Pixillion

Last weekend was the official opening of Zuid57, the multi-functional building in The Hague that is now also home to Pixillion's Dutch office. It was the first couple of days that I actually worked from our new studio and for me it felt like everything had come full circle.

Pixillion started in 1999 when it was just me working under my surname. Then in 2001 I had two partners and we decided to go by the name of Tim. The initials of the partners, Terpstra-Immerzeel-Merbis, made this an obvious choice. Citing artistic differences, Tim moved to Portugal, where the company split into two and I continued under a new name, Pixillion. After almost 2 years on the sunny Lisbon coast my wife and co-director Amanda and I decided to move to Bristol in 2004. And now, just over 7 years later, Pixillion has presence in The Netherlands again.
We never stopped working for Dutch clients, Hallmark Cards Benelux being the biggest, and Dutch Design has always influenced everything we do. We spend a fair bit of time in Holland with our family too, and our two children are being raised bilingual. So we felt it was the right time to start tapping into the Dutch design scene again and expand our client base there.

Zuid57 is home to an eclectic mix of cultural, creative and crafts-based organisations in the Escamp area of The Hague. It contains a theatre, a cinema, a cafe, meeting rooms and exhibition areas; and there’s a school for dance, theatre, art, music, creative writing, photography and media. In all it’s inhabited by 35 companies and individuals running their businesses there.

It’s a beautifully redesigned building that was once home to a secondary school (Stevin College), and in its intention, look and feel, the place is very similar to the future home of Pixillion UK, Spike Island in Bristol. We feel particularly attracted to buildings that have strong arts and cultural ties while offering a wealth of opportunities for collaboration with people that don't necessarily work in digital (yet). We’re also big fans of reuse in buildings, so it’s a great fit for us all round.

Leo Immerzeel, who I mentioned above, stopped by to have lunch with me and Hans (Swaep; designer, artist, illustrator, bass player extraordinaire, who we share our space with) and he got so inspired by the place that he asked to come in and share the workspace with us. He'll start next week. Another part of the aforementioned circle formed.

The Pixillion team are now eagerly waiting for an opportunity to all go down to the Dutch office and spend some time working on a project there. I sure am keen to give them a taste of what can be found outside the Easyjet core-destination of Amsterdam, just as there’s more to the UK than London. What's definitely on the books is a film we're currently preparing for The Work Cycle, a for-web commercial or possibly short-film featuring four very different Work Cyclists on their way to work. One will have to be done in The Netherlands obviously! Given the projects popularity over there, we need to do one in Sao Paulo. We just need to find a nice project to work on out there so we could do that one ourselves! Please, Brazilian friends, do get in touch :)

One of the first things I'm working on is to expand Pixillion's network of possible collaborators. If you read this and you're a web developer, copywriter, user experience designer, app developer, social media consultant or a strategist, please don't hesitate to contact me.

So, exciting times. Can't wait to go back to put some more seeds in the ground.