ICW: Manners Studio
In Conversation With is a series of discussions with a diverse set of people of differing ages, geographies, careers and opinions. What they all share in common however is a unique lens through which they see the world. Interesting people, doing interesting things.
Let’s talk.I’ve been a long standing fan of Kent Andreasen’s photography. I’m a sucker for dreamy, surreal landscapes and moments in time that make you want to delve deeper into the story behind the image. So when it came time to think about imagery for my digital platforms and presentations I knew exactly where to go. But I had no idea where we would end up.
Kent’s charismatic energy took us from buying some archival imagery, to going on a 3 day road trip to shoot the imagery and a proactive film treatment after he’d picked up on me mentioning maybe needing something with a little motion. I got the treatment while sitting having a solo beer one Friday afternoon. The document was titled “SUNNAYYYY!!” To which I eye rolled and double gulped. Five minutes later and I was laughing out loud. Like a mad person. The treatment was pretty much everything that I wouldn’t do. Which is exactly why I realised I had to do it.
Kent and Alexander Pankiv Green make up Manners Studio, and they had shown me that they got me, on a level way deeper than I had anticipated. They’d used their power of creativity and vision to persuade me to invest in making a film for Sunny. And I loved it.
They’d also challenged me to re-imagine my creative process, by staying away from it all together; relinquishing control and empowering trust; being open and taking the path you wouldn’t have carved yourself. I’m incredibly proud of what these two unique individuals have managed to achieve, and so it felt fitting that the inaugural ICW should start with them.
Manners in the house. How are we feeling?
We’re feeling good. I guess we’re both nervous and excited to finally see this film go out. It’s been so long that it’s almost surreal to see this day finally arrive. We can’t wait to see how people respond to the film.
Let’s start at the top, what is Manners?
Manners is a creative project that aims to explore collaboration in various mediums. Even though we are a duo, our ethos is to try and identify and collaborate with specialists in the greater creative community to make the worlds we are trying to create as immersive as possible.
More than anything Manners is a set of values that is built around collaboration, and authentically connecting with our networks and creative partners with trust and respect for their craft to create powerful work.
Is Manners trying to be cryptic or are you trying to upstage Sunny by taking longer to officially reveal yourself?
Haha. We’re not as cryptic as it may seem. We really just want to launch with some weight, so we've been deliberately holding back all the work we’ve been creating for the last little while. We’re very focused on launching with our best work, not just adding to the noise online for the sake of some short term attention. So we’re resisting the urge to rush and rather choosing patience.
Alex, you go by the name Gourmet Spaghetti Boy, tell me more please?
Originally, it comes from the idea of trying to create a gourmet creative experience, refined, even elaborate, yet aesthetically balanced. With regards to the spaghetti boy part, I’m very long and gangly so the way my body moves is a bit like spaghetti.
You're both multidisciplinary artists, can you tell me a bit about your creative process and how you guys work together?
Well we’re both strong conceptually, so we like to come together to form the initial ideas on a project, and writing it together, before we start to play on each other's specific skills to start to bring it to life. Because we come from very different creative backgrounds, we are able to bring different aesthetics together to form one harmonious outcome. But I guess our biggest strength is the communication of ideas between each other, how we listen and interpret one another, and of course being brutally honest with one another.
Where, and how do you find your inspiration?
We’re fortunate to have very different interests, so we’re constantly cross-pollinating ideas based on the different things we’re into. This is inspiring because we like the thrill of bringing different world’s together and mixing our perspectives to create something new, but something cohesive.
The Sunny film, what's the story/inspiration behind this film?
There was a golden era of commercials from the 1970s, where dry, tongue-in-cheek humour was used to uplift peoples spirits. Sunny makes us feel good, so we wanted the film to do the same by revisiting this era, and taking a single word and seeing how far we could stretch it before it became too much.
Tell me a bit about Sunny (the character), what's his story?
Sunny is a hard East London geezer, stuck in an alternative reality where everything is Sunshine. Sunny is a metaphor, behind his serious exterior he embodies the entirety of a sunny disposition. A bit of good ol’ fashioned business with a wry smile.
You had creative freedom on the job - in a world that's increasingly constrained and controlled, how important is creative freedom?
We understand that the majority of the projects we work on require us to convey a brand message or a product of some kind. Where creative freedom becomes important is that there is a sense of trust and an understanding that we know there is a line in the sand that if we cross it loses its function. With that trust comes confidence, and when we’re confident we think bigger and make better creative calls that deliver a stronger output. It’s not about complete autonomy, it’s trust and allowing us the room to work within reason. We always have the final outcome at heart.
As artists, looking to the future - how do you feel about it?
It feels like a turbulent time but we have been fortunate enough to have made a lot of work while things have felt upside down. We’ve pushed forward so things are looking up for us and we are eager to share the breadth of our new work and see how it’s received. Because we each have individual careers too it means when it comes to Manners we can have fun with the projects we choose to take on and really push for those ideas of freedom we discussed above.
Where do you see Manners by 2030?
The most important thing for us would be that we are doing work with the same excitement as we feel now but just at a larger scale. Both of us have a modest view on creating. This is not to say we don't want massive jobs, it's more the fact that we aim to work on projects that feel like we are able to create these Manners worlds for and convey a message through a sense of alternate realities and ideas regardless of the scale.
Duncan MacLennan
Duncan is the Founder of Sunny.
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