Tom Bairstow, Northhouse Creative, Immersive Visual Experiences

  Welcome back, friends, to our podcast, Unlocking Your World of Creativity. And our world travels take us around the globe, talking to creative practitioners about how they get inspired and how they organize their work, but also how they gain the connections and the confidence to launch the work out into the world.

And today, our guest fuses design, immersive visual experiences for music. Brands and other live shows. It's Tom Bairstow, founder and creative director of North House Creative. Tom, welcome to the show. Hi Mark. Thank you for having me. Yes, absolutely. When I think about these immersive visual experiences, I had something in mind.

Then I looked at Your studio is real. And here comes music icons like Coldplay. You've done the events for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and the King's Coronation and Super Bowl 50 halftime show. And, of course, my personal favorite, Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl. Very beautiful work. And as I think about this immersive experience, I wondered if you had a definition, a platform framework that you say, whatever experience at whatever scale we're developing, here's what we want to create as an immersive experience.

Yeah, it's a really good question. I think if we roll back to the start of North House and where my journey began, it came from very much that I was a musician, I played in bands, I taught in bands. And I discovered a love for the whole, the live environment and actually it was the connection between people, music, the full package really that completed the live music experience.

And that was back in: 2008

Then I upgraded to an upstairs of a carpenter's workshop that was filled with dust and debris. And the starts of the beginnings of the company were quite quite bizarre in many ways. As many companies begin, it's always, quite, ground roots. But then as soon as projects started to come in, realized there's a need for the team, so team assembled and we became more of a core team.

But the whole industry was gradually shifting into much more video, multi sensory experiences, as opposed to just, It just being a video on the back wall that was helping to show an artist's face in the screen, for instance. And so what we've always really tried to do is to combine physical set elements, lighting, video, and trying to create a whole.

Experience for fans that becomes quite a unified experience that doesn't just become here's a lighting moment, here's a video moment. And our traditional workflow has always been music and live music shows, but as we've evolved over time, we're doing a lot more brand events, brand activations, and the venues are changing.

Everyone's aware of the Las Vegas sphere, this. iconic insane venue that, there's been so many amazing creatives that have helped to create U2's show. We weren't a part of that one, a couple of years previous to that we did Coldplay's show in the Al Wazl dome in Dubai.

And that was a real eureka moment. It's wow, we were fully surrounding the audience in this 360 degree sphere and immersing fans in the Coldplay cosmos ultimately. And I think something really clicked at that moment is wow, this is huge. And I think we've been really striving to create more emotion for fans ever since then.

And of course that led to the Platinum Jubilee where we projection that Buckingham Palace and it was more about how we could use the architecture to really create something special and really unique. aNd as you mentioned, Disney's Encanto, that was a really fun one. Again, combining the physical with the digital and looking at how we could transform the iconic arch of the Hollywood Bowl, adding set design elements crafted beautifully by Misty Buckley.

Who we collaborate with and have done for many years. And then combine that with projection elements and augmented reality. And again, just immerse people in this kind of multi sensory experience.

Yes, and not doing it in a vacuum. I see what you're saying that you're actually using the architecture of the venue, whether that's the palace or the bowl, but or the sphere in terms of bringing workflow.

I think about our audience as creative. Practitioners thinking about how you approach that creative process from the beginning projects of such magnitude. We all start with our space. It might be an eight and a half by 11 page in front of us, or it might be the Hollywood bowl. What is your approach, no matter what the magnitude of the show.

It's

we're very process driven. We I've, yeah, I guess we've always as a team being very collaborative. in every stage of a project, but especially in the earlier stages of a project. I think the collaborative approach really helps to plant as many ideas as possible. And so we'll jump straight into the idea, the ideation stage, the conceptualization stage really early on.

On the same token, within our team, we've got producers, production, we've got creative, we've got design, we've got technology. On this, whilst we're developing the ideation and the ideas, we are also looking at the production processes for Okay, how can we factor that into the timeframe and then the technical side of things, which is, how can we achieve that?

And also how can we bring in the latest technology to really take this to another level? And so the process is a very collaborative approach between many different internal departments in the team to ultimately try and produce the best, but also the most efficient show at the same time, and make sure ultimately we can deliver.

On time, because sometimes we're dealing with crazy technical challenges, like we did an immersive show for YouTube recently, and we were working with 125 million pixels. Which is totally colossal, it was so we really had to reverse engineer the whole process to, work with our designers and our art directors to figure out what's the, what do we really want to achieve creatively, but then how can we technically achieve that.

And how do we work that into the timeframe from a production point of view. So it's a very collaborative approach.

And what a challenge, creatively and technically. And I wanted to maybe pull the curtain back a little bit on that process. I can imagine, for example, a Super Bowl 50 show. There's not a lot of room for error.

