The statement, "We actually try to look at other websites as little as possible," is probably not one you would expect to hear coming from the artistic director and cofounder of a company that made its name on the basis of its online work. Yet Florian Schmitt of London-based agency Hi-ReS! couldn't be more sincere when he says it. Respectful but definite, this is a man who doesn't mince words. As he adds candidly, "Many designers are simply perfecting the brochure-style look of so many websites right now. That's not necessarily a bad thing--there is some good work out there--but it's not as exciting as some of the more left-field work you can find."

Schmitt is certainly well placed to observe and comment on the state of the interactive design industry. Having moved from his native Germany to England in 1999, he and partner (in both work and life) Alexandra Jugovic chose to set up shop in Shoreditch, an area shortly to become the epicenter of all things dotcom. And though the pair initially resisted the twinkly, moving lights of interactive work to concentrate on their studied disciplines of print and 3D design, chancing across a trial copy of Flash soon changed all that.

"We felt we couldn't express ourselves in HTML," explains Jugovic. "But when we discovered Flash we found that we were able to combine what we loved to do—motion graphics, design, and music--with interactivity and narrative. We created an experimental first website, soulbath.com, and that was the beginning of our love affair with the web." Also the beginning of the design community's love affair with the couple and their fledgling company, as soulbath.com and its associated exhibition, clickhere!, a neat satirical take on online advertising, propelled them to the forefront of the nascent interactive design movement.

1. SLOW AND STEADY: THE HI-RES! WAY
What's interesting about Hi-ReS!, however (and it's certainly not the infuriatingly awkward spelling of their company name), is how they were resolutely not dazzled or awestruck by all the new technology they found at their fingertips. So while many other companies were seemingly using Flash to create wildly elaborate but essentially unsatisfying user experiences and employing hundreds of staff--only to lay them off a few months or so later, Hi-ReS! kept their eyes on the long term and focused instead on producing work that was useful and appropriate, as well as radical and innovative.

"When we first started working in interactive, the tools were extremely important for us, but in the end, that's what they are--tools," says Schmitt. "There is also a part of us that is actually interested in remaining a bit dumb when it comes to technology. We recently talked to someone who said that many of her pieces are the result of not knowing how to program correctly. And that she now finds it increasingly difficult to get the same results, because she knows what will cause what to occur. It's something we can definitely empathize with and we constantly try to find new ways of looking at things. Learning new tools is a great way to recapture the naivete you have when you first start something."

While the eventual dotcom bust led many to sneer at Flash and its animation capabilities, Hi-ReS! managed not only to maintain its client base but also to flourish. Slowly. Even now, the company numbers only eight full-time employees, many of whom have been a part of the team for over three years. The result seems (from the outside at least) to be an admirably tight-knit group that can nonetheless genuinely take on large, corporate projects.

"When we did start to employ people, we made sure they were not only people we would get along with, but also people who have the same kind of curiosity we have," says Jugovic. "Almost none of the people at Hi-ReS! have a background in interactive, but that helps us to tackle projects from many different angles, while having enough knowledge about the medium to know how to execute them correctly."

2. HAVING MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS
Their portfolio is certainly impressive, with a healthy number of multinational clients (PlayStation, Grey Goose) and individuals (including early fan, film director Darren Aronofsky). It's a deliberately eclectic mix, allowing them to weigh up the demands of a bigger client (with any subsequent loss of creative control) with smaller, potentially more creatively fulfilling jobs.

"It's not an easy balance," Jugovic admits. "Most of the interesting projects won't even pay our expenses, while the ones who can pay could compromise our work and lead to a different face of Hi-ReS! It's a constant battle--but fortunately we've managed so far. We're also lucky in that larger, more corporate clients approach us on the basis of the work we've done in the past. We believe that you're always measured on the strength of your latest project, so we always try to give our best and create the best possible solution for every project."

"It's all about engaging in meaningful conversations with your target market," adds Schmitt. "That sounds like ad-speak, but it's what we've been pursuing from day one. Respect your audience, acknowledge that they are smart and like to be challenged [in the right context], and start a conversation with them. Don't talk to them as if you were delivering a monologue to an infant. Don't tell them you know what will make them cool. Let them find out for themselves, and never settle for the lowest common denominator."

Hence, one of their first widely acclaimed projects, the truly groundbreaking site for Darren Aronofsky's film, Requiem for a Dream. Eschewing the then widely accepted idea that a film website should simply provide a list of credits or actors' bios, or indeed that a site's navigation should be easily identifiable, the site was a revelation, mirroring and expanding on the film's major themes of darkness, decay, and addiction. Intricately layered, stunningly detailed, deliberately difficult, and obscure, the site was the perfect foil to the movie.

Subsequent film work for movies including Donnie Darko and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers is just as detailed, though the look of each one is markedly different from the others.

3. WORKING ON THE DARK SIDE
"Aesthetic is secondary. We are happy to adapt our style if it makes the project better," says Jugovic firmly. "There are a few things we want to achieve with every project, including creating an experience, something that evokes an emotional response, which doesn't even have to be positive. We don't want to do things that are pretty just for the sake of it. Everything should be there for a reason, should be a device which helps the narrative and engages you in the piece."

This attitude lies beneath all of the work Hi-ReS! has produced over the years. But there is certainly a dark side that creeps into even the most delicate pieces. "There's just something so beautiful about systems breaking down," says Schmitt. "You are put in a situation where you need to find your own way, make up your own rules, and things get really exciting. Take live TV going wrong or traffic lights that stop working--it's truly inspiring stuff."

Unsurprisingly, their work has also matured as the company has grown. As Jugovic confesses, "We used to be a bit too cryptic and possibly self-indulgent in some of our sites. Being engaging and creating an experience and being 'pop' at the same time is what we are interested in now." They are also investigating entirely new means of creating interactive design. "We love the idea of getting direct feedback from your computer to a movement of your arm, the proximity of an object, the warmth of your hand, the sound of your voice, the shape of your face, and so on."

Currently working on an installation, commissioned by agency Fallon, that uses face recognition to work "as a kind of insane mirror," says Schmitt, Hi-ReS! is constantly looking beyond the browser for new kinds of challenges to keep innovation and interest levels high. This includes book projects, fine art installations, clothing, and corporate branding. "It keeps things fresh. We don't follow a set way of working, just some good ideas we think are worth doing, regardless of how we get there," says Jugovic. "It's all about keeping a childlike fascination for the work you do. We constantly try to preserve as much of it as we can. And it's best captured when you do things you have not done before."

Given the variety of jobs they take on, even their more abstract artistic expressions can be fed back into the commercial environment. "We actually quite enjoy the position we are in," concludes Schmitt. "We never wanted to be in a position where we had to resign ourselves to working on the dreaded 'personal projects' in order to make life working for blue-chip clients bearable. Ours may not be the easy way, but we find it infinitely rewarding." HI-ReS! | www.hi-res.net

This article was originally published in the May/June 2005 issue of Step inside design magazine.

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