| |
|
Enrico Tomaselli is a Multimedia Designer based in Naples, Italy. He is the driving force behind the graphic design
studio, Studio Tad. With a strong background in both art and advertising Enrico and has parlayed those skills into
a successful career that has included graphic design, advertisting and multimedia for high profile Italian companies.
|
| |
| |
|
Working in a creative field is almost a family tradition. Aren't you the fourth generation to work in the arts?
|
|
Yes, I'm the last one in my family who is involved in artistic work; my great-grandfather was the first, and he was
a famed for his skill as a painter. Going down along the family tree, there are many others artists - painters,
sculptors, ceramists... - but I'm the first who, though involved in a creative field, isn't mainly an artist. I'm
just a freelancer of visual communication, and the art is only a hobby for me.
|
| |
You attended the Artistic High School in Palermo, the European Institute of Design in Rome and have worked in the
graphic design industry for a number of years. Has having a classic art background helped you as a Flash designer?
|
|
Obviously, the artistic background of my family has been really important for my professional activity. I have
learned the visual language while learning the first words. Moreover, in my personal opinion a solid cultural
background is a necessary and relevant for anyone wanting to work in the visual creative field.
|
| |
You have worked with several large companies like SNIA (FIAT group), the Italian Space Agency and Efibanca as an
Art Director. A working knowledge of how to promote top companies from an advertising standpoint must be quite
beneficial when working with clients who approach you for a multimedia project. Would you agree?
|
|
Some years ago, I was the Art Director of a communication agency AKA, in Rome, and among its clients were some
important Italian firms, as you say. Surely, the opportunity to routinely work with important companies gave me
strong experience for approaching client's demands, but multimedia communication is a field too different. Many
times the first task for a freelancer is to explain the particular facets of this communication field and its
peculiar language.
|
| |
|
Ten years ago, you began working with computer and web technologies. What drew you to Flash?
|
|
I have been working in the visual creative field for over 25 years, and I started to use computer graphics at about
age 15 ago. About eight years ago,I was fascinated by web design, and started my exploration of this field (I
remember my first trials, with Front Page...). Later, the passion become mainly a work, and I encounter Macromedia
Dreamweaver; therefore, the step to Flash has been short...
|
| |
You have worked with agencies A.K.A., Blustudio Sviluppi, Milagro Adv, 6Power, Making, ToDay Communication,
Mediterrano and Estro. When did you start your own company and what prompted you to make that decision?
|
|
Well, the truth is that to work mainly for agencies, relieve me by some, pestering aspects of this activity... all
the bureaucratic faces - upstream and downstream of a workflow,like accounting, bill, etc. - are distant from my
nature. Maybe, it is the artistic face of me that is so. But, except for this, the next year is possible that
studio tad will become an authentic studio.
|
| |
|
Your site has a unusual name. What does metatad represent?
|
The name of my own website (www.metatad.it) has a
little story. My first intent was to name it 'tad', but the domain name had already been bought. So, I thought
about it a little, and than I came to the definitive solution, metatad.
This name was born of two ideas: first of all, the consonance between 'metatad' and 'meta-tag', the hidden part of
an html page code where a developer can write invisible words that give visibility to pages (i.e. search engines).
The second idea came from a peculiarity of the Italian language, where the prefix 'meta' sounds like 'going behind'.
So, meta-tad is something like 'going behind tad', and really my first website was the milestone that signaled the
transformation from a traditional graphic design activity to multimedia communication.
|
| |
Studio Tad seems to offer the whole package; not only providing professional design, but also product development
(websites, portals, e-commerce site, or interactive cd-rom and dvd). How does Flash fhelp fit your clients' needs?
|
In my opinion, Flash is a really 'killer application'; its first appearance in the multimedia creative field changed
everything. It is a powerful tool, and with its capabilities I can offer to my clients high visual impact products,
versed in inducing 'emotional' involvement in their targets.
In the next release, the 6.0, of my website, (that will be online next September), the exit screenshot will show the
topic sentence "creative solutions for your next e-motions". Without Flash, this would be impossible.
|
| |
|
You use a fully Flash website to showcase your portfolio. What are the top three reasons you use fully Flash websites?
|
|
Well, there are many reasons for this, but perhaps, the most important three are: visual impact, intrigued
interactivity, and WIDIWTS (What I Do Is What Target See). The Flash authoring tool produces more content for
an html page, and more of bin for contents...but it is really an application, that when run on a web page, this
gives high-fidelity between a project and a final product as seen by the target. This is different from html, where
too many factors can change the appearance (OS,platform, browser, screen resolution). For many years this has been
my main concern!
|
| |
You compiled and ran an online course "To Learn using Macromedia Flash MX" for the Italian training
website "Manuali.net". It can be challenging to teach students without the face to face interaction. How did you
approach this project?
|
Surely, to learn without face-to-face contact between a teacher and students can be difficult. But, when the subjet
is a software, this has less relevance. Planning, and afterwards writing, the lessons of that course, I kept in
mind primarily, simplicity and clarity. I repeated to myself that nothing was obvious, and that students didn't know
things that for me are notorious and presumed.
I think that this approach has really helped me; the course plan allows for the possibility of some interaction
between a teacher and students, like email and forum, but in reality no one has made use of these opportunities. All
the lessons were clear, and the course has been a success.
The field of e-learning will be, perhaps, one of the must relevant in my activity, in the next future. I'm planning
the launch of a dedicated web site, where some courses of different kinds will be available - like electronic music,
italian haute cuisine...and, naturally, some about multimedia design and development!
|
| |
|
You have been involved in the creation of several courses ("Video Reporter for Cable-TV", Journalist for Multimedia Information",
"Real Time Printing"). Is Flash a useful tool for presenting material?
|
Yes, Flash is perfect for this! Albeit Macromedia has developed other dedicated authoring tools, I think that Flash
gives to designers and developers a great chance for their projects. It's capability to talk with programming
languages like XML and PHP, and through this with databases, is great.
Lately, I have designed and developed a Flash platform for e-learning, used by one of my clients to supply far
distance courses for re-qualifying workers from over ten other companies, encompassing five different fields.
Actually, I'm working to improve this platform.
|
| |
Online education, web site design, corportate branding, Flash interfaces, graphic art, advertising...you've had a very
exciting and full career. Where do you see your career in 5 years time?
|
|
Oh, this is the 'million dollars question'! My wonder - that is always relevant - is overlook to mobile. But as I
said above, e-learning is another interesting field, and off-line multimedia applications are too. But, maybe,
best of all, my own waking dream is to be involved in a great visual communication project, for an international
firm.
|
| |
|
What advice would you give to up and coming Flash artists who want to freelance or own their own companies?
|
|
Well, the best advice I can give is: don't start hurriedly. Acquire experience, improve your skills, don't
overrate your creativity; try to do real works in the real world, before you say: 'I am a designer'. You could be
the only to think so...
|
| |
Enrico, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
|
|
Thank to you, and to your readers, for patience and attention!
|
