Tendril On Building Creative Partnerships

In order to achieve our goals, whether they’re business-related or personal, it’s important to surround ourselves with the right people in order to grow as a designer, human and a business. For agency founders, these important people could be your business partners. That’s what Christopher Bahry believes - one of the Co-founders and creative directors of Tendril - a design-driven animation, VFX, and digital innovation studio with offices in Canada and Brazil. He describes creative partnerships as ‘the next most significant relationship in your life to your family’, as you might spend just as much time, if not more with them than your family and friends. 

We had a great time speaking with Christopher - he also shares his learnings from co-founding Tendril 10 years ago to now, as well as what's the next big thing in motion design. 

Here’s a short but sweet snippet of our conversation:

Q&A 


FLA: What’s your favourite creative tool that’s physical, not digital?


CB: Definitely a pencil - I’ve always got my sketchbook to hand.

FLA: What advice would you give to someone starting their own creative partnership? 


CB: We always recommended to anybody thinking about starting a studio - find your partner, find that complimentary other that can be your support. It's the next most significant relationship in your life next to your family so the fit has to be absolutely right. Our lives have changed in 10 years, dramatically, each one of us, but we've always been there for each other.

FLA: For you, what’s the next big thing in Motion Design? 


CB: Real-time 3D is a big thing on our menu right now - we’re really excited about its potential, particularly Unreal Engine, Eevee inside of Blender and some of the things going on over at Nvidia. The possibility of bringing motion off the screen and bringing it into the world. Our team believe that surfaces and everything will have the potential to be a screen in the future.

FLA: What made you start your own company?  


CB: Meeting my lifelong creative partner Alexandre Torres made it possible and the confidence to start our own thing. We first worked together on a short film back in 2005 which is now somewhere hidden in the web archives. There was an instant creative connection there, which ended becoming a lifelong partnership. After several years working together, it was around 2009 we could both start something and give a name to it. What really enabled us to take off though was when we met our other partners - Kate Bate our incredible COO and Patrick Coffey who’s a VFX genius. When we all came together, Tendril was truly founded in 2010.

FLA: What is the one book that changed your life? 


CB: Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick for sure. It’s really easy to read and digestible meditation on chaos theory and the role of chaos in nature and life, but also as a creative force. 

FLA: What is the best part of working in Motion Design? 


CB: The constant learning and challenges that are part of it. Motion design is also a very collaborative and engaging world, almost like the world of Pokémon where you’re always discovering something new.  

If you want to hear more learnings from Christopher, listen to the full interview on our Creative Capes Podcast: 


Anchor


Apple Podcasts 


Spotify


If you want to see more of Tendril’s’ work and our faces, watch it below on our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy.

We’re also very pleased to have Christopher as one of our experts on our Creative Business Masterclasses - Learn from the founders of the top companies about how they grew their teams and businesses, all at your own pace! 👉 sign up now!


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