In our latest fxpodcast episode, we talk to Territory Studio’s co-founder Marti Romances. This is the next episode in our series on people not directly in VFX, yet are connected daily with visual effects. The work of Territory Studios spans on-set monitor graphics to digital product design. Their work has been featured in Dune, Mission Impossible, Ant-Man & the Wasp and it is also in the upcoming The Creator out later this month.
Territory Studio is an independent creative agency established in 2010 and headquartered in London, with offices in San Francisco. We had last spoken to them at fxguide last year, about their interactive in-camera hologram effects. (See that story here).
One of the challenges we discuss in the podcast is that for on-set monitor graphics, the Territory team sits between the Art department and VFX, they are responsible to both and contributing to both – but they are also not fully in either department’s budget!
Marti Romances is co-founder and creative director at Territory Studio San Francisco. His work is across a range of industries, pointing to the diversification, that is now the hallmark of great design companies. Once these companies would just be working with advertising agencies or producing concept art and now they are creating touchscreen dashboards to replace traditional old school dashboards filled with dials and gauges. The upcoming Cadillac Celestiq, an EV, won’t have a traditional dashboard. Instead, it has a video wall stretching across the front cabin. The 2024 Ford Mustang’s screens will be powered by Unreal Engine.”It’s the brain of the car,” said Marti Romances, discussing the dashboard design recently on CBS. Territory’s work is far from just aesthetics – “It’s the only way that you can communicate with the driver,” he points out.
Away from traditional VFX the team also does innovative UI and UX work for car companies, video game UI design, as well as traditional TVCs and even digital products for key clients like Nike. Nike’s new .SWOOSH platform is where athletes, gamers, collectors, and creators can join forces to collect and discover Nike’s virtual creations. Territory Studio worked with Nike to announce the platform and its first community challenge, curating part of the ‘Our Force 1’ collection.
