By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Five Grand Rapids print, film, and graphics companies have formed a collective to leverage their talents, and that collaboration may result in at least four new jobs by year's end. A few weeks ago, Fulvew Productions, Visual Alchemy, Hunter Media Group, Recoil Magazine, and Battery Studio relocated their individual offices to one 3,200-square-foot space in the west side's American Seating Park.
"We have to find employees who are flexible enough to work between my company and the other companies," says Shawn Melton, owner of Battery Studio, a product design firm. "We have a really diverse array of offerings, from graphic design, video production, and 3-D architectural walk-throughs to virtual reality showrooms and feature length film production capabilities. It's hard to find employees to bounce between the variety of things we need to do."
Work comes in through all five companies, Melton says. For example, Fulvew will develop a video for a client, Visual Alchemy will design the client's web site, and Battery Studio will implement the site.
West Michigan football fans may remember one of the collective's biggest TV spots that aired locally during this year's Super Bowl—a six-story-tall Rampage football player running the pigskin across the facades of several of Grand Rapids' downtown buildings.
"Each individual company is also talking about having interns in an effort to educate the students around here," Melton says. "We're hoping we can grow some talented people."
Chris Beckering of Grubb & Ellis Paramount Commerce brokered the transaction for the collective's office space.
Source: Shawn Melton, Battery Studio
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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