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  • More…
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March 17, 2021

Hiring Talent and Building a Team — Part 2: Core Staff

  • Posted By : Joshua Gunn/
  • 1 comments /
  • Under : Uncategorized

In the first part of this series, our Art Director, Jen, shared some of the key attributes she looks for when hiring freelance artists. But what about when it comes to hiring for our core team?

Certainly, as with freelance, artistic talent is important. But it’s just one of many factors I consider when deciding whether to add someone to our little family of full-time employees. Because frankly, I’m proud of the culture we’ve created here, and I want to protect it fiercely by finding people who aren’t just the right fit artistically, but culturally.

When evaluating a candidate, I try to figure out if they are extrinsically or intrinsitically motivated. If someone is extrisically motivated, they find reward in things like money, status, rewards, or the notion of winning in a competitive environment. Intrinsically motivated people tend to find enjoyment, purpose, growth, curiosity and self-expression to be the bigger reward. And when I think about the kind of person I want to be around eight hours a day, that’s almost always an instrinsically motivated person because they tend to be more fun, more engaged and more creative. Plus (added bonus to me as a studio owner!) they tend to produce better work because they find deeper meaning in the work itself.

And that brings me to the second attribute I’m looking for: The desire to use one’s talents for good. If you look at the kind of work we tend to do here at Planet Nutshell, we primarily work with clients in education, nonprofits, and healthcare–fields dedicated to helping others. And I want my core team to buy into the idea that we are doing more than simply producing animations. We’re helping our clients further their mission to make a difference.

Someone with intrinsic motivation and an empathetic, interpersonally-minded worldview tends to come by my third desired attribute pretty naturally: emotional intelligence. When you are a student of human emotion and interdependence, I feel confident you will fit in with our existing full-time team of creative, sensitive and thoughtful people.

Okay, so by now, you’re probably wondering, “But what about the practical things?”

Yes, hard skills are important. Without proper training in animation, illustration, storyboarding, and storytelling, you probably won’t make it to the interview stage. But having those hard skills and knowing how to use them to solve problems is an entirely different matter.

Problem solving requires a special mix of hard and soft skills, someone who doesn’t view themselves or their abilities through too narrow of a lens. This is why we generally don’t hire specialists to come onto our core staff (though we do hire them as freelancers when needed). Instead, we aim for generalists–those talented and curious problem solvers who don’t care about their defined role. They just want to use their skills to contribute to a team that’s creating something much bigger than themselves.


March 10, 2021

Say Hello to Songyi

  • Posted By : Joshua Gunn/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : Uncategorized

We’re thrilled to announce the newest member of the team. Songyi Park is an incredibly talented illustrator, 3D artist, and motion graphics designer who joins us after completing her Master of Arts in Motion Media Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. A native of South Korea, Songyi received her BFA in Motion Arts Design from Namseoul University in Cheonan.

Her team project, “Bestival Show Opening” received the Adobe Design Achievement Award in 2019 for Top Talent in Motion Graphics and Animation.

Songyi loves exploring the coffee shops of Savannah to discover the perfect brew. At home, when she’s not drawing and animating, she loves to prepare Korean cuisine.

Learn more about Songyi at motionsong.com.


January 28, 2021

How to Build Lasting Client Relationships

  • Posted By : Joshua Gunn/
  • 1 comments /
  • Under : Uncategorized

Over the course of our 13-year history, we’ve had dozens and dozens of clients. And I’ll be honest; some client relationships have been better than others. There’s no one to blame for that, of course. That’s often just the way human relationships work. Sometimes you click from the get-go. Other times… not so much.

But my experience has shown me that no matter how your relationship starts, whether you “click” or not, it can evolve into a lasting, productive partnership, so long as you keep a few things in mind.

Listen (No, really listen)

When I was younger (much younger, I promise!), I thought I knew everything. Of course, this bravado was really masking the insecurity that I didn’t know anything at all. But over time, I’ve been able to let go of that fear and really delight in the interesting things others have to share, particuarly when their thinking is so different from my own.

I know it probably sounds trite, but it’s true: Listening is vital to a good client relationship. When I talk with clients, I always start by listening without judgement. I listen not only for what they want, but how they want people to feel and what they want them to think about. That’s the first ingredient to arriving at a good result.

So what does listening look like? It means quieting your own impulses to impress, seek validation, and convince people you know what you’re doing. Remember, you’ve already got the job. So quiet your ego and open your ears.

Know Your Strengths

Now, you might be thinking, this guy sounds like a bit of a doormat. Well, maybe that’s true… sometimes. And it was even more true when I was first starting out in this business. I wanted to please everyone, because giving people what they want feels like a pathway to success.

With experience, though, comes the realization that collaboration requires confidence. I’ll tell you straight up that the stereotype about artists lacking confidence applies to me more than anyone I know.

For me, projecting confidence, even after years of doing this job, is still the most difficult part of the client relationship dynamic. To get over that, I remind myself that clients hire us for a reason: Because they felt our particular expertise could help them achieve their goals.

Recently, a client said to me, “We hired you because you are good at telling stories.” That stuck with me because I believe it, too. We’re never going to be the absolute best at every aspect of animation. This is an impossible fantasy. However, we can strive to be the best at storytelling, and to speak from authority on that skill. When a client comes to us with an expectation to “do something great,” we feel empowered to push the client and say, if you want to do something great, then you need to tell a good story.

I would ask, then, what is your gift? How can you honor and nurture it into something that feeds your confidence and authority?

Establish Boundaries

It’s important to know what you can do really well. But it’s also important to know, define, and be clear about what you can’t do to help set client expectations.

One way we do this at Planet Nutshell is by having a clearly defined revisions policy. We offer two rounds of revision on each phase of production. This helps us define expectations for the scope of the project, and it also helps us plan a detailed schedule. An open-ended revisions policy can lead to delays at best and at worst, it can cause resentment on both sides.

Having the policy is easy, but enforcing it? That’s always difficult. At times, though, it simply must be done, for the benefit of both parties. A client needs to know what is in and out of scope so you can both work together to stay on budget and hit deadlines.

Build Trust

Speaking of deadlines, take them seriously, and don’t miss deadlines you’ve committed to. Follow-through builds trust. And trust is the currency of enduring, long-term relationships. When you accept a job, you are promising to show up for the client and deliver.

And when you are planning your schedule, you can even plan for trust, and leave yourself time to exceed expectations before a deadline. I’ve said before that the most important part of a project is the last ten percent of effort and polish that elevates a project from good to great. Build time into your project schedule for the final push.

That’s just a start. Relationships are complicated, and there are million ways to nurture and maintain them. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.


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