How did both of you come to work at creative agency Digital Kitchen? “Back in 1998, while living in Seattle, I happened to meet Digital Kitchen founder Paul Matthaeus while freelancing at Hornall Anderson,” says Mason Nicoll. “Coming from a digital design background at Microsoft, I didn’t have a clue what the film and television broadcast field was all about, but at the time, I had been experimenting with motion on the side. I was fortunate that Paul took a chance on me.

“I’ve been with Digital Kitchen through a couple of phases: the first during the initial growth of the company when it expanded from one office to three—including my move to California in 2003 to open the first Los Angeles office—and now in its current chapter, having rejoined the company in 2020 as executive creative director,” Nicoll continues. “Now, as Digital Kitchen celebrates three decades of creative evolution, it’s been especially meaningful to help shape where the studio goes next.”

“I came from a motion graphics background, mostly working in sports and entertainment branding,” says Andrew Julien, creative director at Digital Kitchen. “I’d always followed Digital Kitchen’s work. Experimental projects stood out to me, like the titles for HBO’s True Blood and the installation for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. In 2017, I was exploring my own installation and experimental projection projects, so joining Digital Kitchen felt like a perfect transition to me.”

As creative director and executive creative director, what do you do in your respective roles at Digital Kitchen? “As the executive creative director, I oversee the overall creative vision of Digital Kitchen,” says Nicoll. “In addition, I’m pretty hands on when it comes to the day-to-day creative, collaborating with the team and jumping into everything from concepting, editing and obsessing over the right font.”

“As a creative director, I wear many hats, from editing and experimentation to ideation, design, concept development and writing,” says Julien. “Because our teams expand and contract depending on the project, flexibility and adaptability are essential. One of my favorite parts is the variety: staying hands on and getting into the weeds with the team to develop ideas from the ground up.”

What have been some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on at Digital Kitchen? How did they change your perception of what you can accomplish through design? “A couple come to mind: the international terminal installation at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and, more recently, the main title for Smoke on Apple TV+,” says Nicoll. “With LAX, it was my first large-scale experiential project where Digital Kitchen was developing everything from the branding to a series of short films. We concepted the ideas around an ambient narrative framework where the whole was greater than the individual parts. It was a way to present a tone—or spirit—of a city to travelers getting their first introduction to Los Angeles. That ability to define something much more ambiguous also inspired our approach for the Smoke titles. Unlike LAX, we had a dedicated viewer as our audience, so finding that balance between storytelling and tone was a tricky one. Through the design, we wanted to present something that appears pretty straightforward on the surface, but as the series progressed, layers of story and meaning would become more obvious.”

“My favorite projects are those that require quick thinking and highly bespoke solutions,” says Julien. “Experiential work often presents those challenges, which initially feel immense. But breaking them down reveals unique opportunities to test out new techniques, design approaches, narratives and technologies. One standout for me was Harry Potter: Visions of Magic, which let us explore abstraction and reinterpret established intellectual property in an unexpected way. It really highlighted for me that we can approach experiential work with the same narrative mindset and craft as a title sequence, only in a more tactile and 360-degree way.”

What has it been like working with clients in the entertainment industry, like Warner Bros. and Apple TV+? “It has been amazing,” says Nicoll. “While both have their particular challenges—new versus existing IP—being able to create for these legacy properties typically opens up more opportunities. If we take our Harry Potter project, for example, creating a unique approach came down to defining our own conceptual foundation within the Wizarding World and then using that as our guide to edit and organize the creative. It was more about distilling and focusing the ideas—things fans would recognize—and then realizing them in unconventional ways.”

“Clients like Apple TV+ and Warner Bros. have incredibly high standards. They’ve set the bar in both visual language and storytelling,” Julien explains. “Our job is to meet that level of craft while still bringing something new, taking the worlds they’ve created and evolving them into something inspired and emotional. For experiential projects and title sequences, it’s always about crafting an unexpected world. There’s no single approach to these projects, but risk-taking and experimentation are key. If proving a concept involves whipping out a projector and throwing a scrim over a kitchen bowl to see how light catches on the scrim and refracts within, then even better. Those are the amazing moments I seek out that drive a lot of energy into a project. With all that said, the best ideas often emerge through patience, collaboration, experimentation and iteration—one concept leading to another—until the essence is distilled and crafted into a focused idea.”

Digital Kitchen has a widely diverse output, from identity design to main title sequences to interactive installations. How do you alter your creative process when switching between media? “We don’t usually alter our approach,” says Nicoll. “Digging into the assignment to understand the property and the story to tell—that stays consistent. Once we’ve landed on our way in, this is where the process veers, mapping out the linear path for something like a main title versus the multilayered storytelling you might find in an experiential project.”

“The mindset actually stays pretty consistent,” says Julien. “We’re always focused on the emotional world we’re trying to create. What changes is the execution. The tools, pace and technical considerations may shift depending on the medium, but the starting point is usually the same. We start with writing, gathering references and defining a clear point of view. There’s also a rebellious and fearless spirit that’s inherent here at Digital Kitchen. I find that we’re always pushing ourselves to explore unexpected or unknown routes, which feels exciting.”

What advantages do you see in having a broader design skillset? Would you recommend to other creatives that they explore more media? “Most definitely,” Nicoll states. “All of the creatives at Digital Kitchen are multidisciplinary, and with projects getting more diverse, the ability to pivot and expand your ideas beyond a single skill is a huge advantage.”

“Having a broad skillset helps a lot,” Julien echoes. “It’s great to have a specialty, but exploring different areas can really stretch your creativity. You never know what skills or interests might open new doors of thinking and skillsets. That variety is one of the best parts of working at Digital Kitchen.”

What is one challenge currently facing creative agencies, and how has Digital Kitchen planned on adapting? “Remaining hands on when technology is continuously pushing for a hands-off approach,” says Nicoll. “We tend to gravitate toward ideas that feature more tactile solutions, requiring additional experimentation. With this experimentation, there’s typically a lot of trial and error. Inevitably, there will be a workaround, a new piece of software that streamlines experimentation. In the end, you get a more homogenized result. Adapting to these changes, for us, is more about finding unique places to inject these new methods of production instead of their obvious role.”

“Like many creative studios, remote collaboration has reshaped how creative teams work,” says Julien. “Rather than seeing it strictly as a challenge, I see it more as an opportunity. It allows us to work with exceptional talent across the globe and fosters greater flexibility in how and when creative work happens. The key is building strong communication and maintaining creative cohesion across everybody’s work and thinking.”

Do you have any advice for creatives just getting started in the field today? “For me, there are three important things I look for in a creative: work ethic, a point of view and experimentation,” Nicoll says. “A great work ethic is more straightforward: how you approach collaboration, being proactive and showing up on time. The second piece of advice is having a point of view, an ability to distill and hone your ideas—whether that’s during the concept or production phase. And lastly, someone should be able to experiment or create without expectations.”

“Stay nimble, adaptable and open to feedback,” says Julien. “Developing a strong point of view is important, but so is the ability to evolve that perspective through collaboration. Sometimes, the input you’re unsure about leads to your strongest work. With that said, keep refining your own specific aesthetic and stay true to that. Folks are always looking for that unique point of view.” ca