We recently had the pleasure to talk to Phil Pell, a designer/photographer, and also the founder of Carma Creative. We were intrigued by his abstract and composite photography, combining people portraits with images from the natural world, architecture and even outer space to create abstract and surreal visions.
With a great flair in photography and attention to details, he channeled his passion into his Team at Carma Creative to deliver clear, simple and effective design for clients.
Being in the design industry, he believes in collaborating with the best and works hard to create meaningful and creative work.
What is Carma Creative Team made of?
It’s a core team of Phil and Alfie. Whilst Phil (designer/photographer) is responsible for much of the work, Alfie is the chief fly catcher and envelope shredder (standard canine behaviour). We work alongside a talented bunch of people including fellow graphic designers, animators, 3D designers and web developers.
Tell us about the original setting up of the studio. What were some of the challenges you faced in the early years?
Carma Creative has existed for 8 years now. The decision to start the design studio was made following a redundancy during the recession. The biggest challenge was finding potential clients and marketing effectively to them. Learning how to run a business presented a number of new challenges. Enlisting with Business Link for advice and enrolling for various courses helped this process. Inevitably you will make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them it’s fine.
Can you describe your creative process while creating a piece?
I take an involved and collaborative approach with clients. Unless you have a really good understanding of a client’s business, their problems and/or needs, you will end up producing work without purpose. I am hugely influenced by the natural environment and I think this reflects in both my design and photography. Nature particularly shines through with my composite photography work.
For images of a more artistic or surreal theme, compositing combines different images and effects in post-production. Creative photography like this makes for stunning high impact artwork.
What advice would you give to a designer looking to set up their own business?
Build up a good network of contacts before you become self-employed. Whilst we designers pride ourselves on design aesthetics, and presenting a good-looking website portfolio, it’s essential that you can relate to a client’s problems or needs and work on an effective solution for it.
And that is all from Phil for now. We’d like to say a big thank you to Phil for taking the time from his busy schedule to have this interview with us. We’re happy to be able to share his story and his beautiful photography pieces with our readers. Be sure to check him out on his Twitter and Instagram page.
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