Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I am Arthur, a 2d animator. I started in Utrecht, at the Hoge School voor de Kunsten (Utrecht School of Arts) where I studied the 4 year program to become a 2d animator.
What will you consider your distinctive achievement?
Last year I made my first short animation film, Connecting Flight, and this was very cool and a great learning experience.
It is selected for the Dutch Short Film Selection. And will be shown at the Filmfestival of Berlin, Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand. It’s also submitted for the Animation Filmfestivals of Annecy and Stuttgart.
So… fingers crossed!
What kind of qualities you needed in order to achieve this?
I think you need to have a good eye for storytelling and design. Because in my daily work, what I do is to explain a product or a services in a simple way and matter, through animation. So you need to be very focus on the core of what you want to tell. Some clients do not exactly know what their product is about and what they want to communicate. So it is important to understand the message behind the products or service of the clients.
What are you looking forward to?
I look forward to grow in my own profession and also in my business. I do a lot freelance-work now, so I don’t have a direct contact with the clients, but this is what I would like to achieve in the near future. Something I am working on now, although it is not very easy. But the line seems to go up!
Which advice would you give to the young professionals?
Of course, the most important thing is to do what you love and what are you good at. When you just started you don’t really need to look at the financial thing, because especially at the beginning, it will be a balance between effort, time, income and artistic value. But I also think, that it is important to stick to the core of your business, and do not start doing other activities that anyway you know, but really focus on what your specific business is. It is important to say no as well!
What are the challenges that we need to overcome to make ‘cultural entrepreneurship’ more accessible?
It’s hard to get in contact with companies that are stuck in the past, and want the same things over and over again. They need to see what the value of original work is for their company. Also, I think that this Collective Workspace is a good opportunity, it’s in the city centre and people can easily walk in. When the talent is far away from our eyes we don’t see it, it should be easy accessible.Collective Workspace Maastricht reduces the distance between entrepreneurs and public.
