OFFF 2013: Cake

Cake isn't a bakery and it doesn't make cakes - not edible ones, anyway. Headed up by director Thiago Maia, Cake is a boutique design and animation studio delivering eye-popping illustration, design and stop-motion animation to its clients, with a bit of live-action thrown in.

Launched three years ago, Cake’s headquarters are in London, but the team also have a studio here in Barcelona (where we enjoyed a few cheeky beers last night) and a presence in So Paulo.

OFFF 2013 marks their first-ever presentation at a design conference. We grabbed them for five minutes after their talk to find out more…

Computer Arts: How's Cake going?
TM: It’s our third year and we think we’re going well for a new boutique. We’re getting more and more space in local and international markets and also doing bigger jobs. We just finished the bumpers for OFFF that were shown today and they are quite fun, we had fun making them! We're also working on a new music video and are pitching on some nice work, so look out for some cool stuff in our website, coming soon!

CA: What's the biggest creative risk you've ever taken?
TM: I would say it was when we worked on the Monty Python film - Graham Chapman's A Liar's Autobiography. We had to direct, design and animate almost five minutes of 3D stereoscopic animation and it was our first time working with 3D stereoscopic. It was our first year as a studio and the budget was almost nothing so we needed to do the work without any freelance help. It was a lot of work and took us almost seven months on and off this project as we needed to do some paid work to survive. It was worth it in the end though, the final film looked amazing. And I got to animate a 3D cock. Sometimes the projects that cause you the most pain are often the most rewarding.

CA: How do you stay motivated - what inspires you?
TM: We try to do jobs that we would love to work on. It’s not always possible to do only what we love to, but we manage to keep a good balance. We also try to do few personal projects and get involved in the creative industry. We love what we do, so it’s normally a great fun. And we’re inspired by colour, texture, fun and the everyday life. There’s always something new to see, learn and to share.