Profile: Stylorouge
Computer Arts
“‘The most powerful thing a record cover can do is stop someone from buying a record. You can't make them part with money because the record cover is amazing, but you can put them off, and so the cover does help people make a choice.’ Unlike so many other studios, Stylorouge has never been into employing an identifiable blueprint. Rather than relying on 3D renders, 2D effects or other in-house style giveaways, each project is designed to complement and reflect the subject and client. It's an approach that means much of the work is based on photography, though the studio is completely digital... While there are certainly other studios offering a simliar, all-encompassing approach to design work, none can back it up with such a formidable reputation or wealth of experience. Rob believes that it's the studio's knowledge of art direction that gives it an edge. ‘There are people capable of good graphic design, arranging and cropping photos and applying typography, but not a lot so keen to get into the origination of the imagery. And art direction is one of those things you don't really get taught at college. You either lean towards it naturally, or you don't.’ The move from an almost exclusively print-based portfolio to one with embracing multimedia has been remarkably rapid for Stylorouge, a shift that Rob says is a result of being pro-active with existing clients. ‘It's mainly been about encouraging them to see the potential for creating a visual consistency, and to show them that we have a great opportunity to create original images, and then make good use of those materials across all media,’ he says. ‘We're lucky really that word of mouth and reputation have been enough. There's nobody drumming up work for us. We really don't go out enough looking for work; we never seem to have the time. This year, though, we've got to make the time, to find other areas to work in. We should be doing more film posters, for instance. We are huge movie fans and when you've got a natural empathy for something it's foolish to not follow these leads. The same goes for fashion, which is another area we're very interested in.’”