Anna Kyriacou and Scott Ham discuss what and who is new at creative design studio Zeros

Lovely to see you both! What’s new with The Zeros?
Anna: Well, first… Gus here! Gus is a teacup chihuahua; he’s a baby as well… He’s four months old.

Four months! He’s too adorable. I’d never get anything done if this little fella was in the office… I was looking at him licking your hand just now, Scott…
Scott: Yes, but you’ll notice the licking’s turned to chewing…

Yes, it’s taken on a much more violent tone now his tiny-little needle teeth are sinking in… And Gus aside?
Scott: Gus aside, we just moved into a beautiful new studio. We could’ve met there today, really – the office is fit to work in, but we’re still building the meeting room.

Anna: In terms of new work, there’s some stuff that we can’t talk about. And there’s some stuff we CAN talk about but not show… But I think the main thing we’ve noticed since BLE is that we’re getting more movie-guide work. Which is great!

Oh, really? Why’s that come about do you think?
Scott: I think because we’ve consistently been delivering on a lot of trend stuff for a time while building up the relationships with clients. Now we’re a few years in, we’re more in line for some of the film stuff. As Anna says, we won’t necessarily be able to show any of the creative! But there’s a Twits film coming out on Netflix next year, for example. We were thrilled to be asked to contribute to that.

That’s Roald Dahl’s The Twits? As a film?
Anna: Yes. Netflix partnered with Roald Dahl and have lots of things coming up, as you know. But The Twits is the first one they’re doing; it’s our next year. Another Netflix film – not Roald Dahl – is Electric State… And we’re doing an additional two film guides that we can’t show you! But we’re pleased to be seeing more of that movie style-guide work.

With Roald Dahl, though… His stories are so stylistic and beloved! To what degree did you feel, when that came in, that the material is sacrosanct? And how does the weight of that affect a style guide?
Anna: Actually, I think that was one of the reasons why our main contact at Netflix wanted to use British agencies. I wondered if they felt like we’d be closer to the brand and understand it…

Because Dahl has a particularly British vibe; that darkness in his sense of humour…
Scott: I feel like – with the end goal being a lot of it being product like soft-wears and hardlines – finding a company that can push it a bit further and make it exist outside of the film was important. So to have, say, jumpers that look like beards, and have the beards have food in them… Things like that. And we’re quite quirky in that sense so it was a great fit for us.

And did you pitch for that project?
Anna: No, they came to us. Some clients approach a number of agencies in that way, though – just to put feelers out. They kind of see where you are and roughly tell you their ideas… Then you’re allowed to explore them. From that, they’ll choose people to do one part or another. To get a feel for who has a feel for it! Happily, all the stuff we worked into they seemed to end up really liking.

Sorry, Anna; I’m a little distracted because Gus is really gnawing on Scott now… It’s like a horror film. When that came in though, Scott, what did you do? How do you research something like that?
Scott: As you can imagine, a few of us in the studio grew up with the book, so we absolutely knew the essence of it. We did all read it in the studio, though, as a refresher! The next part was getting into the synopsis of the film. Obviously, it follows the book, but you do want to see what they’re playing up or playing down. The darkness as you say, Deej, or the gross elements or the actual storyline of the kids. And, of course, they’ve added in some different characters and things – even though it follows the structure of the original story.

So in terms of execution, how close was your finished work to what you intuitively thought it was going to look like?
Scott: I’m trying to think back to that… I think it was pretty close. I don’t think much changed other than the references we were given. It was more true to the movie…

Anna: Which is not to say we can take all the credit for that because the client had done a lot of upfront research beforehand! They also worked quite closely with their Product Development team. So from the very beginning, they started looking at what kind of products they could make at the end of it. That’s a good way of working… Whereas with some projects, they don’t think about the actual products until afterwards.

Interesting point. If you know those parameters from the start, that might shape your thinking. And is it true the other way around? If you ask, “Are there any things you’d like us to avoid?”
Scott: Yes, that certainly can help. And for me personally, it helps that I have a soft-lines background. So I’ll often be considering that early on… Will this actually print well? Is there enough of a colour reduction in this for it to be affordable? Stuff like that.

Fascinating! So tell me… What are your plans for the rest of the year? You’re expanding the team?
Scott: Expanding the team, yes. We’re looking to get the right people in the right positions. We’re looking for any and all designers because I think it’s always good just to keep a very sharp design team.

Anna: We might also look at getting in some people that aren’t design focused to help with the management and admin side of things. It’s a question that comes up… Do we want to be very design led and always just have creative people? Or do we hire people to help with some of the other things. And we’re not sure, actually, which way we’re going to go on that.

I hear that. I often see habitually creative people founding or starting work in expanding companies – and they get swept away by admin. They drift away from their passions! So I think that hiring question is an important one. Alright! Before Scott loses the use of his whole hand, let’s wrap this up: what’s the one thing I could’ve asked you today but didn’t?
Anna: Is there a project you can talk about that you CAN share an image from?

Ha! That’s an excellent question! Is there?
Anna: Yes! We did a Squid Game seasonal guide; like a Christmas guide… And we’re very happy with it; it did really, really well. We were so pleased! Apparently, the Korean Netflix office printed out life-size versions of some of our illustrations to decorate their office.

Brilliant! You say you have images of that?
Anna: Yes, we’ve got some photos of that. And as a brand, of course, Squid Game is so distinct! We thought it would work very well with a Christmas guide. We did a lot of free-hand illustration stuff; making it feel like retro Christmas adverts and things like that. It was very well received.

And it’s quite a gear shift, isn’t it, from The Twits to Squid Game? It shows, I think, what a spectrum you can cover when you’ve got the right creative team behind you…
Scott: Yes. It’s great not being limited to doing one kind of thing, which I think can happen if an agency doesn’t stay sharp. Sometimes, you get pigeonholed if you do too much of one thing. It’s good to be the go-to team for cute, or the go-to team for nostalgia… But It’s better to simply be the go-to team!

Great stuff! Alright… Shall we get you to the hospital, Scott? See if they can save that hand?