Computer Arts Projects issue 131

Collaboration can be fun – but it can also be profitable, in any number of ways. Pooling your skills with fellow creatives can lead to fresh, experimental work; it can enable you to take on more ambitious projects that would otherwise be outside your comfort zone; and ultimately, it can pull in bigger clients, which means more money in your back pocket. What’s not to like?

Issue 131 is dedicated to the many faces of collaboration. From inseparable illustration duo Kozyndan to global collective Monorex, you’ll find all the world-class advice and inspiration you need to get your slice of the lucrative action.

Of course, commercial collaborations don’t happen in a vacuum. We take you behind the scenes of a major Nike design brief, and explore how an illustrator and an animator joined forces to produce a pilot show for Cartoon Network. You’ll find tips and techniques for pushing boundaries in your personal work, plus an indispensable guide to protecting yourself against legal pitfalls that a shared creative process can put in your way.

Next issue, we celebrate a decade of design as we go forward into 2010. A stellar line-up of the world’s leading illustrators, graphic designers, animators and web designers make their predictions for trends over the next few years, and share the lessons they’ve learned over the course of this millennium so far. It’ll be a real treat – we promise.

Nick Carson Editor

IN THE MAG

Project one: Win bigger clients

Kozyndan interview
Get up close and personal with the Californian creative couple

Nike collab: the rivalry and the anti-rivalry
Shoreditch vs. Amsterdam: Cassette Playa and Parra go head-to-head

Project two: Two heads better

Collective consciousness
Expert tips from the depthCORE collective on working with your peers

Smith & Foulkes interview
London’s multi-award-winning animation duo discuss their creative process

Combine your skills
Magomed Dovjenko and Jonathan Wong walk through a recent joint project

Designer challenge
In a Projects first, we challenge three pairs of creatives to fuse their styles

Project three: Work cross-media

Profitable partnerships
Why it pays for studios and freelancers to join forces on specialist projects

Create concept art for animation
How illustrator Rich Wake prepared the look and feel of a Cartoon Network pilot to hand over to the animation team

Animate from concept artwork
Flash expert Tom Baker takes the baton in the second part of our extended project

Project four: Be more efficient

Monorex interview
Why a collaborative attitude can lead to global success

Strike a partnership
Essential tips for avoiding the legal pitfalls of commercial collaborations

Manage a large-scale collaboration
How you can hold together an ambitious global project using Basecamp

Regulars

Behind the scenes
How an illustrator, a photographer, two art editors and a big stack of cardboard combined to create this issue’s cover

Big question
What’s your dream collaboration?

Our career so far
Singapore’s :phunk studio looks back on a decade of creative innovation