The minutes matter, the seconds matter. You're dealing with the highest level of star power. As you are in many of your shows. But how do you address those? Challenges, but also the contingency planning for, what if a bulb does blow,

you just hope that he doesn't think

about the simplest show, or the projector got unplugged. It's oh, my God, but no, but the star power is something that comes to mind. If Beyonce's microphone goes out, it's not a good

moment. Yeah, exactly. I think there's always a level of contingency at every show and that's, within our departments, within sound, within lighting, etc.

Something we're always very aware of. From a technical point of view, there's always a backup media server. There's always a backup projector. There's always something if A fails, there's a B backup on the technical side of things. On the creative side of things, you just have to learn to be incredibly adaptive.

and reactive and respond really quickly to quite a quick creative process really. If you start a project three months in advance, I think if we take the Super Bowl 50 as an example, we got a phone call from Phil Harvey co players, creative director, manager back in November or December.

And then he was start and develop the ideas, but really the true design work started in January. Obviously that led into the Superbowl in February, we were out in LA, we had a week rehearsing in so many studios in LA, and it was just a really quick, reactive, obviously really fun and creative process, but we had to respond fast to, ideas that were coming in.

I think if you take a step back and you look at every project you work on you just have to learn to be To adapt ultimately to constant changing criteria, it's not, we're certainly not as structured as the production design or other design areas might be, where things have to be a lot more locked and structured.

We have to adapt to many moving parts and many creatives having a lot of input. And taking the Super Bowl 50 as an example, I remember doing the last few bits. Where is this now? So I think it's a few days before the show in transit between L. A. and San Francisco. I think or San Jose. Should I say I was finishing off a few elements on the flight and sending the other plane Wi Fi.

It's literally is that fast. Yes, it keeps it exciting. It keeps you on your toes. It's a new, you just gotta make sure you adapt to it. Really?

Yes. Like many studios and agencies and designers, you certainly have a fingerprint to your work. Do you feel like that you're working across genres?

Of course. Are the clients producers hiring you for your style or are they hiring you for your ability to adapt to their. Creative brief if I could call it that, because it is the genres are so distinct a live music performance, versus maybe a concert venue of some other kind.

I'm just, I'm interested in the adaptability of your approach.

Yeah, it's a good question. I think. Of course, there's always a balance. We've got it. We've got the responsibility to ensure that we can deliver at the end of the day. Ultimately, we've also we want to work with our clients and collaborate and partner with them to create something.

So it's not a case of this is the idea. And this is rigid. It's more a case of we're going to work through the creative process with you right through to the final delivery. But I'd like to say that our existing clients come back to us because you. I'd say there's 50 percent maybe more as the product, and then the other 50 percent is ultimately the service and obviously that is in many design industries.

It's the fact that we work closely with our clients. We're very focused on process and very focused on delivering on time at every stage of the project. And also making sure that it's a nice process for everyone working with because, why do you get into the creative industry in the first place?

Is to have fun and create and explore ideas. And so we want to make sure that's always a factor in every project we're doing. And obviously on the other side of that, we consistently push to make the best design, visuals, experience. We consistently push to make sure that we're pushing the boundaries and making sure that everything we deliver, we're really happy with and that everyone

else is as well.

Yes. I'd love to explore both of those with you a little more. First the service and the fun, in the creative environment, clearly collaboration is key. The credits might be short, five or six people get their name on the work, but Dozens, are involved. How do you build that collaboration into the process?

Especially there's a lot of creative egos in our business. Let's face it.

Yeah, I guess collaboration is really the center of everything we do. And that's internally as a team and with your kind of first point of contact clients and the extended clients as well, as a team, we're highly collaborative.

Like I said earlier, we we work together in the ideation stages, but we're always in the studio. I think that's a big thing. We've got a lovely studio convert, converted warehouse right next to London Bridge station, right next to the Shard. And everyone's pretty much in full time. And that's a big factor of how we operate.

We're really collaborative. We've got a lot of specialists that kind of Can dive into their own sectors, but ultimately we come together to ideate with our clients. We love the conversation back and forth. We continuously make sure that we're all involved in things. We'll try and come to them with as many solutions as possible.

But ultimately want them to be involved in the process. Each step of the way. Obviously that varies from client to client. Some clients would rather take a step back and just make sure you can just

do your

magic. Yeah, exactly. Can you do your magic? And that's been said quite a few times. Others want to be more involved.

So obviously you adapt based on the client. But then there's the extended team as well who will be consistently collaborating with lighting designers with set designers. With the, with the audio team, et cetera. And we're always making sure that everyone's involved in the conversation.

And ultimately, it's collaboration. It's communication. It's making sure that everyone's aligned and on the same wavelength.

