What do Alex Ferguson and Gangnam Style have to do with a motion design career? Well, quite a lot actually!
We sat down with Anton Alfimenko, a motion designer focused on directing and producing. Read on for his story, and understand how he’s managing to build a business in the middle of a pandemic.
Interview by Bernard / Blog written by Teri
October 14, 2021
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It all started back when I was a kid in Kazakhstan. I was really into football and used to do little videos on YouTube for fun. Then, one day I put Sir Alex Ferguson's head on PSY in "Gangnam Style", and it went viral. Remember the explosion of head-swap videos in the 2010s? Pretty sure it was the very first one! Got some 400,000 views, which was pretty massive back then.
Fast forward a few years, I was now in the UK studying Film and Animation. In my final year at uni, Bleacher Report, a leading sports media company, reached out to me, saying they remembered my "Oppa Fergie Style" video from years ago and were interested in bringing me in on some of their freelance projects. However, I think, at the time, they didn't fully understand what motion design entailed - they just liked the work and the visual impact it had.
After graduating, I decided to stay in the UK and ended up joining the B/R team full time.
I started out doing little videos for B/R social media channels. Then, after a year and a half, I moved on to the Branded Content team, where I got to produce and direct more, in addition to my usual motion design responsibilities. I got to commissioned freelancers and oversaw projects. I really enjoyed having more creative control over my work and soon realised that this was the direction I wanted to pursue.
B/R was my first job, and to be honest, it was everything I could wish for: amazing people, incredible opportunities, overall, the first job anyone could dream of!
But all work did revolve around the football season: you start with a crazy busy August and keep it going until it reaches new madness levels around April. Then you have a couple of quiet months before the cycle picks up again.
Although no doubt, I would do it all over again, at the time, the repetitive nature of my work and lack of fresh creative challenges began to lead to a growing sense of dissatisfaction and I decided to go freelance.
No, I was building myself up to it for a year and a half! I would have conversations with my manager about it all—he was super understanding—but I was held back by my fears and concerns. Plus, I had to take into consideration my Visa status and sort that out.
Um, not really. Though I always kept my portfolio and website up to date throughout my time at Bleacher Report, which definitely helped kick things off.
I started doing little projects here and there, and then one of my clients approached me with a bigger project that covered me for a couple of months. That first big win helped me get over my initial fear.
That you can say no to people—I love being able to choose the projects I take on. I see a lot of companies using motion designers as tools, commanding the process and never allowing designers an opinion. Having that mutual respect with the people you work with is really important to me. I think that’s the biggest plus of freelancing.
Yes, it was so weird at first. I started getting all these random inquiries through recommendations. I think with freelance, it all depends on your output - you always have to be on your toes.
I also used LinkedIn to reach out to people who could potentially hire me: producers, art directors. It's not always instantaneous, but it works. I was recently contacted by a company, and when I asked how they found me, they said their colleague recommended me. I had reached out to that colleague six months before on LinkedIn. I never got a response, but as it turned out, he had a look at my website and kept me in mind.
Oh yeah, football clubs will always have a lot of work to do. It’s strange: I left my job because I was tired of working on football, but I can’t really escape football projects. It’s a bit of a cycle - the more football work I do, the more people ask me to do.
It’s different now, though. I enjoy the work because I have more control. If I’m honest, given the choice between football projects or, say, a bank advert, I’ll choose football all day long. It’s way more fun!
I also get to work on personal projects now. I’m currently writing a script for a short film (which has nothing to do with football). Once that’s done, hopefully it will lead to more not sports-related projects.
Yes. This January, some friends and I started a company called Wundr. We got together to tackle bigger and more diverse projects, and its been going really well. Through Wundr and even alone, I still enjoy bringing different freelancers together to collaborate on bigger projects.
Probably the attitude, which in many respects is more important than the skill. I’ve worked with a few freelancers who did amazing work, but weren’t reliable, and that really puts me off.
I took that on board straight away: whatever happens, always remain professional, on time and responsive. And never be a dick.
The people at the office. It was fun working in the same space, but I guess nobody gets to enjoy that now though, thanks to Covid.
I’ve never joined a studio on a day rate - I prefer working remotely, and I enjoy working with others that do the same. Even in my full-time job I was trusted to hire and collaborate with remote freelancers, and there was never any issues.
We actually just completed a project through Wundr which involved several of us in the UK, two guys in Mexico, one in Kazakhstan and another in Russia. it doesn't matter for me how or when people work, as long as they get the job done well.
I hate it. It’s not my strong point, so I don’t think it’s worth the risk of doing it myself and making a mistake or getting fined. That’s why I like to work with people who could help me with it! I like that I can rely on the accountants’ emails telling me what to do and when.
Back when I was about to go freelance, I had a bunch of questions that I wanted to figure out, so I was looking for some professional help. I spoke to a few freelancer friends who were working with us at the time and got three recommendations:
That first call helped me understand what I needed to do, and when I was finally ready to go freelance a year later, I got back in touch with him to get everything set up. I haven’t even met him yet, we just chat over the phone or email!
Everything is so clear. Any question I have, whether over email, Slack or phone - I know I’ll get a personalised response. They won’t just send a link to an article that I need to figure out myself.
A friend of mine uses another accounting service that’s quite popular. Apparently, they tell you how to do the self assessment and paperwork, but then you do it yourself. And he pays more than I do! I can’t really understand that.
In my case, everything’s personalised. Just recently, for example, a US client sent me some form to fill out that I didn’t recognise. I just passed it onto the team, who told me it wasn’t actually the correct form. Not only did they send me the right one the very next day - they had marked out what I had to fill and where, so it was super quick for me to get done.
It was great chatting with you Anton, thanks for taking the time!
Check out Anton’s work and get in touch through his website, Instagram or LinkedIn.
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