From headquarters in New York City and Los Angeles, creative agency
Buck is responsible for some spectacular creations for advertising, broadcast, retail, film and entertainment industries. The Semi-Permanent team spoke with Orion Tait, one of the three Creative Directors of the company.
Semi-Permanent: Is this your first experience with Semi Permanent? And more importantly, is this your first time to the ‘Land-Down-Under’?
Orion Tate: It is. I was invited to speak at SP Aucklund last month, but couldn't attend, unfortunately. Luckily, our resident Kiwi and Art Director, Gareth O'Brien was able to represent, and I was invited to speak in Melbourne, so it all worked out. I spent some time in NZ as a kid, but have never been to Australia. I'm super excited. I have good friends who tell me Melbourne is their favorite city in the world! I'm only there for two days plus the conference, though. What should I do, you think? Got any suggestions?
SP: No doubt about it, you’re extremely creative. You have produced art from Laminex, 3D character animation and vinyl toys but is there a consistency with your style? What is YOUR trade mark? How can I look at a piece, and know it is an Orion Tait piece?
OT: Its' a good question that gets to the heart of who we are. Most of the work we do at Buck is a hugely collaborative effort. As Creative Director, I certainly have a lot of influence on the direction a piece takes, but our culture and the way we work precludes the type of ownership you allude to. We operate more as a collective and purposefully don't have a trademark style; our filmmaking process is more akin to design ideation, where we welcome maximum input and the building up of ideas. It's usually my job to direct the flow, focus ideas or re-tack, separating the wheat from the chaff. I do think there's a consistency to our work, but it's more about quality and attitude than visual style. That said, we all have our own proclivities that I'm sure show up in the work. For my part, they probably account for a preponderance of geodesic domes, psychedelia, and narrative work.
SP: Buck has recently done some work with Nike and Coke zero... What’s next, or should I say, Who’s next?
OT: Hard to say. We live job to job over here. I just finished up directing a fun character spot for Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, that we're hoping will turn into a campaign. And it looks like there are more Sherwin Williams spots coming down the pike.
SP: You directed and produced a 30 second TV advertisement for Nike for the World Basketball festival. It coated multiple screens in Times Square... any advertisers dream. In your eyes what can top Times Square?
OT: My partner, Ryan Honey helmed that out of the LA office. Buck took the job, in part, because we want to get into more experiential work. Being in New York, I got to experience the campaign first-hand: The city plastered with Saiman Chow's illustrations and Sanderson Bob's bold type everywhere, leading up to the Time Square take-over. It was pretty cool to see our work projected big like that in crazy-ass Times Square for the world to see. I like the samller, quieter stuff we do too though, like the Take Part animation we did to raise awareness for education issues, and the Sundance short films we made last year. Right now we're in talks for a piece for the Global Fund's BornHIVFree campaign, which will be played at the UN in front of World Leaders, in order to pledge funds to further their cause to eliminate transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015. That's pretty cool.
SP: I know that Buck is very much based in New York and LA, but could you see it extending internationally? And If so, where to?
OT: Sure, as long as we can maintain the same standards of quality, creativity and culture. Europe would be our next logical move. Or Costa Rica.
Orion Tate from Buck will be speaking at Melbourne’s Semi-Permanent 17th and 18th September. Get your tickets at
semipermanent.com.