reality; using an app, viewers could point their phones at the poster, which would then come alive and engage them in a shootout battle.

One of the prime examples of Digital Kitchen’s dual strengths as creative agency and production company is its work with AT&T’s U-verse digital service provider. The agency came up with the branding strategy, but also creates ongoing original content from its LA outpost. Rowland and Vitagliano are the first to point out that their hybrid model isn’t unique, but Digital Kitchen does seem to have hit a winning formula, and one they see spawning more and more in the coming years.

“Lots of companies are going the same way,” comments Rowland. “I think more agencies are going for a hybrid model, and companies like us are trying to build on their core thinking.” Vitagliano adds: “I believe to think of the future you have to look at what’s coming out of the schools and the best talents are the people who are conceptually great and also make stuff, and that will eventually increase down the line as those people are hardwired to think and make at the same time.”

And those talents will be sure to find a welcome home at Digital Kitchen.