HOT HOUSE: Grasshopper Finds Its Artistic Groove

Mindy Dubin is an artist. That’s first and foremost the reason why New York City’s Quiet Man post chose her to head up the company’s new creative offshoot, grasshopper, as creative director/partner.

The fact that she was born with divergent strabismus (the lack of depth perception-she can’t see out of both eyes at the same time) didn’t hinder Dubin’s progress as an artist. In fact, she says, "When I was in art school, it was a bonus, like when we were asked to close one eye and hold up a pencil so we could see stuff without the illusion of perspective. I always felt like somehow I almost had a leg up working flat or in 2D."

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, she spent several years living, painting and drawing in Paris; her work was exhibited throughout Europe. Once she began to transition her skills into the moving graphics space and returned to the States, Dubin found her way to Quiet Man where she continued to push the creative.

Located on the 20th floor of a midtown Manhattan building (just one flight down from Quiet Man), grasshopper has officially been in business for just five months. "We were talking about launching it for a while," says Amy Taylor, executive director/partner of grasshopper/ Quiet Man. "We made the decision in October [2004] and launched grasshopper by the end of that month. And it was nice because we already had jobs coming in that were perfect for the type of work grasshopper was going to be doing."

Where Quiet Man has primarily been focused on "graphics set in reality," says Taylor, grasshopper’s focus is more on the abstract and artistic side. "Basically, what distinguishes the two companies is that live-action footage is not the star at grasshopper, it’s just a piece of the final project. It could have the same importance as a color."

So far, grasshopper’s clients have included GE, Pepsi, the U.S. Open and the brand new Horror Channel (yet to be launched). But Dubin explains she doesn’t want the new company to be limited by commercial work. "I still think there are great opportunities to push creative in commercial work, but I also think there are amazing opportunities in title and broadcast design and even working with artists. I want to go where the creative is-whether it means working with an artist, dancer or performer."

Not a lot of geek here, but Dubin does admit she favors Discreet software and predominantly works on inferno because it "lends itself nicely to the kinds of things we want to do. There’s an enormous amount of freedom and flexibility with it." However, you’ll easily find a fair share of workstations-both PCs and Macs-running a variety of graphics software and an on-staff tech-guru to make sure it all plays nicely together.

"We don’t want to spend a lot of time on troubleshooting," she says. "For me, it’s about pushing original, strong, stellar, creative kinds of work."

Launched in October 2004, grasshopper grew from Quiet Man post, leaning more towards artistic and creative projects. The new shop is not limited solely by commercial design.

Mindy Dubin, creative director/partner of grasshopper; Amy Taylor, executive director/partner of grasshopper / Quiet Man; and key designers Jason Sienkwicz, Beth Kaufer and Adam Stockett

PCs
Macs
Discreet inferno
Adobe After Effects
And a whole lot of plug-ins and other graphics software

Grasshopper
www.grasshopperny.com
28 West 44th St., Suite 2001
New York, NY 10036
ph. 212.921.4457