Visiting PIXAR | #cssf
About half way through our visit to PIXAR I overheard someone say; ‘This is like driving a boat really fast’. What that person meant was that it was hard to stop smiling – which it was. Visiting PIXAR was incredible.
Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar of jobs in 2006 for an astonishing $7.4 billion. Since it’s conception earned twenty-two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and three Grammys. It is one of the most critically acclaimed film studios of all time, with 10 consecutive box office hits. They haven’t ever had a flop. Beginning with Toy Story in 1995 each film has achieved huge critical and commercial success. A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo(2003) (the most commercially successful Pixar film yet, grossing over $800 million worldwide), The Incredibles (2004), Cars in (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), and most recently Up (2009). Pixar’s eleventh film, Toy Story 3, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010. All six Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for the award, with four, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E, winning it.
These guys are good – and it shows. The energy, skill and passion on show was mind-blowing. We were introduced to around 10 people (1300 people work at PIXAR), including Directors, Art Directors and Designers all of whom were obviously a very tight team. They talked to us very candidly about their process and methods. It was clear that their ability to work together was a big part of their success. Everything about the place oozed talent, creativity and collaboration, even the building (designed by Jobs) was built around accidental collaboration. At it’s core there is an enormous social space (see above), intended to encourage spontaneous work conversations.
Throughout their process they always have a single leader (director) who makes the big decisions and it is their responsibility to bring the vision to life. Interestingly, even though collaboration is key, everyone follows this lead. It involves a lot of trust, but that (I think), is the other genesis of their success. Of course they don’t always agree with said vision, but they follow. That puts a lot on the shoulders of that director, but they all trust in that persons expertise. The management is small and keeps at a distance – again they trust the people they’ve hired to do their jobs. That clearly breeds confidence and obviously again, it works.
A lot of what else we talked about was surprisingly very familiar including budget limitations and ‘customer is key’. Basically they mostly face the same day-to-day issues we do – what’s different is they way they tackle those issues.
PIXAR see compromise and limitation as a way to breed creativity – and that is a lesson for us all.
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Top post mate, enjoyable read.
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