Ross Wakefield shares how the project referral programme works, why it helps the immersive industry, and what he’s been busy creating.
Refer a project that is completed successfully on Blend Market and we’ll pay you for it. Share a URL with clients who need projects done and you will receive a percentage of the revenue when the project is completed.
That’s exactly what happened when Ross Wakefield, Director at Area Creative, referred a project he was unable to work on. Ross shares his experience of how it works, and why it helps the immersive industry by encouraging collaboration.
What was your personal experience of the referral program?
The referral program makes a lot of sense. I often get requests from clients that fall outside my area of expertise. To have a partner in Blend Media that I can recommend to fulfil these types of requests is not only great in terms of the financial incentive, but also helps to strengthen my relationship with valued clients.
What do you think the benefits are as a creator, and for the wider creator community?
As a creator, I believe it helps to strengthen my offer as it shows I am well connected and am able to help my clients fulfil a wider variety of tasks. From a community perspective, it also encourages collaboration across multiple disciplines.
What type of briefs would you like to see more of?
It would be great to see more cross-discipline briefs incorporating AR/VR/real-time interactive experiences. I feel this would lead to more collaboration within the community allowing community members to learn new skills and insights into the challenges and workflows involved within different immersive formats.
Who would you like to collaborate with?
I recently took part in a Blend Media panel discussion with Creative VR Director Alex Rühl who I’d love to collaborate with in the future on a multi-discipline immersive project. My core skills are AR and experiential design but I’m a big fan of 360 video and VR ever since I saw a 360 music video for The Foals a few years back. It would be great to work alongside an experienced VR director like Alex to understand how the approach differs from conventional film.
Ross’ latest work for some creative inspiration:
This was my entry for the recent Spark AR hackathon. It’s a virtual space built for the Spark AR creator community which I intend to develop for Oculus as an actual VR hangout.
My latest AR filter for @adidashk for the launch of their X9000 sneaker. Become the mythical guardian of Lion Rock and protect Hong Kong’s future youth from the attacking robofish as they run from quarantine.
The Project Referral Programme is open to anyone. To take advantage of it, all you’ll need to do is sign up to Blend Market – as a client or a creator – grab your referral code URL from account settings, and send it to someone who has an immersive project they’d like help with.