And then the second topic of. pushing the limits. I think about innovation in your field. No, no time to sit back on your laurels and say, Hey, that was a great show. You're, the phone's ringing, the messages are coming in, the new business pitches are coming.

What do you do to say we keep pushing? Yeah.

It's a blessing and a curse. Many of us in the creative industry. I know myself for sure burdened with this need and this desire and this hunger to constantly find the next thing. What's the next thing? What's the latest thing? And, you explore so many areas for inspiration.

And it's a really interesting question, the big thing for me is where, as a team, everyone's looking into different areas for, what's the latest what's the latest and greatest use of technology and how can we feed this into our work. We've got what we call our tech deck, which is hundreds of pages of inspiration that we can then just pull out of and feed into a project when we're ready to feed it in.

But for me, the, really, I'm always very aware that the biggest source of inspiration is when you actually give yourself time to actually stop focusing on what's next. And you take a step back and you just focus on being in the present moment, go for a walk in nature, sit on the train, put your phone to the side and look out the window and just allow your head to do some creation rather than consuming constantly and looking for reference points.

So I think that's always a big thing I keep reminding myself of. Reminded myself of we it's so easy to get caught up in looking everywhere else at other people's work for inspiration when really it's a lot of it can be in your head and you can ideate it and just give yourself the time and the breathing space to do yes.

I love a guy who works in technology and design and motion who says I get inspiration from nature. It does go back to basics, doesn't it?

Yeah, obviously, you mentioned earlier about, why do, why do people come to us? I think there's a huge element of our work. We're very much in the digital world a lot of the time, but I think a lot of our inspiration is taken from the world around us.

And you've got to look at the outside world and bring that into digital. And when we look at designing specifically for LED screens or projection, um, we're constantly thinking how can we. How can we soften these digital screens and make them feel more like a physical object? More like something that's either part of the set design or something that's inspired by natural elements and organic materials.

And it's something we always try and thread in creatively to our work.

aNd the work is gorgeous. And listeners go by northhousecreative. com to check out the reels and the examples. And you're really going to get inspired. TOm, I'm curious as I look behind you the whiteboards, the flip charts, the TV screens, but what's new ideas?

What's new projects that might be coming down the way? Nothing confidential. Don't want to break any NDAs here, but what kind of things are on the forefront?

I'm not sure what I can disclose. We've got quite a few artists tours. We're in discussions with them semi developing for next year. I can't say too much.

ng some ideas for projects in: 2026

That's at Battersea Power Station in London. We've helped design their Christmas experience. And then we are developing a few shows in Saudi Arabia and Dubai at the moment that all deliver at the end of this month, so there's quite a few things going on. So it's really interesting.

And we're working across many sectors at the moment, but obviously with the intention and the. The unified approach of just pushing to really push the boundaries on in visual design and combined design, motion technology and everything that we

do love it. We're going to keep our eyes open and keep us posted as some of these projects come to fruition.

Tom, I wondered if you could leave us with some thoughts for really all creatives no matter the field. Of creating more immersive experiences, almost, notwithstanding the media, and we work in all sorts of mediums, but we want to engage our viewers, our customers, our clients in many different ways, what are some of the ideas that you would share with us in being more?

Immersive and engaging and interactive.

It's a really interesting question. I think that there's so many different routes and approaches, but I think it really is about people. I think when you look at what an experience is, it's a shared experience between people and you're looking to basically go back to the core principles of creating a show and experience, and it comes down to the story, it comes down to the narrative and it's that combined with moments.

Emotion and experience, and it is those core elements that help to bring it all together. But I think that's why often when we go to the drawing board at the start of a project. We do try and take a step away from digital platforms and we put pen to paper, we get into our heads and we just think about things, not from purely a digital design point of view, but really thinking about the whole human experience and what the emotions could prevail from that.

So I think that's a really important factor is to really put. The people first, and the emotions that come with

that.

Yes, that's worth underscoring. The story, the moments, the people, and the shared experience. I love that. That we might be in our own seats in row H, but we're together there with thousands of other people, right?

Exactly. We're all sharing that experience. Wonderful insight. Tom Bairstow has been my guest founder and creative director of North House Creative. I have loved talking with you, Tom, about all these different live shows and, can't wait to see what you're coming up with for the next round of projects.

Lovely. Thanks, Mark. It's been great to chat.

Yes. And listeners, come back again next time. We'll continue our Around the World journeys. We're stopping off in places as we did today in London. We'll be going to Portugal, back to New York City, and then L. A. We're exploring all sorts of insights and experiences, and how we can be inspired for new ideas, and then ultimately create the opportunities to launch or creative work out into the world. So until next time, I'm Mark Stinson and we're unlocking your world of creativity.