www.group94.com

Design Studio | Gent, Belgium

Hi, define me Group94 in some words.
Group94 is a small web design studio located in Gent Belgium trying to create very tailored and high quality work. Most of our clients are related to design or creativity in a way or another: we get contacted by agency’s, photographers, artists, architects, museums, musicians, etc… which is a nice market to be active in.

Now why did you choose this name?
That is a well kept secret and very few know what the name comes from. When people ask me I use to answer that they would be disappointed if they knew because the origin of the name is in fact very trivial.

Are you still 6 people in the studio or have you evolved since the last interview i read about you?
Yes, the team is still 6 people, that are 5 people in the studio and 1 project manager. A new member will join us within a few weeks but we definitely want to remain a small company. It allows us to be very focused and to produce the tight projects we’re known for. We get contacted for more work than we can accept, so in that regard it might be tempting to expand the company, but my fear is that becoming a bigger structure might compromise the quality of our work. Which is definitely not an option.


How did you choose your collaborators in the studio?
I think I’ve been very lucky. Most of them were just the right person on the right place at the right time.

Was it difficult to create G94 back in 2000, and how did it evolve?
I was doing printed matter and web design as a freelancer before but at a certain point the projects became too huge and too complex to deal with alone – one of my clients for instance at that time was the most popular radio station in Belgium. So my main concern when starting group94 was to set up a structure that would allow me to produce top quality work as a team. Since I had no business background (and in fact wasn’t interested in ‘doing business’ in itself) I obviously made mistakes from a business point of view but fortunately all turned out very well.

You surely injected what you learned before in the G94 philosophy. What where your main ideas about it, what did you want to do, and maybe not to?
Well here’s a confession: I’m not the surfing type at all. I have no patience to wait until the content has loaded and I hate it when things don’t work well. I’m obsessed with perfection and I think that our work reflects this. I want it to be fresh and innovative yet well thought and usable, it must be fast and to the point and I want it to be of a highest order from a technical point of view.


When, according to you, did you make “the” step further?
In my mind things have always been like that and all is a matter of evolution – I remember a navigation I made ages ago using Flash 1.1 – the only commands available at that time were play and stop… just to illustrate I’ve always been obsessed by that same drive. But from a business point of view I think early 2003 is a milestone as our work gained more and more international recognition at that time, which certainly helped in opening the global market for group94. We are now in a position of getting requests from all over the world for very interesting work and I’m very thankful for that.

Now can we definitely talk from you as “flash gurus”? in other interviews you said “we know we are not the best designers around”. Do you still think that?
Definitely. I remember I said that ‘besides amazingly goodlooking we are also very realistic and pragmatic: we are aware that we are not the best designers around, we don’t invent the best concepts nor are we the best programmers in the world. But we’re better than average at all three disciplines and this mix places us in a quite comfortable position’. I must say that sometimes I’m amazed by the quality work the team members produce but I’m too old to start floating and I think it’s important to know one’s qualities and more important : one’s limitations.

Can you explain us the steps you are making to develop a web site?
Most important is to take enough time to think the project over at startup. Building a site should happen meticulously and according to a well thought plan. The first phase in the production process is to lay out each scene and to make sure that the system is logical and makes sense. Draw wireframes, make sure that the site will be built according to the user requirements, avoid pitfalls and make sure that all technical issues are sorted out.


Where are you getting the inspiration for your works?
We study, we think, we examine a project in all it’s aspects, we discuss things with the client, we evaluate his target audience, we check his existing publications, etc. we try to figure out a site concept that matches to all aspects of a project and to the client’s other communication. So basically our work is the result of hard working (and not being satisfied with the first idea that comes up) rather than an eruption of pure talent. It may sound boring, but I think that artists need inspiration. I don’t consider ourselves as artists.

Are you browsing the web communities?
Not really. I must confess that sometimes I track our site statistics and then I land on community sites where other posts catch my attention and point at wonderful websites. I can really be amazed by other people’s projects. But I realize I spend way to little time surfing the net.

You surely got the new flash version isn’t it? (8 at this time)
Nope, not yet.


What do you think about it?
I didn’t look into it in detail yet but I think it looks very promising. Seems like people at The Company Formerly Known As Macromedia didn’t want to make the same mistake as when launching Flash7. This release brings Flash back to the original target market which are the designers, which obviously I appreciate.

Are you still using sooner versions of the flash player for your projects or will you make the switch directly to f8 (scripting with actionscript 2.0) ?
Yes as a matter of facts we have never switched to Flash7. At this moment all our Flash projects are still built for the Flash 6 player using AS1. We will switch directly to Flash8 when the penetration of the version 8 players is large enough to justify that switch.

What are your thoughts about design schools?
I spent the time of my life at art school. Here’s another confession: in fact I hardly went to school and I spent every evening in bars and discotheques. Great period, for sure, but I cannot say it was a big success in the end and I definitely wouldn’t claim any authority on the subject…


And, for those who are dreaming about it, are you recruiting for training periods sometimes?
Rarely: 2 years ago we had an intern who stayed with us for a whole year and that is an interesting period for both parties because during such a long period the intern really becomes part of the team. I always have mixed feelings when someone applies for a short period of say a few weeks or even a few months and it’s really a long time ago that we accepted someone for such a short period.