Antiestático: Nailing 800 interactive proposals in 2 years

Antiestático, a Spanish creative audiovisual production company, designed more than 800 projects in Readymag in just two years and attracted hundreds of big clients with its compelling treatments and director reels. The secret of its success lies in the hard work of a well-coordinated team and preaching four core values: creativity, authenticity, impact, and doing things “de puta madre!”

In this article, Marc Dominguez, graphic designer and motion grapher at Antiestático, uncovers the backstage of this big production house, dwells on the creative process they follow, lists the Readymag features he uses the most, and shares some sources of inspiration. Let’s give Marc the floor.

Doing everything “de puta madre”

“Antiestático’s tagline is ‘Doing de puta madre’—this expression comes from Spanish folklore and means ‘doing something more than at its best’.”—Marc Dominguez

I sketch appealing treatments for advertising projects, music videos, motion pictures, and original series at Antiestático. Antiestático is a dynamic and innovative production company renowned for its bold approach to producing high-quality visual content in advertising. We’re committed to authenticity, believe in pushing the boundaries of visual expression to create unique experiences, and strive to produce videos people will still appreciate in 10 years. Antiestático’s tagline is “de puta madre”—this expression comes from Spanish folklore and means “doing something more than at its best”.

The company has a diverse team of about 20 talented professionals. The core team consists of directors and graphic and motion designers, and we distribute our roles based on individual expertise and project requirements. Every step of a project is controlled by our producers, who assign the work and hold the knowledge of what the result should look like. Also, a massive part of Antiestático is freelancers—directors, photographers, and other professionals worldwide. We call them to work on specific projects that require their additional expertise. 

Our producers and the core team work from the Madrid office, but we also have other offices in Portugal, México, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, as some directors shoot in those locations.

From brief to the release at Antiestático

“We encourage open and collaborative discussions because the greatest ideas are always a result of joined efforts.”—Marc Dominguez

Every creative process at Antiestático begins with a deep understanding of a client’s brief—this is our first and most important task. We start by holding a kickoff meeting to gather all the necessary information: the client’s vision, goals, and target audience. The initial phase is crucial for aligning our team’s understanding and setting the foundation for the project.

Once we have a clear grasp of the brief, our producer team collaborates with designers to generate ideas and discuss approaches. We encourage open, collaborative discussions because the greatest ideas are always a result of joined efforts. Also, in our work domain, the projects have short deadlines, so we have to discuss details beforehand to avoid wasting time. Once the idea is settled, the graphic team creates the presentations that help us illustrate the final production look and feel engagingly and interactively. Then, designers polish ready decks online, export them in HTML, and send links to our clients. When we get a client’s feedback, we refine the concept and show them the treatment once again. If the client likes the pitch from our agency, we pass it to the production phase, where a director, a photographer, and the rest of the team work on the audiovisual production.

Adapting directors’ showreels with in-house templates

“At this moment, we’ve designed over 800 presentations using Readymag.”—Marc Dominguez 

We’ve been Readymag’s clients for over two years and use the tool mainly to design treatments for audiovisual commercials, music videos, motion pictures, and original content. Such treatments aren’t similar to the final videos, as they’re produced at the very first stage when we don’t know the location or have full access to it yet. I may only have a few shots from the location, and will try to convey the director’s vision the best way I can with those small assets and the power of design.

Another side of our work in Readymag is adapting directors’ showreels. We involve many directors in our network and tweak their reels to any project that comes to us, leaving only the projects that resonate with the clients or adding those that are relevant.

Our approach to treatments and reels often involves working with templates. Although there are many great templates in the Readymag library and we love them, we try to create our personal reusable websites from scratch. These templates are specifically designed to be easily adaptable for different projects. This helps us produce presentations on tight deadlines and at a fast production pace.

At this moment, we’ve designed over 800 presentations using Readymag. The product allows us to integrate interactive assets and even code our own assets. I’ve always loved web design and created my own web project integrating 3D assets, which I did with code. Now, when designing treatments with Readymag, I also use the Code widget to include several gimmicks in the deck, such as changing the blend mode. On-scroll animations are another feature I use a lot to create a parallax effect in most of the treatments. Sometimes I add custom cursors to match the narrative.

Aiming not for trendy but for timeless visuals

“Before taking anything to work, we review briefs with the team and dispute together.”—Marc Dominguez 

Antiestático is a big production company, and we’re lucky to work on projects that are so diverse. We prioritize creating impactful designs that will stand out not only now, but also in the future, which is why we consciously avoid being overly influenced by passing trends. We stay informed about industry trends but make a strategic decision about which trends to adopt based on several considerations. Usually, we assess whether they align with our client’s objectives.