Partners/designers Richard Eng and Mark Ward have opened New York design house 30K’ (Thirty Thousand Feet).
Until recently, Ward was a designer and Inferno artist at Click 3X, New York, while Eng designed at New York-based Manhattan Transfer.
Chicago native Ward received his B.S. in Film from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in ’87, and began designing motion graphics at Chicago’s Avenue Edit in ’90. In ’95 he joined The Filmworkers Club, also in Chicago, where he worked as a Flame and Inferno artist.
Ward moved to New York in ’98, partially because "I wanted to get a little bit more involved in broadcast design, which essentially there was no market for in Chicago," he explained. In New York, he started freelancing for Click 3X and eventually took a full-time position there. Ward’s credits include Continental Airlines’ "Sumo," "We Can," "Offerings" and "Fly There Anyway" via N. W. Ayer & Partners, New York.
At Click 3X, Ward said, "I got involved in broadcast work and directing-I would conceive a full idea, do the live action directing and put it all together." He did some multi-tasking on Heineken Beer’s "Message To Outer Space" via Lowe & Partners/SMS (now Lowe Lintas & Partners), New York.
As for New Yorker Eng, he started out doing freelance web and interactive design after graduating from Waltham, Mass.’ Brandeis University in ’96. Eng became interested in motion graphics after being introduced to Flash Animation, and started using Adobe After Effects to-wards the end of ’97. "That’s really where I started taking off in terms of doing television work," he stated.
Eng designed the graphics for Tommy Hilfiger’s "Tommy Boy" and "Tommy Girl" through Hilfiger’s in-house agency, as well as "The Players" segment of the CNN program Business Unusual, all with FDG (formerly Firm Design Group), New York. He also designed graphics for the History Channel International’s launch through New York-based visual effects house Big Pink. In ’99, Eng received his M.A from the Interactive Telecommunications program at New York University.
Ward and Eng met last summer when the latter freelanced for Click 3X on landsend.com’s "Shop With a Friend" and "Lands’ End Live" via Biederman, Kelly, Krimstein & Partners, New York. Ward recalled, "I was very impressed with Richard’s knowledge and skills, and the work he had done. We brought him in [again] for a big job (Heineken Beer’s "Message to Outer Space") last fall, and I think at that point we realized that we shared an aesthetic."
The two also had common goals, according to Ward: "We both wanted to broaden our roles as designers. Click 3X gave me the opportunity to be not just a Flame artist, but also a designer and then a director, and I just wanted to do even more of that. I wanted to be as involved in a project as I possibly could."
Eng agreed: "I think we realized that we shared a real positive collaborative energy and vision." Though Ward and Eng discussed joining forces, 30K’ didn’t become a real possibility until this April, when one of Eng’s former clients asked him to do some work. The assignment was too big for one person to handle, so he contacted Ward. Ward had planned to leave Click 3X to freelance, but, as Eng commented, "We saw this as an opportunity to work together and we figured that we’d just go ahead and do it."
Recent 30K’ jobs include graphic designs for an unnamed dot.com company’s spots, as well as promos for Sony artists Mandy Moore, Lara Fabian and Jessica Simpson direct from the client.
Ward thinks that his and Eng’s diverse skills make 30K’ an appealing choice: "Richard has this interactive and more of an After Effects background, while I have a background in Inferno and Flame. Together we have a breadth of experience that makes us feel really confident that any challenge we’re faced with, we’re going to have the right answer."
