Europe is a funny old place. Its countries flirt with the idea of being European and and shy away when difficulties arise, each claiming righteousness and independence, each having their own cultural richness to be proud of. One of the effects of growing European Union is the adoption of economics associated with that new union. For instance, those countries adopting the EU currency have a sudden shift in retail economics and a subsequent shift in the labor market. Once a country has a unified currency with another and open trade agreements, its skilled workers can sometimes make the transition from one country to another with ease. This sounds wonderful but of course its introduces problems. Those workers that came from a saturated labor market will expect less pay and some of those workers will be just as skilled as those in a less saturated market. Suddenly the new job market is saturated with workers willing to work for far less money than its locals. Such a thing happened in UK when Poland joined the EU. The media reveled in covering stories of small firms being crushed by workers willing to do the job for half or a third of the pay. It was chaos and a media circus.
I didn’t subscribe to this negativity. I saw an opportunity. If you are a plumber and someone is willing to do the job for half the price you can, HIRE HIM! And then hire another and do twice the work at profit, seems simple enough. But many people let barriers cloud their aspiration of success. This was very true in this case. Humbug, I thought.
The 3D world is going through such a phase right now. Globalization is the hot topic. Arch firms are sending work to China or another country with lower rates. Interestingly and perhaps humorously they are willing to do this but very unwilling to hand off concept to a design build firm charging a third of their rates. Hmmm. Whatever way you wish to see this shift, it has undeniably changed our industry and has caused a lot of artists to stop working and change career. Its a sad story and it causes a lot of disappointment. However, there is a good side to this coin.
Lets look at other industries. In fact almost every industry uses overseas production facilities to make a cost effective product. Believe me, Mercedes Benz are not made in Germany, Nike do not have a factory of workers making all their products in the heart of California. They are smart, they keep the creative teams in their respective countries and direct select firms overseas to produce their products. The larger firms have their own productions offices overseas, smaller firms use localized and local owned production firms to lower costs and keep service / quality high. So why not in 3D art?
The key lies in adopting a new pipeline, sending work out in chunks that can be started and finished independently and handed off. I have seen firms try to work an overseas team as part of the local production team. I disagree with that notion. Its too complex, too difficult and causes each production team to blame the other the moment they hit a technical difficulty. The process needs to be divided with clear standards of hand over and clear process throughout. I have also seen small firms (under 50 staff) try to setup their own overseas operation. Still to this day I have no idea why, paranoia perhaps? There are very respectable operations overseas with hundreds of artists that can be dynamic and have the resource both technical and staff to tackle almost any project out there. Why take on all the responsibilities and risks of ownership when you can subcontract (on exclusive contract if needs be) and take on the responsibility as and when your business requires and can afford it. This is basic dynamic economics. As long as the art and direction is kept in house, like Nike and Mercedes and others, the process works. Clients get the quality and artistry they came to you for and the cheaper production costs. Its a win win for everyone.
Perhaps it will be months, years before the industry finds its feet and this is an established and proven practice. I don’t want to pretend this is anything new either. Firms have been subcontracting out for years now. Some firms are only two people strong with a relationship with an overseas production office. It works well, and if those smaller firms can staff up to 10,20 or even 30 artists, directors, imagine the amount of throughput they could be creating with overseas production. The important thing to remember is ALL art stays in house, ALL direction comes from in house. ONLY chosen technical production goes out. If these and a few others are followed the system works well and could be the road map for us all to grow together within this shifting industry and welcome foreign talent and investment.
Coming soon. Part 4. What ever happened to Apple?
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