15 May 2025
MEMOS/ Studio
H2 Dispatch: Studio Growth, Gaga IRL & OFFF Reflections
We grew the team, met Gaga IRL, and went OFFF—all in the same season.
First off—you’ve probably noticed Stephanie and John popping up in my posts more often. That’s because we’ve been quietly growing. We’ve restructured how we run projects, moved into a bright little studio space in the sunny Mission in San Francisco, and started building a rhythm that blends in-person and remote. John (and our extended network of freelance creatives and devs) still works fully remote via Slack, but now 2 desks have turned into 4 for our SF-based crew—including myself.
The growth has been necessary. Over the past year, we’ve taken on some never-been-done and technically complex projects. Slowly, we’ve assembled a mini team that’s excited to experiment with emerging tech, 3D art, and motion on a regular basis. We’re being really intentional about who we bring on—based on the future we’re building for the studio. And we’ll keep doing that.
I still believe in staying small. It gives us freedom—to choose the right projects, to stay open to collaboration with hyper-specific freelancers, and to remain nimble, flexible, and resourceful for our founder and creator clients.
Another big shift? We’ve been traveling! We finally met our client Lady Gaga and her team IRL in Mexico City—after over a year of collaborating remotely. And just recently, the whole studio went to OFFF in Barcelona for our first company-wide offsite: part creative inspiration, part bonding, part “we actually pulled this off.”
Everyone also got to take personal time off—we’ve made unlimited PTO real, not just a line in the handbook. Because I genuinely believe keeping the team mindfully healthy is just as important as doing great work.
Here are a few takeaways from our OFFF trip:
One of the biggest takeaways from OFFF was how open and honest everyone was about their creative journeys. So many of the speakers shared their failures, their messy experiments, and the fact that they’re still figuring things out. I saw plenty of cool workflows and techniques, but what stood out most to me was hearing about the mindsets people bring to their everyday work—the openness, the curiosity, the willingness to keep trying. It made me realize that the people we often look up to aren’t necessarily more talented—they’ve just had the confidence to keep showing up. I left feeling inspired and more sure of myself—not because I suddenly learned a new skill, but because I was reminded that good instincts, curiosity, and a willingness to always try are more than enough to build on.
The talks that hit hardest at OFFF weren’t the most polished—they were the most human. I kept coming back to the ones where you could feel the emotional weight of the work, the happy accidents, the experiments that led to unexpected self-discovery. A lot of those stories came from small but mighty studios or solo artists still in the thick of the making. Like Inès Alpha, who’s totally reimagining what 3D makeup and beauty can look like. Or Melt, who used CGI to recreate a powerful end-of-life scene from Society of the Snow—a true story that gave the real family a moment of closure. I also love the candid and crisp presentation from Alex Center, lots of BTS snapshots and fearless attempts in his career, to stand out as a brand studio. Big emotional swings, cultural shifts, or being real in the business —that’s the stuff that stuck with me the most.
Two talks reminded me of the value in doing things by hand—that taking the slower, more tactile route can lead to richer results. Pencil TV, for example, uses 3D as a base, then draws over it by hand, creating beautiful analog animations. Digital Kitchen showed how they used chemicals and photographs to craft textures for a title sequence. Both techniques just wouldn’t have the same impact if done digitally. There’s a real beauty in embracing imperfection and the unpredictability of real-life materials.
This is a great way to move into H2, as we came back more inspired, more grounded, and more sure of what we’re building next—together.
Also: we bumped into Owen (yes, that Owen, who helped design the City Walk landscapes) and barely recognized him—turns out he looks very different on Zoom. John unlocked a new level at the club (those moves??), and Stephanie is obsessed with bread. Safe to say… OFFF delivered.
Written on
Written By
Melody Yung, Creative Lead
John Rodriguez, 3D Art & Motion Designer
Stephanie Jung, Visual Designer